Politics and Power within Multinational Corporations: Mainstream Studies, Emerging Critical Approaches and Suggestions for Future Research
系统回顾了跨国公司中权力与政治的主流研究（国际商务和社会学）及其不足，并介绍了新兴的批判性社会政治视角，提出未来应关注微观政治和权力关系的微观基础。
Given the increased public interest in the use and misuse of power in multinationals in the aftermath of the financial crisis, it is notable that power relations in multinational corporations ( MNC s) have not gained enhanced attention in the academic community. What is missing so far in the study of MNC s is a systematic examination of how power and politics within MNC s have been addressed in mainstream international business ( IB ) and sociological research studying the MNC . This paper starts by critically reviewing these two mainstream approaches in the study of MNC s as organizations and seeking to understand the shortcomings of former research. Next, it reviews new emergent critical perspectives, which the authors call socio‐political studies of MNC s, where power and politics are addressed not just more prominently, but also differently, from a more bottom‐up and actor‐centred perspective. After reviewing this emergent stream of research, the authors propose that future studies should take a more micro‐political perspective and focus in more detail on the micro‐foundations of power relations. In the concluding section, the authors show how future studies of MNC s can learn from both critical interactionist and discursive theories when analysing organizational politics and power relations. A framework is proposed for the study of micro‐level political game‐playing in MNC s, based on a three‐dimensional framework for organizational power (episodic, rules of the game and domination), and some key research questions for future studies are suggested.