Comparative Hosts
本文探讨如何比较工业国家和发展中国家作为跨国公司东道国的差异，分析企业决策参数和不同时期的影响，指出工业国家作为东道国的历史重要性，并建议经济增长研究者关注跨国公司的全面影响。
Abstract This paper explores ways of comparing industrial and developing nations that are and have been ‘hosts’ to multinationals. General problems in doing this included: defining multinational enterprise; acknowledging the formidable number of hosts; finding appropriate measures; clarifying the meaning of impacts; and recognising the ‘truncation problem’ (that of slicing into the fabric of the multinational firm). The activities of multinational enterprises are considered through time in individual host countries. Since corporate decision making is the point of departure, parameters of corporate choices (those related to opportunities, political conditions, familiarity, third-country considerations, and specific corporate style) are developed. Various rankings by countries are introduced to establish impact comparisons. The evidence shows that impacts differ by country and period. The paper demonstrates the historical importance of industrial countries as hosts and argues that students of economic growth and development should pay attention to all aspects (not simply the direct investment ones) of multinational enterprise impact through time.