Agency Contracts, Institutional Modes, and the Transition to Foreign Direct Investment by British Manufacturing Multinationals Before 1939

The Journal of Economic History

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 1983, Pages 675-686

  Nicholas, Stephen ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84972029080     PISSN: 00220507     EISSN: 14716372     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022050700030308     Document Type: Article

References (70)

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4. Peter J. Buckley and Brian Roberts, European Direct Investment in the U.S.A. Before World War (London, 1982).
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6. John Dunning, “Changes in the Level and Structure of International Production: The Last 100 Years,” mimeographed (1982), pp. 4, 31.
7. Nicholas, “Multinational Investment,” p. 10.
8. Buckley and Roberts, European Direct Investment, p. 119.
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14. See Buckley and Roberts, European Direct Investment, pp. 8-9.
15. Nicholas, “Multinational Investment,” pp 9-10.
16. Dunning, “International Production,” pp. 4–24, 4–34.
17. For a review of the literature see A. K. Calvet, “A Synthesis of Foreign Direct Investment Theories and Theories of the Multinational Firm,” Journal of International Business Studies, 12 (Spring/Summer 1981), 43–57.
18. R. H. Coase, “The Nature of the Firm,” Economica, n.s. 4 (1937), 381–405.
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24. See also Mira Wilkins, The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970), pp. 207-13
25. Mira Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Business (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979), pp. 417–22, 432-37; Buckley and Roberts, European Direct Investment, pp. 44, 65, 87, 91–92.
26. Nicholas, “Multinational Investment,” p. 15.
27. For a similar point see Calvet, “Synthesis,” p. 56.
28. Magee, “Technology,” p. 316.
29. This problem has been examined by the marketing channel literature. See L. W. Stern, B. Sternthal, and C. S. Craig, “Managing Conflict in Distribution Channels: A Laboratory Study,” Journal of Marketing Research, 10 (May 1973), 169-79
30. M. Pearson and J. Monoly, “The Role of Conflict and Co-operation in Channel Performance,” in Marketing: 1776–1976.
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35. Stephen Ross, “On the Economic Theory of Agency and the Principal of Similarity,” in Essays on Economic Behaviour Under Uncertainty, ed. M. Balch, D. McFadden, and S. Wu (Amsterdam, 1974), pp. 215–20.
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38. Oliver Williamson, “Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations,” Journal of Law and Economics, 22 (Oct. 1979), p. 233. Of course, the principal could also act opportunistically. The paper, however, is concerned with the principal establishing branch selling rather than the agent's contractual problems with the principal.
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46. Klein, Crawford, and Alchian, “Competitive Contracting Process,” p. 303.
47. Klein and Leffler, “Role of Market Forces,” pp. 616–20.
48. D. Coleman, Courtalds: An Economic and Social History (Oxford, 1969), vol. 1, p. 193. 1 would like to thank Robert Kirk for information on Platt Bros. agency contracts.
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70. Buckley, “New Theories of International Business,” pp. 2.12-15.