Title: From global to metanational: how companies win in the knowledge economy – viewing the victory with transaction cost economics theory lens!

Authors: Akinloye Akindayomi, Temitope K.O. Aluko

Addresses: Department of Accounting and Finance, Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA. ' Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Science, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract: The primary focus of this paper is to |provide a comparative institutional (transaction cost economics-based) reinterpretation| of Doz, Santos and Williamson|s (2001) book titled |From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy|. One of the value-added potentials of Doz et al.|s book is its ability to demonstrate that for a multinational organisation to successfully exploit metanational advantages and potentials within the highly competitive global or metamarket, it need not |force-fit an existing multinational organisation and its people into a metanational mould|, in that attempt of doing so will |undermine its operational excellence and could imperil the company|s very survival|. However, it is grossly unclear how the book has actually moved us beyond our understanding of contemporary Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) as global giants (especially within the context of knowledge-specific advantages) to the phenomenon of metanational corporation. We strongly believe that viewing the strategic |victory| that metanational companies experience in the knowledge economy via the lens of the transaction costs economics theory will fill the gap and improve our understanding of the increasingly complex global metamarket.

Keywords: TCE; transaction cost economics; metanational corporations; knowledge economy; competitive success; multinational enterprises; MNEs; global metamarket.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2009.021657

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2009 Vol.3 No.1, pp.90 - 107

Published online: 30 Nov 2008 *

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