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oapen-20.500.12657-473592021-03-17T03:24:00Z Chapter 1 Swiss and (Anglo)-Dutch multinationals and organizational change in the era of Total War Kurosawa, Takafumi Wubs, Ben Multinationals, Organizational Change, Total War, War and Industry, Business History, Accounting History, Cold War, Organizational Innovation bic Book Industry Communication::K Economics, finance, business & management::KJ Business & management::KJZ History of specific companies / corporate history bic Book Industry Communication::K Economics, finance, business & management::KJ Business & management::KJU Organizational theory & behaviour bic Book Industry Communication::K Economics, finance, business & management::KC Economics::KCZ Economic history bic Book Industry Communication::K Economics, finance, business & management::KJ Business & management This chapter aims to explore organisational change as a result of political and security risks faced by four major European multinationals, Roche (pharmaceuticals), Nestlé (food), Unilever (non-mineral oil, fats, food and soap), and Philips (incandescent lamps, electronics), originally domiciled partly or wholly in what were two relatively small neutral countries—Switzerland and the Netherlands. Questions considered include how both world wars and nationalistic economic policy affected the organisational structures of these four companies, and the extent to which these changes had long-term consequences for their organisational and legal structures. The chapter focusses on several key themes, including localisation (adaption to national circumstances), decentralisation, taxation, the formation of holding companies, twin corporate structures, and geographical relocation. In all four cases, the companies survived mounting nationalism and the division of markets during and between the two world wars by localising their corporate organisation, and by doubling and dispersing headquarter functions. As a result, these European multinationals all eventually came to have a relatively decentralised form of organisation. Although the four companies manifested similar organisational responses, on closer examination the political circumstances between Dutch, Swiss and Anglo-Dutch companies differed to a large extent, and therefore a one-size-fits-all analytical approach does not apply. 2021-03-16T13:55:59Z 2021-03-16T13:55:59Z 2019 chapter 9781138047822 9780367732202 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47359 eng application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 9781315170572_oachapter1.pdf Taylor & Francis Multinational Enterprise, Political Risk and Organisational Change Routledge 7b3c7b10-5b1e-40b3-860e-c6dd5197f0bb 7376bfca-a593-44a4-ac17-994234943536 1427b46a-0987-49ac-ab6f-6ebd060604ed 9781138047822 9780367732202 Routledge 34 Kyoto University open access
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This chapter aims to explore organisational change as a result of political and security risks faced by four major European multinationals, Roche (pharmaceuticals), Nestlé (food), Unilever (non-mineral oil, fats, food and soap), and Philips (incandescent lamps, electronics), originally domiciled partly or wholly in what were two relatively small neutral countries—Switzerland and the Netherlands. Questions considered include how both world wars and nationalistic economic policy affected the organisational structures of these four companies, and the extent to which these changes had long-term consequences for their organisational and legal structures. The chapter focusses on several key themes, including localisation (adaption to national circumstances), decentralisation, taxation, the formation of holding companies, twin corporate structures, and geographical relocation. In all four cases, the companies survived mounting nationalism and the division of markets during and between the two world wars by localising their corporate organisation, and by doubling and dispersing headquarter functions. As a result, these European multinationals all eventually came to have a relatively decentralised form of organisation. Although the four companies manifested similar organisational responses, on closer examination the political circumstances between Dutch, Swiss and Anglo-Dutch companies differed to a large extent, and therefore a one-size-fits-all analytical approach does not apply.
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