Managing Political Imperatives: Strategic Responses of Philips in Australia, 1939-1945

Pierre van der Eng

No 50, CEH Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University

Abstract: The Australian subsidiary of Dutch MNE Philips came under secret service surveillance and faced risk of government takeover as enemy property during World War II. It was also excluded from government contracts for communications equipment, while forced to reduce civilian production. These threats to its assets and operations required the firm to develop an adaptive corporate strategy in order to minimise political risk and also take advantage of opportunities that war production offered. This case study offers a rich insight into the processes an MNE employs to pursue dynamic strategic responses to host country political imperatives, confirming hypotheses of Ring et al. (1990). It demonstrates the relevance of historical cases to substantiating theory in strategic management.

Keywords: political risk; Australia; Philips; electronics industry; World War II (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L20 L63 M19 N47 N87 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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