International Business, Multi-Nationals, and the Nationality of the Company

National conflicts in a multinational: the case of the Dutch-German AKU/VGF/Akzo, 1920s to 1970s

Christian Marx and Ben Wubs

Abstract

Bringing together managers from different countries and cultures after international mergers is often seen as beneficial for the development of multinational companies. The article refers to existing approaches in the literature on modern cultural management and the organisation of multinationals to develop a framework explaining when and in which way national diversity affected the composition of the governing bodies and the strategy of the company. It therefore focuses on the nationality of owners and managers and asks to what extent corporate nationalities persisted after the merger and if single national ...