Much unease, distrust and criticism is being expressed in the current debate about the potential power of multinational corporations and the possibilities of abuse. What is the basis for the power of the multinationals, and what possibilities are available for controlling and limiting that power?

The UN Commission on Transnational Corporations which was appointed by ECOSOC will have its next meeting in May. An Intergovernmental Working Group will have held ten sessions by then and present a draft Code of Conduct dealing with transnational corporations. (For a review of the state of...

Based on trends observed during the ’sixties, a number of forecasts have projected an increasing domination by multinational corporations of the Western economies. By confronting them with the available empirical evidence of the ’seventies, Dr. Winiecki reveals some striking discrepancies...

Do multinational enterprises act in developing countries as a motive force for progress or do they perpetuate colonialism by different means? The fierce controversy on this question still continues, fuelled not only by basic ideological differences but by dearth of empirical evidence. Prof....

While voluntary behavior and social responsibility have so far played a peripheral role in multinational corporations' global strategies, the author argues that the non-market social responsibility dimension will have to be incorporated systematically in management’s forward planning as a...

In the United Nations an Intergovernmental Working Group tries to cope with the phenomenon of transnational corporations by working on a code of conduct. Hartmut Scheele, who participated in this work, reviews the results the Group has achieved up to now.