Imbricação de empresas transnacionais: uma análise do cluster automóvel em Portugal

Abstract

EMBEDDEDNESS OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS: A STUDY OF THEAUTOMOBILE CLUSTER IN PORTUGAL. The research carried out in this paper aims at understanding the economic action of embeddedness on ongoing socio-spatial structures and to conceptualise the role of inward investment in the regional development process. The stereotypical plundering of regional resources by foreign capital seems, in many cases, to belong to the past. Large firms, such as the transnationals, tend to emulate some organisational models characteristic to firms established in industrial districts, so that they develop strong ties with the socio-spatial structure. The study of the automobile cluster polarised by Autoeuropa comprehends the analysis of linkages between Autoeuropa and the suppliers, corporate culture and institutional relations in different domains. The results of the study are clearly against the stereotype of «cathedral in the desert» and somehow lend support to the possibilities of transnational corporations embeddedness in the spatial structures of ongoing social relations.