The local in the global: regions, employment systems and multinationals

Abstract

This article examines how the international competition to attract and retain foreign direct investment shapes the governance of business and employment systems. Through an examination of global production networks and the changing role of the state in economic governance, it highlights the sub‐national regional space as an important level of institutional adaptation. Specifically, it explores how regions organise themselves to compete for inward investment, and the potential role of industrial relations actors within this. It argues that both research into multinational companies, and of the governance of employment systems more generally, need to incorporate an analysis of regional competition for productive investment more fully into their analysis.

Disruption and re-regulation in work and employment: from organisational to institutional experimentation

“…Policy and union actors are challenged, but also empowered, in their search for new forms of transnational regulation (Banks, 2011; Daugareilh, 2012; Fairbrother et al, 2013; Lévesque et al, 2018). Competition for jobs is often subnational, with worksites, firms, industries, and regions pushing to engage in various forms of collaboration and community development through ecosystems for skill development, firm upgrading and innovation (Almond et al, 2017; Coe and Yeung, 2015).…”

Adaptation of Compensation Practice in China: The Role of Sub-National Institutions

“…This offers an insight into forms of agency by political and economic actors at local levels of governance as they attempt to influence the skills and human resources available for MNCs through regulatory means. Actors can experiment with local institutional arrangements by building on or deviating from national institutional arrangements to seek local advantages (Almond et al, 2017). This insight is significant as the impact of MNCs on employment and organizational practices in host economies are most keenly felt at local levels.…”

“…Local institutions can actively shape inward investment insidership or local embeddedness of MNCs to a foreign market (e.g., Monaghan et al, 2014). Municipalities, employers’ associations and development agencies may ‘institutionally experiment’, building on or departing from elements of their national institutional arrangements to seek localized advantages (Almond, Gonzalez, Lavelle, & Murray, 2017). Such arrangements may take various forms of coordination with different emphasis on the role of local institutional actors.…”

La contribution des institutions régionales à la gestion des talents : regards sur la grappe aérospatiale de Montréal

“…Parmi les biens collectifs produits par ces institutions régionales, la majorité des auteurs signalent la création d'un bassin de main-d'oeuvre qualifiée (Doloreux et Bitard, 2005;Heidenreich et Mattes, 2012;Clark, 2013;Almond et al, 2017). Tremblay et al, (2003) (Storper, 2002).…”