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Multinational Companies and the Cultural Industries: W.H. Smith in Canada, 1950–1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2021

Thomas R. Buckley
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Abstract

The political hazards that host country governments pose multinational companies are multifaceted and persistent. This study focuses on the experience of the Canadian subsidiary of British retailer W.H. Smith and Son in order to examine how host country policy can influence a multinational operating in the cultural industries. While bargaining models have previously provided the principal analytical lens for analyzing the interaction between multinationals and host governments, I argue that such frameworks lack the necessary nuance in order to explain fully the interaction between the Canadian government and W.H. Smith. In order to address the intricacy of these relations, it is necessary to integrate insights from new institutional economics with conventional bargaining frameworks.

Keywords

international retailingW.H. Smith and Sonmultinational–host government relationscultural industriesforeign direct investment
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 94 , Issue 4 , Winter 2020 , pp. 699 - 727
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2021

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Footnotes

I would like to thank the editor, Walter Friedman and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and support during the review process. Earlier versions of this paper were presented in a PDW at AIB-UK&I Birmingham 2018, and at the European Business History Association 2018 Congress in Ancona. I am particularly grateful for comments from, and conversations with, Mark Casson, Teresa da Silva Lopes, Sarianna Lundan, Andrew Smith and Alex Wright. Last, but by no means least, thanks are due to the staff and archivists at the University of Reading's Museum of English Rural Life. Any errors are the author's own sole responsibility.

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