Date of Award

1982

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract

For many years, the multinational corporations (MNCs) have been looked upon as agents of development, especially in terms of resource transferred from developed countries (DCs) to less developed countries (LDCs). However, a group of protectionists have maintained that the presence of an MNC in LDCs is a "cause" of the problem instead of a "blessing" to these nations. They have asserted that MNCs exercise a total dominance over a peripheral nation and can or have dwarfed economic growth. The only way to avoid this "doom" is to introduce some regulatory schemes which will help to control the behavior and the activities of the MNCs. These regulatory schemes are the focus of this study. The purpose is to determine their effectiveness. The effectiveness is measured in terms of the extent to which regulations aid Nigeria in achieving a set of pre-determined national objectives. The results of the empirical study point out the fact that all but one objective is a valid goal for Nigeria (p .001). The only exception is the objective of exporting of final products. These views were also shared by the three groups of respondents. There were divergent of opinion regarding the means of accomplishing each of the major national objectives. As one would expect, the government officials were generally in support of the majority of the means while managers of foreign companies tended to discredit most of them. The results of the study on the impacts of means convincingly indicate that the impact varied from sector to sector and from one nationality of investors to another. Taken together, the impacts of the means (laws) were found to be greater on the low technology industries than on the high technology industries. Among all the nationalities studied, the laws had more impact on the American investors than any other nationalities of investors. By ways of a final summation, the findings clearly confirm the primacy of national objectives as a major impetus to national control. Thus, a potential investor in Nigeria should use these objectives as a guide in assembling investment packages and in seeking ideological support for his/her investment proposals.

Pages

259

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.3768

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