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Sugar and Copper: Postcolonial Experiences of Australian Multinationals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

David Merrett
David Merrett
Affiliation:
DAVID MERRETT is professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne.
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Abstract

Between 1973 and 2002, three of Australia's largest multinational companies exited from postcolonial Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Although neither host government wished the companies to leave, the tensions that arose during the course of decolonization made their departure inevitable. Prior to independence, conflicts between Fijians and Indians and decisions about grants of land and mineral rights to foreign firms had been mediated by colonial administrators. After independence, these contentious issues were resolved through domestic political processes. Ultimately, the companies were unable to overcome the limitations of their shared administrative heritage, based on nationalistic chauvinism, that desensitized them to the importance of race relations and communal rights to land within their host countries.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , Summer 2007 , pp. 213 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2007

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References

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