Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:31:48.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Relevance of nationality in cross-border economic transactions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Nina Bandelj*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, United States
*

Abstract

How relevant is nationality in global economic behavior? The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the relevance of nationality affiliations and nationality conceptions in cross-border economic transactions, using the case of foreign investment exchanges. In particular, I examine how nationality affiliations may shape the types of commitments that actors will want to realize through foreign investment transactions, and how nationality categorizations influence the evaluation of potential partners in economic transactions. I also stipulate when nationality affiliations and categorizations play a more- or less-salient role. To develop these propositions I use illustrations from cases of foreign investment attempts in which investors from the West try to acquire firms in post-socialist Slovenia. The analysis is grounded in economic sociology and advances a relational understanding of nationality, seen as interpretive codes embedded in actors’ cultural repertoires, situationally invoked, and made relevant (or not) in interactions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Ballinger, Pamela. History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2003. Print.Google Scholar
Bandelj, Nina. “Economic Objects as Cultural Objects: Discourse on Foreign Investment in Postsocialist Europe.” Socio-Economic Review 6.4 (2008a): 671702. Print.Google Scholar
Bandelj, Nina. “Embedded Economies: Social Relations as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe.” Social Forces 81.2 (2002): 411–44. Print.Google Scholar
Bandelj, Nina. From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2008b. Print.Google Scholar
Bandelj, Nina. “Negotiating Global, Regional, and National Forces: Foreign Investment in Slovenia.” East European Politics and Societies 18.3 (2004): 455–80. Print.Google Scholar
Beckert, Jens. Inherited Wealth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
Beckfield, Jason. “Inequality in the World Polity: The Structure of International Organization.” American Sociological Review 68 (2003):401–24. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, Feischmidt, Margit, Fox, Jon, and Grancea, Liana. Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers, Loveman, Mara, and Stamatov, Peter. “Ethnicity as Cognition.” Theory and Society 33 (2004): 3164. Print.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig. “Nationalism and Ethnicity.” Annual Review of Sociology 19 (1993): 211–39. Print.Google Scholar
Campbell, John L., and Pedersen, Ove K. The Rise of Neoliberalism and Institutional Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Cass, Fergus. “Attracting FDI to Transition Countries: The Use of Incentives and Promotion Agencies.” Transnational Corporations 16 (2007): 77122. Print.Google Scholar
Cerulo, Karen. “Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions.” Annual Review of Sociology 23 (1997): 385409. Print.Google Scholar
Cox, Robert W.A Perspective on Globalization.” Globalization: Critical Reflections. Ed. James H. Mittelman. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1996. 2130. Print.Google Scholar
Crystal, Jonathan. “A New Kind of Competition: How American Producers Respond to Incoming Foreign Direct Investment.” International Studies Quarterly 42 (1998): 513–43. Print.Google Scholar
Damasio, Antonio. Decartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Print.Google Scholar
Damasio, Antonio. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1999. Print.Google Scholar
Delo Newspaper. 10 June 1997. Ljubljana, Slovenia. 8. Print.Google Scholar
de Mortanges, Charles P., and Caris, Wilem B.Investment in Eastern Europe: The Case of the Netherlands.” The Economics of Change in East and Central Europe. Eds. Peter J. Buckley and Pervez N. Ghauri. London: Academic P, 1994. 249–66. Print.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul. “Nadel's Paradox Revisited: Relational and Cultural Aspects of Organizational Structures.” Networks and Organization. Eds. Nohria Nitin and Robert Eccles. Boston: Harvard Business School P, 1993. 118–42. Print.Google Scholar
Dunning, John H. International Production and the Multinational Enterprise. London, UK: Allen & Unwin, 1981. Print.Google Scholar
Dunning, John H. Multinational Enterprise. London: Routledge, 1971. Print.Google Scholar
Dunning, John H. Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy. Addison-Wesley, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Dunning, John H. Theory of Transnational Corporations. London: Routledge, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Estrin, Saul, Hughes, Kirsty, and Todd, Sarah. Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe: Multinationals in Transition. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter. “The Eclipse of the State?World Politics 50 (1997): 6287. Print.Google Scholar
“French Economic Nationalism: Colbert was Here.” The Economist, 25 March 2006, p. 65. Print.Google Scholar
Gilpin, Robert. The Political Economy of International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1987. Print.Google Scholar
Gore, Charles. “The Rise and Fall of the Washington Consensus as a Paradigm for Developing Countries.” World Development 28.5 (2000): 789804. Print.Google Scholar
Gorenjski Glas. 10 June 1997. Kranj, Slovenia. 12. Print.Google Scholar
Guillén, Mauro. “Is Globalization Civilizing, Destructive or Feeble? A Critique of Five Key Debates in Social Science Literature.” Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 235–60. Print.Google Scholar
Harsanyi, Nicolae, and Kennedy, Michael D.Between Utopia and Dystopia: The Liabilities of Nationalism in Eastern Europe.” Envisioning Eastern Europe. Ed. Michael D. Kennedy. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1994. 149–79. Print.Google Scholar
Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989. Print.Google Scholar
Helleiner, Eric, and Pickel, Andreas. Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2004. Print.Google Scholar
Henisz, Witold J., Zelner, Bennet A., and Guillen, Mauro. “World-Wide Diffusion of Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reform, 1977–1999.” American Sociological Review 70 (2005): 871–97. Print.Google Scholar
Huber, Evelyne, and Stephens, John D. Development and Crisis of the Welfare State. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
Hymer, Stephen. The International Operations of National Firms: A Study of Direct Foreign Investment. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1976 1960. Print.Google Scholar
Jakobsen, Jo. “Old Problems Remain, New Ones Crop Up: Political Risk in the 21st Century.” Business Horizons 53 (2010): 481–90. Print.Google Scholar
Jodice, David A.Sources of Change in Third World Regimes for Foreign Direct Investment, 1968–1976.” International Organization 34 (1980): 177206. Print.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Paul. Preparing for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Random House, 1993. Print.Google Scholar
Kobrin, Stephen J.The Determinants of Liberalization of FDI Policy in Developing Countries: A Cross-sectional Analysis, 1992–2001.” Transnational Corporations 14 (2005): 67104. Print.Google Scholar
Kobrin, Stephen J.Foreign Enterprise and Forced Divestment in LDCs.” International Organization 34 (1980): 6588. Print.Google Scholar
Kogut, Bruce, and MacPherson, J. Muir. “The Decision to Privatize as an Economic Policy Idea: Economists, Palace Wars, and Diffusion.” The Diffusion of Liberalization. Ed. Beth Simmons, Frank Dobbin, and Geoffrey Garrett. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. 104–40. Print.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul. “Cycles of Conventional Wisdom on Economic Development.” International Affairs 71 (1995): 717–32. Print.Google Scholar
Lamont, Michele, and Thevenot, Laurent. Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology. Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.Google Scholar
Mag. Volume 32, June (1997). Ljubljana, Slovenia. 30. Print.Google Scholar
Meyer, John, Boli, John, Thomas, George M., and Ramirez, Francisco. “World Society and the Nation-State.” American Journal of Sociology 103 (1997): 144–81. Print.Google Scholar
Ó Riain, Sean. “States and Markets in an Era of Globalization.” Annual Review of Sociology 26 (2000): 187213. Print.Google Scholar
Prasad, Monica. The Politics of Free Markets: The Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Britain, France, Germany and the United States. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006. Print.Google Scholar
Premik. “Slovene-Italian Relations 1880–1956.” 2005. Web. 6 June 2005. <http://www.kozina.com/premik/poreng_enastran.htm>..>Google Scholar
“The Return of Economic Nationalism.” The Economist, 5 February 2009. Web. <http://www.economist.com/node/13061443>..>Google Scholar
Robinson, Ian. “The NAFTA Labour Accord in Canada: Experience, Prospects, and Alternatives.” Connecticut Journal of International Law 10.2 (1995): 475531. Print.Google Scholar
Rojec, Matija, and Šušteršić, Janez. Cena “nacionalnega interesa” [The Price of “National Interest”]. Analize CMO/CIR Analyses. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za družbene vede, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Sassen, Saskia. Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization. New York: Columbia UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Schudson, Michael. “How Culture Works.” Theory and Society 18 (1989): 153–80. Print.Google Scholar
Simmons, Beth A., and Elkins, Zachary. “The Globalization of Liberalization: Policy Diffusion in the International Political Economy.” American Political Science Review 98 (2004): 171–89. Print.Google Scholar
Simmons, Beth A., Dobbin, Frank, and Garrett, Geoffrey. “The International Diffusion of Liberalism.” International Organization 60 (2006): 781810. Print.Google Scholar
Slovic, Paul, Finucane, Melissa, Peters, Ellen, and MacGregor, Donald. “Risk as Analysis and Risk as Feelings: Some Thoughts about Affect, Reason, Risk and Rationality.” Risk Analysis 24.2 (2004): 311–22. Print.Google Scholar
Smelser, Niel, and Swedberg, Richard. The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Second Edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005. Print.Google Scholar
Smith, Anthony. National Identity. London: Penguin, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Spilerman, Seymour. “How Globalization Has Impacted Labour: A Review Essay.” European Sociological Review 25 (2009): 7386. Print.Google Scholar
Stopford, John, and Strange, Susan. Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1991. Print.Google Scholar
Strange, Susan. The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy. New York: Cambridge UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
UNCTAD. World Investment Report 2001. Washington DC: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2001. Print.Google Scholar
UNCTAD. World Investment Report 2004. Washington DC: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2004. Print.Google Scholar
Verdery, Katherine. “Nationalism and National Sentiment in Post-Socialist Romania.” Slavic Review 52.2 (1993a): 179203. Print.Google Scholar
Verdery, Katherine. “Whither “Nation” and “Nationalism”? Daedalus (Summer 1993b): 3746. Print.Google Scholar
Vernon, Raymond. Sovereignty at Bay: The Multinational Spread of US Enterprises. New York: Basic Books, 1997. Print.Google Scholar
Vogel, Steven. Freer Markets, More Rules. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1996. Print.Google Scholar
Williamson, John. “The Washington Consensus and Beyond.” Economic and Political Weekly 38.15 (2003): 1475–81. Print.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Viviana. Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes Economy. Princeton UP, 2010. Print.Google Scholar
Zhou, Min. “Intensification of Geo-Cultural Homophily in Global Trade: Evidence from the Gravity Model.” Social Science Research 40.1 (2011): 193209. Print.Google Scholar
Zubrzycki, Genevieve. “'We, the Polish Nation’: Ethnic and Civic Visions of Nationhood in Post-communist Constitutional Debates.” Theory and Society 30.5 (2001): 629–68. Print.Google Scholar
Zukin, Sharon, and DiMaggio, Paul. “Introduction.” Structures of Capital: The Social Organization of the Economy. Eds. Sharon Zukin and Paul DiMaggio. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990. 136. Print.Google Scholar