What’s Different About Australian MNEs?

The Australian economy presents a paradox for IB scholars: it is a wealthy, developed resource-rich country with few large indigenous MNEs. The limited scale of outward FDI contrasts sharply with Australia’s long-run reliance on foreign firms and foreign technology: during the 1960s, inward FDI dwarfed outflows twenty to one. Today, a large part of manufacturing remains an offshoot of American, Japanese, British and European industry. This article suggests that history has shaped the nature of Australia’s outward FDI and consequently, there is something unique about Australian MNEs.