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The Decentering of the Global Firm

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  • Mihir A. Desai

    (Harvard Business School, Finance Unit)

Abstract

This paper describes recent changes in the relationship between firms and nation states. Firms are typically linked to the nation in which they began and are considered to have fixed national identities. While firms have reallocated various activities around the world in response to value creation opportunities, they have largely retained their national identities and their headquarter activities remained bundled in their home countries. This characterization is increasingly tenuous. Firms are redefining their homes by unbundling their headquarters functions and reallocating them opportunistically across nations. A firm's legal home, its financial home and its homes for managerial talent no longer need to be colocated and, consequently, the idea of firms as national actors rooted in their home countries is rapidly becoming outdated. The implications for policy makers and researchers are outlined.

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  • Mihir A. Desai, 2008. "The Decentering of the Global Firm," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-054, Harvard Business School.
  • Handle: RePEc:hbs:wpaper:09-054
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    Cited by:

    1. Kevin S. Markle & Douglas A. Shackelford, 2011. "Cross-Country Comparisons of Corporate Income Taxes," NBER Working Papers 16839, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Michael P. Devereux, 2008. "Taxation of outbound direct investment: economic principles and tax policy considerations," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 698-719, winter.
    3. Finér, Lauri & Ylönen, Matti, 2017. "Tax-driven wealth chains: A multiple case study of tax avoidance in the finnish mining sector," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 53-81.
    4. Kevin S. Markle & Douglas Shackelford, 2009. "Do Multinationals or Domestic Firms Face Higher Effective Tax Rates?," NBER Working Papers 15091, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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