Adaptation Strategies of Multinational Corporations, State-Owned Enterprises, and Domestic Business Groups to Economic and Political Transitions: A Network Analysis of the Chilean Telecommunications Sector, 1958-2005
Description
This paper compares the corporate network strategies between tinational corporations of two different origins (United States Spain), business groups, and state-owned enterprises in the pu utility sector of a developing country going through economic political transitions. The transitions we consider are from an imp substitution industrialization model to an open market economy from a democratic regime to a dictatorial one and back to de racy. We analyze the Chilean telecommunications sector between 1958 and 2005 and find that during a democratic regime all firms sought to build more networks with each other, while incentives decrease under an authoritarian regime. In the protectionist era, US investors built links with Chile's corporate elite, while in times of an open economy, Spanish investors built these links with the gov ernment. State-owned corporations did not attempt to build links with other actors at any time, and business groups sought to build most networks among members of the group. Our findings chal lenge two commonly held assumptions: first, that open economies decrease incentives for domestic actors to build links with each other and, second, that close political regimes increase incentives to build networks among economic actors