Managing Political Imperatives in War Time: Strategic Responses of Philips in Australia, 1939–1945

Abstract

The Australian subsidiary of Dutch MNE Philips came under secret service surveillance and faced risk of government takeover as enemy property during World War II. It was also excluded from government contracts for communications equipment, while forced to reduce civilian production. These threats to its assets and operations required the firm to develop an adaptive corporate strategy in order to minimise political risk and also take advantage of opportunities that war production offered. This case study offers a rich insight into the processes an MNE employs to pursue dynamic strategic responses to host country political imperatives, confirming hypotheses of Ring et al. (1990). It demonstrates the relevance of historical cases to substantiating theory in strategic management. Show more