Hymer and the theory of the MNE: A commentary by John Cantwell

Abstract This article provides a commentary on the paper by Pitelis and Piteli on Hymer as the pioneer of the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE). I suggest that Stephen Hymer and his contemporary, John Dunning, also laid the foundation for an analysis of an international business (IB) system, which reaches well beyond the theory of the MNE and its strategy. I argue firstly that early IB theories, including Hymer's, which emerged from the late 1950s onwards, mostly had a holistic view of the IB system, of which the MNE was just one element. Secondly, I contend that both Hymer and Dunning developed from the outset some seminal ideas on the interrelationships that exist between the MNE and its strategy, on the one hand, and the wider economic and social environment in which firms are embedded, on the other. I suggest that Dunning's eclectic paradigm was intended as a framework for the study of the IB system in its entirety as a complex, relational system. Thirdly, while Hymer's ideas on cross‐border geographic hierarchy, uneven development and IB were highly original and remain relevant today, they need to be substantially updated and revised in the current IB context, as opposed to the context which prevailed in the IB system of the 1950s through to the 1970s.