Corporate Governance in Multinational Corporations during Turbulent Times - Cases from the Automotive Industry

In recent times, there are hardly any industries left that show stable and predictable conditions. Deregulation and globalisation have changed whole industry structures. The results are discontinuous, turbulent developments with high uncertainty. One example is the breakdown of borders between nations, industries and organisations. Cases of cross-border alliances, such as DaimlerChrysler, Renault-Nissan, and Vodafone-Mannesmann, have been at the centre of discussion. However, with the ongoing breakdown of borders in these turbulent times, corporate governance structures must be established to facilitate this development. This paper deals with the question of where local differences in the structure of corporate governance schemes of MNC cross-border alliances can be seen. What is demanded and expected, despite legal differences, by both partner companies? The paper will show that global competition between MNCs also implies competition between firms’ corporate governance systems on an international level. This leads to the question of to what extent MNCs are aware of these mechanisms, and how they judge them. The article is based on case studies from the automotive industry, namely the Toyota group, the Renault-Nissan alliance, and the DaimlerChrysler-Mitsubishi alliance. Econometric data analysis provides the basic background behind our approach to elaborate the differences between national and corporate culture in MNC corporate governance schemes.