PARADIGM INTERNATIONAL
OF
THEECLECTIC
PRODUCTION:
A RESTATEMENT SOMEPOSSIBLE
AND
EXTENSIONS
JohnH. Dunning*
Universityof Reading and Rutgers University

Abstract.Thisarticlereviewssome of the criticisms directed towards of the eclecticparadigm international over production the pastdecade, and restatesits maintenets.The secondpartof the articleconsiders a numberof possibleextensionsof the paradigm concludesby and that it remains robustgeneralframework explaining
"a
for asserting not of andanalysing onlythe economic rationale economic production and to but manyorganisational impact issuesin relation MNEactivity as well."
INTRODUCTION

The concept of the eclectic paradigmof international production'was first put forwardby the presentauthorin 1976 at a presentation a Nobel Symposium to in Stockholmon TheInternational
Allocationof EconomicActivity.2 intention
The
was to offera holisticframework which it was possibleto identifyand evaluate by of the significance the factorsinfluencing both the initialact of foreignproduction and by enterprises the growthof such production. choice of the word eclectic
The
was an ambitiousyet deliberate one. It was meant to convey the idea that a full of of activities enterprises explanation the transnational needsto drawupon several strandsof economic theory;and that foreigndirect investmentis just one of a numberof possiblechannelsof international economicinvolvement, each of which is determined a numberof commonfactors. by It is acceptedthat, preciselybecause of its generality, eclectic paradigmhas the kindsof international only limitedpowerto explainor predict particular production; and even less, the behaviourof individualenterprises3. this deficiency,if it
But
is a deficiency, whichsome criticshavealleged,could no less be directed attempts at a to formulate