The evolving role of cooperation among multinational corporations and indigenous organizations in transition economies: A migration away from confrontation

Recent trends toward greater globalization and the increasing number of transition economies are changing the nature of the relationships among multinational enterprises (MNEs), organizations in transition economies (OTEs), and the OTEs' governments from a traditional conflict-based perspective towards consisting of cooperation and collaboration. This paper draws on the theory of cooperation that incorporates the concepts of substitutability (substitution of goals), cathexis (commitment to a specific goal), and inducibility (open to influence) to describe the emerging interactive relationship between MNEs and OTEs. Due to changing global competitive trends, we propose that MNEs, OTEs, and transition economy governments act in their best interests through a continuum of cooperation and confrontation. We propose that the two theories of cooperation and confrontation are not paradoxical but are in effect complementary.