Multinational Corporations, Business Groups, and Economic Nationalism: Standard Oil (New Jersey), Royal Dutch-Shell, and Energy Politics in Chile 1913-2005

Posted: 4 Jun 2010

See all articles by Marcelo Bucheli

Marcelo Bucheli

University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)

Abstract

This article analyzes the long-term strategies employed by multinational oil corporations in a late industrializing country with powerful business groups when faced with economic nationalism. I study the case of Royal Dutch-Shell in Chile from 1913 to 2005, where two oil multinationals controlled 100 percent of the Chilean market until forced by the government to accept a domestic private company, COPEC, into a new three-member cartel. The multinationals accepted this arrangement reluctantly, but in the long term it proved beneficial. COPEC's involvement in Chilean business groups protected the multinationals from hostile actions by the government and gave legitimacy to the cartel. These benefits ended when Chile abandoned its import substitution industrialization strategy in the 1970s.

Suggested Citation

Bucheli, Marcelo, Multinational Corporations, Business Groups, and Economic Nationalism: Standard Oil (New Jersey), Royal Dutch-Shell, and Energy Politics in Chile 1913-2005. Enterprise & Society, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 350-399, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1612647 or http://dx.doi.org/khp109

Marcelo Bucheli (Contact Author)

University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.business.uiuc.edu/mbucheli/

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