Retrospective and prospective views about the future of the multinational enterprise

This paper reflects upon Buckley and Casson's seminal volume The Future of the Multinational Enterprise (1976). Retrospectively, it examines the reasons for the impact of The Future on research in international business, on the one hand, while it reviews the merit of the different chapters in today's economic environment. The paper subsequently also introduces some prospective views on the use of internalization theory, which are elaborated upon in the other papers in this issue.