The Limited Usefulness of National Economic Identity in the Case of an Australian-Based, Networking Firm.

This paper analyses the case of an Australia-based surfwear firm - the Rip Curl company - in the context of its globalised network of production and marketing. It uses the conceptual framework of a 'buyer-driven'commodity chain which emphases the importance of documenting the extent of decentralised networks. The main aim of the paper is to query the usefulness of thinking of firms such as these in nationally-oriented terms. Rip Curl's success has come about not because it is 'Australian' but because it has found a way of producing and marketing a range of branded products globally. If this is the case, the aim must be to become genuinely internationalist in analytical approaches to the process of capital accumulation and the impact on labour in different parts of the world. To do this involves taking into account what is happening at many different national and international sites of production and marketing simultaneously.