IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v64y2022i9p1684-1708.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Filling a colonial void? German business strategies and development assistance in India, 1947–1974

Author

Listed:
  • Julian Faust

Abstract

Decolonisation after World War II posed a threat to foreign businesses, when newly independent governments sought more national control over the economy. This article analyses cases of German multinational enterprises (MNE) in India. Focusing on companies from different sectors it analyses how these MNEs dealt with risks associated with tighter regulation of the economy and economic nationalism. German corporate nationality quickly became an asset that was used to position subsidiaries in India against foreign competitors. In the following years ‘Indianisation’ strategies for management and networks of German and Indian employees added security to long-term business interests. Carefully created Indo-German nationality of the companies reduced liabilities of foreignness. Furthermore, aligning with West German development assistance helped to strengthen the position of German private companies. These findings support the existing argument for a multi-faceted view on liabilities of foreignness and their quickly changing nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Julian Faust, 2022. "Filling a colonial void? German business strategies and development assistance in India, 1947–1974," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(9), pages 1684-1708, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:64:y:2022:i:9:p:1684-1708
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2020.1802428
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2020.1802428
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2020.1802428?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:64:y:2022:i:9:p:1684-1708. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.