Keep on Keepin’ on Down Under: Administrative heritage and the strategic realignment of multinational enterprises in Australia during deglobalization, 1914–79

We analyse the behaviour of multinational enterprises (MNEs) within a host nation – Australia – during deglobalization (1914–79). Deglobalization is often portrayed as a drastic event to which MNEs respond swiftly, probably through withdrawal from host countries. However, we generate new FDI and firm population data to reveal incumbent MNEs remained. We then deploy historical primary evidence from three companies to analyse their responses. Firms adapted by deepening their local engagement, drawing on local information sources and entrepreneurship, and by shifting some strategic control to the subsidiary. These adaptations extended across decades, as each MNE wrestled with knowledge gaps and organizational rigidities that reflected its particular administrative heritage. Our historical methodology also reveals how firms were affected differently, responded at different speeds, and varied in their subsequent embeddedness. We conclude that deglobalization’s impact on firms may be a subtle, reiterative, and prolonged process, rather than a sudden and dramatic event.