Years ago, I attended a conference on the economies of Latin America that took place just outside the city of San José, Costa Rica. Before the conference began, I took a long walk through the neighborhoods surrounding the conference hotel. As I walked, I passed the factory gates of many foreign corporations that were operating in the area. During the conference, I spoke to a representative of the Costa Rican government. With some passion, she said, “Foreign firms are buying our companies! We are losing ownership of our economy!”

This statement made an impact on me, and on my return to the United States, I pulled an old book off my shelf written in 1987 by John Sheahan. Entitled Patterns of Development in Latin America, the book included a chapter on multinational enterprises (MNEs). I glanced through the chapter and came across this statement: “A particularly important concern is that foreign investment may foreclose opportunities for domestic investment and learning by…taking over existing domestic firms and eliminating independent national management” (p. 165). If she could have read this passage, I imagined the Costa Rican official would have said, “Exactly!” Or, more precisely, “¡Exactamente!”