Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Les entreprises américaines implantées en France ont été étudiées de 1890 à 1990 à partir des archives de la Chambre de Commerce américaine en France (AmCham). Cette source permet d’analyser les actions collectives qu’elles ont menées et l’influence qu’elles ont eue sur le milieu des entreprises françaises, dans cinq périodes successives où la cohérence entre leurs actions et celles des autorités américaines a été plus ou moins étroite. Dans la première période (1890-1914), l’AmCham est un club de riches hommes d’affaires dans un environnement prestigieux. Dans la deuxième (1914-1945), elle est une association d’entreprises, plus nombreuses mais placées dans un contexte de guerre et de crise, sans stratégie commune. Dans la troisième (1945-1970), elle est un outil efficace du Plan Marshall puis du « défi américain ». Dans la quatrième (1970-1990), les implantations se multiplient mais la montée en puissance de l’union européenne, les réticences américaines sur l’investissement à l’étranger et la francisation des filiales américaines font apparaître des facteurs de fragilité et finalement dans la cinquième (après 1990), l’AmCham, dont l’influence a décliné, cherche, avec difficulté, des éléments de solidarité entre ses adhérents dans le contexte nouveau de la mondialisation. A partir de cette source, on a étudié les interactions culturelles entre l’AmCham et son milieu et la diffusion du modèle de management américain, qui a conduit à une forte francisation des filiales américaines en France. / American firms in France have been studied from 1890 to 1990, from the archives of the American Chamber of Commerce in France (AmCham). This source provides the elements of an analysis of the collective actions they implemented and the influence they had on French firms over five successive periods where there was more or less a consistency between their actions and the US government’s decisions. In the first periode (1890-1914), AmCham was a club of wealthy businessmen in a prestigious environment. In the second one (1914-1945), it was an employer’s association, with more members but in a context of wars and crisis, without a common strategy. In the third one (1945-1970), it was an efficient instrument of the Marshall Plan and later the « American challenge ». In the fourth one (1970-1990), with a growing number of firms, with the European project gaining ground, US policy’s reluctance to FDI and US firms becoming more and more « frenchized », significant factors of fragility appeared and finally in the fifth one (after 1990), AmCham, whose influence has diminished, is trying painfully to identify new elements of solidarity between its members in the new context of globalization. From this source, the study focuses on cultural interactions between AmCham and its environment and the spread of the American management model, which led to a large « frenchization » of American subsidiaries in France.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the role of the transnational actor at the national level in particular case of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic. The study is divided into two main parts. The first, theoretical part focuses on three theoretical strands. The first chapter focuses on the development of theoretical perceptions of non-state actors in international relations since the 1970s. The goal of the first chapter is to examine concept of interdependence, global governance, the new transnationalism and transnational private governance. The second chapter focuses on multinational corporations. The analysis emphasizes the dynamics of research and development of transnational corporations and their relationship with the nation state. The goal of the third theoretical chapter is to explore the process of interest representation within the nation state. Attention is drawn to obstacles and conditions that transnational actor needs to overcome in order to successfully penetrate the process of interest representation and pursue its goals within the state. The second part of the thesis investigates activities of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic that were carried out in an effort to amend the Public Procurement Act from 2010 to 2012. The hypotheses...