Results of Surveys of Swiss Multinationals

Switzerland is not only a country with an extremely high export share of 40% but also a very important home country of multinational corporations with very high levels of FDI. In blatant contrast to the extensive export activities carried out by all sizes and types of Swiss firms, Swiss Foreign Direct Investment consists almost entirely of the foreign operations of only about 50 multinational corporations whose headquarters are located inside Switzerland. With our first survey (1980) of the 15 largest Swiss industrial corporations — all with total sales in the billions of Swiss francs — at least 80% of Swiss industry’s foreign personnel and production was accounted for.1