PLC: State of the art review

Abstract

Two decates of discussion has still to clear the fog surrounding the validity of the PLC concept. This paper review available evidence, and attempts to identity some of the issues that PLC researchers need to address. Literature pertaining to the following dimension of the PLC concept have been examined: a) Empirical investigations B) Theoretical investigations C) Managerial applications of the PLC concept D) PLC in international trade. Finally, PLC has been evaluated as a theory. The conclusion is that the PLC concept fails substantially short of fulfilling the requirement of a theory. This will be possible only if hypotheses for PLC patterns that are product- specific, market- specific, and time- specific, can be proposed and tested. These will have to include provisions for variations in PLC, in response to changes in exogenous variables.