European integration and corporate restructuring: the strategy of Unilever, c.1957–c.19901

European integration and corporate restructuring: the strategy of Unilever, c.1957-c.1990. While much has been written about the politics of European integration, discussion about the role of business in this process has been largely confined to lobbying activities. This article focuses on the business reaction to European integration. It highlights the constraints facing one of Europe’s largest firms in building a regional detergents business. These included divergences in market demand and political obstacles to rationalization, but more serious was a corporate culture based around local decision making and consensus. The study demonstrates that a full understanding of the European integration process must incorporate a firm-level analysis of how Europe-wide businesses were built after 1957.