Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct a model of multinational enterprise (MNE)-host country (HC) relationship in the international petroleum industry. For such a purpose, this study draws on the lenses of the MNE-HC bargaining theoretical framework. Using a comprehensive case study as the primary research method, it attempts to answer the question of how the power balance between oil MNEs and host government changed in Kazakhstan between 1991 and 2012. The results bear out the viability of the obsolescing bargain theory, although they suggest that the existing theoretical framework does not fully capture the dynamics of bargaining power balance. Specifically, they extend Raymond Vernon’s ‘Obsolescing Bargain Model’ (1971) by considering firm resources and host country resources together, along with external factors influencing the MNE-HC relationship.