Description
The Dynamics of International Business offers a comparative, chronological overview of the strategic and structural evolution of international firms.
Organized around eras of global economic development, the text synthesizes research on the internationalization of firms, highlighting crucial turning points in the evolution of the international economy. A particular emphasis is placed on the relationship between historical evidence and the theoretical frameworks available for its interpretation. Each period is illustrated by a selection of short case studies from a variety of industry sectors, including the Levant Company, Nestlé, Singer, Saint Gobain and NEC.
An essential textbook for courses in business and economic history, this book will also be a valuable resource for scholars and students of international business more generally.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. International Business before the Industrial Revolution 1.1 The Adventures of Pietro Querino 1.2 Long-distance Trade before the Industrial Revolution: Relevance 1.3 Long-distance Trade before the Industrial Revolution: Geographies 1.4 Risk Management in Pre-Industrial International Business 1.5 Avoiding, Preventing and Mitigating Risk 1.6 Transaction and Information Costs in Long-distance Trade before the Industrial Revolution 1.7 The Persistence of Market Exchange in the Pre-industrial Period 2. The Age of Companies 2.1 New Organisational Devices 2.2 Nature and Rationales 2.3 Structural Features 2.4 Organisational Structures 2.5 Internalising International Competitive Advantages: Opportunities and risks 3. International Business in the First Industrial Revolution (1800-1870) 3.1 Eighteen-Thirty-Three A.D. 3.2 International Business in the First Industrial Revolution: Migrating entrepreneurship 3.3 The Information and Communication Revolution 3.4 Global Migration in a Global World 3.5 Input Mobility 3.6 Forms of Enterprise in the First Global Economy: Merchants and Traders 3.7 Forms of Enterprise in the First Global Economy: Free-standing companies 4. Enterprises and Entrepreneurs in an Age of Globalisation (1870-1914) 4.1 A Nineteenth-Century Born Global 4.2 The Second Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Big Business 4.3 Big Business and the ‘Modern Multinationals’ 4.4 Integrating Backward 4.5 Integrating Forward 4.6 Why Produce Abroad? 4.7 Where to Invest, and How? 4.8 Varieties of Multinationals 5. International Entrepreneurship between Crisis and Rebirth (1914-1954) 5.1 The Clay Pot Breaks 5.2 The Wars: Stimulating internationalisation 5.3 The War: The negative effects 5.4 The End of Globalisation 5.5 Global Entrepreneurship in the Interwar Years 5.6 International Cartels and Co-Operative Agreements 5.7 Governance and Organisation 6. International Entrepreneurship in a New Global Economy (1945-1990) 6.1 Rebuilding the Global Economy: opportunities and threats 6.2 The Unstable Framework after the Second World War 6.3 The Origins of American Supremacy 6.4 The Recovery of the Global Economy 6.5 The European Challenge 6.6 The Japanese Challenge 7. Epilogue: The Last 25 Years in the Light of the Past 7.1 Foreign Investments in the New Global Economy 7.2 Multinational strategies in the New Global Economy 7.3 Corporate Architectures in the New Global Economy
