Entrepreneurship and Multinationals: Global Business and the Making of the Modern World

by Geoffrey Jones

Overview

This book explores the roles played by entrepreneurship and multinational enterprises in the development of the modern global world. Through a combination of new and previously published essays charting business developments from the nineteenth century onward, the author demonstrates how multinational corporations have driven globalization through the transfer of innovation and cultural values.

The chapters include studies of global industries and major corporations, including Beiersdorf and Unilever, and explore economic and corporate development in specific countries, such as India, Iran and Turkey. Merging rich historical evidence with discussion of the current state of global business, this book reveals how examining entrepreneurial activity and multinational strategies deepen explanations of historical and global patterns of wealth and poverty. It offers compelling new perspectives on current debates about globalization from one of the most prominent scholars in the field of business history.

This volume will appeal to students and professors of economics, entrepreneurship, international business and history as well as anyone with an interest in understanding the past, present and future of globalization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781951941
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	10/30/2013
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Geoffrey Jones, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School, US

Table of Contents

Contents: Preface 1. Business Enterprises and the Making of the Modern World 2. Entrepreneurs, Firms, and Global Wealth since 1850 3. Globalization and Beauty: A Historical and Firm Perspective 4. US MNEs in British Manufacturing Before 1962 5. The Imperial Bank of Iran and Iranian Economic Development, 1890–1952 6. MNEs, Economic Development, and Social Change in Asia 7. Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914–90 8. Learning to Live with Governments: Unilever in India and Turkey, 1950–80 9. The End of Nationality? Global Firms and Borderless Worlds Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

‘Few scholars have contributed to the field of business history as has Geoffrey Jones. His book Entrepreneurship and Multinationals brings in new findings resulting from research he has conducted during the last two decades in partnership with other scholars. . . .this book speaks to different audiences of scholars interested in globalization, particularly because of its theoretical debates in conjunction with case studies. Its organization makes it accessible to students of various levels, especially in courses on the history of globalization or international business.’

Marcelo Bucheli

‘Harvard Business School Professor Geoffrey Jones has long been a student of the history of multinational enterprise. He has taken a leadership role in the field. This volume reflects the extraordinary breadth of his historical research, spanning continents and industries. His focus is on the firm as an actor on the stage of the history of globalization. This book contains a selection of his unpublished and published articles. Of special interest is his updated previously unpublished 2006 talk that explores how firms and entrepreneurs fit into the scholarly debates on the Great Divergence between the West and the Rest. This is a splendid collection.’

Mira Wilkins

Harvard Business School Professor Geoffrey Jones has long been a student of the history of multinational enterprise. He has taken a leadership role in the field. This volume reflects the extraordinary breadth of his historical research, spanning continents and industries. His focus is on the firm as an actor on the stage of the history of globalization. This book contains a selection of his unpublished and published articles. Of special interest is his updated previously unpublished 2006 talk that explores how firms and entrepreneurs fit into the scholarly debates on the Great Divergence between the West and the Rest. This is a splendid collection. —Mira Wilkins, Florida International University

From the Publisher