Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century by Geoffrey Jones

From the Publisher

This book provides a unique contribution to contemporary globalization debates by providing an accessible survey of the growth and role of multinational enterprises in the world economy over the last two hundred years. The author shows how entrepreneurs built a global economy in the nineteenth century by creating firms that pursued resources and markets across borders. It demonstrates how multinationals shifted strategies as the first global economy disintegrated in the political and economic chaos between the two world wars, and how they have driven the creation of the contemporary global economy.
Many of the issues of the global economy have been encountered in the past. This book shows how entrepreneurs and managers met the political, ethical, cultural and organizational challenges of operating across national borders at different times and in different environments. The role of multinationals is placed within their wider political and economic context. There are chapters on the impact of multinationals, and on relations with governments.
The focus on the shifting roles of firms and industries over time rather than abstract trade and capital flows provides compelling evidence on the diversity and discontinuities of the globalization process. The book explains the history of multinationals across a wide spectrum of manufacturing, service and natural resource industries from an international perspective, which ranges widely across different countries. It provides an essential historical framework for understanding global business.
An accessible survey of the history of international business worldwide, this book will be key reading for students taking courses inInternational Business, Business History, Multinationals, and Entrepreneurship; and of interest to academics and researchers working in these areas.

"Here, Jones responds to what he rightly terms the "tumultuous" political and economic changes in the last decade. He examines the role of entrepreneurs and firms in the global economy over the last two centuries in detail, beginning by describing exactly what "multinational" and "globalization" really mean. He shows how these concepts apply to exploiting natural resources, manufacturing and services. He concludes that while government policies and technology had their impact, business enterprises were the prime movers of trade, capital, and knowledge across borders.".--Reference & Research Book News

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• Table of Contents

Table of Contents