Chapter | The Act of Accumulation. Essays in Honor of Gyorgy Kover | 2009

Entrepreneurship and the History of Globalization

by G. Jones and R. Daniel Wadhwani

Abstract

In this article, we build on the recent efforts of scholars to reintroduce entrepreneurship into the research agenda of business historians. We examine the value and limitations of adapting recent social scientific theories and methods on entrepreneurship to research on international business history. Specifically, we focus on three recent areas of social scientific work on entrepreneurship and weigh their value to business history research. First, we consider how scholars can employ research on entrepreneurial cognition to understand the historical ownership advantages of multinational firms. Second, we draw on concepts from entrepreneurial strategy and finance and examine their use in understanding the history of how firms allocated resources to uncertain international ventures. Finally, we look at the question of the diffusion of the benefits of globalization and its impact on entrepreneurship within host economies. We conclude that the cautious adoption of some of these recent conceptual developments offers fertile opportunities for further research in international business history.

Keywords: History; Multinational Firms and Management; Resource Allocation; Research; Entrepreneurship; Cognition and Thinking; Growth and Development Strategy;

Format: Print

Citation:

Jones, G., and R. Daniel Wadhwani. "Entrepreneurship and the History of Globalization." In The Act of Accumulation. Essays in Honor of Gyorgy Kover, edited by J. Klement, K. Halmos, A. Pogany, and B. Tomka. Budapest: Századvég Kiadó, 2009.

About the Author

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Geoffrey G. Jones
Isidor Straus Professor of Business History
General Management

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