Theories of the Multinational Firm: A Multidimensional Creature in the Global Economy

Internationally useful at undergraduate and postgraduate level, the fourth edition of this highly successful textbook analyzes and compares six different theories of the multinational firm, called the Dominating, the Coordinating, the Knowing, the Designing, the Networking and the Politizing multinational. These theories reflect the dominating perspectives of research on the multinational firm in the global economy over the last five decades.

This thoroughly revised fourth edition contains updates which reflect current developments, including:

• Revised section positioning the multinational firm within the world economy, including more recent data about foreign direct investments and multinational firms
• Updated focus on the dynamic capability theory as an aspect of the knowing multinational firm
• Enhanced in-depth discussions on international entrepreneurship and on the relationship between corporate culture and common identity
• Analyses of recent extended applications of internalization theory in terms of ‘quasi-internalization’ and the so-called new internalization theory (NIT)

Throughout, Mats Forsgren provides the essential building blocks and assumptions behind each theory covered in order to achieve a better understanding of why the multinational firm is looked upon so differently by researchers and stakeholders.

Concise and accessible, this book is an essential resource for students of international business, international management, public policy and international economy courses.

Mats Forsgren, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden