Study Load

Assessment: 100% coursework

Required Reading

Part I – The History of Multinational Companies

Introduction

• Jones, G. Multinationals and Capitalism. [pp. 1–15]

Early Globalization

• Brandon, P. (2017). Between company and state: The case of the Dutch East and West India Companies. In G. Baars & A. Spicer, The Corporation: A critical, multi-disciplinary handbook (pp. 215-225). Cambridge University Press.
• Saldanha, J., Haworth, J., & McKenna, C. (2019, March). Case Study #10: The Hudson’s Bay Company: Royal Charters, Rivalries and Luxury Hats in the North American Fur Trade. Oxford Global History of Capitalism Project. University of Oxford. [10 pages]

Multinational Companies and the Global Economy Before World War I

• Jones, G. Multinationals and Capitalism. [pp. 16–26]
• Neal, S. (2018). Jardine Matheson: Drugs, War, and Empire. In H. Gringarten & R. Fernandez-Calienes (Eds.), Ethical Branding and Marketing: Cases and Lessons (pp. 159-172). New York: Routledge. [Jardine Matheson in the 19th Century China Trade].

The Global Economy and Multinationals Today

• Agarwal, S., Raje, A. P. (2017, February 18). We are in a deglobalization period: Business historian Geoffrey G. Jones. Mint. From https://www.livemint.com/Companies/tKamdGDvvyCt8Smn39TQMK/We-are-in-a-deglobalization-period-Business-historian-Geoff.html [Interview with Geoffrey Jones]
• Levy, S. (2020, November 16). Huawei, 5G, and the Man Who Conquered Noise. The Wire. From https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-5g-polar-codes-data-breakthrough/
• Umemura, M., & Slater, S. (2017). Reaching for Global in the Japanese Cosmetics Industry, 1951-2015: The Case of Shiseido. Business History, 59(6), 877-903.

Part II: The Global and the Local

Commodities

• Arreguín, R. del C. R., Orr, R., & McKenna, C. (2020, April). Case Study #17: The Globalization of Mexican Tortillas: GRUMA and the Mass Production of Corn Flour. Oxford Global History of Capitalism Project. [11 pages]
• Daft, D. [CEO of Coca Cola] (2000, March 27). Back to Classic Coke. Financial Times. [Available from Financial Times Online Archive, HKUL Electronic Resources]
• Jones, G. (2013). Entrepreneurship and Multinationals. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. [pp. 57–76]
• Robertson, R. (2012). Globalisation or glocalization? The Journal of International Communications, 18(2), 191–208.

Brands

• Da Silva Lopes, T., & Casson, M. (2007). Entrepreneurship and the Development of Global Brands. Business History Review, 81(4), 651-680.
• Kapferer, J. N. (2005). The post-global brand. Journal of Brand Management, 12(5), 319–324.
• Harris, C, & Haworth, J., Mansfield, S., & McKenna, C. (2020). Case Study #3: Volkswagen Since World War Two: Rebuilding the Corporate Reputation of the World’s Largest Car Manufacturer. Oxford Global History of Capitalism Project. [10 pages]

Business Culture

• Dejung, C. (2011). Bridges to the East: European Merchants and Business Practices in India and China. In R. Lee (Ed.), Commerce and Culture: Nineteenth-Century Business Elites (pp. 93–116). [Case Study of Swiss Merchant Firm Volkert Brothers in 19th and 20th century India and China]
• Lee, R. (Ed.). (2011). Commerce and Culture: A Critical Assessment of the Role of Cultural Factors in Commerce and Trade from c. 1750 to the Early Twentieth Century. Commerce and Culture: Nineteenth-Century Business Elites. [pp. 1–38]

Host Economies

• Cochran, S. (1986). Commercial Penetration and Economic Imperialism in China: An American Cigarette Company’s Entrance into the Market. In E. R. May & J. K. Fairbank (Eds.), America’s China Trade in Historical Perspective: The Chinese and American Perspective (pp. 151–204). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Case Study of British-American Tobacco in China]
• Jones, G. Multinationals and Global Capitalism. [pp. 255–284]

Part III: Local Society

Consumption

• Da Silva Lopes, T. (1999). The Impact of Multinational Investment on Alcohol Consumption Since the 1960s. Business and Economic History, 28(2), 109-22.
• Köse, Y. (2007). Nestlé: A Brief History of the Marketing Strategies of the First Multinational Company in the Ottoman Empire.  Journal of Macromarketing, 27(1), 74-85.

Multinationals and the State

• Fitfield, A. (2013, March 19). Contractors reap $138bn from Iraq war. Financial Times. From https://www.ft.com/content/7f435f04-8c05-11e2-b001-00144feabdc0
• Jones, G. & Lubinski, C. (2011). Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf, 1914-1990. Enterprise & Society, 13(1), 85-119.
• Rollings, N. (2020). Government and Regulators. In T. da Silva Lopes, et. al., The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business (pp. 95–108).

Local Communities

• Calvano, L. (2008). Multinational Corporations and Local Communities: A Critical Analysis of Conflict. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(4), 793-805.
• Rahman, A., & Hasan, M. (2022). From local to global: networked activism against multinational extractivism. Review of Communication, 22, 231-255. [Case Study of Asia Energy in Bangladesh]

Employment

• McKinsey Global Institute. (2003). Offshoring: Is it a Win-Win game? San Francisco: McKinsey & Co.
• Siegmann, K. A. (2008). Soccer Ball Production for Nike in Pakistan. Economic and Political Weekly, 43(22), 57-64.

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