Demonstrating why economic modelling is so important in understanding international business, this stimulating and highly original book sets out a new and exciting research agenda in international business studies. The author explains what economic models are, how they are constructed and the way in which they can be used. It illustrates how models clarify important issues in international business – explaining empirical anomalies, analyzing strategies and evaluating government policies towards multinational firms. There are detailed discussions of monopoly and competition in the global economy; the international division of labour; supply chain coordination; and the strategic implications of sunk costs in R&D. Based on this discussion, the book proposes a radical reformulation of the theory of the firm as applied to international business.
This is an ambitious and a highly academic text.' – Economic Outlook and Business Review 'I can with no hesitation very strongly recommend this work to anybody with an interest in the theory of economic organization and international business.' – Nicolai Foss, Journal of International Business Studies 'This book provides a useful analysis of economic institutions aimed at practitioners in business and management as well as economists.' – Aslib Book Guide Economic institutions such as firms, markets, governments and voluntary organizations have a crucial impact on the competitiveness of national economies. Research on economic institutions is growing rapidly, but unfortunately it often focuses on narrow issues concerning legal systems and transaction costs. This book offers a broader perspective and important practical insights into economic institutions, focusing on dynamic issues such as entrepreneurship and ethical leadership, which are crucial to institutional growth. Extending the work of his previous books, The Entrepreneur and The Economics of Business Culture, Mark Casson analyses economic institutions from an integrated social science perspective. This perspective is based on the rational action principle of mainstream economics, modified to allow for endogenous preferences and information costs. Combining plausible assumptions with analytical rigour, the integrated approach offers important new insights into a wide range of issues, including the growth of firms, family business, regional business networks, international business elites, and the influence of cultural values on long-run economic growth. The integrated social science approach has implications for all the social sciences, and so the book is addressed to both business and management practitioners as well as scholars from a wide range of disciplines.
Local enterprise, institutional quality and strategic location were of central importance in the growth of medieval towns. This book, comprising a study of 112 English towns, emphasises these key factors. Downstream locations on major rivers attracted international trade, and thereby stimulated the local processing of imports and exports, while the early establishment of richly endowed religious institutions funnelled agricultural rental income into a town, where it was spent on luxury goods produced by local craftsmen and artisans, and on expensive, long-running building schemes. Local entrepreneurs who recognised the economic potential of a town developed residential suburbs which attracted wealthy residents. Meanwhile town authorities invested in the building and maintenance of bridges, gates, walls and ditches, often with financial support from wealthy residents. Royal lordship was also an advantage to a town, as it gave the town authorities direct access to the king and bypassed local power-brokers such as bishops and earls. The legacy of medieval investment remains visible today in the streets of important towns. Drawing on rentals, deeds and surveys, this book also examines in detail the topography of seven key medieval towns: Bristol, Gloucester, Coventry, Cambridge, Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Hull. In each case, surviving records identify the location and value of urban properties, and their owners and tenants. Using statistical techniques, previously applied only to the early modern and modern periods, the book analyses the impact of location and type of property on property values. It shows that features of the modern property market, including spatial autocorrelation, were present in the middle ages. Property hot-spots of high rents are also identified; the most valuable properties were those situated between the market and other focal points such transport hubs and religious centres, convenient for both, but remote from noise and pollution. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on expertise from the disciplines of economics and history. It will be of interest to historians and to social scientists looking for a long-run perspective on urban development.
It may seem like a recent trend, but the businesses have been practising “Compassionate Capitalism” for nearly a thousand years. Based on the recently discovered historical documents on Cambridge’s sophisticated urban property market during the Commercial Revolution in the thirteenth century, this book explores how successful entrepreneurs employed the wealth they had accumulated to the benefit of the community. Cutting across disciplines, from economic and business history to entrepreneurship, philanthropy and medieval studies, this outstanding study presents an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of the early phases of capitalism. The Cambridge Hundred Rolls Sources Volume, a companion replacing the previous incomplete and inaccurate transcription by the Record Commission of 1818, is also now available from Bristol University Press.
This is the first history of the British railway system written from a modern economic perspective. It uses conterfactual analysis to construct an alternative network to represent the most efficient alternative rail network that could have been constructed given what was known at the time - the first time this has been done.
Information and Organization models the economy in terms of the flow of information rather than material goods. Instead of the adverserial exploitation of information gaps, it stresses the creative use of information in decision making.
One of the most important manuscripts surviving from thirteenth-century England, the corpus of documents known as the Hundred Rolls for Cambridge have been incomplete until the recent discovery of an additional roll. This invaluable volume replaces the previous inaccurate transcription by the record commission of 1818 and provides new translations and additional appendices. Shedding new light on important facets of business activity in thirteenth-century Cambridge, this volume makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of the early phases of capitalism. This unique text will be of interest to anyone working in the fields of economic and business history, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and medieval studies. A research monograph based on recently discovered historical documents, Compassionate Capitalism: Business and Community in Medieval England, by Casson et al, is also now available from Bristol University Press.
In this book, a well known theorist of the multinational firm extends his major contributions to encompass the scope of the firm in general. Casson presents a model showing how the different activities of the firm - R & D, production, marketing, and distribution, for example - are linked in a way that is just as important in determining the scope of the firm as are the traditional factors of market share or product type. Casson infers from an extensive consideration of the history, development, and organization of the multinational that the scope of any firm is determined by the way it resolves the problem of coordinating these production activities; the possibility of its becoming a multinational, in fact, depends on the strategic problems encountered in these operations. After chapters in which he critically reviews the literature and sets forth his own theoretical insights, the author looks at case studies of topical concern in the shipping, construction, and motor vehicle industries in order to explain contemporary rationalization and restructuring in manufacturing.
This fascinating book examines international business and multinational enterprise as part of a bigger picture, considering the importance of two main components: space and time. Summarising the past five years, Mark Casson reviews the changing role of multinational enterprises within the global economy and how leading firms have generated profitability and growth not only from innovations in technology and marketing, but also by exploiting legal loopholes in tax and regulatory systems.
This is an interesting book on an important topic. . . Mikael Linden, Scandinavian Economic History Review This book is indispensable reading for all researchers and practitioners in the international business field as well as economists and academics alike. Giustificativo Pubblicato sul Bollettino del CIRT Economics of International Business sets out a new agenda for international business research. Mark Casson asserts that it is time to move the subject on from sterile debates about transaction cost economies and resource-based theories of the firm. Instead of focusing on the individual firm, the new agenda focuses on the global systems view of international business. A static view of the firm s environment is replaced by a dynamic view which highlights the volatility of the international business environment. Coping with volatility requires entrepreneurial skills, flexibility and the need to synthesize information on a global basis. To co-ordinate the global system properly, entrepreneurs must co-operate through social networks of trust, as well as competing. Constructing a network of joint ventures, it is argued, is simply not enough. Building on his previous book, The Organization of International Business, Mark Casson shows that with suitable modifications, the methods of economics can be used to analyse all of these issues in a rigorous way. The tools of business strategy are too clumsy to address the more subtle issues, whilst descriptive approaches fail to bring key issues into sharp relief. This book is indispensable reading for all researchers and practitioners in the international business field as well as economists and academics alike.
Mark Casson demonstrates how the economic effects of cultureDSsocial values such as honesty, dedication, and loyaltyDScan be analysed in a rigorous fashion. The author argues that gains from technology in modern society can be offset by high costs stemming from the missing moral dimension whichhas implications for economic competitiveness and for social and economic institutions. A strong culture reduces transaction costs and enhances performanceDSthe success of an economy thus depends on the quality of its culture.
The author challenges the belief that economics is a discipline that can be adequately pursued in isolation from the other social sciences, and argues that the productivity of economic units is affected by the degree of co-operation between the members of those units.
This book summarises Mark Casson’s recent research on the multinational enterprise. This work is firmly rooted in history and examines the evolution of the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise over the past forty years and, in the light of this, considers its potential for further development. The book also explores internationalisation theory in respect to marketing and brands, the supply chain, risk management as well as methodology.
In The Multinational Enterprise, Mark Casson - an important thinker in international business for more than 40 years - provides a state-of-the art review of recent developments in the economic theory of the multinational enterprise. He shows how recent developments in theory shed new light on the historical emergence of multinational enterprises, and explains the various forms that multinationality has taken in different industries and regions of the world.Mark Casson brings together his leading research on internalisation theory as a general theory of the multinational enterprise. He offers cutting-edge analysis across four distinct sections: marketing and brands, supply chain coordination, methodology and the theory of the firm, and risk management. The book also sets out an exciting new research agenda, which explores the future place of the multinational in the evolving 'knowledge economy' and in a politically uncertain world.This book will appeal to doctoral students and faculty in business schools in need of the latest theoretical developments and also those in economics departments that specialise in business and industrial economics.
The "culture" debate in economics and economic history has been long-lasting. This volume incorporates contributions of scholars from economics, management studies and international relations, as well as economic and social historians' attempts to evaluate the role and impact of cultural factors on economic growth.
This text examines the internalization theory of the firm which encompasses inter-firm networking as well as the internal organization and managerial structure of the firm. The key innovation is the concept of information costs - distinguished as the cost of gathering information on the assumption that it is true and the cost of ensuring that it is actually true - which the author explores through a synthesis of transaction cost analysis and organizational behaviour. A rational, profit-maximising multinational will economize on collecting information and trust, both across society and within organizations. Although this text focuses on international business and multinational enterprizes, the analysis can be applied to a wide variety of business units. Together with its companion volume Entrepreneurship and Business Culture, it offers an analysis of the importance of trust in economic life as well as the related concepts of networking, consultation and empowerment.
First published in 1986, this work reports the results of the Leverhulme project on multinationals and intermediate product trade based at the University of Reading during the academic year 1982/3. Chapter 1 summaries the main results of this project. Part I focuses upon the theoretical component of world trade, dealing with both the theories of division of labour and vertical integration. Part II presents a number of specially-commissioned case studies relating to the project, concerning the motor industry, the bearing industry, the synthetic fibre industry, the tin industry, the copper industry, the banana industry and the shipping industry.
First published in 1986, this work reports the results of the Leverhulme project on mulitnationals and intermediate product trade based at the University of Reading during the academic year 1982/3. Chapter 1 summarises the main results of this project. Part I focusses upon the theoretical component of world trade, dealing with both the theories of division of labour and vertical integration. Part II presents a number of specially-commissioned case studies relating to the project, concerning the motor industry, the bearing industry, the synthetic fibre industry, the tin industry, the copper industry, the banana industry and the shipping industry.
En quelques années l'entrepreneuriat a véritablement envahi le champ social et est aujourd'hui présenté comme modèle social dominant devant être adopté par tous... et beaucoup se laissent séduire et tentent l'aventure entrepreneuriale. Mais entreprendre n'est pas chose facile ! Le parcours est long : trouver l'idée d'abord, l'opportunité ensuite, la définition du modèle d'affaires, puis formaliser la vision stratégique et enfin rédiger le plan d'affaires, ultime étape avant le passage à l'acte... Vous êtes entrepreneur bravo ! Mais ce n'est que le début, il vous faut maintenant savoir construire une véritable organisation, ou bien maintenir un dynamisme entrepreneurial dans une organisation existante, et cela exige toujours l'acquisition de compétences spécifiques à l'entrepreneur. Malheureusement la réussite n'est pas toujours au rendez-vous car " entrepreneur " est un véritable métier, et comme tout métier il nécessite pour réussir de réelles compétences professionnelles. De la mise en place d'une organisation à la réussite de celle-ci, cet ouvrage met en évidence les qualités et compétences que doit développer tout entrepreneur. Au travers de ses recherches et de nombreux cas réels d'entreprises, l'auteur dresse le portrait de l'entrepreneur moderne.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.