Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: Internalization theory and business history

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lopes, Teresa da Silva; Casson, Mark; Jones, Geoffrey
• 署名单位: University of York - UK; University of Reading; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2506
• DOI: 10.1057/s41267-018-0156-6
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1338-1358
• 关键词: organization and management; Internalization theory; BUSINESS HISTORY; entrepreneurship business strategy

摘要

This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge flowing from the home country. This is not an accurate description of how global firms operate in recent decades, but this article shows it has never been true historically. Using longitudinal data on individual firms from the nineteenth century onwards, it reveals evidence of how entrepreneurs and firms with multinational activity faced with market imperfections changed the design of their headquarters and their organizational structures.