ABSTRACT
This Handbook draws together a wide array of state-of-the-art research on the makers of global business. It aims to deepen our historical understanding of how firms and entrepreneurs contributed to transformative processes of globalization. We see the volume making two main contributions. First, the chapters cumulatively explore how the multinational enterprise (MNE) impacted not just economic interactions, but also political, social, technological, and environmental patterns and relationships. Second, the volume analyzes how global business facilitated the mechanisms of cross-border interactions that in turn affected individuals, organizations, industries, national economies, and international relations. The chapters span the Middle Ages to the present day. They explore dynamic change as well as continuities, both of which often only become visible when analyzed in the long run.
