Business Enterprise and Globalization: Towards a Transnational Business History

Boon, Marten

doi:10.1017/s0007680517001015

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…As this information is not available in electronic format or on the internet, we obtained it by conducting archival research on the texts of those sources. In doing so, we follow Boon (), who highlights the importance of using archival sources from the host country when analyzing the operations of MNCs to reduce the “metropolitan bias” in information created by Western powers or multilateral agencies. When possible, we were careful at selecting more than one source to build these individuals' biographical information.…”

Section: Methodology Data and Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Better together: How multinationals come together with business groups in times of economic and political transitions

Bucheli

Salvaj

Kim

2018

Global Strategy Journal

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Research Summary: This article studies two interrelated questions. First, why did business groups in emerging markets thrive and prevail after pro‐market reforms were implemented in their countries? And, second, what type of adaptation strategies can multinational corporations develop in order to be competitive in economies dominated by business groups? By conducting an archive‐based historical network analysis of business groups in Chile during periods of major economic and political transitions, we maintain that business groups were created in periods of protectionism as a way to navigate economies with strong state participation or inefficient markets. In this process, these groups endogenously created an economy with market imperfections resulting from the dominance of these business groups. This means that the transition toward more open markets did not necessarily create more competitive environments and that elites in emerging economies were unwilling to abandon the advantages of having links between their businesses. Multinationals entering this economy adapted by becoming business groups themselves and creating links with other business groups. In sum, strategies devised as means to reduce market imperfections created new imperfections that incentivized the business groups to retain their structure and forced multinationals to become business groups. Managerial Summary: Large diversified conglomerates known as business groups dominate the markets of emerging economies. These groups have survived important changes taking place in their own countries, including the abandonment of an import substitution industrialization model for an open market one or changes from military regimes to democratic ones. This article explores two aspects related to these transitions most emerging economies have gone through. First, why did some business groups survive despite the fact that many of them were created and grew during protectionist times? And, second, what strategies have multinational corporations developed when operating in economies dominated by those powerful business groups? We show, first, that some business groups survived the transition by rearranging the type of links they had with each other, and, second, that multinationals competing in economies dominated by those business groups opted for becoming business groups themselves.

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Section: Methodology Data and Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Better together: How multinationals come together with business groups in times of economic and political transitions

Bucheli

Salvaj

Kim

2018

Global Strategy Journal

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“…The social context of how Malayan producers sought ways to expand the use of tin also requires a transnational approach. This opens space to explain how actors in similar colonial space but in different regions, connected and cooperated with each other to transform the image of a global commodity (Boon, 2017). This approach has not been thoroughly explored, as historians analyzing consumption of commodities continue to study JHRM 15,2 it as if it were standalone units separated according to territories and nations (Trentmann, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From craft to industry and back: transnational efforts in reconstructing tin’s social meaning to the retail consumer (1950s–1960s)

Yong

2023

JHRM

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Purpose Commodity histories generally posit colonies’ roles as mere producers but have overlooked their roles in shaping global consumption. This study aims to investigate how Malayan tin producers and British colonial institutions used public relations and advertising strategies as entrepreneurial tools to fend off competition from substitutes amid global economic and geopolitical transitions during the height of the Cold War crisis and post-war boom in the 1950s and 1960s. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on archival research of newspaper reports written in Singapore, the USA and Britain from the inter-war years until the 1960s. It also consults advertisements placed by the Malayan Tin Bureau on Time and Scientific American, data and views on tin scarcity by US congressional reports and commodity trends data published by the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of the Interior. Findings This paper demonstrates how the value of tin is recreated by manipulating its symbolic meanings and embedding them within the national and political contexts of the targeted consumer markets. This creative resistance against tin substitution was enacted through a transnational collaboration among colonial institutions, entrepreneurs in colonies and marketing strategists across geographies and territories. Research implications This paper provokes further reflections on the importance of socially constructed meanings in shaping the market value of a product and the understanding of embedded political value systems in marketing generic commodities. Future research may adopt this perspective to reassess the framing of meanings of commodities in the contemporary setting, especially against rising concerns on the sustainability of mining natural resources, including minerals. Originality This study integrates the perspectives of Malayan tin producers in reframing the meaning of a commodity and so, widens the scope of historical analyses of commodities beyond the industrialized global North. It reassesses how a commodity’s marketing value evolves and interacts with colonial politics. It also highlights the collaborative nature of colonial governments and local producers in developing new uses and representations of a generic commodity to create new markets for its consumption.

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