International business history: An AIB tradition

Abstract

The history of international business has generated a growing literature. Over the AIB's fifty years, scholars associated with AIB have contributed to this literature but it has been a far broader one. This chapter surveys a sample of the wide variety of works on the history of multinational enterprise, published from the 1950s onward. The works are not only in business history but also in diplomatic and legal history. The literature makes it clear that the multinational enterprise has a long history and is far from a post-World War II or post-1989 phenomenon. The chapter shows the variety in the accumulation of studies in business history directly related to international business as well as the forums where business historians present their findings. It considers why and how international-business history matters for international-business research.

Citation

Wilkins, M. (2008), "International business history: An AIB tradition", Boddewyn, J.J. (Ed.) International Business Scholarship: AIB Fellows on the First 50 Years and Beyond (Research in Global Strategic Management, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 97-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1064-4857(08)00024-7