Free-standing companies are a special type of multinational enterprise that proliferated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; some persisted into later years; few remain today. Many were headquartered in the United Kingdom, but important free-standing companies had headquarters in the other capital-rich nations. This book explores the history of the free-standing company, the theoretical implications of the concept, comparisons with the `American
model' multinational enterprise, the validity of the concept, and its contribution to the understanding of modern economic history. Leading international scholars - economists and
historians - provide evidence on and analysis of the operations of free-standing companies in different parts of the world. This is the first book on the much-discussed topic of free-standing companies. The volume will provide a rich quarry for those interested in world economic history, regional and national economic histories, in the spread of international business, and in the different forms that multinational enterprises take through time.
Industry Reviews
This is "not", however, a typical collection of conference proceedings. Instead, the authors have substantially revised their findings in light of criticisms offered at the meetings and have taken up issues debated by the other participants. The result is a very lively volume that reflects the divergent opinions and viewpoints of eighteen leading scholars in the field of international business. It really is a hard volume to put down once one picks it up. EH.NET
and H-Business (Gordon Boyce, School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University of Wellington) 07/99
`This book is unquestionably the definitive work on this subject.'
Journal of International Business Studies 32:4 2001 reviewed by Robert Grosse
`a volume that is impressive and important'
Hans de Geer, Business History, January 2000
"...here is an impressive cast of both FSC [free-standing company] sympathisers and sceptics, with all of the original papers subjected to extensive critical review and with clear evidence that the editors required that they address fundamental and clearly-specified empirical and theoretical issues. ...the end result is a gem: a book in which, unlike so much 'progress' in the historical and social sciences, a paradigm is really decomposed, theoretically and
empirically, in time and space." Roger Middleton, Enterprise and Society, March 2000.
"...we can highlight Wilkins's concluding chapter as a model of balanced judgement about what is now known and what might be the agenda for the second decade of research." "This is Economic History at it's best..." Roger Middleton, Enterprise and Society, March 2000
The range of concerns reaised by the concept attests to its value and must attract a wide readership to this volume. Those interested in institutional economics will find the theoretical chapters and the case studies particularly stimulating. The book will be useful to scholars of multinational enterprises of all types, international business, and, of course, business and economic history. EH.NET and H-Business (Gordon Boyce, School of Economics and Finance,
Victoria University of Wellington) 07/99
