Evolutionary Theory of the Globalisation of Firms

The book depicts an evolutionary theory of the globalisation of firms. A thorough historical analysis of globalisation serves to identify the basic globalisation processes "Internationalisation", "Global Network Formation" and "Evolutionary Dynamics". Firms develop respective "globalisation capabilities" in their own globalisation process in order to facilitate their evolution in the globalising social environment. A holistic theoretical framework based on evolutionary theories and systems theories provides the context for the integration of knowledge from Internationalem Management, Knowledge Management, and dynamic Organisation Theories. Globalisation is conceived as an open historical prozess in the evolution of social systeme. The identification of the underlying mechanisms allows managers to perceive these mechanisms in their influence on the evolutionary dynamics of the firms and to use these dynamics rather than to negate, neglect,or "contain" them in the firm's evolutionary process.