Reshaping the Boundaries of the Firm in an Era of Global Interdependence

Globalisation is forcing companies to reshape their boundaries and causing business leaders to rethink corporate strategies within the firm. It is creating the basis for new ways of doing international business. The effects of this global interdependence are also being felt at the more aggregate levels of industries, financial markets and countries economies. The evolution of these trends has rendered obsolete some of the basic understandings of IB theory and practice, including traditional notions regarding the nature of the boundaries of the firm and even the definition of the multinational enterprise itself. This volume of Progress in International Business Research includes a selection of 13 papers from the 35th European International Business Academy Annual Conference, which was held in Valencia (Spain) from the 13th to the 15th of December 2009. This volume organizes in three parts a number of contributions to shed further light on these issues. Part I focuses on the boundaries of the firm and points at issues such as offshoring, cooperation and internationalization. Part II examines the phenomenon of networks within the context of MNCs. Finally, Part III deals with the role of knowledge and innovation in international high-tech environments.