Table 1

Historical evolution of international business thought

Evolution of the construct
PeriodStage of evolutionCharacteristics
1880sThe firmDomestic/International reach through export (Cyert and March, 1963; Johanson and Vahlne, 1977; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Kogut and Singh, 1988; Penrose, 1959 etc.)
1960sThe multinational enterprise – MNECentralised headquarters/Localised national or regional operations/Foreign direct investment – FDI (Agarwal and Ramaswami, 1992; Buckley and Casson, 1976; Dunning, 1980; Dunning, 1998; Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1990; Knickerbocker, 1973; Rugman and Verbeke, 2004; Vernon, 1971 etc.)
1970sThe transnational enterprise – TNECentralised headquarters/Assumptions of no borders (Skully, 1976; Stewart, 1972 etc.)
1990sGlobalisationNo borders, international workforce, global supply chains, etc. (Maruca, 1994; Shenkar, 2004 etc.)
2000sBilateral and multilateral tradeTrade between states, trade blocs, treaties, customs unions, etc. (Czinkota et al., 2002; Kameda, 2005 etc.)

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