International Business Geography: Case Studies of Corporate Firms

The contributors of these essays concentrate on the specifics of well-known international companies and their respective economic environments to find how location affects strategy, especially in times of transition and change. After an introduction, which places the corporate firm in a spatial context, case studies address networks of firms in Flanders, global production and trade systems for Volvo, the organization of production for Smartville, corporate spin-offs in Sweden, merging into the global market for ING Real Estate, semiconductor industries in the US, Europe and Asia, farmer co-operatives for AVEBE, restructuring at home for Philips, product upgrading for VW Navarra, acquisitions and the demise of local industries, and GlaxoSmithKline after communism. Taken together, it seems business and geopolitics only complicate each other. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)