Firms in the International Economy ─ Firm Heterogeneity Meets International Business

Despite their common roots, international economics (IE) and international business(IB) have developed into two distinct fields of study. Economists have directed their efforts atformalizing the workings of international trade and investment at the macroeconomic level; businessscholars have relied more on data-driven conceptual narratives than mathematical tools. But therecent focus of IE literature on firm heterogeneity suggests that IE would benefit from IB analysesof the behavior and organization of the internationalizing firm. The contributions to this volumeinvestigate ways that insights from IB can enrich IE research in firmheterogeneity.

The contributors discuss firm-specific advantages in internationaltrade and investment, considering the firm as the unit of analysis and managerial inputs as avariable in market entry decisions; analyze interactions between a firm and its externalenvironment, including local corporate philanthropy and institutional settings; examine theboundaries of the firm and organizational choices such as the make-or-buy decision; and investigatetechnology transfer and innovation offshoring, discussing the role of subsidiaries, inventoremployment, and other related topics.

Although IE and IB look at internationalfirms from different perspectives, these contributions make it clear that there is a potential for aproductive exchange of insights and information between the twodisciplines.

ContributorsLaura Abramovsky, Carlo Altomonte,Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, Bruce Blonigen, Pamela Bombarda, Steven Brakman, Julia Darby, RodolpheDesbordes, Filippo Di Mauro, Maria Garcia-Vega, Harry Garretsen, Elena Huergo, Florian Mayneris,Quyen T. K. Nguyen, Verena Nowak, Cheyney O'Fallon, Gianmarco Ottaviano, Michael Pfluger, FilomenaPietrovito, Sandra Poncet, Alberto Franco Pozzolo, Alan M. Rugman, Armando Rungi, Stephan Russek,Davide Sala, Luca Salvatici, Christian Schwarz, Roger Smeets, Jens Suedekum, Hans van Ees, VincentVicard, Ian Wooton, Erdal Yalcin

Hans van Ees is Professor of Global Economics and Management at the University of Groningen.