Publications

This working paper explores long-run patterns in the strategies of international business in developing countries. There was a massive wave of Western multinational investment in the developing world during the first wave of globalization before the 1920s. The... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Developing Countries and Economies; History; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges

SSRN

01 Sep 2023
News

Global Outposts Expand HBS’s Intellectual Footprint

Since taking over as CEO of Tata Steel in 2013, T. V. Narendran had sought to transform India’s oldest steel manufacturing firm to ready it for a rapidly evolving business world. He instilled financial discipline, acquired new businesses, and launched digital... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

2010
Chapter

Business Groups in Historical Perspectives

By: Geoffrey Jones and Asli M. Colpan

Business groups-collections of legally independent firms interconnected by multiple economic and social linkages that exhibit widely diversified product portfolios-are viewed as the prototypical large-enterprise form in contemporary emerging economies. By exploring the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Management Skills; Emerging Markets; Alliances; Groups and Teams; Competitive Advantage; Great Britain

January 2022 (Revised March 2022)
Technical Note

Deglobalization and Alternative Futures

By: Geoffrey Jones and Valeria Giacomin

This note reviews the evidence that the world is undergoing an era of de-globalization. It shows that available metrics show some support for this theory. However there is also evidence that what is happening might be better described as regionalization. The nature of... View Details

Keywords: Global Business; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, And Changes; Populism; Geopolitics; Business History; Globalization; Change; Financial Crisis; China

March 2014
Case

Jurlique: Globalizing Beauty from Nature and Science

By: Geoffrey Jones and Andrew Spadafora

Considers the marketing and strategic challenges faced by natural beauty brands using the case of Australian-based Jurlique, which was acquired by Pola of Japan in 2011. The case opens two years later in July 2013 when Sam McKay, the chief executive officer, on a visit... View Details

Keywords: Australia; China; Environmental Strategies; Green Business; Marketing; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; China; Australia; United States

June 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

John Chambers, Cisco, and China: Upgrading a Golden Shield

By: Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean

This case examines the role of Cisco led by John Chambers in facilitating web filtering in China. It begins by tracing the origins of Cisco as a pioneer of networking equipment. John Chambers, who had worked as a sales manager at IBM and Wang Laboratories, joined Cisco... View Details

Keywords: Cisco; Internet and the Web; Governance Controls; Ethics; Rights; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technology Industry; China

Website

Creating Emerging Markets

Harvard Business School has an on-going program to conduct in-depth interviews with top business leaders who have created and managed businesses in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America over the last four decades. These interviews, many lasting several... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Emerging Market

June 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Vehbi Koç and the Making of Turkey's Largest Business Group

By: Asli M. Colpan and Geoffrey Jones

The case describes the creation of Turkey's largest business group by Vehbi Koç. The foundation of this group in the interwar years, and its subsequent diversification into many industries, including automobiles, household goods, and services, is analysed. The case... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Manufacturing Industry; Turkey

February 2005
Article

European Integration and Corporate Restructuring: The Strategy of Unilever c1957-c1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell

This article examines the role of the large Anglo-Dutch consumer products company in promoting European integration. It shows that Unilever contributed financially to campaigns to support the creation of the European Union, and its subsequent expansion, despite a... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Organizations; Policy; Expansion; Market Transactions; Geographic Location; Restructuring; Competition; Brands and Branding; Production; Capital Structure; Value; Consumer Products Industry; European Union; United States

2005
Book

Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

This book provides an essential framework for understanding global business. It shows how entrepreneurs built a global economy in the nineteenth century by creating firms that pursued resources and markets across borders. It demonstrates how firms shifted strategies as... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalization; History; Economy; Trade; Strategy

01 Sep 2017
News

Research Brief: As the Wind Blows

To better understand the prospects for future entrepreneurial success in sustainable industries, Professor Geoffrey Jones looks to the past. In his chapter in the new book Green Capitalism?, for instance,... View Details

Keywords: Administration of Environmental Quality Programs; Government

10 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 10

Working PapersPlatform Envelopment (revised) Authors:Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne Abstract Due to network effects and switching costs, platform providers often become entrenched. To enter established... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Article

B Corps: Can It Remake Capitalism in Japan?

This article examines the B Corporation movement that originated in the United States in 2006. The founders sought to create a new type of company whose governance structure mandated them to consider financial, social and environmental performance. A certification... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Responsibility; Sustainability; B Corporations; Stakeholder Capitalism; Governance; Organizational Structure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Japan

June 2024
Article

Oral History and Business History in Emerging Markets

This article describes the motivation, structure and use of the Creating Emerging Markets (CEM) oral history-based project at the Harvard Business School. The project consists of lengthy interviews with business leaders from emerging markets. By June 2024 183... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Economies; Oral History; Emerging Markets; Business History; Research

April–June 2014
Article

Firmes mondialisées et imaginaire de la beauté

By: G. Jones

This article highlights the role of business enterprises as influences on ideals of human beauty. The homogenization of such ideals has been one of the most noteworthy features of globalization over the last two centuries. This study suggests that firms were both... View Details

Keywords: American History; Economic History; Business History; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; History; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Europe; North and Central America

05 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 5, 2010

she needs to decide whether to franchise or own the next expansion. Purchase this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/311035-PDF-ENG Werner von Siemens and the Electric Telegraph Geoffrey G. View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2013
Chapter

The Global and the Local in the Beauty Industry: A Historical Perspective

By: G. Jones

This chapter explores the impact of the global beauty industry on beauty ideals. It shows that as the industry internationalized from the late nineteenth century, there was a homogenization of beauty ideals and practices around the world. Western and white beauty... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Globalization; History; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America; South America