ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the internationalization and regionalization of Europe's transnational headhunting industry. It discusses the emergence of the headhunting as a bona fide industry in the 1950s and discusses its practices, to understand why internationalization has been mainly through foreign direct investment (FDI). The chapter discusses the resource-based theoretical writings of commentators like John Dunning and Nachum , which inform us as to why knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) engage in international production through FDI and a direct presence in an international market. It traces the geographies of the worldwide office networks of Europe's leading transnational firms from 1992 to 2005, which is followed in three vignettes of different organized firms in internationalization: wholly-owned (Egon Zehnder); networked (The Globe Search Group); and, hybrid (Amrop Hever Group). The chapter concludes by discussing how the authors’ new research on Europe's leading headhunting transnational corporations can deepen the understanding of internationalization and regionalization strategies of KIBS in contemporary globalization.
