ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we ask how the global political economy evolves through the ideas, strategies and behaviours of major rms. The conventional ‘international relations’ literature tends often to ignore the fact that it is not governments, institutions or regulators who make the wheels of global political economy turn, but company and investor activity. The critical literature considered in the last chapter may more carefully consider what companies do. But these critical scholars, however important their work may be, do not always have a very clear idea why and how large corporations actually work. In this chapter, we examine the major theories of business strategy, many derived from economics or sociology, which shape international business behaviour. We then turn to the role those theories have in decision-making in companies, including the pervasive and often rather selective inuence of business school teachings. We ask how power is created and used in business activity, power that shapes the global political economy in every aspect. We then turn to specic examples. The reader will quickly realise that there are enormous varieties of business strategy and business theory. We aim to look at some of the most important. The analysis in this chapter grows out of, and contrasts with, the previous two. Specic issues that arise from it are developed in the later chapters in this text, but especially in Chapters 6 and 10 on trade and on technology, as well as the discussions of globalisation and its signicance.
