Mira Wilkins
Biographic Data
| ID | 541125 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mira Wilkins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mira |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilkins |
| SIGNATURE | WILKINS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Florida International University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 68 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 341 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 69 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1964 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Business Groups in the West
This is an important book. For business historians writing about the late nineteenth century to the present, it offers a kaleidoscope of ways to study the history of the forms and organizational structures of modern big business. Its handle for doing so is the business group. The book is a sequel to Asli Colpan, Takashi Hikino, and James Lincoln's edited, pathbreaking Oxford University Press volume published in 2010 and entitled The Oxford Handbo…
Chris Kobrak (January 21, 1950–January 8, 2017)
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The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
Exxon
Four giant volumes (plus a companion one on Humble Oil) appeared between 1955 and 1988 on the history of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) and its successor (as of 1972) Exxon Corporation. These well-documented volumes took the story to 1975. As related by the publisher and author of this book, about four years after the 1999 megamerger of Exxon and Mobil and the formation of ExxonMobil, the merged unit gave a collection of its historical files—c…
The History of Multinationals
More than forty years ago (in the autumn of 1974), Business History Review had a special issue on multinational enterprise (MNE). With two exceptions, the authors in this new special issue were not yet born or were toddlers when that issue was published. Whereas in 1974 relatively few individuals were writing on topics directly related to the history of multinational enterprise, in 2015 numerous authors are considering subjects that fall under th…
Joshua Barkan. Corporate Sovereignty
Joshua Barkan introduces his subject by quoting a fellow geographer (Peter Dicken) on the importance of the transnational corporation, as a “primary shaper” of today's global economy “and a major threat to the economic autonomy of the nation-state” (p. 1). Yet, to see this as his theme oversimplifies the complexities of the relationships between the corporation and the nation-state that Barkan addresses. The book is a thoughtful discourse on how …
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The first history of the involvement of American business in direct foreign investment explores a number of pertinent questions: What was the genesis of U.S. business interests in overseas markets? What perspectives guided the financial and social policies of the pioneering companies? In what way did the activities of American business abroad influence U.S. foreign policy?Mira Wilkins recounts the histories of early foreign investment by such fam…
Os Estados Unidos como nação devedora
Em 1914, os Estados Unidos eram o maior país devedor do mundo. Desde a sua independência até aquele ano, o volume de investimentos estrangeiros naquele país sempre fora muito maior do que o de seus próprios investimentos no exterior. Este artigo documenta o caráter mutável dos investimentos externos que ele recebeu, mostrando a variedade das obrigações públicas norte-americanas a nível federal, estadual e local, bem como a transição que houve atr…
The ‘2008 Crisis’ in an economic history perspective
This introduction sets the articles in this special issue into their historical context and explores some of the definitional problems associated with discussions of financial and economic crises. It highlights some of the unifying themes and wider lessons of the papers found in the issue and makes the case for greater historical understanding of crises while outlining the limits of historical analogy
Varieties of Capitalism” Roundtable
The debate about the idea of “varieties of capitalism,” which was formalized by Peter Hall and David Soskice in their 2001 book on the subject, has attracted the work of business historians, as well as of political scientists, and economists
The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914–1945
Multinational enterprise in insurance
The article traces the history of multinational enterprise (MNE) in insurance from the nineteenth century to the present, highlighting the importance of this topic. The essay breaks new ground in providing the first overall historical snapshot of MNEs in insurance. Long before the First World War, MNE insurers had substantial global interests. MNEs from the UK, the European continent, the United States and Canada in non-life and life insurance as…
Global Electrification
This book examines how multinational enterprises and international finance influenced the course of electrification around the world. Multinational enterprises played a crucial role in the spread of electric light and power from the 1870s through the first three decades of the twentieth century. However, their role did not persist, and by 1978 multinational enterprises in this sector had all but disappeared, replaced by electrical utility provide…
Chandler
I met Al Chandler in late 1962 (or early 1963), when he visited the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, as a guest of Associate Dean Clarence Walton. Chandler gave a seminar, based on his new book Strategy and Structure. I was then at Columbia Business School, completing my (and Frank Ernest Hill's) archive-based history of Ford Motor Company's international operations, which was my first book. As my next project, I was seeking to w…
Chandler and Global Business History
What was Alfred D.Chandler's significance in the study of business history throughout the world? How did his views evolve? Why was his approach so influential? How did his thinking contribute to comparative business history and to the history of international business? This essay is designed to answer these questions
Global Electrification
Ce travail constitue une partie d’un projet de recherche à long terme consacré à l’électrification globale. Ici l’attention se porte sur la phase initiale de l’électrification, celle des années 1880 à 1914, quand l’entreprise multinationale et la finance internationale jouaient un rôle crucial. Les industriels de la construction électrique furent les premiers à se lancer dans l’établissement d’équipements électriques opérationnels ; cependant à p…
Dutch Multinational Enterprises in the United States
The story of Dutch business in America began in the colonial period and continues into the present. The early Dutch trading companies of the seventeenth century, including the Dutch West India Company, were followed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by such firms as the Holland-America Line, Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell, and NV Philips. The historical pattern of these Dutch businesses contributes to the growing literature on multinational …
The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914–1945
The selected essays of John H. Dunning
Free Trade, Free World
Journal Article Free Trade, Free World: The Advent of GATT. By Thomas W. Zeiler. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. xiv, 267 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-8078-2458-5.) Get access Mira Wilkins Mira Wilkins Florida International University, Miami, Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 87, Issue 1, June 2000, Pages 280–281, https://doi.org/10.2307/2568028 Publi…
The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America
The title notwithstanding, this short and very readable history of U.S. business in Latin America surveys both the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. It is a tour de force, giving an overview from the days of U.S. merchants to those of manufacturers— covering en route investors in agriculture, mining, and public utilities. O’Brien argues that U.S. business reshaped culture in Latin America and did so deliberately. U.S. businessmen thought La…
Multinational Enterprises and Economic Change
Socializing Capital
Journal Article Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in America. By William G. Roy. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. xvi, 338pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-691-04353-1.) Get access Mira Wilkins Mira Wilkins Florida International University Miami, Florida Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 84, Issue 4, March 1998, Pages 1531–1532, https://doi.or…
Learning and Technological Change
Modern European Economic History and the Multinationals.
The Free-Standing Company, 1870-1914
The Neglected Intangible Asset
Trade marks are, and have been since the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, vital business assets. The paper argues that they (along with brand names, trade names, and company names) have been of crucial importance to the rise of the modern corporation. US law and the courts have protected these property rights at the same time as the value of these assets to the modern firm has increased. The paper explains the signifi…
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
Journal Article The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from the Colonial Era to 1914. By Mira Wilkins. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. xiv + 310 pp. Tables, notes, bibliography, and index. $9.50.) Get access Harold F. Williamson Harold F. Williamson Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 58, Iss…
The Role of Private Business in the International Diffusion of Technology
Clearly, private business is but one agent for the diffusion of technology. Yet it is an important one. In the normal pursuit of business, technological knowledge and skills pass over political boundaries and private enterprise takes part in the international diffusion of technology. In this paper I want to try to delineate the means by which private companies have shared in the international diffusion of technology in the nineteenth and twentiet…
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The first history of the involvement of American business in direct foreign investment explores a number of pertinent questions: What was the genesis of U.S. business interests in overseas markets? What perspectives guided the financial and social policies of the pioneering companies? In what way did the activities of American business abroad influence U.S. foreign policy?Mira Wilkins recounts the histories of early foreign investment by such fam…
Varieties of Capitalism” Roundtable
The debate about the idea of “varieties of capitalism,” which was formalized by Peter Hall and David Soskice in their 2001 book on the subject, has attracted the work of business historians, as well as of political scientists, and economists
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
Multinational Oil Companies in South America in the 1920s
Generalizations are always difficult, especially in the context of varied national experiences. But by looking at the evolution of oil company activity in the 1920s in South America and by examining the range of relevant business functions — marketing, refining, production, exploration, transportation — the author throws light on the development of business-government relations in that part of the world, where the hostility of host nations to mul…
Comparative Hosts
This paper explores ways of comparing industrial and developing nations that are and have been ‘hosts’ to multinationals. General problems in doing this included: defining multinational enterprise; acknowledging the formidable number of hosts; finding appropriate measures; clarifying the meaning of impacts; and recognising the ‘truncation problem’ (that of slicing into the fabric of the multinational firm). The activities of multinational enterpr…
American Business Abroad
Journal Article American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents. By Mira Wilkins and Frank Ernest Hill. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964. xiv + 541 pp. Illustrations, appendices with charts and tables, bibliographical essay, notes, and index. $10.00.) Get access William Miller William Miller West Redding, Conn. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 51, Issue 3, De…
Multinational enterprise in insurance
The article traces the history of multinational enterprise (MNE) in insurance from the nineteenth century to the present, highlighting the importance of this topic. The essay breaks new ground in providing the first overall historical snapshot of MNEs in insurance. Long before the First World War, MNE insurers had substantial global interests. MNEs from the UK, the European continent, the United States and Canada in non-life and life insurance as…
European and North American Multinationals, 1870–1914
(1988). European and North American Multinationals, 1870–1914: Comparisons and Contrasts. Business History: Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 8-45
The ‘2008 Crisis’ in an economic history perspective
This introduction sets the articles in this special issue into their historical context and explores some of the definitional problems associated with discussions of financial and economic crises. It highlights some of the unifying themes and wider lessons of the papers found in the issue and makes the case for greater historical understanding of crises while outlining the limits of historical analogy
Japanese Multinational Enterprise before 1914
The current scholarly interest in contemporary Japanese businesses has somewhat obscured their equally fascinating early historical development. In this article, Professor Wilkins emphasizes both the extent and the variety of Japanese multinational enterprise before the First World War, and offers a basis for comparing its differences and similarities with the conventional American model
American-Japanese Direct Foreign Investment Relationships, 1930–1952
One of the leading experts on the history of multinational enterprise, Mira Wilkins here sets forth the history of American multinational investment in Japan and Japanese multinational investment in the United States during two crucial decades. The tumultuous years from 1930 to 1952 forced these companies to deal with the vastly different challenges of depression, war, and peace. Professor Wilkins explains how they adapted to their changing envir…
Dutch Multinational Enterprises in the United States
The story of Dutch business in America began in the colonial period and continues into the present. The early Dutch trading companies of the seventeenth century, including the Dutch West India Company, were followed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by such firms as the Holland-America Line, Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell, and NV Philips. The historical pattern of these Dutch businesses contributes to the growing literature on multinational …
Japanese Multinationals in the United States
A great deal of attention has recently been focused on the extent of Japanese direct investment in the United States. In the following historical survey, Professor Wilkins details the size and scope of these investments from the late nineteenth century, showing that Japanese involvements in America have deep historical roots. At the same time, she analyzes the ways in which late twentieth century Japanese direct investment differs from the earlie…
Chandler and Global Business History
What was Alfred D.Chandler's significance in the study of business history throughout the world? How did his views evolve? Why was his approach so influential? How did his thinking contribute to comparative business history and to the history of international business? This essay is designed to answer these questions
The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914
Journal Article The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914. By Mira Wilkins. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. xxiv + 1055 pp. $65.00.) Get access W. Elliot Brownlee W. Elliot Brownlee University of California, Santa Barbara Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 77, Issue 2, September 1990, Pages 706–707, https://doi.org/10.2307/2079290 Published:…
Business Groups in the West
This is an important book. For business historians writing about the late nineteenth century to the present, it offers a kaleidoscope of ways to study the history of the forms and organizational structures of modern big business. Its handle for doing so is the business group. The book is a sequel to Asli Colpan, Takashi Hikino, and James Lincoln's edited, pathbreaking Oxford University Press volume published in 2010 and entitled The Oxford Handbo…
The History of Multinationals
More than forty years ago (in the autumn of 1974), Business History Review had a special issue on multinational enterprise (MNE). With two exceptions, the authors in this new special issue were not yet born or were toddlers when that issue was published. Whereas in 1974 relatively few individuals were writing on topics directly related to the history of multinational enterprise, in 2015 numerous authors are considering subjects that fall under th…
The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914
French multinationals in the United States
Les multinationales françaises aux Etats-Unis ont une histoire complexe et discontinue, caractérisée par l’irrégularité et par des entrées épisodiques sur le marché américain. Elle peut se diviser en six phases : les années antérieures à 1870, 1870-1914, 1914-1931, 19321945, 1946-1970, 1971-1992. Comme beaucoup de firmes françaises ont dû battre en retraite, une bonne partie de l’histoire des premières implantations françaises est tombée dans l’o…
An American Enterprise Abroad
Although Singer was the first American manufacturing firm to produce and market extensively in Europe, the American Radiator Company is perhaps more typical of the United States firms that expanded abroad in the nineteenth century. Professor Wilkins documents the evolution of this multinational enterprise and offers her study as a test of recent theories on direct investment abroad
American Business Abroad
Journal Article American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents. By Mira Wilkins and Frank Ernest Hill. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964. xiv + 541 pp. Illustrations, appendices with charts and tables, bibliographical essay, notes, and index. $10.00.) Get access William Miller William Miller West Redding, Conn. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 51, Issue 3, De…
From these Beginnings
The Businessman Abroad
As American foreign direct investment mounts, the number of Americans representing American business abroad likewise rises. American businessmen living abroad include those working for foreign enterprises, those self- employed, and those representing trading firms, but the larg est number work for American-headquartered international industrial corporations and service organizations. The Ameri can business group abroad includes managers, professi…
An American Enterprise Abroad
Although Singer was the first American manufacturing firm to produce and market extensively in Europe, the American Radiator Company is perhaps more typical of the United States firms that expanded abroad in the nineteenth century. Professor Wilkins documents the evolution of this multinational enterprise and offers her study as a test of recent theories on direct investment abroad
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
Journal Article The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from the Colonial Era to 1914. By Mira Wilkins. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. xiv + 310 pp. Tables, notes, bibliography, and index. $9.50.) Get access Harold F. Williamson Harold F. Williamson Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 58, Iss…
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise
The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise
The Role of Private Business in the International Diffusion of Technology
Clearly, private business is but one agent for the diffusion of technology. Yet it is an important one. In the normal pursuit of business, technological knowledge and skills pass over political boundaries and private enterprise takes part in the international diffusion of technology. In this paper I want to try to delineate the means by which private companies have shared in the international diffusion of technology in the nineteenth and twentiet…
Multinational Oil Companies in South America in the 1920s
Generalizations are always difficult, especially in the context of varied national experiences. But by looking at the evolution of oil company activity in the 1920s in South America and by examining the range of relevant business functions — marketing, refining, production, exploration, transportation — the author throws light on the development of business-government relations in that part of the world, where the hostility of host nations to mul…
American Multinationals
The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise
Journal Article The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970. By Mira Wilkins. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. xvi + 590 pp. Tables, notes, bibliography, and index. $22.00.) Get access Thomas C. Cochran Thomas C. Cochran Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 62, Issue 1, June 1975, Pages 17…
The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise
A Search for Solvency
Journal Article A Search for Solvency: Bretton Woods and the International Monetary System, 1941–1971. By Alfred E. Eckes, Jr. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975. xiii + 355 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $10.00.) Get access Mira Wilkins Mira Wilkins Florida International University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 63, Issue 1, June 1976, Pages 188–189, https:/…
Not 'Innocents Abroad
Multinational Corporations and the Transfer of Technology
Venezuelan Investment in Florida
Since 1973, Venezuela has had extraordinary oil revenues. These go to the government and from the government to its employees and contractors. The monies have filtered into the Venezuelan economy, where large profits have been made in selling imported goods, construction, banking, and light industry. There are opportunities for investment in Venezuela, but the affluent Venezuelan is already a participant in a multitude of businesses; thus, when F…
American-Japanese Direct Foreign Investment Relationships, 1930–1952
One of the leading experts on the history of multinational enterprise, Mira Wilkins here sets forth the history of American multinational investment in Japan and Japanese multinational investment in the United States during two crucial decades. The tumultuous years from 1930 to 1952 forced these companies to deal with the vastly different challenges of depression, war, and peace. Professor Wilkins explains how they adapted to their changing envir…
Multinational Corporations
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Third World Multinationals
Economics
Japanese Multinational Enterprise before 1914
The current scholarly interest in contemporary Japanese businesses has somewhat obscured their equally fascinating early historical development. In this article, Professor Wilkins emphasizes both the extent and the variety of Japanese multinational enterprise before the First World War, and offers a basis for comparing its differences and similarities with the conventional American model
Grace
Political science (51 works) · Economics (41 works) · Business (30 works) · Law (29 works) · Economic history (24 works) · Law (24 works) · Multinational corporation (23 works) · History (22 works) · Finance (18 works) · Finance (17 works)