Globalisation

Abstract

The literature on globalised or transnational firms derives from many traditions and has a long pedigree. The spatial extension of capitalist competition across territorial boundaries has been an historical feature of capitalist development generally. In the search for new markets, new labour and new production configurations, underpinned by the relentless drive for profits, crisis in the form of spatial restructuring appears to be the ‘normal’ condition for capitalism. In recent years, there is a general perception that not only has the intensity of competition increased, but also that there has been a fundamental change in the way global enterprises are structured.