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Global Business

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management
FormalPara Definition

Global business refers to the transacting of economic activity across a large number of geographies.

‘Global business’ refers to transactions between different locations around the world and is generally used to emphasize the fact that, where these become large in terms of scale and scope compared with total transactions, participants and stakeholders need to take account of the interactions between national markets in order to make informed decisions. Thus, as the importance of cross-border transactions grows, then markets, industries and firms all become ‘global’ in the sense that the behaviour of participants in one location has important implications for business in other locations. The fact that this ‘interrelatedness’ between markets is the critical feature of global business is often ignored or misinterpreted.

The term ‘global business’ is often used carelessly in popular media and commentary to describe everything from ‘global companies’ or...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Judge Business School, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1AG, UK

    Peter Williamson

Authors
  1. Peter Williamson
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Correspondence to Peter Williamson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University , Stanford, California, USA

    Mie Augier

  2. Tusher Ctr Intellectual Capital, University of California Tusher Ctr Intellectual Capital, Berkeley, California, USA

    David J. Teece

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© 2016 The Author(s)

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Williamson, P. (2016). Global Business. In: Augier, M., Teece, D. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_578-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_578-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-94848-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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