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Navigating Nationalism in Global Enterprise analyzes the role of nationalism in global business strategy, showing how multinationals act not just as drivers of globalization but also as sophisticated operators in a world of nations. Using the case study of German companies in colonial and post-colonial India, Christina Lubinski traces how nationalism's influence on business competitive strategies changed over the twentieth century and across major political turning points, such as two world wars and India's transition to independence. She highlights how national imaginings are both relational because they derive from comparisons with other nations, and historical because they mobilize the past to legitimize future aspirations. Lubinski stresses that learning from the past is how multinationals engage strategically with the content of nationalism - i.e., a nation's history, aspirations, and relationships with other nations. In India, German companies' competitiveness was continuously dependent on navigating nationalism and on understanding that nationalism and globalization are inextricably linked.
List of contents
List of figures ; List of tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I. Nationalism and Competitive Dynamics: 1. The invention of nationality; 2. Bazaar goods 'made in Germany'; 3. Mapping enemies in World War I; 4. The alliance of the disillusioned; Part II. Emergent Strategy in a World of Nations: 5. Refining political capabilities; 6. Planning for uncertain futures; 7. Stability in a wobbly world; 8. Reimagining the world in stages; Conclusion: Re-Historicizing nations; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.
About the author
Christina Lubinski is Professor of Business History at Copenhagen Business School. Her previous publications include The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business (2020) and Family Multinationals: Entrepreneurship, Governance, and Pathways to Internationalization (2013). She was awarded the Henrietta Larson (2015) and Oxford Journals Article Prize (2013).
Summary
An analysis of the role of nationalism in global business strategy, showing how multinationals in the twentieth century acted not just as drivers of globalization but also as sophisticated operators in a world of nations. By exploring German companies in India, Lubinski traces nationalism's influence on business tactics and competitive strategies.
Foreword
Reveals how nationalism shapes global business strategy with a focus on the historical example of German firms in India.
