In an era of accelerating change in the world economy, services are assuming greater importance for the economies of both developed and developing countries. As technological developments allow increasing tradeability of services, huge global firms are offering services across national boundaries. This book explores the global impact of this economic phenomenon from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. A range of international authors, including both academics and representatives of major international organisations, offer contributions in two key areas: case studies covering a wide range of service industries, from consumer services, such as hotels and airlines, to professional business-to-business services; and theories and paradigms of economic behaviour. The book questions whether traditional models developed with manufacturing industries in mind are applicable to the service sector, and suggests new directions for economic theory. Globalization of Services therefore offers economists both a wealth of new source material and a fresh perspective on the modern global economy.

In an era of accelerating change in the world economy, services are assuming greater importance for the economies of both developed and developing countries. As technological developments allow increasing tradeability of services, huge global firms are offering services across national boundaries. This important book explores the global impact of this economic phenomenon from both empirical and theoretical perspectives.

This important book focuses on the impact of home countries on the international competitiveness of transnational corporations (TNCs). It seeks to explain the geographic concentration of the most internationally competitive TNCs in a single or very few countries, and their uneven performance at these concentration points. The theoretical framework for this analysis is based on a link between the location advantages of countries and the ownership advantages of firms. The book focuses on professional service TNCs as the competitive advantages of these firms are based entirely on intangible, often mobile assets, and they thus provide a striking illustration for the ways in which such assets shape the competitiveness of firms. Analyses of TNCs in several professional service industries based in various countries reveal the dynamic balance between the home and the foreign countries in which the TNCs operate, as well as the combination of country- and firm-specific attributes in shaping the competitiveness of TNCs and the subsequent patterns of global competition. The Origins of the International Competitiveness of Firms extends our knowledge of the determinants of the international competitiveness of TNCs, and will be of interest to scholars and students of international business and business strategy, and to those working in the fields of international competition, trade and investment.