The role of business enterprise in integrating economies is one of the central historical themes of the 19th and 20th centuries. Although globalization – both in its late-20th-century iteration and in its 19th-century form – has been widely studied, the role of the firm, as opposed to macroeconomic forces, has yet to receive sufficient attention. Many research questions remain, including the role of the United States as a host country, the place of multinationals in emerging markets, and the importance of understudied sectors, such as retailing. Business historians should shift the focus of queries from “why” to “how” and go beyond the discipline’s traditional organization along national lines to study the behavior of firms worldwide.
