Abstract

Since the 1970s business firms have increasingly been operating across national borders (Braith-waite and Drahos 2000; Gibbs et al. 2010). They exchange products, information, services and personnel all around the globe, thereby increasing the complexity of businesses and creating more complex trade and financial relationships amongst them. The ways in which modern business firms are organized, structured and governed have fundamentally changed (Biermann and Pattberg 2012; DiMaggio 2001; Forsgren 2008; Powell 2001): the traditional firm operating from a fixed location has given way to international dynamic networks of products and services.