Innovation, Collaboration, and the International Firm
9
Preface
This dissertation was researched and written in London while its author worked for
the Queensland Government. Within walking distance of Queensland House, located
on the Strand, is the London School of Economics and London’s West End theatres.
Among these theatres are the Lyceum and Savoy that commercially enabled new
innovations in gas lighting and electric lighting respectively.
The UK has been a rich source for the innovations that have sparked new technology
cycles. The ICT industry owes part of its origin the invention of the telephone to
British inventor, Alexander Graham Bell. In computing, which is the other half to
ICT, the UK has a proud history having been the place of invention of the Enigma
computer that cracked German codes during World War II. Yet like the electric
lighting industry, the British IT industry eventually succumbed to US domination.
The UK also has a rich history in the study of economics and international business.
Scotsman Adam Smith migrated to Britain as did German sociologist Alfred Marx.
The contribution of neo-classical British economist Alfred Marshall to the theories of
trade and location is well known. More recently, Peter Buckley, Mark Casson, and
John Dunning of the University of Reading, which is located outside of London’s
western perimeter, have made significant contributions to the study of innovation,
collaboration, and the international firm.
It was in the UK that the first known multinational firm, the East India Company, was
created under Royal Charter in the year 1599. In 1670, the British monarch Charles
II gave Charter to the Hudson Bay Company to operate in America’s north-east and
Can ...