Business history special issue on foreign investment and the development of entrepreneurial and managerial capabilities in host economies

This special issue is the result of a workshop on the effects of foreign direct investment on the development of entrepreneurial and managerial capabilities in host economies. Our aim was, rather than to look at the more generic competencies of firms, to call attention to the knowledge, skills and abilities embodied in individuals and, particularly, in managerial and technical professionals working for subsidiaries of multinationals or for local companies with foreign investors. We specifically addressed the question of to what extent these professionals’ capabilities could have been born, developed or shaped by working for, or alongside, foreign firms. This may explain in part the rapid ascension of the so-called dragon or new multinationals from late industrializing and emerging economies. Foreign investment is considered to have stimulated economic modernization and industrial progress in a Gerschenkronian way, thus advancing catching-up with traditional economic leaders. Our approach to the effects of foreign investment on host markets, therefore, would contribute not only providing insight into corporate internationalization strategies and international human resource management, but also into how industrial progress and economic modernization spread to new areas and regions. We aim to address these two traditional research questions of management and economic scholarship from a microeconomic and hence business-history-oriented perspective, as well as beyond these to professionals and education systems, through the analysis of knowledge transfer at country, industry and firm level.