Being Local Worldwide

Fortune called Asea Brown Boveri, the giant multinational corporation created in 1987, "the most successful cross-border merger since Royal Dutch linked up with Britain's Shell in 1907." The coming together of two longtime national champions in the...

Jacques Bélanger is Professor of Industrial Relations at Université Laval in Quebec. Christian Berggren is Professor of Industrial Management at Linköping University in Sweden. Torsten Björkman is Professor of Sociology at the National Defence College in Sweden. Christoph Kähler is Professor of Sociology at Friedrich-Schiller-Universitët in Jena, Germany.

This rich and fascinating study... 'highlights the actual workings of the geocentric and multidomestic principles' enshrined in the slogan of 'being local worldwide'.

Lee Pegler, Cardiff University:

This is an important work for scholars of industrial organisation, sociology and management.... From my reading of the book and experience working with (but not for) ABB in a number of countries, the authors have presented a more realistic image of the contours and contradictions of this company than much of the media would have us believe.

Martyn Wright, University of Warwick:

Being Local Worldwide is a timely volume, to be applauded for its critical and empirally-grounded analysis of an intriguing and prominent corporation. In the main, the comparative, qualitative nature of the study succeeds admirably, and does much to lay bare the complex and subtle issues of control and autonomy between the subsidiaries and the centre. In short, industrial relations needs more studies like this one.

Paul Edwards, Warwick Business School:

This uniquely rich and detailed study goes beyond the rhetoric about ABB to reveal the true character of being local worldwide including the internal politics of change, the tensions of convergence and divergence, and the uncertain dynamics of globalization.

Paul S. Adler, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California:

This book is a 'must read' for anyone interested in how the most sophisticated of the world's multinationals work. ABB has been the object of much adulation in the business press for its advanced management structure and process—with this book we finally have a thorough and critical evaluation.

Tony Edwards, Kingston University:

Overall, this is an admirable book.... The inter-disciplinary nature of the book will make it of interest to a wide audience and it should certainly be read by those with an interest in international management and comparative industrial relations.

Robert Cole, University of California, Berkeley:

A cleverly designed study generating important new insights on multinationals.