In modern economies businesses are organised in a variety of forms and many very different models co-exist. Firms vary in size, managerial structures, and forms of governance. Some of them focus on a core business and operate in a single nation (or indeed a region or a city), while others are mulitnational. Some use, or even develop, state-of-the-art technologies, while other rely on cheap labour and very basic techniques.
The aim of this module is to analyse the causes and consequences of the existence of such a variety of models of business and forms of organisation. To do so the module investigates the development and functioning of various models of business over time and space, starting with the forms of organisation which dominated the western world before the beginning of the process of industrialisation, to finish with contemporary phenomena of downsizing and outsourcing.
|