Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access originally published online on November 4, 2004
Journal of Economic Geography 2005 5(2):177-200; doi:10.1093/jnlecg/lbh039
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Journal of Economic Geography, Vol. 5, No. 2, © Oxford University Press 2005; all rights reserved.
Truly global corporations? Theorizing ‘organizational globalization’ in advanced business-services
* School of Geography, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London W1CE 7HX, UK. email 
a.jones{at}bbk.ac.uk
Abstract
Recent debates concerning transnational firms (TNCs) have been preoccupied with the question of whether, and to what extent, the world's largest companies are becoming ‘global corporations’. This paper argues that this debate is epistemologically misguided and that the theoretical framework in use is unable to adequately capture the complex nature of connectivity and spatiality developing in and between firms. It argues that instead of a continued and increasingly fruitless debate around the nature of the relationship between firms and territorial spaces, empirical and theoretical enquiry needs to shift to issues of ‘corporate globality’. The paper thus develops an alternative relational and nonscalar theoretical approach as it presents research into nature of corporate globalization within firms in two advanced business service sectors: investment banking and management consultancy. It uses this research as a basis to make arguments concerning how the role of large firms in the wider tendencies of economic globalization might be better theorized.
Keywords: globalization, global corporation, business services, relational epistemology,
JEL classifications: F23, L2, M10
Date submitted: 18 June 2003
Date accepted: 6 May 2004
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