Global Brands: The Evolution of Multinationals in Alcoholic Beverages

Description

In a world focused on science and new technology, brands help to explain why several of the world's multinational corporations have little to do with either. Rather they are old firms with little critical investment in patents or copyrights. For these firms, the critical intellectual property is trademarks. Global Brands, first published in 2007, explains how the world's largest multinationals in alcoholic beverages achieved global leadership; considers the predominant corporate governance structures for such firms; and looks at why these firms form alliances with direct competitors. Brands also determine the waves of mergers and acquisitions in the beverage industry. Global Brands contrasts with existing studies by providing a new dimension to the literature on the growth of multinationals through the focus on brands, using an institutional and evolutionary approach based on original and published sources about the industry and the firms.

Teresa da Silva Lopes is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary, University of London. She has previously taught at the University of Oxford and Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. She is the author of numerous publications on international business history, marketing history, and other topics in journals such as Business History, Business History Review, and Enterprise and Society. She is currently co-director of the Centre for Globalization Research at Queen Mary, University of London; reviews editor for the journal Business History, council member of the Association of Business Historians, and trustee of the American Business History Conference. Lopes has held visiting research fellowships at the University of California Berkeley and Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. Currently she is a Fellow of the Dynamics of Institutions and Markets in Europe Network, a Research Fellow at Universidade Catolica Portuguesa and a Research Associate of the Centre for International Business History and the Centre for Institutional Performance, both at the University of Reading.

"Teresa da Silva Lopes has produced a comprehensive book on the history and expansion of the international alcoholic beverages industry, focusing on the development of global brands. The author demonstrates a profound understanding of the complex nature of this industrial development and of the economic theories of international business. Reading of this book, written in a very precise and elegant language, has been an educational and stimulating experience. This probably is the best book on brands in the alcoholic beverages in the world." Professor Polv Krogsgaard-Larsen, Chairman of Carlsberg "For some time to come, both scholars and practitioners will mine this book for the invaluable data it has assembled from such diverse sources. But in the long run, it should be Silva Lopes's important theoretical insights that will prove most valuable to us all--insights that will force us to reconsider conventional accounts of brands, brand history, brand strategy, and brand know-how, not only in the alcoholic beverages industry--the case convincingly presented here--but across all sectors where brands hold sway." Professor Paul Duguid, University of California Berkeley "Brands in the alcoholic beverage industry are among the longest lived in the world of consumer goods, in part because they define how their users feel about themselves. Teresa da Silva Lopes tells their story in a compelling fashion and chronicles the recent period of rapid consolidation in the drinks industry. She also tests diverse academic thought against the template of the drinks industry brand histories and ventures some new theories of her own. A must read book for students of business and executives in the world of consumer goods." Jack Keenan, Chairman of Gran Cru Consulting "This is the first major historical study of the evolution of global brands and the multinational enterprises that control them. It charts the rise of brands in the modern global economy. It is a work of impressive scholarship, based on unrivalled access to corporate archives. Drawing on the latest theories of entrepreneurship and international business, Teresa da Silva Lopes identifies the key changes in technologies, lifestyles and logistics which have driven the growth of global brands. Her conclusions have major implications for the contemporary management of global brands." Professor Mark Casson, University of Reading