Used internationally at undergraduate and postgraduate level, this highly successful textbook presents, analyses and compares six different theories of the multinational firm that have dominated the research in international business during the last four decades. This thoroughly updated third edition acts on end-user feedback, with major revisions including: Chapter 1, The Multinational Firm: A Beauty or a Beast? rewritten to include recent data about foreign direct investments and multinational firms a discussion of entrepreneurship theories and the application of these theories of/to the multinational firm added to Chapter 4 a new chapter developing the idea of the governing multinational. The author discloses the basic building blocks and assumptions behind each theory covered in order to achieve a better understanding of why the multinational firm is looked upon so differently by researchers and stakeholders. Compact and accessible, this textbook is a required resource for students of international business, international management and international economy courses.