China has been strongly featured in the business literature, due to its increasing importance as a global political and economic power. This case study focuses on one of the less-discussed aspects of China’s rise to economic prominence: the existence of the Chinese diaspora.

As well as being one of the best known MNCs, and a symbol of corporate globalization in its own right, McDonald’s is a good case study of the impact of GPNs on host states and labour markets, as well as of the complex nature of convergence and divergence.

As noted in Chapter 9, waste recycling is a global business. However, it is not a universal one. Several studies have indicated that social identity, including gender, class and ethnic identity, can have an impact on the degree to which individuals recycle.

Many researchers have suggested that, in the present period of globalization, we are seeing the emergence of a transnational elite, or ‘transnational capitalist class’ in the words of Sklair (1998). In this case study, we will consider German businesspeople and diplomats in London in light of how well they meet this definition, and in what ways they could be considered a transnational capitalist elite.

Since 2000, Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa, has been the leading African exporter of clothing to the USA. As such, it is influenced by both global and local discourses about gender, labour and centre–periphery relations in formal and informal negotiations between workers and employers.

General Motors, the US auto giant, was a high-profile casualty of the 2008 global recession, declaring bankruptcy in 2009. This case study explores the advantages and problems which the most recent period of globalization has brought for General Motors.

‘Global cities’ are recognized by many as the hubs of the networks developed by transnational businesses, migrants, activists and others, and are the focus of global social and economic activity. We will here consider the role of global cities in GPNs, with a particular focus on London, England, as an example.