Global Brands
The Evolution of Multinationals in Alcoholic Beverages
Cambridge Studies in the Emergence of Global Enterprise Series

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.

1. Brands and the growth of multinationals; 2. Leading firms - the historical legacy; 3. Growth or survival; 4. Family ownership and managerial control; 5. Channel management; 6. Diversification strategies; 7. Acquiring brands; 8. The life of brands; 9. Conclusion.

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 Católica 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 École Polytechnique in Paris. Currently she is a Fellow of the Dynamics of Institutions and Markets in Europe Network, a Research Fellow at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and a Research Associate of the Centre for International Business History and the Centre for Institutional Performance, both at the University of Reading.