Preface; Part I. Overview: 1. Historical and comparative contours of big business Alfred D. Chandler, Jr; 2. The large industrial enterprise and the dynamics of modern economic growth Franco Amatori; Part II. National Experiences of Big Business; Group 1. Prime Drivers in North America and Western Europe: 3. The United States: engines of economic growth in the capital-intensive and knowledge-intensive industries Takashi Hikino; 4. Great Britain: big business, management, and competitiveness in the twentieth century Geoffrey Jones; 5. Germany: competition abroad, cooperation at home, 1870-1990 Ulrich Wegenroth; 6. Small European nations: cooperative capitalism in the twentieth century Harm G. Schröter; Group 2. Followers in Western Europe: 7. France: the relatively slow development of big business in the twentieth century Patrick Fridenson; 8. Italy: the tormented rise of organizational capabilities between government and families Albert Carreras; 9. Spain: big manufacturing firms between state and market, 1917-90 Xavier Tafunell; Group 3. Late Industrializers in East Asia and South America: 10. Japan: increasing organizational capabilities of large industrial enterprises, 1880s-1980s Hidemasa Morikawa; 11. South Korea: enterprising groups and entrepreneurial government Alice H. Amsden; 12. Argentina: industrial growth and enterprise organization, 1880s-1980s María Inés Barbero; Group 4. Centrally-Planned Economies in Eastern Europe: 13. USSR: large enterprises - the functional disorder Andrei Yu Yudanov; 14. Czechoslovakia: the halting pace to scope and scale Alice Teichova; Part III. Economic and Institutional Environment of Big Business: 15. Organizational competences, size, and the wealth of nations: some comments from a comparative perspective Giovanni Dosi and Takashi Hikino; 16. Big business and skill formation in the wealthiest nations: the organizational revolution in the twentieth century William Lazonick and Mary O'Sullivan; 17. Government, big business, and the wealth of nations Thomas K. McCraw; 18. Constructing big business: the cultural concept of the firm Jeffrey R. Fear.