Global cities in the context of international business: From oblivion to tendency in scientific production

This paper investigates the international business literature of the last forty years from the incorporation of the term global cities as a reference in the construction of new theoretical contributions. A bibliometric method was performed in two stages. In the first one, the main areas of knowledge and the seminal studies addressing the concept were identified. Most research focuses on economic geography and urban studies. In the second, the approaches used specifically in international business were organized in the main journals of the area. The results show that the studies on global cities are still incipient, highlighting, among the approaches, the relation between location advantages and specific aspects of the multinational company. In addition, there is a growing interest in the development of analyzes at the subnational level represented by global cities, from different aspects such as the choice of entry mode, the role of advanced service firms, the importance of networks and the process of knowledge transfer. The combination of the perspectives of economic geography and international business, although claimed by scholars from both areas, still lacks a more robust theoretical and empirical body in regard to cities as centers of attractiveness of foreign investment in global markets. In analyzing the importance of the phenomenon of global cities, this study contributes to a better understanding of the contemporary internationalization strategies of multinational companies, highlighting the interdisciplinary potential between international business theories and economic geography