Abstract
Chapter 5 brings an overview of historical milestones and significant events in the development of management as a scientific field. In the beginning, the author discusses four different strategic management schools: classical (rational), evolutionary, behavioral (process), and systemic (relativistic) theory. Then the author divides the major significant events in the development of management as a scientific field into three historical stages. In the fourth subchapter, the author concentrates on the concept of added-value-chain, stages of internationalization, and new forms of company structures in the globally networked environment. The influence of international institutions is also being discussed. The last section identifies two main research directions in the field: the application of firm heterogeneity to the theory of international business and the monitoring of production and value chains. The author discusses different models which have been constructed to explain the heterogeneity of firms in international management.