Title: Historic constructions of the early multinational: on power, politics and culture in Pan Am narratives

Authors: Marke Kivijärvi; Albert J. Mills; Jean Helms Mills

Addresses: Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014, Jyväskylä, Finland ' Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary's University, Sobey Building, 903 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada; Business School, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland ' Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary's University, Sobey Building, 903 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada

Abstract: This paper examines how Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) - an early incarnation of a multinational enterprise (MNE) - developed its image as an international company. In particular, we examine how the company developed and managed potentially conflicting narratives, including the modernising US company and the airline of 'the Americas' (specifically South America); the carrier of US national interests and the politically neutral actor serving to unify cultures; the purveyor of exotic experiences and the pioneer of modernism. Through a focus on organisational narratives, we reveal the powerful influence of such story telling (through design and serendipity) on images of the peoples and countries where the MNE operates. In contributing to the narrative turn in business history we argue for a relational approach to narrative analysis.

Keywords: business history; corporate archives; narrative; international business; multinational companies; postcolonialism; airlines; relationalism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2018.089869

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2018 Vol.20 No.2, pp.222 - 250

Received: 05 Aug 2016
Accepted: 04 Dec 2016

Published online: 14 Feb 2018 *

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