Multinational Enterprise in Ancient Phoenicia 1

At its peak, Phoenician businessmen directed intercontinental enterprises trading in silver from Spain, tin from Britain, ivory from Africa, copper from Cyprus, iron from Syria, and textiles and manufactured goods from all over the Mediterranean. Their investments reached from the Atlantic to the Assyrian Empire. Using Dunning's eclectic paradigm as a lens, this paper suggests these early Canaanites as the architects of the first truly intercontinental multinational enterprises. The managed business hierarchy created by the merchants of Ugarit and Tyre, moreover, foreshadowed, in some of its features, the international keiretsu networks of contemporary Japan.