Andrew DA Smith, Heidi Tworek, Marcelo Bucheli, Johann Fortwengel
Abstract The deglobalization process experienced in the early 2020s is not without precedent. This Special Issue leverages business history as a lens to generate new insights and to uncover previously hidden complexities and nuances. Studying previous periods of deglobalization and their varying drivers, outcomes, and responses, the papers in this Special Issue show how firms and individuals are more active in shaping deglobalization processes than commonly assumed, and that deglobalization is a periodical and uneven phenomenon. The Special Issue also points to exciting avenues for future research, not least to more fully understand the antecedents of deglobalization, and under what conditions possible drivers of deglobalization indeed translate into state action causing deglobalization.