Affiliation: University of Reading
Bio: Mark Casson is a British economist and academic. He is a professor of economics at the University of Reading in England. He was Head of Department (1987–94) and is the institution’s current Director of the Centre for Institutional Performance.
Together with Peter Buckley, he developed the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise which is widely used to analyse the internationalization of firms. He also developed the modern economic theory of entrepreneurship through a synthesis of the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek and Frank Knight. According to this theory, successful entrepreneurs demonstrate good judgement in making risky innovations, and are rewarded through either profits or salaries depending on whether they act as owners or managers of their firms.
Mark Casson is one of the founder members of the Reading School of International Business, a worldwide network of economists established in the 1970s at the University of Reading, England, which has been influential in changing public perceptions of the costs and benefits of multinational enterprises and foreign direct investment. He is also the general editor of two book series, The Globalization of the World Economy, and the Handbooks of Research Methods and Applications in the Social Sciences.
His recent books include The Multinational Enterprise Revisited (with Peter Buckley, 2009), The World’s First Railway System (2009), Entrepreneurship: Theory, Networks, History, 2010, and Markets and Market Institutions: Their Origin and Evolution (editor, 2011). Mark is currently researching the theory of international business and the history of entrepreneurship.
Last Updated: March 2019