This book fills an important gap in our knowledge of the organization of EU manufacturing industry. At the empirical level, it draws on a newly constructed micro-level database (the European market share matrix) to present the first ever comprehensive picture of the concentration, integration, multinationality, and diversification of EU industry and firms. However, its purpose is not primarily descriptive.

At the theoretical level, it develops a new way of integrating the insights of international trade, industrial organization, international business, and corporate strategy. A central thesis is that by understanding the reasons for the industrial structure we observe, much can be learnt about the underlying competitive processes that generated this structure in the context of current European integration.