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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS IN THE
INFORMATION AND DIGITAL AGE
PROGRESS IN INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS RESEARCH
Series Editors: The European International Business
Academy (EIBA)

Recent Volumes:

Volume 1: Progress in International Business

Research – Edited by Gabriel R. G.
Benito and Henrich R. Greve

Volume 2: Foreign Direct Investment, Location

and Competitiveness – Edited by John
H. Dunning and Philippe Gugler

Volume 3: New Perspectives in International

Business Research – Edited by Maryann
P. Feldman and Grazia D. Santangelo

Volume 4: Research on Knowledge, Innovation

and Internationalization – Edited by
Jorma Larimo and Tia Vissak
Volume 5: Reshaping the Boundaries of the Firm
in an Era of Global Interdependence –
Edited by José Pla-Barber and Joaquín
Alegre

Volume 6: Entrepreneurship in the Global Firm –

Edited by Alain Verbeke, Ana Teresa
Tavares-Lehmann and Rob van Tulder

Volume 7: New Policy Challenges for European

MNEs – Edited by Rob van Tulder, Alain
Verbeke and Liviu Voinea

Volume 8: International Business and Sustainable

Development – Edited by Rob van
Tulder, Alain Verbeke and Roger
Strange

Volume 9: Multinational Enterprises, Markets and

Institutional Diversity – Edited by Alain
Verbeke, Rob van Tulder and Sarianna
Lundan

Voume 10: The Future of Global Organizing –

Edited by Rob van Tulder, Alain Verbeke
and Rian Drogendijk
Volume 11: The Challenge of BRIC Multinationals –
Edited by Rob van Tulder, Alain
Verbeke, Jorge Carneiro and Maria
Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez

Volume 12: Distance in International Business:

Concept, Cost and Value – Edited by
Alain Verbeke, Jonas Puck and Rob van
Tulder
 PROGRESS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
RESEARCH
VOLUME 13

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
IN THE INFORMATION AND
DIGITAL AGE
EDITED BY

ROB VAN TULDER

Erasmus University, The Netherlands

ALAIN VERBEKE
University of Reading, United Kingdom; Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; University of Calgary,
Canada

LUCIA PISCITELLO
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
United Kingdom – North America – Japan
India – Malaysia – China
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without
either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying
issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright
Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst
Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald
makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application
and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78756-326-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78756-325-4 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-78756-327-8 (Epub)

ISSN: 1745-8862 (Series)

CONTENTS

List of Contributors

Preface – Lorraine Eden – A Tribute

Introduction: International Business in the

Information and Digital Age – An Overview of
Themes and Challenges
Rob van Tulder, Alain Verbeke and Lucia Piscitello

Chapter 1 The Fourth Industrial Revolution:

Seven Lessons from the Past
Lorraine Eden

PART I
IB TRENDS AND THEORY IN THE
INFORMATION AGE

Chapter 2 International Production and the

Digital Economy
Richard Bolwijn, Bruno Casella and James Zhan
Chapter 3 IB and Strategy Research on “New”
Information and Communication
Technologies: Guidance for Future Research
Christopher Hazlehurst and Keith D. Brouthers

Chapter 4 The Changing Face of International

Business in the Information Age
Jakob Müllner and Igor Filatotchev

Chapter 5 The Effects of Global Connectivity

on Knowledge Complexity in the Information
Age
John Cantwell and Jessica Salmon

PART II
ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGIES IN
THE INFORMATION AGE

Chapter 6 Blockchain Ventures and

International Business
Andre Laplume

Chapter 7 Internationalisation through

Digitalisation: The Impact of E-commerce
Usage on Internationalisation in Small- and
Medium-sized Firms
Jonas Eduardsen
Chapter 8 Global Competitors? Mapping the
Internationalization Strategies of Chinese
Digital Platform Firms
Kai Jia, Martin Kenney and John Zysman

Chapter 9 New Digital Layers of Business

Relationships – Experiences from Business-to-
business Social Media
Susana Costa e Silva and Maria Elo

PART III
FUNCTIONAL STRATEGIES IN THE
INFORMATION AGE

Chapter 10 The Changing Structure of Talent

for Innovation: On Demand Online
Marketplaces
Keren Caspin-Wagner, Silvia Massini and Arie Y. Lewin

Chapter 11 Expanding International Business

via Smart Services: Insights from ‘Hidden
Champions’ in the Machine Tool Industry
Bart Kamp

Chapter 12 Additive Manufacturing and Global

Value Chains: An Empirical Investigation at
the Country Level
Filippo Buonafede, Giulia Felice, Fabio Lamperti and
Lucia Piscitello

PART IV
INDUSTRY 4.0

Chapter 13 Amazon and Alibaba: Internet

Governance, Business Models, and
Internationalization Strategies
Xinyi Wu and Gary Gereffi

Chapter 14 Industry 4.0 Technologies and

Internationalization: Insights from Italian
Companies
Maria Chiarvesio and Rubina Romanello

Chapter 15 On the Role of Clusters in

Fostering the Industry 4.0
Marta Götz and Barbara Jankowska

Chapter 16 Internationalisation of Science

Parks: Experiences of Brazilian Innovation
Environments
Jurema Tomelin, Mohamed Amal, Aurora Caneiro Zen
and Pierfrancesco Arrabito

Index
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Mohamed Amal Regional University of Blumenau,

Brazil

Pierfrancesco Federal University of Rio Grande do

Arrabito Sul, Brazil

Richard Bolwijn UNCTAD, Switzerland

Keith D. King’s College London, UK

Brouthers

Filippo Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Buonafede

John Cantwell Rutgers Business School, USA

Bruno Casella UNCTAD, Switzerland

Keren Caspin- Duke University, USA

Wagner

Maria University of Udine, Italy

Chiarvesio
Lorraine Eden Texas A&M University, USA

Jonas Aalborg University, Denmark

Eduardsen

Maria Elo University of Turku, Finland

Giulia Felice Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Igor Filatotchev King’s College London, UK

Gary Gereffi Duke University, USA

Marta Götz Vistula University, Poland

Christopher King’s College London, UK

Hazlehurst

Barbara Vistula University, Poland

Jankowska

Kai Jia University of Electronic Science and

Technology of China, China

Bart Kamp Orkestra-Basque Institute of

Competitiveness and Deusto
University, Spain

Martin Kenney University of California, USA

Fabio Lamperti Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Andre Laplume Michigan Technological University,

USA

Arie Y. Lewin Duke University, USA

Silvia Massini The University of Manchester, UK

Jakob Müllner Vienna University of Economics and

Business, Austria

Lucia Piscitello Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Rubina University of Udine, Italy

Romanello

Jessica Salmon Siena College, USA

Susana Costa e Universidade Católica Portuguesa,

Silva Portugal

Jurema Univille University, Brazil

Tomelin

Rob van Tulder Rotterdam School of Management,

Erasmus University, The
Netherlands
Alain Verbeke University of Reading, UK; Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, Belgium;
University of Calgary, Canada

Xinyi Wu Duke University, USA

Aurora Caneiro Federal University of Rio Grande do

Zen Sul, Brazil

James Zhan UNCTAD, Switzerland

John Zysman University of California, USA

PREFACE

LORRAINE EDEN – A TRIBUTE

The Progress in International Business Research (PIBR) series is an
initiative of the European International Business Academy, in
collaboration with Emerald Group Publishing. Since 2014, each
volume has been dedicated to an International Business (IB) scholar,
who has made important and lasting contributions to the scholarly IB
community, both in intellectual and institutional building terms. The
first two tribute volumes were dedicated posthumously to pinnacle
leaders and beloved figures in the IB field, who had unexpectedly
passed away at the height of their influence, namely Daniël van den
Bulcke (University of Antwerp, Belgium) and Alan M. Rugman
(University of Reading, UK). The subsequent two volumes were
dedicated to institution builders who are still very active in the field,
namely Louis T. Wells (Harvard University, USA) and Rosalie Tung
(Simon Fraser University, Canada). In the latter cases, these scholars
were selected because their scholarly oeuvre represented an almost
perfect fit with the corresponding research volume’s theme,
respectively advances in IB research on emerging markets (with a
focus on the ‘BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)’ countries) and
distance (with a focus on its cultural and institutional dimensions).
The PIBR series aims to publish collections of papers on subject
matter that is not necessarily considered ‘mainstream’ at the time of
research, or that requires novel ways of approaching it. The
selection of tribute volume awardees also signals the Editors’
appreciation for innovative, out-of-the-box thinkers in the IB
research area.
 Following this tradition, the present volume in the PIBR series also
covers a relatively new area of research, namely the interaction
between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the digital and
information age. This includes, on the one hand, an account of the
role that MNEs can have in shaping the new age. On the other hand,
the ‘maturing’ of the Internet creates challenges as well as
opportunities for established, emerging and new MNEs, often
independently of company size or home country. This volume brings
together creative contributions from mainstream IB scholars, and
includes work from scholars in adjacent disciplines, such as
economic geography, international relations and political science,
strategic management and technology studies. IB as a scholarly
discipline always faces a challenge when addressing major societal
and technological developments; in particular, those that involve
multilevel and multimethod research, and placed at the interface
between company strategies and government regulation. Studying
the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ is a prime example of such a
challenge. IB studies that cover the interface between technology,
regulatory regimes and business strategy in a rigorous fashion,
demand that scholars combine qualitative and quantitative insights
in a robust manner.
This is where the life-long contributions of Lorraine Eden deserve
particular praise. She has contributed immensely to scholarly inquiry
into novel and intellectually challenging IB phenomena, and this is
the first reason for this tribute. Lorraine Eden is presently a
Professor of Management and holds the Gina and Anthony Bahr
Professor in Business at Texas A&M University (USA). She is also
associated as a Faculty Member with the Bush School of Government
and Public Service at the same institution. Her research interests lie,
in her own words: ‘at the intersection of economics, international
business and public policy’. Her current and past research interests
have focused primarily on two areas: Transfer pricing (the pricing of
transactions among related parties) and strategies of MNEs to cope
with institutional distance, liability of foreignness and the challenges
of ‘hot spots’ (e.g., conflict zones, corrupt economies, tax havens).
Her books include Taxing Multinationals (1998), Multinationals in
North America (1994), Retrospectives on Public Finance (1991),
Multinationals and Transfer Pricing (1985, 2017) and The Economics
of Transfer Pricing (2018). Lorraine Eden’s 170+ scholarly
publications have earned more than 11,000 citations on Google
Scholar. In the period 2005–2015, she ranked fourth as most
productive scholar among Management faculty and the 13th most
productive scholar among Business School faculty in terms of articles
published in 24 ‘journals of distinction’. Her most influential
publications (in terms of citations) cover four very different areas of
research. These papers signal her broad scholarly interests and
willingness to collaborate with other researchers: more than 3,500
citations for an AMJ paper on emerging economies (Hoskisson,
Eden, Lau, & Wright, 2000), 1,400 citations for a JIBS paper on IB
methods (Chang, Van Witteloostuijn, & Eden, 2010), and more than
500 citations for both a book chapter (Elsevier) contributing to the
literature on distance and liability of foreignness (Eden & Miller,
2004), and for an AMR article on government corruption and MNE
strategies (Rodriguez, Uhlenbruck, & Eden).
The second reason to pay tribute to Lorraine Eden is her life-long
engagement in support of creating a vibrant, global disciplinary
community of IB researchers. She has done this in many capacities.
First, as an active participant in the annual meetings organised by
the Academy of International Business (AIB), over a period spanning
decades. She was elected as the AIB fellow as early as 2004, in part
because of her lead role in stimulating female participation in the IB
research community, for instance, by founding the Women in the
Academy of International Business network. Second, as the editor-
in-chief of JIBS, the top-ranked journal in the field of international
business, whereby she consolidated the status of JIBS as a
recognised ‘A’ level outlet in the broader management sciences.
Third, as the 2017–2018 president of the AIB, a scholarly association
in which she also held a Vice President position during the period
2000–2002. As the AIB President elect, she was instrumental in
developing Codes of Ethics for the AIB Membership, the AIB
Leadership and the AIB journals. These codes outline standards of
professional and ethical conduct and procedures for handling
violations thereof. In an increasingly complex and volatile world, IB
scholars must abide by the most stringent possible norms of
professional conduct and ethical behaviour, whereby criteria of
scientific integrity are paramount. Lorraine Eden is owed a depth of
gratitude for her trailblazing role in this discourse.
The third reason to pay tribute to Lorraine Eden is her unrelenting
focus on the societal responsibilities of the IB teacher and scholar,
whereby she has never shied away from addressing controversial
areas of MNE involvement. At Texas A&M, she teaches courses on
transfer pricing and MNEs. Her Transfer Pricing Aggies programme
has trained more than 300 masters- and PhD-level students. Over
100 graduates have used this training as a platform to pursue
transfer-pricing careers. More generally, she has been actively
involved in establishing linkages between academia and society, by
participating in a large number of high-level advisory committees
and networks. As one example, in 2015, she acted as a member of
the E15 Task Force on Trade and Investment, an expert task force
within the E15 Initiative on Strengthening the Global Trade and
Investment System for Sustainable Development. Particularly
relevant for the topic of the present PIBR volume has been her
recent (2014–2016) membership of the Research Advisory Network
to the Global Commission on Internet Governance. This is a joint
project of The Centre for International Governance Innovation and
Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs), on the
future of multistakeholder Internet governance. Her technical paper
for the Task force (Eden, 2016) established clear linkages among
digitisation, foreign direct investment and sustainable development.
Lorraine Eden’s oeuvre of policy-oriented papers, written during the
past 35 years, provides a wealth of genuine insight on the
complexity of policy processes and the impact of public policy, and
much of this insight remains as relevant today as when these pieces
were first composed.
Lorraine Eden’s paper prepared for this volume (Chapter 1) shows
in a very personal manner how her scholarship developed over the
years and how she managed to relate her research to relevant
societal themes and to her service to the wider IB community. We
hope that Lorraine Eden’s account of her personal journey, which
truly reflects the philosophy of ‘service above self’, may inspire the
coming generation of IB scholars to follow in her footsteps.

The Editors,
Rob van Tulder, Alain Verbeke and Lucia Piscitello

REFERENCES
Chang, J., Van Witteloostuijn, A., & Eden, L. (2010). Common
method variance in international business research. Journal
of International Business Studies, 41(2), 178–184.
Eden, L., & Miller, S. (2004). Distance matters: Liability of
foreignness, institutional distance and ownership strategy. In
M. Hitt, & J. Cheng (Eds.), The evolving theory of the
multinational firm. Advances in International Management
(Vol. 16). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier.
Eden, L. (2016). Multinationals and foreign investment policies in a
digital world. In E15Initiative, International Centre for Trade
and Sustainable Development and World Economic Forum,
Geneva. www.e15initiative.org.
Hoskisson, R. E., Eden, L., Lau, C. M., & Wright, M. (2000). Strategy
in emerging economies. Academy of Management Journal,
43(3), 249–267.
Rodriguez, P., Uhlenbruck, K., & Eden, L. (2005). Government
corruption and the entry strategies of multinationals.
Academy of management review, 30(2), 383–396.
INTRODUCTION: INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS IN THE INFORMATION AND
DIGITAL AGE – AN OVERVIEW OF
THEMES AND CHALLENGES
Rob van Tulder, Alain Verbeke and Lucia Piscitello

1. INTRODUCTION: A CHALLENGING AGENDA

The emergence of the “information and digital age” is rapidly
changing the face of international business (IB) activity (Alcacer,
Cantwell, & Piscitello, 2016; Friedman, 2005). Some call the present
stage of transition the “third industrial revolution” (Rifkin, 2011),
others refer to it as the “fourth industrial revolution,” Industry 4.0, or
the “digital” or “new economy” (Schwab, 2016). There appears to be
broad agreement on the fundamental and “disruptive” nature of the
ongoing transformation.
Features relevant for IB studies, which have been suggested as
characterizing the new age, include: organizational decentralization
(Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1998), vertical disintegration and specialization
(Langlois, 2003), modularity (Baldwin & Clark, 2000), flexibility
(Volberda, 1998), accelerated knowledge creation, exchange or
diffusion, and increased knowledge complexity (Foss & Pedersen,
2004), inter-organizational collaboration and openness (Chesbrough,
2003), various kinds of networks (Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1990; Zander,
2002), new manufacturing technologies (Laplume, Petersen, &
Pearce, 2016), and new business models leading to a “(digital)
platform” or “network economy” (Kenney & Zysman, 2016).
 Institutional settings have also evolved alongside the new wave of
technological innovation, leading to changes across countries in the
mechanisms responsible for standardization, intellectual property
rights protection, and the institutional conditions fostering individual
and local creativity (Mowery, 2009). The rules of the competitive
game (North, 1990) are changing. Consequently, new regulatory
challenges have appeared – requiring a new take on not only what
constitutes effective industrial and trade policies, but also on
effective privatization and liberalization measures. Many of the new
organizational forms around the world that shape the digital
(Internet) economy have benefited from two particular regulatory
characteristics: (1) the absence of government regulation and
involvement at a global scale and (2) the introduction of hybrid
governance structures for the Internet. In particular, the creation of
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
in 1998 as a private, non-profit making and public benefit
corporation signaled a new approach to global governance. ICANN
succeeded in taking over the centralized coordination and
management of the Internet’s Domain Name System from the United
States government (Muldoon, Aviel, Reitano, & Sullivan, 2011) –
thus, facilitating a much more rapid spread of the Internet than had
previously been thought possible. The Economist (July 12, 2017)
talks about an “era of digital exceptionalism,” in which online
platforms in America, and to some extent in Europe, “have been
inhabiting a parallel legal universe (… in which) they are not legally
responsible, either for what their users do or for the harm that their
services can cause in the real world.”
Compared with the early twenty-first century, the rapid global
spread of the digital age to almost all corners of the world has raised
the competitive and regulatory stakes. Consequently, the argument
is also mounting that many of the new organizational forms have
become either too dominant – because of being concentrated in the
hand of a few multinational enterprises (MNEs) – or are undermining
local regulatory regimes and social contracts (see also, Chapter 3 of
this book). The former relates to the dominant position of a limited
number of digital network companies such as Google, Apple, or
Amazon (Moore & Tambini, 2018). The latter relates to new business
models deployed by centralized platform companies such as Uber,
Facebook, Alibaba, or Airbnb. In response, some regulatory agencies
have started enacting antitrust laws to push back on the dominance
of a limited number of digital age companies. Witness for instance
the €4.3 billion fine imposed in July 2018 by the European
Commission on Google for abusing its dominant (network) position
to discriminate against rivals (and, thus, in the longer run lowering
the innovative potential of the Internet). This fine was the largest
antitrust penalty ever – and reminiscent of comparable antitrust
cases against earlier carriers of the information age, such as
Microsoft in the 1990s. Airbnb and Uber are centralized platforms
that are increasingly criticized for undermining local safety
regulations (to be respected by hotels) or minimum wage
conventions (to be respected by tax drivers). The Chinese
government’s monitoring of its citizens, and the role played by
leading MNEs such as Alibaba and Tencent, has triggered other
concerns over the “neutrality of the net” – which in its original setup
had been favorable to maximizing (democratic) participation across
the world. But, in a 2018 UK parliamentary committee report,
Facebook and Twitter have been accused of “undermining
democracy” through a systematic manipulation of information, and
usage of private information of their subscribers for commercial
goals.
A new “breed” of MNEs (e.g., Brouthers, Geisser, & Rothlauf,
2016) and business models (Baden-Fuller & Haefliger, 2013) is
rapidly developing, and redefining the boundaries of what
constitutes a firm and a society. The extent to which this contributes
to positive or negative transition processes, is open to debate. The
Economist (June 30, 2018) has argued that, while “the Internet was
meant to make the world a less centralized place (…) the opposite
has happened.” They even quote Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of
the world-wide-web (www), who stated that the Internet “has failed
to deliver the positive, constructive society many of us had hoped
for.” The main criticism is that the Internet has become much more
centralized than originally envisaged, and is dominated by a few
giant firms, in particular from the United States and China, such as
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, Alibaba, and Tencent. The
positive and negative impacts of the information and digital age are
in any case heavily influenced by the strategies adopted by leading
enterprises. A key characteristic of these enterprises is their
multinational nature. Analysis of the interactions between the shape
of the information age and MNE strategies has thus become an
important area of study for IB scholars.

2. THE STATUS OF IB RESEARCH

The IB discipline is faced with a sizable challenge: how to cover
these trends and come up with meaningful, robust, and timely
insights. Two chapters in this volume assess the present status of
the scientific discourse as covered by IB studies (Chapters 4 and 5).
They come to contradictory conclusions: Hazlehurst and Brouthers
(Chapter 3) argue that the interest shown in new information and
communication technologies by IB and strategy scholars is far lower
than that of marketing and information systems scholars. Müllner
and Filatotchev (Chapter 4), on the other hand, present a more
positive assessment of the status of IB research in analyzing the
effects of the information age on firm-level internationalization
strategies.
Both chapters use different methodologies to cover the literature;
thus, we complemented their search with a more focused check on
the way seven1 of the leading IB journals over the 1990–2018
period have covered key concepts within three dimensions of the
information and digital age:
1. The organizational dimension: Specific functional concepts related
to the information age like “algorithm,” “artificial intelligence,” and
“e-commerce” have received some attention in IB journals. Most
articles on e-commerce already appeared in the 2001–2003
period as part of a special issue of Journal of International
Business Studies (JIBS) (De la Torre & Moxon, 2001; Lynch &
 Beck, 2001; Oxley & Yeung, 2001; Singh & Kundu, 2002), to be
followed by a new batch of studies that were triggered by the
entry of Chinese e-commerce companies (Shen & Kim, 2016). In
the early twenty-first century, some studies also appeared on the
role of Information and communications technology (ICT) on the
international organization of companies – for instance in
innovation (Santangelo, 2001). In IB studies, algorithms have
primarily functioned as a methodology, rather than as a topic of
research. Linking the influence of major Internet companies like
Facebook and Google to their use of algorithms has hardly
reached mainstream IB research (cf., Allen & Aldred, 2013). The
same applies to the topic of artificial intelligence, which is
primarily used as an analytical technique (e.g., neural network
analysis, see Veiga, Lubatkin, Calori, Very, & Tung, 2000), rather
than studied as a new tool to organize business.
2. The regulatory dimension: More generic and governance-related
concepts like “cyberspace” (Ching & Ellis, 2006; Kobrin, 2001) or
“industry 4.0” (Strange & Zucchella, 2017) have been haphazardly
covered by IB scholars. The most popular concept has been that
of “platform,” which has traditionally been used in the context of
“export platforms,” but has recently been linked to the Internet
revolution, either from the perspective of companies (Ojala,
Evers, & Rialp, 2018) or from the perspective of activists who
organize themselves digitally against MNEs (Benmamoun, Kalliny,
& Cropf, 2012; Fiorito, 2005; Lewis, 2005). More controversial
governance concepts, such as “net neutrality,” have not received
any attention in the IB discourse yet. Although research on
intellectual property rights and competition policies has been
prolific – with a few exceptions (Brander, Cui, & Vertinsky, 2017;
Ivus, Park, & Saggi, 2017; Peng, Ahlstrom, Carraher, & Shi, 2017)
– largely unrelated to the companies that lead the Internet
revolution and that are criticized for protecting their dominant
position through sheltering their source codes and intellectual
property.
3. The case study/corporate dimension: Conducting case studies
represent a valuable approach for the analysis of new empirical
 phenomena. Specific information and digital era MNEs are coming
of age – in particular, MNEs from the United States and China.
Since 2011, IB scholars have been looking at the American
companies at a modest scale and mostly adopting a critical
perspective (Roberts & Dörrenbächer, 2016). Half of the papers
that have been published since 2010 on companies such as
Facebook, Google, Uber, and Airbnb (and to a lesser extent,
Microsoft) have appeared in issues of Critical Perspectives on
International Business. The coverage of Chinese information and
digital MNEs has been more limited, and primarily focused on
Alibaba and Tencent (Brander et al., 2017; Shen & Kim, 2016;
Strange & Zucchella, 2017).
Part of the problem of adequately taking stock of present IB
research on the information and digital age is related to the
delineation of a relevant research field: where to start; where to
draw the boundary. Sizable empirical gaps must be covered, but the
pervasive character of the information and digital age raises many
questions on how to study MNE strategies: what actually defines the
“ICT sector”; how relevant are countries (home or host) in this
digital age; and how to look at traditional value chains. Studying
MNEs in the digital age requires new types of benchmarking as to
what constitutes a successful strategy and corporate social
responsibility, and this may also influence the foundations of
mainstream IB theory.

3. TOPICS FOR THE PRESENT IB DISCOURSE

For the IB discipline, the information and digital age presents a new
research agenda of themes that has empirical as well as theoretical
repercussions. As regards empirics, it important to understand the
rise of new MNE types. In terms of theory, the role of new
information and digital management tools, and the linkages with
regulations affecting IB, will undoubtedly affect mainstream
theorizing on the MNE. The following themes would appear to be
particularly relevant:
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 It had engaged itself, before I commenced my observations, upon a
roast gigot of mutton, which happened to lie near it. This it soon
nearly finished. It then cast a look of fearful omen at a piece of cold
beef, which lay immediately beyond, and which, being placed within
reach by some kind neighbour, it immediately commenced to, with
as much fierceness as it had just exemplified in the case of the
mutton. The beef also was soon laid waste, and another look of
extermination was forthwith cast at a broken pigeon-pie, which lay
still farther off. Hereupon the eye had scarcely alighted, when the
man nearest it, with laudable promptitude, handed it upwards.
Scarcely was it laid on the altar of destruction, when it disappeared
too, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth look, were successively cast
at other dishes, which the different members of the party as
promptly sent away, and which the Mouth as promptly dispatched.
By this time all the rest of the party were lying upon their oars,
observing with leisurely astonishment the progress of the surviving,
and, as it appeared to them, endless feeder. He went on, rejoicing in
his strength, unheeding their idleness and wonder, his very soul
apparently engrossed in the grand business of devouring. They
seemed to enter into a sort of tacit compact, or agreement, to indulge
and facilitate him in his progress, by making themselves, as it were,
his servitors. Whatever dish he looked at, therefore, over the wide
expanse of the table, immediately disappeared from its place. One
after another, they trooped off towards the head of the table, like the
successive brigades which Wellington dispatched, at Waterloo,
against a particular field of French artillery; and still, dish after dish,
like said brigades, came successively away, broken, diminished,
annihilated. Fish, flesh, and fowl disappeared at the glance of that
awful eye, as the Roman fleet withered and vanished before the
grand burning-glass of Archimedes. The end of all things seemed at
hand. The Mouth was arrived at a perfect transport of voracity! It
seemed no more capable of restraining itself than some great engine,
full of tremendous machinery, which cannot stop of itself. It had no
self-will. It was an unaccountable being. It was a separate creature,
independent of the soul. It was not a human thing at all. It was
everything that was superhuman—everything that was immense—
inconceivably enormous! All objects seemed reeling and toppling on
towards it, like the foam-bells upon a mighty current, floating
silently on towards the orifice of some prodigious sea-cave. It was
like the whirlpool of Maëlstrom, everything that comes within the
vortex of which, for miles around, is sure of being caught,
inextricably involved, whirled round and round and round, and then
down that monstrous gulph—that mouth of the mighty ocean, the
lips of which are overwhelming waves, whose teeth are prodigious
rocks, and whose belly is the great abyss!
Here I grew dizzy, fainted, and—I never saw the Mouth again.
 RICHARD SINCLAIR;
OR, THE POOR PRODIGAL IN THE AISLE.

By Thomas Aird.
 Chapter I.

With many noble qualities—firmness, piety, integrity, and a

thorough affection for his family—the father of the poor prodigal,
Richard Sinclair, had many of the hard points of the Scottish
character; a want of liberality in his estimate of others, particularly of
their religious qualities; a jealousy about his family prerogative,
when it was needless to assert it; and a liking for discipline, or, as he
styled it, nurture, without tact to modify its applications. Towards his
eldest son—a shy and affectionate youth—his behaviour, indeed,
seemed distinctly opposite to what we may characterise as its usual
expression—overbearing gravity. Without this son’s advice, he never
ventured on any speculation that seemed doubtful. He was softly
amenable to the mild wisdom of the lad, and paid it a quiet
deference, of which, indeed, he sometimes appeared to be ashamed,
as a degree of weakness in himself. But the youth had never
disobeyed his parents’ will in any one particular; he was grave and
gentle; and his father, who had been brought up amidst a large and
rugged family, and was thus accustomed to rather stormy usages,
was now at a loss, in matters of rebuke, how to meet this new species
of warfare, which lay in mild and quiet habits, and eventually became
afraid of the censure which was felt in the affectionate silence of his
eldest son.
This superiority might have offended old Sinclair’s self-love; but
the youth, as already stated, made ample amends, by paying in his
turn a scrupulous and entire deference to his parent, whom he thus
virtually controlled, as a good wife knows to rule her husband, by not
seeming to rule at all. From this subdued tone of his favourite
prerogative in the father before us there was a reaction—something
like a compensation to the parental authority—which began to press
too hard upon his second son Richard, who, being of a bolder
character than his brother, was less scrupulously dealt with; besides
that the froward temperament of this younger boy frequently
offended against what his father honestly deemed propriety and
good rule.
 He lost no opportunity, when Richard had done anything in the
slightest degree wrong, of checking him with disproportioned
censure, and of reminding him of what he owed to his parents; and
this was repeated, till bearing blame in the boy became a substitute
for gratitude—till the sense of obligation, instead of being a special
call to love, was distinctly felt to be an intolerable burden. From all
these circumstances there naturally grew up a shyness betwixt father
and son, which was unintentionally aggravated by Richard’s mother,
who, aware of her husband’s severe temper, tried to qualify it by her
own soft words and deeds of love. This only brought out the evil
more distinctly in its hard outline; and the very circumstance that
she constantly tried to explain into good his father’s austerity became
her own refutation, and stamped that austerity as a great degree of
tyranny.
Home thus became associated with disagreeable feelings to young
Richard Sinclair; who, being a boy of a giddy character, and naturally
self-willed, could not cling to the good, despite of the admixture of
evil. He neglected his books, fell into gross irregularities; and the
admonitions of his father, rendered useless from the above miserable
system of discipline, were now, when most needed, thoroughly
despised. The death of his elder brother, by which he was left an only
son, softened for a while the harsh intercourse which subsisted
between Richard and his father, and checked the youth for a little in
his bad habits. But vice overcame him anew; and, growing daily
worse, he at length completed the character of the prodigal, by
running off to sea, hardening his heart against his father’s worth, and
heedless of the soft affection of his mother.
The hardships of a sea-faring life, heightened by a series of
peculiar misfortunes, still farther aggravated by a long course of bad
health, gradually subdued the young prodigal’s heart; and after the
lapse of several years we find him on his way returning to his native
village, clad in the meanest attire, slow and irregular in his step; his
countenance, besides being of a dead yellow hue from late jaundice,
thin and worn to the bone; yet improved in his moral nature, caring
not for pride, ready to forgive, and anxious to be forgiven; and, above
all, yearning to confess his crimes and sorrows to a mother’s
unchanging love.
 About the noon of an October day, he reached the churchyard of
his native parish, his heart impelling him first to visit the burying-
ground of his family, under the fear, not the less striking because
altogether vague, that he might there see a recent grave; for he had
heard nothing of his parents since his first departure to sea. As he
entered the graveyard by a small postern, he saw a funeral coming in
by the main gate on the opposite side; and wishing not to be
observed, he turned into a small plantation of poplars and silver firs,
which hid the place of graves from the view of the clergyman’s manse
windows. Onward came the sable group slowly to the middle of the
churchyard, where lay, indicating the deep parallel grave beside it,
the heap of fat, clammy earth, from which two or three ragged boys
were taking handfuls, to see, from its restless crumbling, whether it
was the dust of the wicked, which, according to a popular belief,
never lies still for a moment. The dark crowd took their places round
the grave; a little bustle was heard as the coffin was uncovered; it was
lowered by the creaking cords, and again the heads of the company
were all narrowly bent over it for a moment. Not a sound was heard
in the air, save the flitting wing of some little bird among the boughs;
the ruffling of another, as, with bill engulfed in its feathers, it picked
the insects from its skin; and the melancholy cry of a single
chaffinch, which foretold the coming rain.
In natural accordance with the solemnity of the mourners before
him, our youth, as he stood in the plantation, raised his hat; and
when the crowd drew back to give room to the sexton and his
associates to dash in the earth, he leant upon the wall, looking
earnestly over it, to recognise, if possible, the prime mourner. At the
head of the grave, more forward a little than the others, and apart in
his sad privilege, stood a man, apparently about sixty years of age, of
a strong frame,—in which yet there was trembling,—and a fine open
bald forehead; and, notwithstanding that the face of the mourner
was compressed with the lines of unusual affliction, and bowed down
over his hat, which with both hands was pressed upon his mouth,
Richard saw him and knew him but too well—Oh, God! his own
father! And wildly the youth’s eyes rambled around the throng, to
penetrate the mystery of his own loss, till on his dim eyeballs reeled
the whole group, now scattered and melted to mist, now gathered
and compressed into one black, shapeless heap.
 But now the thick air began to twinkle, as it still darkened; and the
rain, which to the surprise of all had been kept up so long, began to
fall out in steep-down streams from the low-hung clouds, driving the
black train from the half-finished grave, to mix with a throng of other
people, apparently assembling for public worship, who ran along the
sides of the church in haste to reach the doors. The bell began to toll,
but ceased almost in a minute; the clergyman hurried by in his white
bands; and before Richard could leave the plantation and advance
into the churchyard,—perhaps for the purpose of inquiring who was
the person just entombed,—every one was in save that bareheaded
man—God bless him!—who, heedless of the rain, still stood by the
sexton, whose spade was now beating round the wet turf of the
compacted grave. The young prodigal had not the heart, under a
most awful sense of his own errors, which now overcame him, to
advance to his afflicted father. On the contrary, to avoid his
observation, he slunk away behind the church, and by a door, which
likewise admitted to an old staircase leading to a family division of
the gallery, he got into a back aisle, thickly peopled with spectral
marbles, which, through two or three small panes, admitted a view of
the interior of the church. “Have I lived not to know,” said he to
himself, “when comes God’s most holy Sabbath-day? Assuredly, this
loss of reckoning, this confusion of heart, is of very hell itself. But
hold—to-day is Monday; then it must be the day after a solemn
commemoration, in this place, of Christ’s bleeding sacrifice for men.
I shall sit me down on this slab a while, and see if there may be any
good thing for me—any gleam of the glorious shield that wards off
evil thoughts and the fears of the soul—any strong preparation of
faith to take me up by the hand, and lead me through my difficulties.
At all events, I shall try to pray with the good for the mourners, that
claim from me a thousand prayers: and God rest that dead one!”
Owing to the unusual darkness in the church, the twenty-third
psalm was chosen by the clergyman, as one that could be sung by
most of the congregation without referring to the book; and its
beautiful pastoral devotion suited well with the solemn dedication
which yesterday had been made of a little flock to the care of the
Great Shepherd, and with their hopes of His needful aid. And the
sweet voices of the young, who in early piety had vowed themselves
to God, seemed to have caught the assured and thrilling song of the
redeemed; and their white robes, as they rose to pray, twinkled like
glimpses of angels’ parting wings, bringing home more deeply to the
heart of the poor youth in the aisle a sense of his misery as an alien
and an outcast from the ordinances of salvation.
Richard made an effort to attend to the instructions of the
clergyman; but his heart was soon borne away from attention; and so
anxious did he become in the new calculation, which of his father’s
family it might be whom he had just seen interred, that he could not
refrain from going out before the church windows and looking at the
new grave. Heedless of being seen, he measured it by stepping, and
was convinced, from its length, that either his mother or his sister
Mary must be below. “God forbid!” he ejaculated, “that it should be
my poor mother’s grave! that she should be gone for ever, ere I have
testified my sense of all her love!” It struck him, with a new thought
of remorse, that he was wishing the other alternative, that it might be
his sister Mary’s. And then he thought upon early days, when she
who was his first playmate led him with her little hand abroad in
summer days to the green meadows, and taught him to weave the
white-fingered rushes, and introduced him, because she was his
elder, to new sports and playfellows; whose heart, he knew, would
brook to lie beneath the cold flowers of the spring sooner than give
up its love for him, prodigal though he was; and how was the
alternative much better, if it was she whom he had lost! As he made
these reflections, he was again sauntering into the aisle, where,
sitting down in his former seat, the sad apprehension that his mother
was dead laid siege to his heart. Her mild image, in sainted white,
rose to his mind’s eye; and she seemed to bend over him, and to say
to him, “Come, my care-worn boy, and tell me how it has fared with
you in the hard world?” This vision soon gave place to severe
realities; and in bitter sadness he thought of her who came each
night to his bedside when he was a little child, to kiss him, and
arrange the clothes around him that his little body might be warm.
With a reeling unsteadiness of mind which, from very earnestness,
could not be stayed upon its object, he tried to remember his last
interview with her, and the tenor of his last letter to her, to find out
what kind expressions he had used, till, painfully conscious that he
could muster little to make up an argument of his love, he was again
left to guess his mother’s anguish of soul in her last hour over his
neglect, and to grapple with the conviction that his own folly had
brought her down prematurely to the grave. At length his heart,
becoming passive amidst the very multitude and activity of
reflections that were tugging at it from all sides, yielded to the
weariness which the day’s fatigue, acting upon his frame, worn by
late fever, had induced, and he fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke,
the voice of the clergyman had ceased, and all was silence in the
church; the interior of which as he looked through the small pane, he
saw had been darkened by the shutting of the window-boards. Next
moment he glanced at the aisle door and saw it closed upon him.
Then looking round all over the place, with that calmness which
signifies a desperate fear at hand, “Here I am, then!” he exclaimed;
“if that door be locked upon me, as I dread it is!” Cautiously he went
to it, as if afraid of being resolved in his dreadful apprehension; and,
after first feeling with his hand that the bolt was drawn upon him, he
tried to open it, and was made distinctly aware of his horrid
captivity. Sharply he turned aghast, as if to address some one behind
him; then turning again to the door, he shook it with all his strength,
in the hope that some one might yet be lingering in the churchyard,
and so might hear him. No one, however, came to his assistance; and
now the reflection burst full and black upon him, that here he might
remain unheard till he died of hunger. His heart and countenance
fell, when he remembered how remote the churchyard was from the
village, and from the public way, and how long it was till next Sunday
should come round. From boyhood recollection he remembered well
this same aisle door; that it was black on the outside, with here and
there large white commas to represent tears; and that it was very
thick, and yet farther strengthened by being studded with a great
number of large iron nails.
“Yet I must try to the very utmost,” he said, “either to break it or
make myself be heard by the inmates of the manse, which is my best
chance of release.” Accordingly he borrowed as much impetus as the
breadth of the vault allowed him, and flung himself upon the door in
a series of attacks, shouting at the same time with all his might. But
the door stood firm as a rock despite of him; nor could he
distinguish, as he listened from time to time, the slightest symptoms
of his having been heard by any one. He went to the small grated
window which lighted this house of death, and after watching at it for
some time, he saw an old woman pass along a footpath beyond the
graveyard, with a bundle of sticks upon her head; but she never
seemed to hear him when he called upon her. A little afterwards he
saw two boys sauntering near the gate of the burying-ground; but
though they heard him when he cried, it only made them scamper
off, to all appearance mightily terrified.
 Chapter II.

With the calmness almost of despair, when the closing eve took
away his chance of seeing any more stray passengers that day, the
poor youth groped his way to his marble slab, and again sat down
with a strange vacuity of heart, as if it would refuse further thought
of his dismal situation. A new fear came over him, however, when
daylight thickened at the grated window of his low room, and the
white marbles grew dark around him. And not without creeping
horror did he remember that from this very aisle it was that old
Johnny Hogg, a former sexton, was said to have seen a strange vile
animal issue forth one moonlight night, run to a neighbouring
stream, and after lapping a little, hurry back, trotting over the blue
graves, and slinking through beneath the table stones, as if afraid of
being shut out from its dull, fat haunt. Hurriedly, yet with keen
inspection, was young Sinclair fascinated to look around him over
the dim floor; and while the horrid apprehension came over him,
that he was just on the point of seeing the two eyes of the gloating
beast, white and muddy from its unhallowed surfeits, he drew up his
feet on the slab on which he sat, lest it should crawl over them. A
thousand tales—true to boyish impressions—crowded on his mind;
and by this rapid movement of sympathetic associations, enough of
itself, while it lasts, to make the stoutest heart nervous, and from the
irritation of his body from other causes, so much was his mind
startled from its propriety that he thought he heard the devil ranging
through the empty pews of the church; and there seemed to flash
before his eyes a thousand hurrying shapes, condemned and fretted
ghosts of malignant aspect, that cannot rest in their wormy graves,
and milky-curdled babes of untimely birth, that are buried in
twilights, never to see the sun.
Soon, however, these silly fears went off, and the tangible evil of
his situation again stood forth, and drove him to renew his cries for
assistance, and his attacks upon the door, ere he should be quite
enfeebled by hunger and disease. Again he had to sit down, after
spending his strength in vain.
 By degrees, he fell into a stupor of sleep, peopled with strange
dreams, in all of which, from natural accordance with his waking
conviction that he had that day seen his mother’s burial, her image
was the central figure. In danger she was with him—in weariness—in
captivity; and when he seemed to be struggling for life, under
delirious fever, then, too, she was with him, with her soft assuaging
kiss, which was pressed upon his throbbing brow, till his frenzy was
cooled away, and he lay becalmed in body and in spirit beneath her
love. Under the last modification of his dream, he stood by confused
waters, and saw his mother drowning in the floods. He heard her
faintly call upon his name; her arms were outstretched to him for
help, as she was borne fast away into the dim and wasteful ocean;
and, unable to resist this appeal, he stripped off his clothes and
plunged in to attempt her rescue. So vivid was this last part of his
vision, that in actual correspondence with the impulse of his dream,
the poor prodigal in the aisle threw off his clothes to the shirt to
prepare himself for swimming to her deliverance. One or two cold
ropy drops, which at this moment fell from the vaulted roof upon his
neck, woke him distinctly, and recalled him to a recollection of his
situation as a captive. But being unable to account for his being
naked, he thought that he had lost, or was about to lose, his reason;
and, weeping aloud like a little child, he threw himself upon his
knees, and cried to God to keep fast his heart and mind from that
dismal alienation. He was yet prostrate when he heard feet walking
on the echoing pavement of the church; and at the same time a light
shone round about him, filling the whole aisle, and showing
distinctly the black letters on the white tombstones.
His first almost insane thought was that a miraculous answer was
given to his prayer, and that, like the two apostles of old, he had won
an angel from heaven to release him from his midnight prison. But
the footsteps went away again by the door, and ceased entirely;
whilst at the same time the light was withdrawn, leaving him to curse
his folly, which, under an absurd hope, had lost an opportunity of
immediate disenthralment. He was about to call aloud, to provoke a
return of the visitation, when, through the grated window of the
aisle, he observed a light among the graves, which he set himself to
reconnoitre. It was one of those raw, unwholesome nights, choked up
with mists to the very throat, which thicken the breath of old men
with asthma, and fill graveyards with gross and rotten beings; and,
though probably not more than twenty yards distant, Sinclair could
not guess what the light was, so tangled and bedimmed was it with
the spongy vapours.
At length he heard human voices, and was glad to perceive the
light approaching his window. When the men, whom he now saw
were two in number, had got within a few yards of him, he called out,
—
“I pray you, good people, be not alarmed; I have been locked up in
this aisle to-day, and must die of hunger in it if you do not get me
out. You can get into the church, and I doubt not you will find the key
of this aisle-door in the sexton’s closet. Now, I hope you have enough
of manhood not to let me remain in this horrid place from any silly
fears on your part.”
Instead of answering to this demand, the fellows took instantly to
their heels, followed by the vehement reproaches of our hero, whose
heart at the same time was smitten by the bitter reflection, that every
chance of attracting attention to his captivity was likely to be
neutralized by the superstitious fears of such as might hear him from
his vault. In a few minutes the light again approached, and after
much whispering betwixt themselves, one of the men demanded who
and what the prisoner was.
“I can only tell you farther,” replied Sinclair, “that I fell asleep in
this place during the sermon,—no very creditable confession, you will
observe,—and that, when I awoke, I found myself fairly entrapped.”
The men retired round the church, and with joy Richard heard
next minute the rattling of the keys as they were taken from the
sexton’s closet. In another minute he heard the door of his dungeon
tried; it opened readily; and with a start, as if they thought it best at
once to rush upon their danger, his two deliverers, whom he
recognised to be of his native village, advanced a little into the aisle,
the foremost bearing the light, which he held forward and aloft,
looking below it into the interior, to be aware for what sort of captive
they had opened. No sooner did Sinclair stand disclosed to them,
naked as he was to the shirt—for he had not yet got on his clothes—
than the sternmost man, with something between a yell and a groan,
bended on his knees, whilst his hair bristled in the extremity of his
terror, and catching hold of his companion’s limbs, he looked
through betwixt them upon the naked spirit of the aisle. The
foremost man lowered the light by inches, and cried aloud,—
“Fear-fa’ me! take haud o’ me, Geordie Heart! It’s the yellow dead
rising from their graves. Eh! there’s the lightning! and is yon no an
auld crooked man i’ the corner?”
“Will Balmer! Will Balmer! whaur are ye?” cried the other, from
between Will’s very knees, which, knocking upon the prostrate man’s
cheeks, made him chatter and quiver in his wild outcry.
“Oh! there’s the lightning again! Gin we could but meet wife and
bairns ance mair!” ejaculated the foremost man.
“Lord have mercy on my widow and sma’ family!” echoed the
sternmost.
“Tout! it’s but the laird’s drucken mulatto after a’!” said the
former, gathering a little confidence.
“Oh, if it were! or but a man wi’ the jaundice, our days might be
lengthened,” cried the latter.
Richard advanced to explain; but at that moment the dull
firmament in the east, which had been lightning from time to time
(as often happens previously to very rainy weather), opened with
another sheeted blaze of white fire, the reflection of which on
Richard’s yellow face, as he came forward, seemed to the terrified
rustics a peculiar attribute of his nature. With a groan, he in the van
tried a backward retreat; but being straitened in the legs, he tumbled
over his squatted companion. Leaving his neighbour, however, to sit
still upon his knees, he that was the foremost man gathered himself
up so well, that he crept away on his hands and feet, till, getting right
below the bell-rope at the end of the church, he ventured to rise and
begin to jow it, making the bell toll at an unusual rate. The inmates
of the manse were immediately alarmed; and first came the
minister’s man, who demanded the meaning of such ill-timed,
ringing.
“Oh! Tam Jaffray! Tam Jaffray! sic a night’s in this kirkyard! If sae
be it’s ordeened that I may ring an’ live, I’ll haud to the tow. Oh! Tam
Jaffray! Tam Jaffray! what’s become o’ puir Geordie Heart? If the
Wandering Jew o’ Jerusalem, or the Yellow Fever frae Jamaica, is no
dancing mother-naked in the aisle, then it behoves to be the dead
rising frae their graves. I trust we’ll a’ be found prepared! Rin for a
lantern, Tam.—Eh! look to that lightning!”
A light was soon brought from the manse; and a number of people
from the village having joined the original alarmists, a considerable
muster advanced to the aisle door just as Sinclair was stepping from
it. Taking the light from one of the countrymen, he returned to the
relief of the poor villager, who was still upon his knees, and who,
with great difficulty, was brought to comprehend an explanation of
the whole affair. The crowd made way as Sinclair proceeded to leave
the graveyard; but whether it was that they were indignant because
the neighbourhood had been so much disturbed, or whether they
considered that proper game was afoot for sportive insolence, they
began to follow and shout after him—
“Come back, ye yellow neegur! we’ll no send ye!—stop him! Come
back, ye squiff, and we’ll gie ye a dead subject!—Stop the
resurrectionist!—After him, gie him a paik, and see if he’s but a batch
o’ badger skins dyed yellow—hurrah!”
Sinclair wishing, for several reasons, to be clear at once of the mob,
was in the act of springing over the dyke into the plantation already
mentioned, when he was struck by a stick on the head, which
brought him back senseless to the ground. The crowd was instantly
around the prostrate youth, and in the caprice or better pity of
human nature, began to be sorry for his pale condition.
“It was a pity to strike the puir lad that gate,” said one. “Some folk
shouldna been sae rash the day, I think,” remarked another. “Stand
back,” cried Tam Jaffray, pushing from right to left; “stand back, and
gie the puir fallow air. Back, Jamieson, wi’ your shauchled shins; it
was you that cried first that he was a resurrectionist.”
The clergyman now advanced and asked what was the matter.
“It’s only a yellow yorlin we’ve catched in the aisle,” cried an
insolent clown, who aspired to be the prime wit of the village; “he
was a bare gorblin a few minutes syne, and now he’s full feathered.”
This provoked a laugh from groundlings of the same stamp, and the
fellow, grinning himself, was tempted to try another bolt,—“And he’s
gayan weel tamed by this time.”
“Peace, fellow,” said the minister, who had now seen what was
wrong; “peace, sir, and do not insult the unfortunate. I am ashamed
of all this.”
By the directions of the clergyman, the poor prodigal was carried
into the manse, where he soon recovered from the immediate
stunning effects of the blow he had received.
“How is all this?” was his first question of surprise, addressed to
his host. “May I request to know, sir, why I am here?”
“In virtue of a rash blow, which we all regret,” answered the
minister.
“I crave your pardon, sir,” returned the youth. “I can now guess
that I am much indebted to your kindness.”
“May we ask you, young man,” said the clergyman, “how it has
happened that you have so alarmed our peaceful neighbourhood?”
The poor prodigal succinctly stated the way of his imprisonment in
the aisle; and with this explanation the charitable old clergyman
seemed perfectly satisfied. Not so, however, was his ruling elder,
who, deeming his presence and authority indispensable in any
matter for which the parish bell could be rung, had early rushed to
the scene of alarm, and was now in the manse, at the head of a
number of the villagers. He, on the contrary, saw it necessary to
remark (glancing at his superior for approbation),—
“Sae, mind, young man, in times future, what comes of sleeping in
the time of two peeous and yedifying discoorses.”
“A good caution, John,” said the mild old minister; “but we must
make allowances.”
“Was it you that struck me down?” said Richard eagerly to an old
man, who, with evident sorrow working in his hard muscular face,
stood watching this scene with intense interest, and who, indeed, was
his own father.
Smitten to the heart by this sudden question of the youth,
ashamed of his own violent spirit on such a night, and grieved, after
the explanation given, for the condition of the poor lad before him,
old Sinclair groaned, turned quickly half round, shifted his feet in the
agony of avowal,—then seizing his unknown prodigal boy by the
hand, he wrung it eagerly, and said,—
“There’s my hand, young man, in the first place; and now, it was
me indeed that struck you down, but I thought——”
 “Oh! my prophetic conscience!” interrupted the poor prodigal,
whilst he looked his father ruefully in the face, and returned fervently
the squeeze of his hand. “Make no apologies to me, thou good old
man; thy blow was given under a most just dispensation.”
“I sent two neighbours,” said the old man, still anxious to explain,
“to see that all was right about the grave. I heard the alarm, and
came off wi’ my stick in my hand. I heard them crying to stop ye, for
ye were a resurrectionist. I saw ye jumping suspiciously into the
planting. Ye maun forgie me the rest, young man, for I thought ye
had been violating the grave of a beloved wife.”
“My own poor mother!” sobbed forth the prodigal.
Old Sinclair started—his strong chest heaved—the recollection of
his rash blow, together with the circumstance that it had been
dispensed on such a solemn night, and near the new grave of one
whose gentle spirit had been but too much troubled by the harshness
and waywardness of both husband and son, came over his heart with
the sudden conviction that his boy and himself were justly punished
by the same blow, for their mutual disrespect in former years.
Yearning pity over that son’s unhappy appearance, and the natural
flow of a father’s heart, long subdued on behalf of his poor lost
prodigal, were mingled in the old man’s deep emotion; and he sought
relief by throwing himself in his boy’s arms, and weeping on his
neck.
His sturdy nature soon recovered itself a little; yet the bitter spray
was winked from his compressed eyes as he shook his head; and the
lower part of his face quivered with unusual affliction, as he said in a
hoarse whisper—
“My own Richard!—my man, has your father lived to strike you to
the ground like a brute beast, and you sae ill?—on the very day, too,
o’ your mother’s burial, that loved ye aye sae weel! But come away wi’
me to your father’s house, for ye are sick as death, and the auld man
that used ye ower ill is sair humbled the night, Richard!”
The prodigal’s heart could not stand this confession of a father. His
young bosom heaved as if about to be rent to pieces; the mother, and
hysterica passio of old Lear, rose in his straitened throat,
overmastering the struggling respiration, and he fell back in a violent
fit. His agonized parent ran to the door, as if seeking assistance, he
knew not what or where; then checking himself in a moment, and
hastening back, yet without looking on his son, he grasped the
clergyman strongly by the hand, crying out, “Is he gone?—is my
callant dead?”
Ordering the people to withdraw from around the prostrate youth,
whose head was now supported by the clergyman’s beautiful and
compassionate daughter, the kind old pastor led forward the
agonised father, and pointing to his reviving son, told him that all
would soon be well again. With head depressed upon his bosom, his
hard hands slowly wringing each other, while they were wetted with
the tears which rained from his glazed eyes, old Sinclair stood
looking down upon the ghastly boy, whose eye was severely swollen,
whilst his cheek was stained with the clotted blood which had flowed
from the wound above the temples, inflicted by his own father.
After standing a while in this position, the old man drew a white
napkin from his pocket, and, as if himself unable for the task, he gave
it to one of his neighbours, and pointed to the blood on the face of his
prodigal boy, signifying that he wished it wiped away. This was done
accordingly; and, in a few moments more, Richard rose, recovered
from his fit, and modestly thanking the clergyman and his beautiful
daughter for their attentions to him, he signified his resolve to go
home immediately with his father. The kind old minister would fain
have kept him all night, alleging the danger of exposing himself in
such a state to the night air; but the youth was determined in his
purpose; and old Sinclair cut short the matter by shaking the hand of
his pastor, whilst, without saying a word, he looked him kindly in the
face to express his thanks, and then by leading his son away by the
arm.
The villagers, who had crowded into the manse, judging this one of
those levelling occasions when they might intrude into the best
parlour, allowed the father and son to depart without attempting
immediately to follow—nature teaching them that they had no right
to intermeddle with the sacred communings of the son and father’s
repentance and forgiveness, or with the sorrow of their common
bereavement. Yet the rude throng glanced at the minister, as if
surprised and disappointed that the thing had ended so simply; then
slunk out of the room, apprehensive, probably, of some rebuke from
him. The ruling elder, however, remained behind, and wherefore
not?
 THE BARLEY FEVER—AND REBUKE.

By D. M. Moir (“Delta”).
Sages their solemn een may steek,
And raise a philosophic reek,
And, physically, causes seek
In clime and season;
But tell me Whisky’s name in Greek,
I’ll tell the reason.—Burns.

On the morning after the business of the playhouse happened,[13] I

had to take my breakfast in my bed,—a thing very uncommon for me,
being generally up by cock-craw, except on Sunday mornings whiles,
when ilka ane, according to the bidding of the Fourth
Commandment, has a license to do as he likes,—having a desperate
sore head, and a squeamishness at the stomach, occasioned, I
jalouse, in a great measure from what Mr Glen and me had discussed
at Widow Grassie’s, in the shape of warm toddy, over our cracks
concerning what is called the agricultural and the manufacturing
interests. So our wife, puir body, pat a thimbleful of brandy—Thomas
Mixem’s real—into my first cup of tea, which had a wonderful virtue
in putting all things to rights; so that I was up and had shapit a pair
of leddy’s corsets (an article in which I sometimes dealt) before ten
o’clock, though, the morning being gey cauld, I didna dispense with
my Kilmarnock.
13. See ante, “My First and Last Play,” p. 394.
At eleven in the forenoon, or thereabouts,—maybe five minutes
before or after, but nae matter,—in comes my crony Maister Glen,
rather dazed-like about the een, and wi’ a large piece of white
sticking-plaister, about half-a-nail wide, across one of his cheeks,