To what extent can the traditional theories be meaningfully applied to non-European countries? Traditional theories on the World’s development, especially industrialization, have a Western Europe-biased design. Consequently, it is valuable to mobilize the recent achievements in business history and of microeconomic research on companies, the state and consumers. The purpose is evaluating the role of business, both large and small, in the growth dynamic of both industrialized and emerging nations, by exploring their performance, strategies and types of organization, together with the social, cultural and environmental implications of their behaviour as actors. The issue of the emergence of globalization bears upon many fundamental questions: the growth of mass consumption and Americanization; public policy, both cyclical and structural; firms’ investment policies and, more broadly, operational and strategic decisions, taking into account transaction costs; the interaction of social networks and/or techniques, spatial dynamics (industrial districts, local productive systems and clusters); path dependency. From the actual collective work come three main conclusions: 1/ It has been possible to make a useful comparative review and a no less useful inventory of the research carried out on the subject. 2 / In general, theoretical models of Western origin, whether macro- or microeconomic, are useful and even indispensable, because they are the basis of possible typologies, but also likely to provide explanatory models. Such were the case of the Rostow, Kuznets and Gerschenkron’s analyzes in the macroeconomic field, or, in terms of technology, the Schumpeterian or Neo-Schumpeterian approaches. As far as regional economic development is concerned, Michael Porter's cluster vision offers the advantage of providing the better explanatory elements. 3 / Under a number of conditions, Western theoretical models can be applied in a relevant way to the interpretation of the development of today's emerging countries.