This book provides you with a comprehensive overview about what institutional investors do, how they do it, and when and where they do it; it is about the production of investment returns in the global economy. Being a book about the production process, you learn about key issues found in the academic literature on the theory of the firm. In this case, the focus is on the global financial services industry, where the building blocks underpinning the study of industrial corporations are less relevant. You gain an understanding of how and why the production of investment returns differs from that of manufactured goods. You are provided with an analytical framework that situates financial institutions within the complex web of the intermediaries that dominate developed financial markets. In summary, you gain further insights into analysis of the organization and management of institutional investors; as well as an analysis of the global financial services industry.