Globalization is one of the most important phenomena of the recent past and of the future. The term “Globalization” describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies and cultures are becoming more integrated through a dramatically increased global network of technological, economic, political and cultural exchanges. In specifically economic contexts, the term refers to the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, particularly trade liberalization or free trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration and the spread of technology. This worldwide phenomenon of interaction among the countries is driven largely by advances in communication, transportation and legal infrastructure as well as the political choice of countries to open cross-border links in international trade and finance. Due to many difficulties that a globalization strategy faces another term has developed in recent years called “Glocalization”. In contrast to globalization, the glocalization strategy, which means thinking globally but acting Continue reading
International Business Strategies
Case Study: Google’s Quest for Competitive Advantage
In 1996 two computer science PhD students at Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were wondering how they could sort through the massive amount of information that was starting to appear on the Web to find specific and useful information on a topic. Although there were several different technologies, or search engines, available to search the Web for information, none of them seemed particularly useful to Brin and Page because they failed to distinguish between useful and trivial Web sites. Brin and Page decided to build a search engine that not only would examine the words on Web pages and then index them as other search engines did, but also would look at how and where these words were being used and at the number of other Web sites linked to a page. The goal was to have the search engine return a list of Web pages with the Continue reading
The Concept of Co-Sourcing
New methods of outsourcing are today redefining the way of working. Co-sourcing is a situation of partial outsourcing, in which a business function or process is performed by both internal staff and by an external party or external resources, such as consultants or outsourcing vendors, with specialized knowledge of the business function. Compared to full outsourcing, for the traditional owner of the processes, co-sourcing has advantages of staying in control, a non-transactional partnership and the ability to grow the own knowledge level of the co-sourced process. One such way is co-sourcing which is an investment relationship marked by shared objectives, shared risks and shared rewards between two companies, one of which is a service provider. Specifically, the service provider would have to help restructure the company and be willing to make new investments, while driving out costs from the co-sourcing company’s existing ways working. Although it may seem similar to Continue reading
Case Study of Dell: Primary Target Markets and Positioning Strategy
Dell is a Multinational Corporation which is headquartered in the United States of America. The company deals with computer technology devices where it designs, manufactures and distributes personal computers and other complimentary products and services. The company was formed in 1984 by Michael Dell and was initially referred to as PCs Limited. When the company was formed, they built the computers they sold from stock components but made sure that the computers were compatible with the IBM framework. However, this was changed in 1985 when they started selling their own computer designs. The first computer model that the company designed and sold in 1985 was called Turbo PC. These first models were custom assembled according to customer requests. In order to market their computers, the company advertised them in computer magazines that had a national outlook. The company was however rebranded to Dell Inc. in the year 2003 in order Continue reading
Factors to Consider in a Cross-border Merger or Acquisition
Cross border mergers and acquisitions are playing an important role in the growth of international production. Not only they dominate FDI flows in developing countries, they have also begun to take hold as a mode of entry into developing countries and economies in transition. Although the basic merger or acquisition is the same worldwide, undertaking a cross-border transaction is more complex than those conducted ‘‘in market’’ because of the multiple sets of laws, customs, cultures, currencies, and other factors that impact the process. How should the Transaction be Financed? The financial structure of the transaction might be impacted by which country the target is in. For example, from a valuation perspective, ‘‘flowback’’ can have a negative impact on the acquirer’s stock price and cause regulatory problems (i.e. stock ‘‘flowing’’ back to the acquirer’s home jurisdiction). Other types of considerations include the change in the nature of the investments held by Continue reading
Case Study: The Daewoo Group and the Asian Financial Crisis
In 1999, Daewoo Group Korea’s second largest chaebol, or family-owned conglomerate, collapse under $57 billion in debt and was forced to split into independent companies. The Asian financial crisis and its aftermath finally took its toll on the expansion-minded Daewoo and forced both Daewoo and the Korean government to decide how to dissolve the chaebol. Kim Woo-Choong started Daewoo in 1967 as a small textile company with only five employees and $10,000 in capital. In just 30 years, Mr. Kim had grown Daewoo into a diversified company with 250,000 employees worldwide as well as over 30 domestic companies and 300 overseas subsidiaries that generated sales of more than $100 billion annually. However, some estimated that Daewoo and its subcontractors employed 2.5 million people in Korea. Although Daewoo started in textiles, it quickly moved into other fields, first heavy and chemical industries in the 1970s, and then technology intensive industries in Continue reading