IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v11y2002i2p231-250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Business unit strategies between regionalisation and globalisation

Author

Listed:
  • Proff, H.

Abstract

Although in both the economic literature and in practice the most frequently used catchword is "globalisation", the current company environment in reality is not characterised by such worldwide multilateralism or an increasing degree of homogeneity in customers' tastes. Instead, a trend towards regionalism ("regionalisation") has become evident recently, especially with the current formation of new regional integrations outside the triad-markets, especially in East Asia, South America, and Southern Africa. Nevertheless, some indications point to a transition from regionalisation to globalisation in the long run. Above all, a cluster analysis of environmental conditions in the member countries of these new regional integrations already reveals a degree of inter-regional homogeneity, which characterises the current regionalisation as an "open" rather than a "closed" aggressive stabilisation of trading blocks. Although the transition towards globalisation lies beyond even the most long-term strategic planning, companies have to concentrate their current strategies on an "open" multi-regional economic setting. On the business unit level, this opens possibilities for strengthening hybrid advantages of low costs and differentiation as well as a regiocentric (dual) international orientation for many companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Proff, H., 2002. "Business unit strategies between regionalisation and globalisation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 231-250, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:231-250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593101000579
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quah, Danny T., 1996. "Regional convergence clusters across Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 951-958, April.
    2. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    3. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1995. "The Politics of Free-Trade Agreements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 667-690, September.
    4. Proff, Heike, 2000. "Hybrid strategies as a strategic challenge -- the case of the German automotive industry," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 541-553, October.
    5. Costas Megir & Danny Quah, 1996. "Regional Convergence Clusters Across Europe," CEP Discussion Papers dp0274, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. World Bank, 2000. "Global Economic Prospects and the Developing Countries 2000," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14776, December.
    7. Karmokolias, Y., 1990. "Automotive Industry Trends and Prospects for Investment in Developing Countries," Papers 7, World Bank - International Finance Corporation.
    8. International Monetary Fund, 1992. "Regional Trade Arrangements," IMF Occasional Papers 1992/005, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Ethier, Wilfred J, 1998. "The New Regionalism," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(449), pages 1149-1161, July.
    10. Kathryn Rudie Harrigan, 1985. "An application of clustering for strategic group analysis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(1), pages 55-73, January.
    11. Bac, Mehmet & Raff, Horst, 1997. "A theory of trade concessions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-4), pages 483-504, May.
    12. Quah, Danny, 1996. "Regional Convergence Clusters Across Europe," CEPR Discussion Papers 1286, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Bhagwati, Jagdish & Greenaway, David & Panagariya, Arvind, 1998. "Trading Preferentially: Theory and Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(449), pages 1128-1148, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Ulrich Gilbert & Patrick Heinecke, 2014. "Success Factors of Regional Strategies for Multinational Corporations: Exploring the Appropriate Degree of Regional Management Autonomy and Regional Product/Service Adaptation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 54(5), pages 615-651, October.
    2. Rugman, Alan M. & Oh, Chang Hoon, 2010. "Does the regional nature of multinationals affect the multinationality and performance relationship?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 479-488, October.
    3. Schmid, Stefan & Kotulla, Thomas, 2011. "50 years of research on international standardization and adaptation--From a systematic literature analysis to a theoretical framework," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 491-507, October.
    4. de Jong, Gjalt & van Houten, Jerry, 2014. "The impact of MNE cultural diversity on the internationalization-performance relationship," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 313-326.
    5. de Jong, Gjalt & Phan, T. Binh & van Ees, Hans, 2011. "Does the meta-environment determine firm performance? Theory and evidence from European multinational enterprises," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 454-465, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kerstin Enflo & Per Hjertstrand, 2009. "Relative Sources of European Regional Productivity Convergence: A Bootstrap Frontier Approach," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 643-659.
    2. Rok Spruk, 2021. "Regional convergence and trade liberalization under weak state capacity: evidence from Mexico," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 18(2), pages 173-216, December.
    3. David L. Ellison, 2007. "Subnational regionalism in a supranational context: the case of Hungary," IWE Working Papers 177, Institute for World Economics - Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    4. Xinyue Ye & Sergio Rey, 2013. "A framework for exploratory space-time analysis of economic data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 50(1), pages 315-339, February.
    5. Vicente Rios Ibañez, 2014. "What drives regional unemployment convergence?," ERSA conference papers ersa14p924, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Mihály Borsi & Norbert Metiu, 2015. "The evolution of economic convergence in the European Union," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 657-681, March.
    7. Massimiliano Affinito, 2011. "Convergence clubs, the euro-area rank and the relationship between banking and real convergence," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 809, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. Théophile T. Azomahou & Jalal El Ouardighi & Phu Nguyen Van & Thi Kim Cuong Pham, 2006. "Estimation semi-paramétrique de la convergence des régions européennes," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(2), pages 97-110.
    9. Belke, Ansgar & Haskamp, Ulrich & Setzer, Ralph, 2016. "Regional bank efficiency and its effect on regional growth in “normal” and “bad” times," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 413-426.
    10. Leone Leonida & Leone Leonida & Daniel Montolio, 2003. "Public Capital, Growth and Convergence in Spain. A Counterfactual Density Estimation Approach," Working Papers 2003/3, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    11. Danny Quah, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," CEP Discussion Papers dp0280, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Barrios, Salvador & Strobl, Eric, 2009. "The dynamics of regional inequalities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 575-591, September.
    13. Burhan Can Karahasan, 2020. "Can neighbor regions shape club convergence? Spatial Markov chain analysis for Turkey," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 117-131, August.
    14. Alejandro Rodriguez Caro & Santiago Rodriguez Feijoó & Carlos Gonzalez Correa, 2005. "Markov Chain approach to Purchasing Power Convergence in the 15 European Union," ERSA conference papers ersa05p457, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Mariusz Próchniak & Bartosz Witkowski, 2006. "Modelowanie realnej konwergencji w skali międzynarodowej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 10, pages 1-31.
    16. Gregory Corcos & Massimo Del Gatto & Giordano Mion & Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, 2012. "Productivity and Firm Selection: Quantifying the ‘New’ Gains from Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(561), pages 754-798, June.
    17. Forte, Anabel & Peiró-Palomino, Jesús & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2015. "Does social capital matter for European regional growth?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 47-64.
    18. Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2006. "Factor decomposition of spatial disparities: The case of the European regions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 18(6), pages 1-6.
    19. G Ottaviano & Diego Puga, 1997. "Agglomeration in a global Economy: A Survey," CEP Discussion Papers dp0356, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Casella, Alessandra, 2005. "Redistribution policy: A European model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(7), pages 1305-1331, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:231-250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.