International Strategy: Context, Concepts and Implications

PREFACE

PERSPECTIVE

This book is designed for executives in companies that compete across national borders who wish to make valuable contributions to every discussion about their company's international strategy.

The decision maker it is written for is a senior manager within a multinational. This does not imply that the ideas apply only to large firms. That decision maker could as easily be the CEO of an Internet startup who is interested in expanding overseas, as the head of Unilever, Sharp, or Ford.

While the unit of analysis might occasionally shift from the firm to the country, the book takes as given the differences we see around the world – differences of geography, culture, economic policy, and institutional structures. This book is less about how the world economy is becoming more interdependent or what social, political, and economic forces are at work.¹ Instead, the book is concerned with how managers can effectively create shareholder value in the world today given all these differences and drivers.

This book is not about international trade theory, although the economics of comparative advantage and international trade under imperfect competition underpin it. Nor is it about international business in the sense of “how to” open an office in a foreign country, or the legal requirements of doing business in different countries, although those idiosyncrasies and vagaries are the background for the text. Neither is it about the specific functional aspects of international ...