Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in A World Where Differences Still Matter

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Semiglobalization and Strategy

The globalization of markets is at hand. With that, the multinational commercial world nears its end, and so does the multinational corporation … The multinational corporation operates in a number of countries, and adjusts its products and processes in each, at high relative cost. The global corporation operates with resolute constancy … it sells the same things in the same way everywhere.

—Ted Levitt, “The Globalization of Markets,” 1983

A QUARTER OF A CENTURY after Ted Levitt’s bold pronouncements, excitement about the globalization of markets has given way to excitement about the globalization of production.¹ But what has remained constant is the vision of a globalization apocalypse, sweeping ...