ABSTRACT
A dialogue on globalisation needs to be framed by informed commentary based on empirical evidence. In a wide variety of previous publications, I have presented data showing that the vast majority of world economic activity is organised within the triad regions and not globally. Yet many authors still fail to address this empirical evidence on the lack of globalisation. I suggest that my fellow scholars need to confront the lack of evidence on globalisation. More recently I have shown that the vast majority of the world’s 500 largest multinational enterprises operate intra-regionally. They average 75 per cent of their sales in their home region and 85 per cent of their foreign assets are also in their home region of the triad. In this chapter I explore some unresolved aspects of the economic, social and business implications of the regional nature of the world’s multinationals. From a business school viewpoint, my main concern is to debunk the notion of global strategy and present a case for corporate level regional strategy. This implies that public policy should also reflect the observed empirical reality of regional business activity.
