ABSTRACT
Multinational companies are increasingly searching for new models of worldwide strategy. This is a particularly pressing concern for British and other European companies with the 1992 advent of the single European market. 1992 will change the nature of competition both inside and outside the European Community. Academic researchers have recently challenged the old model of multinational strategy, characterizing it as primarily ‘multidomestic’ in nature. Hout, Porter and Rudden (1982) defined a ‘global’ industry, in contrast to a multidomestic industry, as one in which a firm’s competitive position in one country market is significantly affected by its competitive position in other country markets. The recommended response (developed in Porter, 1986) is a combination of concentration and co-ordination of value-added activities. Bartlett and Ghoshal (1987) used a somewhat different definition – a ‘transnational industry’ is one in which businesses are driven by simultaneous demands for global efficiency, national responsiveness, and worldwide learning.
