ABSTRACT
International competitive strategies have been studied largely from the two perspectives of industrial organisation and organisational theory. Since the acceptance of the seminal work by Hymer (1960), the former perspective has focused attention away from the earlier concern of country patterns in investment flows towards the industry determinants of foreign direct investment. More recently, the inability of traditional theory to explain intra-industry trade has led to a similar focus on industry determinants of trade. The latter perspective of organisational theory has, on the other hand, concentrated on the managerial capability of the firm regarding the implementation of a global strategy. Recently, these two perspectives have been brought to bear jointly upon questions of the determinants of the institutional choice (e.g. intra-firm, market, or contract) by which trade and investment flows are channelled.
