Strategie Integration in Fragmented Environments: Social and Political Assessment by Subsidiaries of Multinational Firms

Multinational corporations (MNCs) must balance pressures for integrating globally with those for responding idiosyncratically to national environments. This unification-fragmentation tradeoff is the critical strategic issue facing managers of MNCs. It requires explicit analysis of the gains from integration (from scale economies in production and research, for example) and the costs (or opportunity costs) of ignoring socio-cultural or political differences.