Introduction

During the past half-century, “globalization” has become a very pervasive tendency. It increasingly involves all parts of the world, including emerging economies such as China and India and many developing countries. It is increasingly invading all segments of business (from manufacturing to logistics, research and development, management, etc.). This growing interconnectedness and fragmentation is largely induced by a considerable decrease in transport cost (both sea and air) and communication costs (mainly because of the Internet).