ABSTRACT
While to some people the continued or growing prevalence of globalization might seem like a given, others rightly point out that resistance to globalization is also growing, making its continued advance anything but a foregone conclusion. For the past 70 years, the world has been on a steady march towards freer markets, greater trade, and ever-higher levels of FDI. It’s one thing to have access to another country’s markets because of liberalized trade policies, but to actually capture that access opportunity you need to get your goods to those markets at a cost and at a speed that is competitive with the local players. Given how large the world is, communication between headquarters and subsidiaries, as well as between and among subsidiaries, is essential for effective global business operations. Even though the cost of globalization in terms of transportation and communications has come down, building a global business or even participating in global trade is not free; it takes capital.
