استراتژی منطقه ای و فروپاشی جهانی شدن

The controversy over globalization and its implications for strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) would disappear if authors would look at the evidence. Both aggregate data and firm-level data indicate that globalization is a myth however defined. Instead, the world's business is mainly conducted within the triad economic blocks of the European Union (EU), North America, and Asia. MNEs perform internationally, but the vast majority has an average of 80% of their sales within their home region of the triad. Professors of international business need to refocus from global strategy towards new thinking about triad strategy.

The evidence is in and it shows that globalization is a myth. At an aggregate level, the intraregional trade of each of the “triad” regions of Europe, North America, and Asia is the majority of trade for each of these economic blocks. For 2000, intraregional exports were 62% for the European Union (EU), 56% for NAFTA, and 56% for Asia. Furthermore, there is a growing trend towards regionalism over the last 25 years. Perhaps even more interesting is that the lack of globalization can now be shown at firm level. Across the world's 500 largest companies, a startling 72% of all sales are within their home region. Representatives of a stunning lack of global sales activity are as follows:

The evidence is that the world economy is now a triad one; the economic regions of North America, the EU, and Asia dominate international business. Both aggregate data and disaggregated data on the sales of the world's largest MNE show the regional pattern of economic activity. What does this mean for globalization? The lack of globalization means that scholars of international business need to be careful in distinguishing regional triad strategies from true global strategy. Above all, before rushing to write about globalization, it is necessary to look at the evidence.