Global Business Strategies for Responding to Cultural Differences

A major concern for managers deciding on a global business strategy is the tradeoff between global integration and local responsiveness. Global integration is the degree to which the company is able to use the same products and methods in other countries. Local responsiveness is the degree to which the company must customize their products and methods to meet conditions in other countries. The two dimensions result in four basic global business strategies: export, standardization, multidomestic, and transnational. These are shown in the figure below.