Summary
Economic globalization explodes in waves, often driven by technological advances and political agreements. Sea navigation and the Internet, world wars and peace treaties--these create critical moments for companies that accelerate either growth or decline. While governments may affect corporations through support, protection, opportunity, services or even restrictions, penalties and regulations, every company must ultimately choose its own strategies and actions within the broader socio-economic context. For many U.S. companies, the dramatic political transformations of the present century have made this the moment to launch international activities.
European companies have long been able to compete with U.S. companies on quality. However, their costs (largely driven by internal politics affecting the prices of material and labor) are as high as, and often higher, than the costs of U.S. companies. For the past few decades, this minimized the threat to U.S. companies by European competition. The U.S. companies most threatened were in service industries like banks and insurance. The high value of the Euro compared to the dollar has recently made European products even more expensive in the U.S., but this also means U.S. products are relatively less expensive in Europe. Savvy U.S. companies are moving quickly to expand in European markets while the exchange rate favors export. Some have found the United Kingdom can serve as a relatively easy entry to Europe due to historic interdependence, similarities in culture, and the common use of the English language.See the full content of this document
Extract
Forced Abroad
The entry of 10 new countries (mostly eastern European) to the EU is a new threat to U.S. business as the integration provides sophisticated European companies with access to less expensive labor. The ...
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