International Business Strategy: Reasons and Forms of Expansion Into ForeignMarkets

During the last half of the twentieth century, many barriers to international trade fell and a wave of firms began pursuing global strategies to gain a competitive advantage. However, some industries benefit more from globalization than do others, and some nations have a comparative advantage over other nations in certain industries. To create a successful global strategy, managers first must understand the nature of global industries and the dynamics of global competition. The paper presents the problem of international business strategy. First, the authors define a concept of international strategy and gives some reasons why do companies go international and how they do it (entry strategy). The paper includes the case study of international strategy used by IKEA and attempts to explain when firms should standardize or adopt their products to foreign market. After that, the authors show some examples of joint venture and international alliances.