Internationalisation of German Multinationals

Germany benefits more than any other country from open world markets and their internationalintegration. As a consequence, worldwide trade and cross-boarder investments arethe most important conditions for domestic growth, employment and wealth and Germanfirms are unabatedly going international.1This internationalisation process is impressively illustrated by means of the supply chain ofGerman automobile producer BMW: The design of the BMW 3 series is from Italy, whilecylinder heads are manufactured in Norway and the headlights are provided by Frenchsuppliers. Although the 3 series is put together in Germany, the assembly of other seriestakes place at other locations, such as the UK. Moreover, several labour intensive componentsare manufactured in low cost countries, such as Thailand, Russia and India.2 TheBMW Group’s internationalisation process started with the entry into important marketssuch as France, Italy, Austria, USA and South Africa. Later on, other markets in the northernpart of Europe, Asia and Latin America followed. Today the BMW Group is present allover the world and operates sales branches, R&D, assembly works and production facilitiesoverseas.