Strategy is a planned set of actions that managers employ to make best use of the firm’s resources and core competencies to gain competitive advantage. When developing strategies, managers start by examining the firm’s specific strengths and weaknesses. They then analyze the particular opportunities and challenges that confront the firm. Once they understand the firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, managers then decide:

• which customers to target
• what product lines to offer
• how best to deal with competitors
• how generally to configure and coordinate the firm’s activities around the world

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe strategy in international business.
2. Understand building the global firm.
3. Describe the integration-responsiveness framework.
4. Learn to identify strategies based on the integration-responsiveness framework.
5. Understand organizatioal structure in international business.
6. Understand foreign market entry strategies.