Strategy and Structure in International Multi-business Groups: Looking beyond Global Integration—Local Responsiveness

Abstract : The global integration/local responsiveness (I/R) perspective has been used for a long time and is still today essential to the understanding of the many models presented in the literature on multinational companies. We deconstruct the notions of integration and responsiveness, showing how the I/R perspective, as it is presented in the literature, is incomplete or insufficient. We then define an approach that goes beyond this perspective and discuss its applications and limitations.