e given a significant impulse in this direction by redefining products on a world basis (Balasubramanyam & Greenaway, 1992, p. 176). To obtain competitive advantages in global industries, all producers, including those in other countries, must be taken into account. Market integration means that choices in design, purchasing, and assignment of production and distribution tasks must all be assumed and coordinated on a global scale to gain competitive advantages.
In global industries competitive advantages derive in large part from the integration and coordination on an international scale of the various activities of the value chain, while in the so-called multi-domestic markets the competitive advantages are specific to each country and different local strategies are adopted. In global strategy it is of vital importance to reduce total costs as well as design, production and distribution times (Mitchell, 1995, pp. 364-382).
Market globalization requires achievement of high standards of performance in quality, timeliness, total costs, and customer service. To reach these levels of performance simultaneously it is necessary to change and improve all the phases in the value chain continuously. In each phase (design, purchasing, production and distribution) these actions must involve organization and management, management systems, and technologies. The effectiveness of the change depends on the degree to which functional-type logics, focused on single operating phase, are overcome. Physical and informative processes will have to be followed with a horizontal and integrated approach (Mitchell, 1995, pp. 364-382).
With regard to manufacturing, advantages can be obtained in a global strategy through: the effective utilization of scale economies; the concentration of learning in one plant or a small number of plants; the integration of operations; the coordination or the concentration of activities to support production an...