Stages of Globalization

1. Domestic Company

Market potential is limited to the home country. Production and marketing facilities are located at home only. Surplus may or may not be exported. There are no overt efforts to develop foreign markets. It may add new product lines, serve new local markets but whole planning is limited to national markets only.

Features of Domestic Company

• Their focus remains with domestic market.
• Their productions facilities remain based in home country.Their analysis is focused on the national market.
• They do not think globally and avoid taking risk in going global.
• Their top management may have traditional kind of business management competency and less global expertise.
• They perceive that there is risk in expanding into global market and thus they try to play safe and satisfied with whatever gains they are getting in domestic market.

2. International Company

Some ambitious efficient domestic companies after going beyond their domestic marketing capacities start thinking of expanding their operations in International Markets. The main strategies for entering international market is:

• Off-shoring/global outsourcing (seeking cheaper source of raw material or labour)
• Exporting
• Licensing
• Franchising
• Joint Ventures/Acquisitions
• Direct Investments

Even though they think of international markets, still they are of ethnocentric or domestic oriented. These companies adopt the strategy of locating the branches of their companies in other countries and practice the same domestic operations in foreign markets, including the same promotion, price, product etc. policies.

Features of International Company

• Focus on going beyond, domestic
• Their management remains ethnocentric with a vision to expand internationally. They extend their domestic products, domestic prices and other business practices to foreign countries.
• They keep their marketing mix constant and extend their operations to new countries.
• Their management style remains centralized for their home nation and extended top down to the overseas market country.

3. Multinational Company

After sometime, international companies realize that the domestic model and practices adopted through extension policies do not serve the purpose. The foreign customers may not prefer the products that are sold in domestic market. Hence, these companies respond to the needs of different customers in different countries and produce such goods and services  that will satisfy them.

Features of Multinational Company

• Companies when they spread their wings to more nations become multinational companies.
• Sooner or later they realize that they have to change their marketing mix according to the foreign market.
• This can also be termed as multi domestic, in which different strategies are adopted for different market.
• The management of such companies remains decentralized and even production may be in the host country.
• Performance evaluation is done at different host countries.

4. Global

The global company adopts global strategy for marketing its products. It may produce either in the home country or in any other single country and market its products throughout the world. It may also produce the products globally and market them domestically.

Features of Global

• Such companies have a global marketing strategy.
• They either produce in home country or in a single country and focus marketing globally.
• They adapt to the market conditions according to the foreign market.
• Their performance evaluation is done worldwide.

5. Transnational Company

Transnational Company operates at the global level by way of utilizing global resources to serve the global markets. It has geocentric orientation and has integrated network. Its key assets are dispersed and every sub-unit of the company contributes towards achievement of the company objectives. It produces best quality raw materials from the cheapest source in the world, process them in the country wherever it is economical and sells the finished products in those markets where prices are favourable.

Feature:

• Transnational companies have a geocentric approach, which means they think globally and act locally.
• Transnational companies collect information worldwide and scan it for use beyond geographical boundaries.
• The vision of such to grow more in a global way.
• The R&D,management,product development are shared worldwide.
• Their human resources procurement and development remains globally.