Levitt Emphasized Markets but Manufacturing Leads the Way

In this chapter a summary comment is offered on the global integration versus local responsiveness issue from both theoretical and commercial perspectives. The issue is introduced through reference to its theoretical development in the marketing and business strategy literatures, followed by an equally brief reality check by noting a few contemporary business decisions, apparently made with the need for enhanced local responsiveness in mind. There then follows a closer look at some specific, heavily foreign-invested industries in which both global versus local tensions might reasonably be expected to be present and informative. These are the Thai auto industry and the Chinese computer and optical frame industries. Using only publicly available information, it will be seen that at the present stage of world development the globalization of supply chains and of manufacturing is probably moving faster than the much earlier-heralded globalization of markets; and that the latter will experience intensified competition leading to enhanced local responsiveness.