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Internationalization Of General Motors Essay

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Internationalization of General Motors This paper examines the expansion of General Motors overseas in its various phases, as well as triggers for internationalization and the problems faced during the process. The paper also considers what benefits have been achieved through international growth, and how the company can be classified with regards to Bartlett and Ghosal’s 4 typologies. Finally, the paper discusses the concept of a “world car,” meeting the demands of customers across the globe. General Motors, International; Internationalization; Globalization; Multinational; Growth Strategy; Volkswagen; Bartlett; Ghosal 1. Internationalization of GM 1.1 Early History In the early 1900’s, the first companies that would …show more content…

1.2 Multi-domestic Growth Since the incorporation of the General Motors Corporation, the company continued to grow by merger and acquisition, and began to focus more on international markets. This shift in attention was to define their internalization strategy for the years to come. The 1920s saw major acquisitions in Europe, and the company bought rights to the Opel and Vauxhall brands while establishing General Motors offices, factories, and warehouses in Germany , the UK, France, and Spain (GM.com Corporate History). . The process was duplicated on a smaller scale in selected parts of the world as well, such as Australia and New Zealand (where GM also bought rights to the Holden brand), Japan, South America (Uruguay and Brazil), the Near East (Egypt), and Africa (South Africa). The strategy adopted for this period of growth was a mutli-domestic one, meaning that each subsidiary acted autonomously while reporting to the head office in the United States. This meant that individual subsidiaries’ industrial behavior was hardly indistinguishable from local carmakers’ (Bordenave and Lung, 2002), and in this respect can be thought of as independent companies striving to contribute earnings and growth proportionate to the local market opportunity rather meeting global targets set by the head office.

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