Journal of Business Strategy

Heenan, David A.

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039538

It's getting down to decision time. The U.S. Congress will soon vote on the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA. The October 1992 accord, hammered out after many months of intense negotiation, would eliminate nearly all tariffs and other trade barriers between the United States, Canada, and Mexico over the next 15 years. A mammoth free trade zone from Canada's Yukon Territory south to Mexico's Yucatan peninsula would form the world's largest and richest trading blocencompassing 360 million people and economies that annually produce 6.6 trillion in goods and services.

Davidson, Kenneth M.

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039539

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it's not fluctuations in the stock market that have put the American economy in jeopardy. It's the fact that American firms persist in pursuing shortterm profits and high stock prices.

Robert, Michel

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039540pmid: 10125347

Corporate America has never been as engrossed in the techniques and formulas of competitive analysis and strategy as it has been over the last 10 to 15 years. At the same time that U.S. firms were losing large parcels of strategic ground to Japanese and German companies, prominent organizations and individuals throughout American business were busy lining up behind a number of popular business theories, most notably

Plessinger Craig, Patricia

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039541pmid: 10125348

THE PROBLEM A number of corporations that responded to the competitive pressures of the 1980s and early 1990s by reorganizing and rightsizing are dissatisfied with the results.

Dykes, Hugh

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039542

To the surprise of many observers, the European Community is not a fortress. Though it's not exactly an open house, this enormous, diverse, and now unified market has clearly got a drawbridge out, ready to facilitate free trade.

Niemans, Jan

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039543

It is tempting to think of the countries of Central Europe as one homogeneous region. But their prewar stages of economic development varied greatly, their communistera experience varied significantly, their ethnic and linguistic differences are as great as those between Great Britain and Spain, and the distance between Gdansk in northern Poland and Szeged in southern Hungary is greater than that between Frankfurt and Rome.

Egen, Richard B.

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039544

Since 1985, notes a recent McKinsey & Co. study, the formation of international joint ventures involving American corporations has increased by 27 a year. However, the study adds, at least a third of those fail to meet the expectations of the companies involved.

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039545

Western Europe's unification efforts have transformed the area into an essential market for many international companies. At the same time, the breakup of the former Soviet Union has opened the door to many Eastern European economies previously off limits to Western investors. Companies that have invested in Eastern Europein some cases to supply Western European marketshave had to grapple with a host of unique challenges. Yet, some have achieved notable successes.

Hiam, Alexander

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039546

Spurred by globalization, the maturation of consumer markets, the greater number of products and marketing messages in every market, the accelerating advance of technology, and the shortening of product life cycles, today's business environment is increasingly complex. It's become, in the words of H. Igor Ansoff, a professor at the United States International University in San Diego, highly turbulent.

Spendolini, Michael J.

1993 Journal of Business Strategy

doi: 10.1108/eb039547pmid: 10125350

There is nothing that can wreck a wellintentioned benchmarking plan faster than selecting the wrong people for the team. Take the company that chose staff members who didn't have enough credibility within the organization to sell their benchmarking team's recommendations to senior management. The team did an excellent job, but without the clout to get their recommendations approved, their efforts failed.