Expansion of BP
It is evident that we are living in a world that is rapidly changing due to the effect of globalization. The world economy is becoming a more interdependent system, thus creating a global economy that is causing the economies of the world to interact with one another as one market instead of many national markets. International business is paramount and it is becoming increasingly important in this technology-driven era. The big question is: why do companies such as BP and other firms expand internationally? Why are businesses becoming international? And why must we create global economic interdependency? More than likely, businesses expand internationally in order to have a competitive advantage over its rivals. Businesses are changing and becoming more and more global due to international competition and competitive strategy. Domestic industries are shifting to global or multinational corporations in order to overcome country parochialism. Competition should be at a global platform, rather than on a country-by-country basis because competition fosters development and efficiency.
Creating a global brand, such as BP did in a short period of time, poses several problems to a corporation. Although the foreign environment offers so many capabilities such as availability of supplies, new emerging markets that can be explored, lower labor and manufacturing costs, more access to finance capital, and even avoidance of tariffs and import quotas, other things need to be considered in order to build an effective strategy that unites all of these markets together and gives employees a sense of belonging. Repositioning a large corporation such as BP requires adaptation in order to effectively create a “global citizen” instead of just a global market. BP was able to do this successfully by changing its core values in order to create a “communication program”