Chelsea McCann

1. Describe the shifts in the world economy over the last 30 years. What are the implications of these shifts for international businesses based in Great Britain? North America? Hong Kong?

As stated in chapter 1, Along with globalization, there has been a significant change in demographics of the global economy over the last 30 years. The aspects that contributed to demographics throughout the 1960’s were U.S. dominance in the world economy, world trade picture, world foreign direct investment, and on the international business scene. Also, much of the world economies were off-limits to Western international business.

The demographics of the multinational enterprise have displayed not only a rise of non-U.S. multinationals but also a growth of mini-multinationals. In 1973, 48.5 percent of the 260 largest multinationals in the world were U.S. firms. The second leading country with the largest multinationals was the UK. While these countries, along with France, Germany and Japan, are still determined to be the largest multinationals, developing countries are on the rise. Firms from these developing countries are expected to give rise to leading competitors, which would continue to shift the world economy away from North America and Great Britain.

The United States’ share of the world output has decreased from 40.3% in 1963. The decline has been a result of the growing industrialization of countries such as Great Britain, North America and Hong Kong.

Competition has increased dramatically due to these developing countries. Their ability to provide efficient labor for much less creates a problem for the United States. Hong Kong’s location provides easy access to markets in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and other Asian markets.

North America and Great Britain are both much less dominant than they were 30 years ago. All aspects