CIAO DATE: 07/2008

European Multinationals: A Globalization Scorecard

Stephen Thomsen

March 2008

Global competition requires a global response, and European firms are now at the forefront of attempts to become internationally diversified multinational enterprises.
European firms have been accused at various times of being too focused on their integrating regional market or too tied by historical links with certain countries or regions to develop a genuinely global strategy.
Yet figures for foreign direct investment suggest not only that European firms have invested far more abroad than their American and Japanese rivals, but that they have also done so in far more countries.
Of particular relevance for long-term profitability, European enterprises have a much stronger presence in emerging markets than either US or Japanese firms. Europe has in turn received more inward investment from those countries than either the United States or Japan.
These growing links between Europe and emerging economies could provide European firms with a competitive edge in what are the most promising markets of the future.

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