Describe the shifts in the world economy over the past 30 years. What are the implications of these shifts for international businesses based in Great Britain?

There has been a drastic change and shift in the world economy over the past 30 years.

There is a migration from a world where national economies were once self-contained entities, separated and isolated from each other due to some barriers like time zones, distance, government regulations, investments, language and business systems.

During the 1960s, there were four stylized facts that described the demographics of the global economy.

First, the U.S dominated the world economy and the world trade.

The second was the U.S dominance in the world foreign direct investment picture.

Thirdly, was the dominance of large, multinational U.S companies in the international business scene.

Although, the U.S is still dominating world's economy, but it's share of world output and world's export has declined since 1960.

It doesn't spell doom for U.S economy but rather reveals the growth in industralization in developing and growing economies like China, South Korea, India, etc.

Shifts in the world economy can be spotted in the shifts in multinational enterprises.

Two major trends are found in the demographics of the multinational enterprises.

One is seen in the rise of non-U.S multinationals especially the Japanese multinationals.

Secondly, is the emergence of small and medium-sized multinationals.

These shifts are seen in the fall of the Communist in Eastern Europe and the republic of the former Soviet Union.

The implications of these trends are similar to U.S and Britain. These had been the big players in the international scene. But that has changed. To win orders, the U.S and Britain have to compete with competitors around the world.

There is great opportunities for companies in Hong Kong to seriously pursue export market due to the decline in the influence of the U.S and Britain in the world economy.

We can say that we are moving to a world where barriers to cross-border trade and investments are declining, perceived distances are being eliminated due to the advances in transportation and technology and national economies are merging into interdependent, integrated global economic system.