Globalization Revisited: The Case of Uniqueness and "Creative Industries"

AbstractThe debate about the extent of globalization of firms and markets continues to be a major research area within international business (Rugman 2000). Rugman and Verbeke (2003) have provided compelling evidence for a tendency to regionalization rather than globalization for the large majority of FT500 firms.This paper argues that there are exceptions to this general rule, namely where intellectual assets and other drivers of uniqueness lead to a strong globalization pull on the demand side while global sourcing and production provide a strong globalization push on the supply side. This happens in "creative industries": industries with strong brands and unique products, industries such as music, film, media, consumer electronics, fashion and software.Key resultsFirms in these "creative industries" show a greater tendency to globalization, due to a number of factors: high up front investment in product, brand and promotion, network effects and product / brand uniqueness.