Large firms develop strategies in the context of increasingly intense international competition. However, the impact of foreign competition on firm boundaries has received surprisingly little research attention to date. Florian Gröne provides a systematic assessment of mounting import and FDI pressure’s influence on large US and German enterprises and explains how and why firms change their product scope, geographic footprint, and value chain configuration as a result.

Dr. Florian Gröne completed his doctoral studies at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Chair of Corporate Strategy and Electronic Media Management, Vallendar/Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Thomas Hutzschenreuter. He currently works as a management consultant with a focus on the communications-, Internet/media- and information technology industries.