Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 The new multinationals
- 2 Traditional and new multinationals
- 3 Diversification and vertical integration in traditional industries
- 4 Market access and technology in durable consumer goods
- 5 Serving global customers in producer goods
- 6 Learning by doing in infrastructure and financial services
- 7 Competing in hard and soft services
- 8 The new multinational as a type of firm
- References
- Index
7 - Competing in hard and soft services
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 The new multinationals
- 2 Traditional and new multinationals
- 3 Diversification and vertical integration in traditional industries
- 4 Market access and technology in durable consumer goods
- 5 Serving global customers in producer goods
- 6 Learning by doing in infrastructure and financial services
- 7 Competing in hard and soft services
- 8 The new multinational as a type of firm
- References
- Index
Summary
Both the opportunity and the need for international delivery of a wide array of services have grown dramatically in recent years, either displacing or complementing parallel delivery of similar services by purely domestic operations. Some firms – such as hotel chains – follow their customers into new markets; others extend their geographic reach in search of new opportunities to increase their sales and expertise.
Lovelock (1999: 278)Investing abroad changed our mentality, and enabled us to see other countries and firms, and to improve our competitiveness because it does away with many inferiority complexes. Going abroad opens up your mind.
José Cosmen, President of ALSAInfrastructure and financial services account for the bulk of the dollar value of foreign direct investment from the service sector. In terms of the number of firms and of foreign operations, however, about half are engaged in a wide array of other service activities, including hospitality, the media, leisure, transportation, business services, consulting, education, healthcare, and so on. In the case of Spain, between 1986 and 2008 about 54 percent of all foreign operations established by Spanish service-sector firms fall under this heterogeneous category (Guillén and García-Canal 2009). This wide array of activities can be classified according to two key dimensions. The first one is the degree to which the production of the service can be separated from its consumption. “Hard” services are those that can be separated, with the important implication that it can be exported at arm's length (Erramili 1990).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New MultinationalsSpanish Firms in a Global Context, pp. 166 - 191Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010