Global business is where strategy meets geography. Five major geographic factors drive the international business. First, the features of the home-country influence its competitive performance. Second, the features of the countries where it engages in production and transactions with suppliers shape the company's competitive potential. Third, the features of the countries where it serves customers determine demand for the company's products. Fourth, the features of the countries where the company has partners that provide complementary goods and services affect the company's productive efficiency and appeal to customers. Finally, competitors' home countries, supplier countries, customer countries, and partner countries impact the competitive advantage of the international business.

Managers face significant challenges in designing global competitive strategy. To obtain the necessary information, the global business manager performs a “Star Analysis.” The manager examines five major international geographic factors: the features of the company's home country, supplier countries, customer countries, partner countries, and the features of competitor countries. These five drivers are represented in figure 2.1.

These five major factors provide the country context of global business strategy. The manager should understand when the features of its home country enhance and constrain its strategic choices and when the company transcends its home country. The manager must determine how the features of supplier countries affect where the firm procures goods and services and carries out manufacturing. The manager should also be fully aware of how the features of target countries affect the firm's relationships with its customers.