1) The process that has enabled investment in financial markets to be carried out on an international basis. It has come about as a result of improvements in technology and deregulation; with globalization, for example, investors in London can buy shares or bonds directly from Japanese brokers in Tokyo rather than passing through intermediaries.

See also:

disintermediation.

2) The process by which the world economy has become dominated by powerful multinational enterprises operating across national and geographical barriers. The emergence since the 1980s of a single world market in which companies can easily move their operations from one country to another to take advantage of factors such as lower labour costs has affected the ability of national governments to order their own economic affairs. The benefits and drawbacks of this process, and the extent to which it may be controlled or influenced, are the subject of much controversy.

3) The internationalization of products and services by large firms, so that the same product can be marketed in many different countries, usually with the same brand name and imagery.

4) The consideration of business in terms of an international value chain.

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