At this juncture, there is much doubt about the future growth of international business. There are three viewpoints : 1- that globalization is inevitable, 2- that international business will grow primarily along regional rather than global lines, and (3) that forces against globalization will greatly slow its growth.

The view of the inevitability of globalization is based largely on the premise that technical advances in transportation and communication are pervasive, so much so that consumers will demand the best possible products. Further, because MNEs have so many international production and distribution networks in place, they will pressure their home governments to place fewer rather than more restrictions on the international movement of goods and the means to produce them.

In 2004 The Wall Street Journal surveyed all 32 living Nobel Prize winners in economics. One of the questions the newspaper asked them was; What is the greatest economic challenge for the future?. Robert Fogel mentioned the problem of getting available technology and food to people who are needlessly dying. Milton Friedman cited holding down the size and scope of government. Akerlof named global warming. William Sharpe suggested financing health care and retirement. Both Vernon Smith and Harry Markowitz specified the need to bring down barriers to global trade. John Nash referred to the problem of increasing the standard of living with a shrinking amount of the Earths surface per person.

The second view that growth will be largely regional rather than global, is premised on studies showing that almost all companies we think of as global conduct a dominant portion of their business in their home and neighboring countries. Further, most world trade is reginal and many treaties to remove trade barriers are enacted on a regional basis. However regionalization of either companies or countries international business may be a transition stage. In other words, companies may first promote international business in nearby countries but expand from there once theyve reached their regional goals.

The third view is that the growth of globalization will slow or may already be in the midst of collapse. Although most governments are embracing openness to international trade and investment, we have discussed of the anti-globalization sentiments that are strong and vocal. Many people are demonstrating at meetings of international organizations such as the World Bank and the WTO. Further affected groups in many countries are pressuring their governments to promote nationalism by raising barriers to trade and forgoing participation international organizations and treaties. Looking historically, we see that pressure groups have often been successful (even though temporarily) in obstructing either technology or international trade that threatened their own well-being.

QUESTIONS

1. What is your standpoint on the future of worlds greatest economic problem? And why?
2. Looking to the future, name your opinions on the fate of globalization. (You can Refer to Brexit, Techno firms initiatives all along the world, Power of Multi-National Corporations, Wage-Dependent Society and other developments in the world business environment in the recent years)