Dramatic changes are taking place in the world of international business as we enter the twenty-first century. Increasing levels of international trade and foreign direct investment, the growth of huge multinational corporations and the emergence of new centres of economic prosperity are all evident. Businesses are faced with the challenge of having to survive and succeed in this competitive environment. This book looks specifically at the question of how firms attain a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in a global environment characterised by above average levels of geographic scope, marketing convergence and cross-national interdependencies. The author: * Reviews international business literature. * Integrates insights from organization theory, economics, strategic management and international business into a resource-based model of advantage. * Tests this model on a sample of firms in the automotive industry in Europe, the United States and Japan, with promising results. * Uses the results to provide an alternative to the largely positioning-based views of competitive advantage that prevail in current literature. * Discusses the implications of the study for research and practice. This work will be of essential interest to academics and researchers in the fields of international strategy and international business.