Introduction

The global business environment has changed dramatically over the last decade. This is due in large measure to globalization, the power of new technologies and products, the intensity of customer expectations for low-priced, high-quality products and services, the expansion of extreme competition, and the proliferation of information and data, especially via the Internet. While such changes provide new opportunities and challenges, they are making the global business environment more complex, interconnected, interdependent, and turbulent.

The business world is undergoing spectacular upheavals. To meet the new challenges, cutting-edge business organizations are transitioning into more sophisticated and integrated business enterprises that are more cost-effective, performance-oriented, competitive, profitable, and sustainable.

Over the last decade many large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have merged and/or acquired competitors to achieve the size, strength, and position that they assume is necessary to succeed in a demanding world full of world-class competitors. Today's business entities run the gamut from powerful global giants of the developed countries to highly aggressive, fast-paced emerging companies in the developing countries who vie to be the business leaders of tomorrow. The business landscape is also characterized by the tens of thousands of SMEs and entrepreneurial companies across the world that are trying to expand their presence and positions by taking advantage of globalization and the interconnectedness of the business environment.