Doing business in multiple countries, rather than trying to dominate a single region or market, is a recipe for global business success.

Research by Michigan State University found this approach was especially beneficial for manufacturing industries, because there were higher costs involved with multinational expansion for service industries.

Strong physical infrastructure, government and human resources in the countries of business were also success factors, as well as businesses expanding for the right reasons (e.g. diversification).

Firm size was found to have no bearing on the success of global expansion.