The nature and extent of corporate restructuring within Europe's single market: Cutting through the hype

Although we have long crossed the '1992' political threshold it is the economic forces that will determine the true extent of European integration. This article reports on the results of a survey on corporate restructuring activity, undertaken by some of Europe's leading companies, major agents for this integration process. This article looks at different structural and organisational dimensions of restructuring across a range of value added activities, and finds that in all cases a significant amount of restructuring has taken place. Whilst there has been a major push to organise activities on a pan-European basis, the change is by no means universal with some activities, such as procurement developing along more global lines whilst the sales and service activity has become more localised. Successful European restructuring is much more complex than simple choices about the degree of rationalisation or centralisation. In designing the right portfolio of restructuring activities management should give critical attention to twc factors: the dynamics of competition in the specific industries in which a company operates and its stage of organisational development in Europe.