Only connect: teamwork in the multinational

Multinational corporations are faced with what has been called the 'liability of foreignness'-a set of costs associated with, among other things, unfamiliar operating environments, economic, administrative and cultural differences, and with the challenges of coordination over geographic distance. In this article we draw on two case studies of multinational teams in Beijing and Bogota to analyse the realities of using locally-hired staff to help mitigate some of the liabilities of foreignness. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.