Contributions from the international business strategy literature are synthesized and integrated with literature on organizational structure and information system architecture. While international strategies based on the global integration-local responsiveness framework put forth in the 1980s by Prahalad and Doz are well developed, the role of organizational structure and its relationship with strategy are still unclear. The role and impact of information architecture on the strategy-structure relationship are even less understood. Drawing on well developed theory and research in each of these areas, organizational gestalts or configurations are developed. These emerging gestalts, we believe, will provide valuable theoretical tools for integrating different aspects of international strategic actions, and should encourage investigation and debate on the role and impact of strategy, structure, and architecture. We theorize that four distinct gestalts emerge, and we base our arguments on the premise that consistency within gestalts is an important factor affecting performance.
