Final answer:
Nike sells shoes in the U.S. that are made in Southeast Asia through global sourcing to take advantage of lower labor rates, which is part of the larger trends of outsourcing and offshoring driven by globalization.
Step-by-step explanation:
When Nike sells shoes in the United States that are made in Southeast Asia to capitalize on lower labor rates, Nike is engaging in global sourcing. Global sourcing is a strategy where a company procures goods and services from locations around the globe to take advantage of local efficiencies, such as lower wages, specialized labor, reduced costs of material, and tax breaks. This is part of a broader trend driven by globalization, where companies look for cost savings through practices such as outsourcing and offshoring.
Outsourcing is when a company contracts an outside firm to perform tasks that could have been done internally, while offshoring is the relocation of a business process or production line to a foreign country. Global sourcing, benefiting from these lower costs, can result in job losses in the company's home country due to plants and operations being moved to countries with cheaper labor markets, contributing to the globalization of manufacturing and service industries.