Globalization through the Kaleidoscope by Paliwoda & Slater - Article Example

Article Review Nada Alqasem International Business class 3 17-11-2014 Introduction Globalization affects individuals, businesses, and their stakeholders. It entails all aspects of the business world, transactional and cultural interactions. Therefore, it affects the way we live and how we interrelate, regardless of where we live. According to this article, “Globalization through the kaleidoscope” by Paliwoda & Slater (2009), globalization is the concept of entering into the international spheres through trade and other important interactions either culturally, economically and technologically among others. The article discusses globalization and the strategies which can be implemented for globalization to take place, as well as the impacts of globalization. In addition, the article argues that globalization has been enabled by certain factors such as eliminating barriers to international trade. This article review therefore, will discuss the main concepts which are discussed in this article as well as providing a critique of the article. Article Summary The article begins by examining a wide range of definitions, from a wide source or writers, of the concept of globalization. For example, Globalization can be defined as the situation whereby business operations are conducted across the borders. It affects the cultural aspects of people, hence affecting people, companies and workforce (Bongiorni 2007). According to Giddens (1999), globalization can be defined as the political, technological and economic aspects which affect the business operations. According to Scholte (2000) globalization is the process that has brought shifts replacing the existing cultural structures (Scholte 2000). The article argues that there are many factors which have led to globalization. The article argues that the first driver of globalization is the elimination of barriers to international trade. This is whereby various economies have dropped the barriers which hinder foreign companies from operating in their economies. In this context, many organizations are going global due to lack of trade barriers or freedom of trade across borders. The writer also argues that the existence of free trade has led to globalization since various companies can operate from one economy to another. This implies that the local companies are going global so as to exploit the opportunities in the market which have not been exploited. On the other hand, the development of technology has also led to globalization according to the arguments of the article. Due to availability of appropriate technology, communication has been made easier since the implementation of the management information system has helped to improve sharing of information among traders. Moreover, technology has led to online shopping which implies that the global customers can shop from anywhere where they can find their needs. In addition, the article argues that globalization has been enabled by the fact that bureaucracy for conducting business in the global context has been reduced. There are fewer legal barriers which hinder the local companies from going into the international market. This is one motivation which has enabled local companies to enter global markets. The article presents how globalization can be achieved. It further reviews that the first condition in globalization is offering products which meet the international standards. The multidomestic strategy is therefore implemented by companies to enter into the global business market by establishing various manufacturing units in various countries to manufacture the products to meet the local needs. The multi domestic strategy enables the international companies to understand the local culture of the customers and then manufacture the products which meet the culture of the local customers. The article also reviews that the main issue which affects the globalization is the homogenization of markets. There are many products which are traded in the international market which can only be differentiated which is a challenge to the customers since they can find it hard to differentiate the products they want from the counterfeit products. Further the article also reviews that globalization is a phenomenon of breaking multicultural practices to enter into global market. There are 10 commandments which guide the operations in the global market. In the first place, the prosperity is generated by the economy of the market in the global context and participation in the global market is to the benefit of the citizens of the country and the treaties which are entered by organizations need to be focused and be specific. Higher standards of the products manufactured should be taken into consideration and the success of organizations depends on the ability to enter into strategic relationships. In addition, there should be a global lender considered as the last resort to salvage companies which are experiencing global financial crisis developed economies should formulate measures to support the developing economies to enter into the global market and finally the companies should learn from their mistakes despite getting help from the developed economies so that they can develop sustainable globalization strategies. Critique The authors of the article have managed to discuss important concepts regarding globalization. In the first place, they validated the sources of data used and this implies that the data presented is reliable since the various sources of data are acknowledged. The perspective of the writer is valid depending on the quality of ideas which have been presented. Moreover, the authors have provided the benefits of globalization like benefiting individuals and countries which encourages countries to support corporations to enter into global market. In this context, the main argument of the article is globalization and the factors that have led to globalization. The article has tried to provide the main concepts and drivers of globalization which have led to many local companies to enter into global markets. Despite discussing the main drivers of globalization, the author did not discuss competition as the main driver of globalization. This implies that the author did not exploit discussing all the drivers of globalization since competition in the domestic markets is the main reason why companies are going global through international marketing (Bongiorni 2007). Moreover, the article has provided room for argument in that the research has not been exploited since there are ideas which have not been discussed like the benefits of globalizations as well as the critical success factors. This is because the author did not exhaust the various concepts of globalization which should be considered by an organization which wants to go global (Dunning 2003). For instance, the article did not discuss the legal framework for expanding the business in the global market as the balance between corporations in developed economies and the corporations from developing economies when it comes to globalization benefits. Despite the authors discussing extensively the concepts of globalization, there are some concepts which were not tackled which are important for any organization which wants to global. The article did not consider the opportunities and risks of various strategies that can be used by companies to enter into the global market (Rugman 2000). The article should have provided the internationalization strategies and the benefits associated with them which are effective for the readers and organizations to understand the strategies which can be used to enter into the global market. Moreover, the article did not focus on the corporations from developing economies; instead it focused on corporations from developed economies. This implies that the author was biased when collecting and analyzing the information. Furthermore, the author did not focus on the challenges facing organizations operating in the global market instead it focused only on homogenization of the products as the only problem which affects the companies operating in the global business. Further, the authors did not focus on the roles of WTO in regulating the business operations in the global context. The roles of the organization should be strengthened so that it can be able to regulate international trade appropriate like hiring qualified and adequate personnel to implement the policies (Galbraith 2001). There are many challenges which the author of the article could have discussed like cost of advertising in the global market as well as the effect of competition on the performance of organizations in the developing economies. From these criticisms, it is evident that there is room for further research regarding globalization. It is important to conduct more research to determine the benefits and drawbacks of entering into the global business and the procedure that is involved in globalization (MacGillivray 2006). The article is useful in decision making by organization which are considering going global. The article is useful in providing important information to the international corporations. This is because the issues of globalization have been reviewed hence the article is of great benefit to the multinational corporations. Conclusion Globalization is the process of expanding business into global markets. According to this article, the drivers of globalization include elimination of trade barriers, technology advancement and development of free trade. Multi domestic internationalization strategy has been presented by the author as the main entry strategy. The globalization problem as discussed by the article is homogenization. The information presented in this article is important to multinational corporations as they will be able to understand the dynamics in the business environment. However, it is recommended that environmental scanning should first be conducted before making a decision to enter into global market. The authors could have improved the information by discussing the internal and external environmental factors which influence globalization. The tools which they could have used to discuss the business environment are SWOT and PESTEL analysis. References Bongiorni, S. (2007). A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Dunning, J. (2003). Making Globalisation Good: The Moral Challenges of Global Capitalism. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Galbraith, K. (2001). Globalisation: Making Sense of an Integrating World. Economist Books: London. MacGillivray, A. (2006). Globalisation. Constable & Robinson: London Paliwoda, S. and Slater, S. (2009). Globalisation through the kaleidoscope. International Marketing Review, 26(4/5), pp.373-383. Rugman, A. (2000). The End of Globalisation. Random House Business Books: London. Scholte, J. (2000). Globalisation: A Critical Introduction. Palgrave: Basingstoke. Read More