Business Globalization

Purpose - This paper examines the threads that bind the firm to the globalization process.

Methodology - A range of literature is reviewed to develop an insight into the impact of internationalisation upon business stakeholders. The analysis highlights the opportunities and threats facing the business, which originate from its interactions with these globalised interest groups.

Findings - Employees benefit from the transformed workplace, from traditional setting to culture-rich environment. However some workers experience a new type of marginalisation, as they struggle to join the global melting pot. Customers enjoy access to international products, as governments welcome imports and overseas investment. Unfortunately their growing preference for a global lifestyle may starve their domestic industries of income and damage their local economy in the longer term. State intervention attempts to control the positive and negative effects of globalization on employees, customers, and general society. Government policy and public spending is designed to attract mobile capital, but often brings improved infrastructure and beneficial legislation for the domestic nation. Although the risks of social disharmony and unequal division of global wealth do exist, the developed countries continue to live the global dream and the developing countries continue to strive for it.

Conclusions - Globalization affects different stakeholders in different ways, and the business experiences the same forces through its stakeholders. Workers make the product and customers buy the product, and other interest groups mould the commercial environment via more complex mechanisms such as business competition and social values. Cultural imperialism kept domestic and foreign traders apart and profits arose from maximising the gap between input costs and output values. Globalization will force them increasingly together, and the firm's ability to tap into the global consciousness of its stakeholders will ensure its survival. On balance, this paper finds a marginally stronger case against globalization.