Glocalization

Glocalization (a portmanteau of globalization and localization) is the adaptation of international products around the particularities of a local culture in which they are sold. The process allows integration of local markets into world markets.[1]

The term first appeared in a late 1980s publication of the Harvard Business Review.[2] At a 1997 conference on "Globalization and Indigenous Culture," sociologist Roland Robertson stated that glocalization "means the simultaneity --- the co-presence --- of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies."[3]

McDonald's restaurants' menus adopted the practice and customized its menus to suit local tastes in various countries. This phenomenon is the relative inverse of Americanization and the suppressing of local preferences in favor of providing goods and media whose content has been dictated by foreign entities. Glocalization can also involve the use of culturally friendly media to encourage the acceptance of foreign products among a local audience.[4]

Variety of uses

Definition

Glocalization is the adaptation of globally marketed products and services to local markets. Various analogical descriptions have been proposed, including an octopus and its tentacles,[6] a node in a network of social relations,[6] and world encirclement.

History of the concept

The concept comes from the Japanese word dochakuka, which means global localization. It originally referred to the adaptation of farming techniques to local conditions. It became a buzzword when Japanese business adopted it in the 1980s.[7] The word stems from Manfred Lange,[8] head of the German National Global Change Secretariat,[9] who used "glocal" in reference to Heiner Benking's exhibit: Blackbox Nature: Rubics Cube of Ecology at an international science and policy conference.[10][11]

The term entered use in the English-speaking world via Robertson in the 1990s, Canadian sociologists Keith Hampton and Barry Wellman in the late 1990s[12] and Zygmunt Bauman.[13] Erik Swyngedouw was another early adopter.[14]

In business

Challenges to Glocalization

To expand into new markets you need to successfully understand and adapt to the existing local environment. Each culture is different due to their customs and history, one of the hardest part of glocalisation is understanding your new market and how to be successful in it. A major part of succeeding in this is to be aware which of the four categories of society your target market falls into, is it a

  1. Traditional society such as Arab countries and Japan- these societies value collectivism, religion, tradition and heritage [15] This means that there is a large emphasis on hirachy and centralised power. This makes it hard for the management in the new country to make decisions and changes effectively and efficiently as they have to go through multiple levels of management before they are approved. In a traditional society it is also very important to network as there is pre-existing channels.[15]
  2. Rational society like Germany- these countries have individualistic values rather than collectivistic but their ideology is still shaped by their past history [15] In these countries the needs of the individual come first which makes it easy to adapt to which creates a welcoming market for new products and companies.
  3. A materialistic society which is commonly characterised as ex-communist countries.[15] This category is relatively new and was created due to the shift in culture caused by an increase in economic opportunity and mainly consists of emerging markets which makes it a perfect market place for businesses to break into as they have no existing channels.[15]
  4. Or a post modern society, this is the largest category of society which consists of countries such as New Zealand and most of western Europe. These countries are defined by having a mix of everything, they are individualists, tolerant to change and multicultural which makes their market welcoming to new products and companies.[15]

It is important to note and understand that countries are constantly evolving and may switch societies, for example the Chinese culture has changed from being a strictly traditional society to being a materialistic society, this is a result of emerging economic opportunities.[15]

Glocalisation works best for companies which have decentralised authority.[15] This means that countries like Japan where the hierarchal system is reinforced into their culture find it a lot harder to adapt to new markets compared to countries like the Netherlands as the Dutch have a low power distance which means they only use hierarchy for and mainly prefer to have a coaching leadership style where the superiors are easily accessible.[15] This means that decisions and necessary chances are able to be made effectively and efficiently compared to going through various layers of management before a decision is made.[15]

Decentralised authority is also important as there may be disagreements between management in new destinations who deal with the day to day running of the business and executive management at the companies headquarters, if power is not decentralised the wrong decisions may be made.

The cost to the companies increases as they cannot standardise products and projects, different cultures have different needs and wants which is highlighted in this challenge. An example of a company succeeding in creating new products for their emerging market is McDonald's new rice meals in India and China [16] This shows that McDonald's has done research on and understands their new market's requirements for a successful takeaway food. This however can be very costly and time-consuming.[16]

Although there is many challenges to globalisation when done right it has many benefits, allowing companies to reach a larger target market is just one of them. Society also benefits when globalisation occurs as an increase in market competition generally pushes the price of products down which means the consumers benefit by gaining a lower price point.[17] This decreases the inequality gap as people who couldn't previously afford products when the market was controlled by local monopolies are able to purchase the product for cheaper.

Although globalisation has benefits to the consumer it does not always benefit the producer with newer and smaller companies struggling to keep up with the low production costs of the multi-national competitors. This results in either a higher price and loss of consumers or a lower profit margin which in turn results in less competition within the market.[18]

In education

Glocalization of education has been proposed in the specific areas of politics, economics, culture, teaching, information, organization, morality, spirituality, religion and "temporal" literacy. The recommended approach is for local educators to consult global resources for materials and techniques and then adapt them for local use. For example, in information, it involves advancing computer and media understanding to allow students and educators to look beyond their local context.[18]

In the media

Thomas L. Friedman in The World is Flat talks about how the Internet encourages glocalization, such as encouraging people to make websites in their native languages. '

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Hong, Phillip Young P.; Song, In Han (2010). "Glocalization of social work practice: Global and local responses to globalization". International Social Work 53 (5): 656–670. doi:10.1177/0020872810371206.
  2. ↑ Sharma, Chanchal Kumar (2009). "Emerging Dimensions of Decentralisation Debate in the Age of Globalisation". Indian Journal of Federal Studies 19 (1): 47–65.
  3. ↑ "What is glocalization? - Definition from WhatIs.com". Searchcio.techtarget.com. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  4. ↑ Buffery, Vicky (2010). "Asterix McDonalds' binge sparks Gallic outcry". Reuters.
  5. ↑ Barry Wellman, "Little Boxes, Glocalization, and Networked Individualism." Pp. 11-25 in Digital Cities II, edited by Makoto Tanabe, Peter van den Besselaar, and Toru Ishida. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2002.
  6. 1 2 Herod, Andrew. Scale: local and global" in Key Concepts in Geography.
  7. ↑ Habibul Haque Khondker, "Glocalization as Globalization: Evolution of a Sociological Concept," Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Vol. 1. No. 2. July, 2004
  8. ↑ Archived September 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ "Prof. Lange". Uni-muenster.de. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  10. ↑ "On dialogue, knowledge, creativity, (cyber)culture, learning, wholeness". Benking.de. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  11. ↑ "Section: System Earth from the exhibition GLOBAL CHANGE: Challenges to Science and Politics - Welt im Wandel - Herausforderungen für Wissenschaft und Politik". Benking.de. 2010-04-28. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  12. ↑ Barry Wellman and Keith Hampton, "Living Networked On and Offline" Contemporary Sociology 28, 6 (Nov, 1999): 648-54
  13. ↑ Hampton, Keith and B Wellman. 2002. "The Not So Global Village of Netville." Pp. 345-371 in The Internet in Everyday Life, edited by Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite. Oxford: Blackwell.
  14. ↑ Soja, Edward W. Postmetroplis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2000), 199-200.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hofstede, Geert (1994-03-01). "The business of international business is culture". International Business Review 3 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1016/0969-5931(94)90011-6.
  16. 1 2 Shi, Xiuhua (2013-06-01). "The Glocalization of English A Chinese Case Study". Journal of Developing Societies 29 (2): 89–122. doi:10.1177/0169796X13480442. ISSN 0169-796X.
  17. ↑ Osland, Joyce S. (2003-06-01). "Broadening the Debate The Pros and Cons of Globalization". Journal of Management Inquiry 12 (2): 137–154. doi:10.1177/1056492603012002005. ISSN 1056-4926.
  18. 1 2 Brooks, Jeffrey; Normore, Anthony (2010). "Educational Leadership and Globalization: Literacy for a Glocal Perspective". Educational Policy 24 (1): 52–82. doi:10.1177/0895904809354070.

Further reading

External links

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