The Multidimensionality of Globalization: A Critical Perspective

Abstract

Most contemporary discourses on globalization are articulated around the increasing role of transnational (or multinational) corporations (TNCs) in overseeing national and cross-national economic activities. Policies and practices of TNCs are linked to neo- or Coca-colonization, homogenization of cultural practices, and the decline of the nation-state, among others, and explained at least in part by evolving communications technologies and the related acceleration in speed and ease of transnational financial flows.¹ Even political, social, and cultural reactions/resistance to globalization at local levels are posited as oppositional to the homogenizing consequences of the rise of transnational firms.² While transnational firms, primarily originating from the Triad region (comprising North America, Western Europe and Japan) have, in recent years, increased their share in managing world trade (partially due to the privatization and liberalization of individual country markets),³ the cultural/economic homogenizing consequences of their activities have been debated in the business discipline for almost three decades, before other disciplinary scholars began to examine globalization, much less take note of writings of those in the field of international business or, more generally those outside their own fields of inquiry.⁴