International Business

Question 1

The video really highlighted some of the positive effects globalization has had at levels ranging from individuals, to the entire population of the world. It pointed out that globalization is not new and developed over time and that railways and ocean travel were important in the initial facilitation, but advances in technology were the true key to unlocking the huge potential of global connectivity. Masood Ahmed of the International Monetary Fund had this to say about globalization at about 1:43 into the video: “An idea that is created in one part of the world can be disseminated in another part of the world the very next day” (Romin, Arnstad, Lennartsson, & Lilja, 2009). In the textbook International Business The New Realities, Exhibit 2.1 points to four different phases of globalization and how certain triggers like the advancements in communication in the fourth stage became important in its advancement (Cavusgil, Knight, & Riesenberger, 2014).

To me the video had a stronger focus on technological advances and the benefits they have brought to people around the world. Whether it was clean water, or the ability to globally share music through a truly global tool like an IPod, these were all portrayed through a beneficial lens. This focus made sense as technological advances are “the most important driver of market globalization” (Cavusgil, Knight, & Riesenberger, 2014, p. 35) however personally these same advances have had some less than positive effects on society that the video did not explore. For example the same technology platform that allows people to share or purchase music, also allows people to share the plans for building a pipe bomb.

Even the outsourcing of jobs from one country to another had a positive spin in the video and it’s hard to argue that the claimed reduction in poverty in India or the increasing middle class in China isn’t a positive of globalization; but one needs to also consider the negative consequences of outsourcing jobs through the offshoring of production. Detroit is an example of city where the offshoring of automobile production has lead to a mass exodus of people and jobs, going from 1.5 million members in the United Autoworkers in 1978 to 400.000 in 2013 (Cohen, 2013). Of course there were other market factors at play that impacted Detroit but it does point to an uglier side of offshoring production to other countries.

Towards the end of the video there is a bit of an allusion to the negative consequences of globalization but even then it turned, in my opinion, to more positive spin. At around the 50:29 mark Mr. Ahmed was on again indicating that in the near future there is no excuse for one sixth of the world’s population to be living in poverty and points to government policy as a means to an end (Romin, Arnstad, Lennartsson, & Lilja, 2009), yet the “experience