Over the past decade, Globalisation has sparked one of the most extremely emotional debates. It has been the topic of various books and the cause of main demonstrations in Europe and North America.
Economists have used the phrase “Globalisation” since the 1980s while it was used in social sciences in the 1960s; however, its concepts did not become popular until the latter half of the 1980s and 1990s.(1) “Globalisation in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio cultural and political forces.”(2)
Globalisation plays a key role and significant effects in our lives. Some analysts argue that Globalisation bring opportunity to our life. Globalisation is numerous and extremely beneficial for everyone in all countries. It has been the most successful prosperity and anti-poverty movement in modern history. On the other hand, some critics consider that Globalisation has significant harmful effect for our world and develop space between poor people and rich people. In addition, Globalisation has some huge effects in business marketing.
This essay will firstly summarise the main effect of Globalisation and secondly it will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of Globalisation in relation to the subject of marketing.
Some of effects of Globalisation are very positive. Globalisation has given a new meaning to the saying; the world is quickly becoming an especially small place. Globalisation has been effect in different subjects such as economy, politics, social, cultural, environment, security and others. It has played a key role in the unique increase in prosperity in the last 50 years, which is now spreading from the United States and Europe to include many formerly poor countries in Asia, including China and India.(3) The main positive effects of globalisation are free trade and technological achievement. Trade has been the engine of globalisation, with world trade in manufactured supplies rising more than 100 times (from $95bn to $12 trillion) in the 50 years since 1955, much quicker than the overall growth of the world economy.(4)
Free trade leads to industrial development, as it develops human productivity, improves competition and opens national borders to overseas influences. As a result incomes are improved and there are more available jobs. Also, technological improvement involves developments in communications and in transport systems. These days, communication has become easier, more reasonably priced and faster than it was before. The advent of the Internet has extended people’s understanding, as it tender convenience to a wide variety of information.
Communication and travelling extend people’s horizon, reform their personality and guide to human progress. Cheap telephone service, email and computers, all of them are examples of globalisation. The result will be even greater universal flows of goods, services, money, technology, capital, people, ideas and information.
On the other hand Globalisation has had significant impacts in our world, with various effects. Effects of globalisation can be very harmful while they produce enormous differences between rich and poor, expand inequality and open the doors to different forms of discrimination. The benefits of globalisation are not universal. The rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer. According to the UN (2004) "88 percent of the use of these modern technologies is in developed countries, which account for only 15 percent of world's population". This creates a digital divide (Norris, 2001) which further contributes to the already existing economical and social inequalities.
Also bad aspects of foreign cultures are affecting the local cultures through TV and the Internet. In addition, economic growth and thus industrial development harms the environment. More and more factories are built. As a result, fuel and chemical emissions are increased and more trees are cut down. It is obvious that these tactics have devastating consequences to the environment as water supplies decrease, acid rain rises and global warming has become one of the main problems worldwide.
Moving on to what extent globalisation has benefited on marketing. Globalisation has had significant effects on companies. In one side globalisation help companies to access to international market that it can help them to increase their income. However this effect is not equal between companies because strong multinational companies have more opportunity to access and success in international markets than small companies.
As a result, Local industries are being taken over by overseas multinationals companies.
Moreover, today's business environment has been called a "global village,” Forces businesses to compete on a global scale. This allows the market place to really work and gives consumers a better advantage. The consumer is the real winner because clients should not be forced to buy over priced goods from buyers when they can get the same quality for less. Now consumers can get the best products for the best prices.
Also, Globalisation has had important effects on employees. Workers have opportunity to work abroad and get a better job. However the weakening of protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialised powers has resulted in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labour. Due to the lack of protections, companies from powerful industrialized nations are able to offer workers enough salary to tempt them to carry on extremely long hours and dangerous working situations, though economists question if consenting workers in a competitive employers' market can be decried as "exploited".
Overall, it has already been noted that globalisation has both positive and negative effects. Free trade and technological achievement are the main positive effects of globalisation. However, benefits of globalisation are not universal; as a result it produces enormous differences between rich and poor people.
Thus, in a world beset by conflicts, globalisation would probably have a net negative impact. In opposition, in a cooperative world, globalisation would probably have a net positive impact. Therefore, Globalisation represents a major challenge and at the same times a unique opportunity in terms of the possibilities for conflict or cooperation. We should prepare a balance between globalisation and reviving national economies, national environmental, protection of workers and local cultures.
Reference:
1- Wikipedia , Globalisation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization (Access date 18 Jan 2009 )
2- Sheila L. Croucher. Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World. Rowman & Littlefield. (2004). p.10
3- Schifferes,S. Globalisation shakes the world , http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6279679.stm (Access date 18 Jan 2009 )
4- Schifferes,S. Globalisation shakes the world , http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6279679.stm (Access date 18 Jan 2009 ) Total words: 1023( without reference)
