A selective Annotated Bibliography on Convergence and Divergence

A selective Annotated Bibliography on Convergence and Divergence

Theodore Levitt (1983). “The Globalization of Markets.” Harvard business review pg 92-102

The author asserts in this journal to understand the two vectors shape the world – technology and globalization. The first helps determine human preferences, the second, economic realities. The global companies systematically push these vectors toward their own convergence, offering everyone simultaneously high-quality, more or less standardized products at low prices. Technology is a powerful force that has driven the world towards a converging commonality. Almost everybody everywhere wants all the things they have heard about, seen, or experienced via the new technologies. The cultural differences are becoming more and more homogenized. The result is a new commercial reality—the emergence of global markets for standardized consumer products on a previously unimagined scale of magnitude. Organizations need to move from being multinational to global corporations. The organizations that do not adapt to the new global realities will become victims of those that do. Only global companies will achieve long-term success by concentrating on what everyone wants rather than worrying about the details of what everyone thinks they might like.

Douglas Susan P, Wind Yoram (1987). “The Myth of Globalization”. Columbia Journal of World Business;Winter87, Vol. 22 Issue 4, p19

The purpose of this journal article is to examine critically the notion that success in international markets necessitates adoption of a strategy of global products and brands. The author argues that the differences in competition, from one country to another country impede global standardization. The key to success in ...

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...hors of this paper examined and summarized the theoretical statements of the correlation between culture and consumer behavior and projected the possibilities of empirical grounding on the example of Lithuanian consumer. According to them till now there has been no unambiguous evidence of convergence in this, although there are some convergence signs of economic systems. Their findings indicate and prove that culture makes a great impact on consumer behavior. Even in cases were the cultures are very similar, the same goods may receive totally different meaning. Having analyzed culture and consumer behavior correlation the conclusion is made that between culture and consumer behavior there is complicated bipartite interaction. Hence they conclude that the cultural definition forms determine consumer behavior, influencing consumer cognition, attitude and action.