The Importance Of Globalization In International Business

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The multinational firm possesses certain kinds of advantages that set it apart from purely domestic firms. And there are lots of management strategies and organizational structures involved in maximizing its advantages relative to local firms in the foreign countries in which it operates, because there are lots of sociopolitical issues that it needs to attend to in order to successfully operate in a foreign market. Increased attention to the fundamental economic, strategic, organizational, and sociopolitical principles of multinational management is proposed as the best way to avoid the costly mistakes that may be made because of the greater speed of international business resulting from globalization and the use of information technologies. …show more content…

Many people fear that globalization has contributed to the spread of sweatshop production in developing countries as they compete to establish new export sectors and attract investment from footloose multinational firms (see Rodrik 1996; Klein 2000). The most adamant critics of globalization argue that this is part of a general "race to the bottom” in social and environmental standards in developing countries. These types of concerns have contributed to what appears to be a significant and growing political backlash against globalization in many western nations, mobilizing local activist groups and transnational NGOs and stirring uneasiness among voters about future trade agreements. The Fair Trade movement is probably best described as a form of social entrepreneurship aimed at creating trade relationships that bring specific improvements in labor and environmental standards, and health and education, to groups of citizens in developing nations. Fair trade organizations establish networks that connect marginalized producers and workers in developing nations with importers, retailers, and consumers in developed economies. It is a market-based approach that involves the "Fair Trade” certification and labeling of products made by cooperatives and firms that meet certain standards (in terms of prices paid to farmers, wages paid to workers, working conditions, environmental sustainability, and so on). This process allows concerned consumers in developing countries to identify and reward these producers by paying higher prices for their goods (relative to uncertified products), compensating them for the costs associated with improved standards and investments in

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