Managing globalization

This chapter discusses some approaches to globalization that contribute to a critical management studies (CMS) agenda. The vast majority of the literature in management and organization theory takes an inveterately mainstream approach to globalization and lacks a critical perspective. Articles in scholarly journals such as the Journal of International Business Studies and the Colombia Journal of World Business tend to focus on the opportunities and risks posed by globalization and how firms can leverage competitive advantage in a global market. Topics that are studied include entry strategies into developing markets, cross cultural marketing and management issues, outsourcing, technology transfer, and joint ventures. Few scholars question the naturalness or implied superiority of Western economic development models and their links to globalization, focusing instead on the problems with knowledge that either limit researchers' ability to recognize divergence or the inability of existing theories to explain or capture such divergence. While the primary focus of most of the organization and management literature is on economic globalization or on the degree and extent of its reach (whether convergent or divergent), few management scholars have questioned what globalization itself is constitutive of or constituted by, let alone explored the imperial formations of globalization.