Globalization (or globalisation) describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through

a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.[1] However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors.[2] The term can also refer to the transnational circulation of ideas, languages, or popular culture through acculturation

Competition - Survival in the new global business market calls for improved productivity and increased competition. Due to the market becoming worldwide, companies in various industries have to upgrade their products and use technology skillfully in order to face increased competition.[31] Ecological - the advent of global environmental challenges that might be solved with international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Since many factories are built in developing countries with less environmental regulation, globalism and free trade may increase pollution and impact on precious fresh water resources (Hoekstra and Chapagain 2008) [32]. On the other hand, economic development historically required a "dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that developing countries should not, via regulation, be prohibited from increasing their standard of living.

London is a city of considerable diversity. As of 2008, estimates were published that stated that approximately 30% of London's total population was from an ethnic minority group. The latest official figures show that in 2008, 590,000 people arrived to live in the UK whilst 427,000 left, meaning that net inward migration was 163,000. [33]

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Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture". [34] Some bemoan the resulting consumerism and loss of languages. Also see Transformation of culture. Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood). Some consider such "imported" culture a danger, since it may supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even assimilation. Others consider multiculturalism to promote peace and understanding between people. A third position that gained popularity is the notion that multiculturalism to a new form of monoculture in which no distinctions exist and everyone just shift between various lifestyles in terms of music, cloth and other aspects once more firmly attached to a single culture. Thus not mere cultural assimilation as mentioned above but the obliteration of culture as we know it today.[35][36] In reality, as it happens in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, people who always lived in their native countries maintain their cultures without feeling forced by any reason to accept another and are proud of it even when they're acceptive of immigrants, while people who are newly arrived simply keep their own culture or part of it despite some minimum amount of assimilation, although aspects of their culture often become a curiosity and a daily aspect of the lives of the people of the welcoming countries. Greater international travel and tourism. WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any one time. [citation needed][37] In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. [38] Greater immigration,[39] including illegal immigration.[40] The IOM estimates there are more than 200 million migrants around the world today. [41] Newly available data show that remittance flows to developing countries reached $328 billion in 2008. [42] Spread of local consumer products (e.g., food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture). Worldwide fads and pop culture such as Pokmon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace. Accessible to those who have Internet or Television, leaving out a substantial segment of the Earth's population.

The construction of continental hotels is a major consequence of globalization process in affiliation with tourism and travel industry, Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish, Iran

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Worldwide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. Incorporation of multinational corporations into new media. As the sponsors of the All-Blacks rugby team, Adidas had created a parallel website with a downloadable interactive rugby game for its fans to play and compete.[43] Social - development of the system of non-governmental organisations as main agents of global public policy, including humanitarian aid and developmental efforts. [44] Technical Development of a Global Information System, global telecommunications infrastructure and greater transborder data flow, using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites, submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g., copyright laws, patents and world trade agreements. Legal/Ethical The creation of the international criminal court and international justice movements. Crime importation and raising awareness of global crime-fighting efforts and cooperation. The emergence of Global administrative law. Religious The spread and increased interrelations of various religious groups, ideas, and practices and their ideas of the meanings and values of particular spaces.[45] Negative effects See also: Alter-globalization, Participatory economics, and Global Justice Movement Globalization has generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality and environmental degradation.[46] In the Midwestern United States, globalization has eaten away at its competitive edge in industry and agriculture, lowering the quality of life.[47] Some also view the effect of globalization on culture as a rising concern. Along with globalization of economies and trade, culture is being imported and exported as well. The concern is that the stronger, bigger countries such as the United States, may overrun the other, smaller countries' cultures, leading to those customs and values being faded away. This process is also sometimes referred to as Americanization or McDonaldization

Measurement Economic globalization can be measured in different ways. These center around the four main economic flows that characterize globalization:

Goods and services, e.g., exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population Labor/people, e.g., net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population Capital, e.g., inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population Technology, e.g., international research & development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband) As globalization is not only an economic phenomenon, a multivariate approach to measuring globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank KOF. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data is available on a yearly basis for 122 countries, as detailed in Dreher, Gaston and Martens (2008). [146] According to the index, the world's most globalized country is Belgium, followed by Austria, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Haiti, Myanmar, the Central African Republic and Burundi.[147] A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy Magazine jointly publish another Globalization Index. According to the 2006 index, Singapore, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark are the most globalized, while Indonesia, India and Iran are the least globalized among countries listed. The globalization of markets means that the expansion and access of businesses to all over the world to reach the needs of the customers internationally. Now due to the advancement of technology and IT revolution there is less problems of boundaries. The main reason is due to the advent of the internet that has facilitated to the customers and companies to interact at a common place by just sitting it home and it decreases the cost of product and other costs as well which is the benefit for the both parties . Now the companies are able to sell its product and services internationally. It is commonly believed that the taste of the consumers living in the different parts of the worlds are now emerging now MTV has become local channel, ordinary people wear levis Jeans and the access to the McDonald pizza is very easy. Now not only big multinationals but also small companies who were lack of resources can now reach the customers internationally. This all happened due to the globalization of markets. Many big markets have emerged into one single market due to the customer's needs and demands. So this gives benefits to the consumers and the producers as well. Is Philippines competitive? With the globalization of markets, the increased mobility of corporate assets, and the need for productive human resources, this question has become all the more complex to answer. This report was prepared to tackle this question by focussing on certain fundamentals: financial performance and labor productivity. In the former case, we are essentially interested in the degree to which firms operating in Philippines have fundamentally different financial structures and performance compared to firms located elsewhere. With respect to this view of competitiveness, if one were to invest or operate in Philippines, how would the firms asset structure likely vary compared to a firm operating in some other country in Asia or average location in the world? In Philippines, do firms typically hold more cash and other short term assets, or do they concentrate their assets in physical plant and equipment? On the liability side, do firms operating in Philippines have a higher percent of payables compared to other firms operating in Asia, or do they hold a higher concentration of long term debt? The structure of the income statement is also telling. Do firms operating in Philippines have relatively higher costs of goods sold, operating costs, or income taxes compared to firms located elsewhere in the region or the world in general? Are returns on equity higher in Philippines? Are profit margins greater? Are inventories held longer? Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 are designed to answer these and similar questions that naturally affect ones decision to invest or operate in Philippines. In m any instances, people make all the difference. In addition to financial competitiveness, this report considers the extent to which labor deployment and productivity in Philippines differs from regional and global benchmarks. In this case, we are interested in the amount of labor required to operate a typical business in Philippines and the likely returns on this human investment. What is the typical ratio of short-term and long-term assets to employee? What are typical capital-labor ratios? How different are these ratios to those in Asia in general and the world as a whole? What are the average sales and net profits per employee in Philippines compared to regional benchmarks? Again, these and over 50 other measures of labor productivity are considered in Chapters 6, 7, and 8. The goal of this report is first to assist managers in gauging the competitive performance of Philippines at the global level. With the globalization of markets, greater foreign co mpetition, and the reduction of entry barriers, it becomes all the more important to benchmark Philippines against other countries on a worldwide basis. Doing so, however, is not an obvious task. First, one needs to aggregate across firms in Philippines. Second, one needs to control for exchange rate volatility. Finally, one needs use comparable financial standards. This report generates international benchmarks and measures gaps that might be revealed from such an exercise. First, data is collected from over 26,000 companies across all regions of the world. For each of these firms, data are standardized into comparable categories (assets, liabilities, income and ratios), by country, region and on a worldwide basis. From there, we eliminate all currency effects by standardizing within each category. Though we heavily rely on historical performance, the figures reported are not historical but are forecasts and projections for the coming fiscal year The term globalization refers to the process of global integration of the economies of nations by allowing the unrestricted flow of goods, services, investments and currencies between countries. Nation states pursued globalization in the hope that this would lead to prosperity. They believed that globalization would bring them agricultural modernization, industrialization, urbanization, and hyper-consumerism resulting in increases of per capita gross domestic product (GDP). Unfortunately, such developments have often been accompanied by increasing social and environmental destruction throughout the world. The process of globalization is having unprecedented impacts, both positive and negative, on life at the individual, village, town, city and national levels. For example, greater openness to the world economy, on the one hand, enabled the Philippines to weather the energy crisis of the early 1990s and spurred economic development. Foreign investments spurred employment and resulted in some reduction of poverty. On the other hand, the Asian financial and economic crisis of 1997-98 has set back the employment and anti-poverty gains that came with making the Philippine economy more competitive in the global market. Philippine Agenda 21 was consciously crafted, in part, to respond to these challenges by channeling and redirecting these global forces towards sustainable development.

The multinational and the global corporation are not the same thing. The multinational corporation operates in a number of countries, and adjusts its products and practices in each - at high relative costs. The global corporation operates with resolute constancy at low relative cost - as if the entire world (or major regions of it) were a single entity; it sells the same things in the same way everywhere. The Positive Effects of Globalization to Small Business In my previous blog post, I have tackled the subject on whether globalization is to blame for unemployment. This is precisely because outsourcing is the new trend and most employees feel that their job security is being threatened. Since I have addressed that issue previously, I will now be discussing more on the topic of the positive effects of globalization to local businesses. Globalization is responsible for creating millions of jobs all over the world and it also is the reason why imported products are available anywhere for consumers. According to the encyclopedia of small business, globalization had undergone reassessments on whether the positive far outweighs the negative effects of globalization. This argument is subjective and therefore the controversies surrounding globalization can be used to either support or oppose it. While it is true that there are negative impacts, it cannot be denied that there are more positive effects of globalization to small businesses. Here are my take-aways:

Globalization broadens the access of goods and services. So both consumers and companies are given the opportunity to obtain a wider range of goods and services. If a small business plans to expand to cover the international market, there is a better access to external finance and this in turn would enhance the emergence of worldwide financial markets. International travel and tourism would increase, creating more opportunities for small business growth and jobs for locals as well. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/ 1. Technological change, especially in communications technology. For example, UK businesses and data by satellite to India (taking advantage of the difference in time zones) where skilled but cheaper data handlers input the data and return it by satellite for the start of the UK working day. 2. Transport is much cheaper and faster. This is not just aircraft, but also ships. The development of containerization in the 1950s was a major breakthrough in goods handling, and there have been continuing improvements to shipping technology since then. 3. Deregulation. From the 1980s onwards (starting in the UK) many rules and regulations in business were removed, especially rules regarding foreign ownership. Privatisation also took place, and large areas of business were now open to purchase and/or take-over. This allowed businesses in one country to buy those in another. For example, many UK utilities, once government businesses, are owned by French and US businesses. 4. Removal of capital exchange controls. The movement of money from one country to another was also controlled, and these controls were lifted over the same period. This allowed businesses to move money from one country to another in a search for better business returns; if investment in one's own country looked unattractive, a business could buy businesses in another country. During the 1990s huge sums of money, mainly from the US, have come into the UK economy. See, for example, this news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2250903.stm 5. Free Trade. Many barriers to trade have been removed. Some of this has been done by regional groupings of countries such as the EU. Most of it has been done by the WTO. This makes trade cheaper and therefore more attractive to business. 6. Consumer tastes have changed, and consumers are more willing to try foreign products. The arrival of global satellite television, for example, has exposed consumers to global advertising. Consumers are more aware of what is available in other countries, and are keen to give it a try. 7. Emerging markets in developing countries , especially the 'Tigers' of SE Asia eg Thailand. There has been high growth of incomes in these countries, which makes large consumer markets with money to spend. Indonesia, for example, whilst still not particularly rich, has some 350 myn consumers. Both India and China are very poor countries, but there are small middle classes who are doing very well and have money to spend. Although these groups are small in the context of the country, the overall populations are so huge (over 1 byn) that a small middle class adds up to many millions of consumers. nega* Developed nations have outsourced manufacturing and white collar jobs. That means less jobs for their people. This has happened because manufacturing work is outsourced to developing nations like China where the cost of manufacturing goods and wages are lower. Programmers, editors, scientists and accountants have lost their jobs due to outsourcing to cheaper locations like India. * Globalization has led to exploitation of labor. Prisoners and child workers are used to work in inhumane conditions. Safety standards are ignored to produce cheap goods. * Job insecurity. Earlier people had stable, permanent jobs. Now people live in constant dread of losing their jobs to competition. Increased job competition has led to reduction in wages and consequently lower standards of living. * Terrorists have access to sophisticated weapons enhancing their ability to inflict damage. Terrorists use the Internet for communicating among themselves. * Companies have set up industries causing pollution in countries with poor regulation of pollution. * Fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are spreading in the developing world. People are consuming more junk food from these... The problem of cross-cultural conflicts is an actual and vital problem in an up-to-date world, where the democracy values of Western Culture prevail. Clashes between representatives of different cultures in routine life take on special significance and show up in violence, which indicate the failure of the process of globalization and the idea of a global village. The attempt of Western culture to create multiculture and negative effects, which were caused by the attempt, became the object of interest not only for politics and scientists, but also common citizens. World citizens are brought into the epicenter of globalization's negative effect. That is why cross-cultural conflicts, as the most important effects of globalization, should be researched by scientists more closely. Moreover, for successful managing these conflicts, as the negative effect of globalization, the problem has to be studied not only by specialists