Globalisation and International Business: Challenges and Opportunities

This essay provides an overview of globalisation's impact on businesses, examining both its positive and negative effects. It explores how increased competition, technological advancements, and employment rates are influenced by globalisation. The discussion includes the role of outsourcing and offshoring, using the Alibaba case as an example, and highlights challenges faced by international managers. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding global market dynamics and adapting to diverse cultural and social backgrounds to stay competitive. It also underscores the need for managers to be resilient, responsive, and adaptable to the changes brought about by globalisation. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of an inclusive workforce and maintaining a close relationship with customers.

Running head: MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
Managing Across Borders
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
Executive Summary
Globalisation has played the major role in the development of many countries
inclusive of India and China by means of developing economic interdependence in between
them and several different nations. It is also one of the leading concept that has become the
main factor in the business world from the last few decades. This paper has presented a brief
overview on the negative and positive impacts of globalisation on the business today along
with a short discussion on how the concept of outsourcing and offshoring is contributing to
the globalisation providing an example of the case of Alibaba. Furthermore, it has also shed
light on the problems and challenges that are been opened up by globalisation.

2MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
1. How globalisation impacts business today........................................................................3
2. What international managers must know to stay ahead of the game?...............................5
3. How outsourcing and offshoring contribute to globalisation.............................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References:...............................................................................................................................11

3MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
Introduction
Globalisation is regarded as one of the major forces that is believed to shape the
contemporary word, affecting the society, environment and business. In business context, it is
a term that refers to the integration of the operations, strategies and processes of an
organisation into the diverse cultures, ideas, services and products (Boons and Ludeke-
Freund 2013). All the suppliers, consumes and the corporations over the world are linked
with each other by the materials, information and the capital flows as because of the
processes of production all around the globe has become increasingly dispersed and
distributed. The process of globalisation is an ongoing process that is also referred to as a
totalitarian representation of any system which is formed and shaped so as to vigorously
reconstruct the political, environmental, social and economic factors for the improvement and
betterment of the mankind. It has triggered the unchanged and fixed current that was
previously prevailing in between the fast and the slow paced world.
The origin of globalisation has long been an ongoing debate among the scholars and
the researchers. There are many scholars who consider this phenomenon to take place in the
modern period, while the others believed it to be a phenomenon with a very long history.
According to Najam, Runnalls and Halle (2016), the process of globalisation is triggered by
the modern period majority of the developments took place in the areas of both business,
connectivity as well as infrastructure all around the world with a very rapid pace. It in turn
has led to the growth of more infrastructure and connectivity among different nations and the
sharing of innovative ideas, culture, tradition and other different specialities in this way
occurred. All these changes have put in both direct as well as intense effects on the process of
globalisation. In context to economy, many trade linkages have took place among different
nations on a global scale and it further has influenced both the global and national or

4MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
domestic economies to a very great extent (Rodrik 2014). With the same, there are different
scholars who pointed out that the history of globalisation can be traced back to the ancient
civilisation as because of the fact that there were numerous instances such as the emergence
of trade links in between the Sumerian Civilisation and the Indus Valley Civilisation in the
third millennium B.C, that are proving the existence of trade and business links among
different nations (Farmer, Sproat and Witzel 2016).
However, there are some studies that mentions that as globalisation has increased the
trend of integration of global economic integration, it is one of the biggest force that is
affecting the economies of the world at present (Gereffi 2014). The present period of the
increase in the process of globalisation would have a major ramification for the business
economies around the world. This paper is going to elaborate on the discussion and
identification of the impacts of globalisation in the business today and on the knowledge
about globalisation that the international managers must possess in order to stay ahead of the
game. It would also shed light on the identification of how the process of offshoring and
outsourcing contributes to the globalisation through using an example of a company’s case
study in order to identify the barriers, identification and the opportunities present in today’s
world due to the increase in globalisation.
Discussion
1. How globalisation impacts business today
It is because of the globalisation that there is such a notable increase in the
competition in businesses (Hoffman and Kumar 2013). These competitions are based on
series costs, product quality, product process, technological adaptation, target market etc.
When a business produces its products and services with less cost, it then increases the share
of its market. This is due to the extensive competition growth among the companies that the

5MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
international bards have been forced to improve the standards of their products and the
consumer benefits that are believed to positively affect most of the people in an international
level. With the same, it has also contributed in a notable rise in the level of technology that is
used in the present world. There are many entrepreneurial and globally oriented companies
that have achieved the assistance of technologies in order to exploit the opportunities of the
new businesses (Cavusgil and Knight 2015). One of the good examples of such is the
increase in usage of the procedure of E-commerce in most of the businesses today.
Technology is one among the primary tools of competition as well as the quality of products
and services (Sakas, Vlachos and Nasiopoulos 2014). The process of globalisation has
allowed great increase in the speed of technological transfer and apparently, has also
improved the gross technological quality. There are many companies present in the capital
intensive markets that are at a high risk and which is why they are in great need for well
efficient and good technologies along with R&D management in their businesses. Moreover,
with the increase in the process of globalisation, there is a huge increase in the rate of
employment all around the globe (McMillan, Rodrik and Verduzco-Gallo 2014). There are
many countries which have opened up great job opportunities for the young and worthy
candidates. Students no longer have to waste their entire lives in search of jobs. There are
variety of jobs present for each and every talents in the current business market. With the
same, globalisation has also created the beneficial concept of outsourcing. The works of
marketing, software supports, accounting and many more have been given to the developing
countries like India, Nepal and Pakistan.
However, it is also to mention that globalisation is not all about good. It do have some
negative impacts as well. It has contributed in the fluctuation of prices of the business all over
the world in several different areas. With an increase in the level of competition, the business
companies in the well developed countries are compelled to lower down their product prices.

6MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
One of the very good example of it would be China. In China, they produce their products at
very lower prices as compared to the other countries and this has led the other organisations
and firms present in other parts of the world to lower their prices as well in order to maintain
loyalty and customer satisfaction. It is indeed a negative effect as it reduces the potential of
the firms to sustain the social welfare. Also, as globalisation has increased the rate of
employment all over the world, it has also increased the level of job security in the businesses
as well. In the developed nations, there is a significant amount of job insecurity (Czaika and
Haas 2014). The process of globalisation have led the companied to outsource their jobs to
the developing countries and this in turn has also led to less number of job opportunities in
the developed countries. The concept of outsourcing took place as the businesses need to
manufacture their services and products at cheaper rate that is possible in the developing
nations like China and India where the cost of manufacturing and the wages are much lower
than the highly developed nations. As mentioned above, the jobs like that of the accountant,
software programmer and marketing etc. are outsourced into the developing nations and this
has further led to huge number of people belonging from the same profession to lose their
jobs.
2. What international managers must know to stay ahead of the game?
Due to the emphasis of globalisation on diversity, it also a great impact on the
manners companies manage their workforce and employees (Saxena 2014). Hence, having a
proper knowledge and understanding of the impacts of globalisation on the management
could assist the international managers in order to better equip their firms for the increasingly
global business environment. From the early nineties, globalization has demanded a great
amount of skills, resources and efforts from both the public and private organizations
belonging from the already developed as well as developing countries with an aim to enable
the international managers, public officers, researchers and executives in order to deal with a

7MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
new reality and equating challenges. Although the former definition of the international
management, management crossing borders reflects only the needs and interests of the big
business firms as well as their managers. In the current business world, globalisation has
greatly influenced the mind-set of both customers as well as the management and that too in a
profound ways. However, unfortunately, the global economy at present does not reflect the
existence of the political organisations that are defined as “Nation State” (Miller and Rose
2017). Today, there is an emergence of a new “Great Game” that is continually
reconstructing the global economy not only around a specific collection of distinctive
countries but one with the global economic institutions and with the membership well beyond
the G-20 or G-7 group of nations. The barriers of globalisation are extremely complex.
With the rise in globalisation, the companies irrespective of their sizes are now
interacting with the stakeholders and customers from the diverse cultures, social backgrounds
and languages. When managers think about the things that could influence their roles, they
often think in some of the concrete terms such as worker productivity, the products and
services and the chain of command. Even in the smallest business, the issues of globalisation
and intuition can greatly affect the managerial roles. With the globalisation, there is an
increase in use of modern technologies in the business areas such as of internet, cellular
information and high speed air travel and they have made doing the businesses across the
borders very easy. According to Cavusgil and Knight (2015), more number of businesses are
now “born global”. Expanding the business to the foreign markets is now not the only option
for the first world firms. In fact, the small scale business from the small countries are now
quickly reaching out the larger marketing in order to sustain themselves. In this world of
globalisation, the international managers therefore must gain innovative perspectives and
walk through a thin line in between the focus and efficiency on each of the individual market.
They must be solely willing to examine the customers in every markets as well as to develop

8MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
the services and products uniquely tailored for all their customers. International managers
must be resilient, responsive and adaptable to the different demands while delivering their
business customers seamlessly. They must deal with the cycles of changes that globalisation
is bringing in and must try to stay ahead of the game always. They must always try to ensure
that their business and the business executives are always close to the customers. In this
globalised world, creating an inclusive and diverse workforce as become very important and
they are believed to mirror the customers (Nishii 2013). Hence, developing staff knowledge,
mind-set, ability to service the customers as well as creating a learning environment has
become very crucial so as to support a flexible working in the workplace.
With the same, the process of globalisation of business could have a significant
influence on the decision making process of the international manages in order to make such
complex and interrelated decisions. The international mangers need to overcome the legacies
of poor execution (George et al. 2016). Globalisation n has enables and ensured the
introduction of innovations and new ideas from the outside sources such as countries,
businesses, regions and industries. If the organisations are to succeed, they need excessive
aggressive strategic policies at all the levels, inclusive of the ones that are made as well as
pushed for by the international subsidiaries that has the ability to teach the headquarters that
domestic innovations could create global opportunities for the success of the business.
3. How outsourcing and offshoring contribute to globalisation
The concept of outsourcing has long been one of the critical part of the circuit of
businesses and is also greatly applied in the businesses of the modern days (Toffler 2013). It
has first started in the textile industry and is increasingly spreading during the seventeenth
century. With the increase in globalisation, outsourcing has become more relevant in the
business process around the world and the global market has also now found out a new
concept in the offshore outsourcing that is integrated with its numerous benefits. However,

9MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
still as the applications and process in the business environments of today have become much
more complex than ever before, the offshore outsourcing is extraordinarily making a
transition towards the business process outsourcing. Globalisation has become a universal
language as it has invaded all the important fields present in the human history inclusive of
the business and the management. The growth of globalisation is apparent in majority of the
aspects of business functions (Crystal 2013). Globalisation has furthermore paved the way for
the tactical procedures such as offshore outsourcing and it has proven its potential in the
InfoTech such as software management and data analysis. On the other hand, the offshore
outsourcing has proven itself as one of the most useful products of the process of
globalisation (Taylor 2017). Still, with the progress of time, outsourcing has experienced an
exceptional speed. The offshore outsource not only offers innovations to the international
market, it also has proven its potential to connect all the countries toward one development.
Offshore outsourcing has built up linkages in between many countries and has also decreased
the likelihood of ears among the supporting nations (Bardhan, IAFFEE and Kroll 2013).
Globalisation has contributed a lot in making the offshore outsourcing possible and this has
led the concept of outsourcing in helping in globalisation mobility. The concept of
outsourcing is aiding today’s businesses by playing an important part in the globalisation
mobility.
Hence, the influence of offshore outsourcing in the progress of globalisation is
displayed by its impact in the global market that are the signs of globalisation. As of the fact
that offshore outsourcing is involving exchange of the services, therefore, it is resulting in an
increase in the global flow of capitals. It is also promoting the sped of multiculturalism and
greater people access to the present diversity. The employees belonging from the outsourcing
companies face more amount of cultural exchange because of the fact that they work in an
environment that is different from the rest. With the same, the offshore outsourcing ease the

10MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
development of the global telecommunications infrastructure as well, which in turn instigates
a better connection in between different nations (Taghavi et al. 2014).
In the current years, the concept of offshoring of high paying service jobs to nations
like India, has received a great attention from media. According to the estimation of last three
years, off shoring has accounted near about 0.5 million people. The average lay-offs per year
is 250,000 or say, it is less than 2% from the other 15million Americans who automatically
lose their lay-offs every year (Boyle and McDonnell 2013). They are extremely beneficial to
the current global economies as because of the fact that international trade has continuously
increased over the 20th and 21st centuries and it is believed that this trend is going to continue
for the coming years as well.
There are many companies who have used the concept of outsourcing in their business and
they are indeed successful in it as well. Some of them include the AppSumo, Microsoft,
Alibaba, GitHub, Groove, Fab.com, Slack, SeatGreek, and UpWork. Considering the case of
Alibaba, a well-known E-commerce B2B company, has paved the way for the companies
looking towards outsourcing. Before outsourcing most of its production to the China, the
company has initially outsourced its developed to a firm in the United States as well
(Simmons, Stringer and Rees 2013). At those times, the development of the overseas talent
was still in very short supply and the United States had the skills that Alibaba required to
compete with the ecommerce giants such as the eBay. With the same, it is also to note that
the company did it all behind the internet restrictions in China. The company has realised the
importance of outsourcing at its early technological development.
Conclusion
Hence, to sum up it could be said that globalisation is a social transformation and is
an increased unity in between different countries. It is both constructive and destructive. It is

11MANAGING ACROSS BORDERS
imposing both positive and negative impacts in the businesses today. People all over the
world desire the positives to outweigh the negatives but the prolonged exposure to the
process of globalisation is something that is unavoidable and the one and only solution to it is
that to make use of the resources present in the world in the best possible ways for the
improvement and betterment of the society and businesses today. Furthermore, the sign of
globalisation mobility are considered in the impacts of offshore outsourcing in the
international village. The influence of the offshore outsourcing as one among the fastest
developments in the current business world is evidently continuing to widen up its grip or
range of various advantages. Apparently, it is also to note from the above discussion that
offshore outsourcing is greatly benefitting the businesses today through widening its horizons
from the various different companies and service providers to the entire global society. With
the same, in this global world, the quality of the management is one of the central features of
the success and growth. How the nations around the world and the companies present
struggle with the great game of globalisation has now become the central test for the
productivity and wealth creation process. Globalisation is indeed pushing the frontiers of the
management thinking. It is also concluded that development of outsourcing to the contractors
could provide steep talents to a start-up business when it requires it the most. The success
story of Alibaba demonstrate that whether or not a business opts to outsource to a company,
outsource work overseas or hire contractors from U.S individually, the correct approach
could lead to success.