Market Society and the Public Sphere

Market Society and the Public Sphere

My journal text comes to illustrate the utmost significance of globalization viewed as the force molding and shaping the current world. It describes the multidimensional aspect of globalization that influences and encompasses all facets of life through an integrated network. Currently, globalization is the buzzword in media articles, daily talks of media people and talks of politicians. There is no aspect of life that is not influenced or affected by globalization (Tober, 2006, 33). However, many people find it difficult to reflect on this phenomenon. This is because the term is applied in so many aspects leading to its ambiguity in defining it according to my text.

Numerous volumes of work have written about globalization in numerous fields such as political, science, business, economics, sociology and many more. This has made the term globalization lack a precise cogent theory and definition. This is seen as a paradox because the concept has become fashionable and being uttered by everybody. However, as I reflect on my text, I will use different perspectives to shed light on the issue. The approaches that I have employed are relevant to my text (Ruggiero, 2006, 12-20).

Global markets

An increase in global sales and turnover leads to the creation of new economies and more opportunities for improved profitability. In fact, a series of researchers have indicated that the development of high technology requires enormous costs that can only be provided by the global market. Without the global market, this venture cannot be commercially viable. In addition, different industries can advance their corporate earnings by coordinating global marketing approaches that focusing their selling efforts on areas of outstanding profit. Further, long-term earnings can be earned if firms cover their initial losses of entering a new market with extra income from stable outlets (Porter, 2003, 70-86).

Markets have been widely globalized leading to dispersed consumers across all corners of the earth. These consumers are buying similar goods at the same price and time. Markets are no longer defining their products by their territorial units. Michael Porter argues that, currently market segments are based on country differences and consumer differences that go beyond country borders. An integrated international sales network enables instant transaction of business across the world (Hass, 2003, 51-70). This has been made possible by the current advancements in technology that enables businesses to reach consumers via telephone or computer.

For example, Microsoft's Bill Gates predicts a future where cyberspace will be a shopper's heaven. The internet will be providing all the available goods in the global market, and delivering goods to consumers' doorstep. The above circumstances indicate that commercial survival will depend on global marketing. A reflection on the above conviction declares that going global is a necessity and not a luxury (Naisbits, 2005, 21-26).

Global production

Organization can change their location of operating comparative to the changing production costs. For example, Nike closed 20 factories but opened 35 new factories in new locations. In situations where relocating the entire firm is costly, a firm may increase its income through global accounting. By manipulating transfer prices, a firm may juggle its financial statements so that it can relocate profits to an area where taxes are low. Companies are exploiting globalization opportunities by spreading different phases of the production process through out the world (Barnet & Cavanagh, 2004, 39-55). The world has become a global factory where countries can host quality control operations, assembly line, fabrication plant, fabrication plant, and many others.

This arrangement is well illustrated in the clothing industry, for example, Levi Straus Company buys its fabrics in North Carolina and transports it to France where it is converted into jeans. The jeans are shipped to Belgium for laundering and taken to Germany for marketing through Television programs developed in England. The motor vehicle industry has also embraced trans-border production processes. Products such as construction equipment, airplanes, consumer equipments, optical products, leather goods, toys, sports articles, and semiconductors have also developed the same processes. Global factories have only embraced a small portion of the global workforce; however, the aforementioned sectors global workforce is extremely vital (Strange, 2006, 61-85).

Global commodities

Globalization has been fueled by forces of capitalism stemming from surplus accumulation presented by inter-global territorial spaces. Globalization presents an infrastructure for profitable businesses large-scale business operation. Firms involved in telecommunications, digital technology, trans-border finance and electronic media are rising to great positions in global security exchange. Further, these sectors are the oldest in the service industry and are the major areas of production in the world. Therefore, globalization offers opportunities to extend Marxist's commoditization term to an array of emerging articles (Kapstein, 2004, 120-144).

In fact, with the sprawling inter-global networks, there is a remarkable shift in the capitalist's gravity, which has moved to intangibles from merchandise. In the world market, surplus income is derived from manufacturing, mining, agriculture and many others. Indeed, in the globalized economy, profit is also pursued through the production of data, electronic financial transactions, and flows of sounds and images to a large level. For example, currently, only 10% of foreign exchange transactions are directly linked to business trading real goods (Sklair, 2005, 88-110).

Global business organization

Globalization is the driving force behind the creation of strategic alliances between organizations. This involves different cooperation agreements between business enterprises. Inter-firm corporations are involved in joint research efforts, sub-contracting arrangements, co-production operations, joint distribution, and marketing and many collaborative activities. Thousands of cooperate treaties have been produced via diplomatic and business relations among firms (Naisbits, 2005, 49-60). This has been observed especially in the information technology, automotive, travel, telecommunications and pharmaceutical sectors.

Because of acquisitions, mergers and strategic alliances, globalization has facilitated the increase in concentration of power and ownership to many production areas. For instance, several fields have evolved mega-mergers thus becoming corporate giants, which have made radical changes in the industry's competition. Vey few companies dominate the global production of music recordings, film, electrical equipments, aircrafts, credit cards, debt instruments, telecommunications, insurance, credit cards, and semiconductors. In this regard, the largest global firms are controlling 70% of foreign investment and a third of worldwide corporate assets Kapstein, (2004, 99-112).