research paper on globalization and culture

Globalization and its Effect on Culture

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• Brian J. Hurn 3 &
• Barry Tomalin 4  

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This chapter looks at the spread of globalization, its effect on culture, society and economic development, and its advantages and disadvantages. It considers the opposition to globalization and whether globalization has an effect on cultural convergence or divergence. The driving forces behind globalization are examined and the future trends in globalization are suggested, particularly with relevance to the BRICs:

Globalization is not incidental to our lives today. It is a shift in our very life circumstance. It’s the way we now live. (Giddens, 1999: 19)

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Globality: Cultural Comparison Between Europe and China

Proglomena: Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Diversity

Globalization: Defining the Terrain

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Further reading

Bartlett, C. and Chosal, S. (1998) Managing Across Borders: The Transnational System (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press).

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The Economist (2008) ‘A Bigger World: Special Report on Globalisation’, 20 September.

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Hobsbawn, E. (2007) Globalization, Democracy and Terrorism (London: Little, Brown).

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Rugman, A.M. (2005) The Regional Multinationals (Cambridge University Press).

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Shaw, W, and Glennie, A. (2012) Report on Globalization (London: Institute of Public Policy Research).

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Wolf, W. (2004) The Case for the Global Market Economy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).

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Hurn, B.J., Tomalin, B. (2013). Globalization and its Effect on Culture. In: Cross-Cultural Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230391147_11

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Reconceptualizing cultural globalization: connecting the “cultural global” and the “cultural local”.

1. Introduction: Parsing Cultural Studies and Globalization

2. culture and communication: globalizing culture, 3. conceptual framework, 3.1. individuals, communities and consumption: agency, 3.2. communication and technology: the mainstays of globalized culture, 4. case studies: communication—the personal and the global, 4.1. technological innovation and communication: walkmans and webs, 4.2. communication: the global is local—the cell phone revolution and ethnic languages, 5. communication, political participation (protest) and color revolutions.

It is not uncommon for them to send messages to one another by peer-to-peer Bluetooth messaging on their mobile phones. The Bluetooth technology enables young Iranians to send messages to anyone with a wireless feature on their mobile phones, even if they don’t know either their name or telephone number. ([ 39 ], p. 6)

Predicting Future Trends in Global Culture—More Homogeneity or Heterogeneity?

6. conclusions, conflicts of interest.

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© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Magu, S. Reconceptualizing Cultural Globalization: Connecting the “Cultural Global” and the “Cultural Local”. Soc. Sci. 2015 , 4 , 630-645. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030630

Magu S. Reconceptualizing Cultural Globalization: Connecting the “Cultural Global” and the “Cultural Local”. Social Sciences . 2015; 4(3):630-645. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030630

Magu, Stephen. 2015. "Reconceptualizing Cultural Globalization: Connecting the “Cultural Global” and the “Cultural Local”" Social Sciences 4, no. 3: 630-645. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030630

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Globalization and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Complementarities

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor, Malaysia, Department of Management, Mobarakeh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Affiliation Applied Statistics Department, Economics and Administration Faculty, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• Parisa Samimi, 
• Hashem Salarzadeh Jenatabadi

• Published: April 10, 2014
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824
• Reader Comments

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of economic globalization on economic growth in OIC countries. Furthermore, the study examined the effect of complementary policies on the growth effect of globalization. It also investigated whether the growth effect of globalization depends on the income level of countries. Utilizing the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator within the framework of a dynamic panel data approach, we provide evidence which suggests that economic globalization has statistically significant impact on economic growth in OIC countries. The results indicate that this positive effect is increased in the countries with better-educated workers and well-developed financial systems. Our finding shows that the effect of economic globalization also depends on the country’s level of income. High and middle-income countries benefit from globalization whereas low-income countries do not gain from it. In fact, the countries should receive the appropriate income level to be benefited from globalization. Economic globalization not only directly promotes growth but also indirectly does so via complementary reforms.

Citation: Samimi P, Jenatabadi HS (2014) Globalization and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Complementarities. PLoS ONE 9(4): e87824. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824

Editor: Rodrigo Huerta-Quintanilla, Cinvestav-Merida, Mexico

Received: November 5, 2013; Accepted: January 2, 2014; Published: April 10, 2014

Copyright: © 2014 Samimi, Jenatabadi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The study is supported by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, Malaysian International Scholarship (MIS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Globalization, as a complicated process, is not a new phenomenon and our world has experienced its effects on different aspects of lives such as economical, social, environmental and political from many years ago [1] – [4] . Economic globalization includes flows of goods and services across borders, international capital flows, reduction in tariffs and trade barriers, immigration, and the spread of technology, and knowledge beyond borders. It is source of much debate and conflict like any source of great power.

The broad effects of globalization on different aspects of life grab a great deal of attention over the past three decades. As countries, especially developing countries are speeding up their openness in recent years the concern about globalization and its different effects on economic growth, poverty, inequality, environment and cultural dominance are increased. As a significant subset of the developing world, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries are also faced by opportunities and costs of globalization. Figure 1 shows the upward trend of economic globalization among different income group of OIC countries.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.g001

Although OICs are rich in natural resources, these resources were not being used efficiently. It seems that finding new ways to use the OICs economic capacity more efficiently are important and necessary for them to improve their economic situation in the world. Among the areas where globalization is thought, the link between economic growth and globalization has been become focus of attention by many researchers. Improving economic growth is the aim of policy makers as it shows the success of nations. Due to the increasing trend of globalization, finding the effect of globalization on economic growth is prominent.

The net effect of globalization on economic growth remains puzzling since previous empirical analysis did not support the existent of a systematic positive or negative impact of globalization on growth. Most of these studies suffer from econometrics shortcoming, narrow definition of globalization and small number of countries. The effect of economic globalization on the economic growth in OICs is also ambiguous. Existing empirical studies have not indicated the positive or negative impact of globalization in OICs. The relationship between economic globalization and economic growth is important especially for economic policies.

Recently, researchers have claimed that the growth effects of globalization depend on the economic structure of the countries during the process of globalization. The impact of globalization on economic growth of countries also could be changed by the set of complementary policies such as improvement in human capital and financial system. In fact, globalization by itself does not increase or decrease economic growth. The effect of complementary policies is very important as it helps countries to be successful in globalization process.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between economic globalization and growth in panel of selected OIC countries over the period 1980–2008. Furthermore, we would explore whether the growth effects of economic globalization depend on the set of complementary policies and income level of OIC countries.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section consists of a review of relevant studies on the impact of globalization on growth. Afterward the model specification is described. It is followed by the methodology of this study as well as the data sets that are utilized in the estimation of the model and the empirical strategy. Then, the econometric results are reported and discussed. The last section summarizes and concludes the paper with important issues on policy implications.

Literature Review

The relationship between globalization and growth is a heated and highly debated topic on the growth and development literature. Yet, this issue is far from being resolved. Theoretical growth studies report at best a contradictory and inconclusive discussion on the relationship between globalization and growth. Some of the studies found positive the effect of globalization on growth through effective allocation of domestic resources, diffusion of technology, improvement in factor productivity and augmentation of capital [5] , [6] . In contrast, others argued that globalization has harmful effect on growth in countries with weak institutions and political instability and in countries, which specialized in ineffective activities in the process of globalization [5] , [7] , [8] .

Given the conflicting theoretical views, many studies have been empirically examined the impact of the globalization on economic growth in developed and developing countries. Generally, the literature on the globalization-economic growth nexus provides at least three schools of thought. First, many studies support the idea that globalization accentuates economic growth [9] – [19] . Pioneering early studies include Dollar [9] , Sachs et al. [15] and Edwards [11] , who examined the impact of trade openness by using different index on economic growth. The findings of these studies implied that openness is associated with more rapid growth.

In 2006, Dreher introduced a new comprehensive index of globalization, KOF, to examine the impact of globalization on growth in an unbalanced dynamic panel of 123 countries between 1970 and 2000. The overall result showed that globalization promotes economic growth. The economic and social dimensions have positive impact on growth whereas political dimension has no effect on growth. The robustness of the results of Dreher [19] is approved by Rao and Vadlamannati [20] which use KOF and examine its impact on growth rate of 21 African countries during 1970–2005. The positive effect of globalization on economic growth is also confirmed by the extreme bounds analysis. The result indicated that the positive effect of globalization on growth is larger than the effect of investment on growth.

The second school of thought, which supported by some scholars such as Alesina et al. [21] , Rodrik [22] and Rodriguez and Rodrik [23] , has been more reserve in supporting the globalization-led growth nexus. Rodriguez and Rodrik [23] challenged the robustness of Dollar (1992), Sachs, Warner et al. (1995) and Edwards [11] studies. They believed that weak evidence support the idea of positive relationship between openness and growth. They mentioned the lack of control for some prominent growth indicators as well as using incomprehensive trade openness index as shortcomings of these works. Warner [24] refuted the results of Rodriguez and Rodrik (2000). He mentioned that Rodriguez and Rodrik (2000) used an uncommon index to measure trade restriction (tariffs revenues divided by imports). Warner (2003) explained that they ignored all other barriers on trade and suggested using only the tariffs and quotas of textbook trade policy to measure trade restriction in countries.

Krugman [25] strongly disagreed with the argument that international financial integration is a major engine of economic development. This is because capital is not an important factor to increase economic development and the large flows of capital from rich to poor countries have never occurred. Therefore, developing countries are unlikely to increase economic growth through financial openness. Levine [26] was more optimistic about the impact of financial liberalization than Krugman. He concluded, based on theory and empirical evidences, that the domestic financial system has a prominent effect on economic growth through boosting total factor productivity. The factors that improve the functioning of domestic financial markets and banks like financial integration can stimulate improvements in resource allocation and boost economic growth.

The third school of thoughts covers the studies that found nonlinear relationship between globalization and growth with emphasis on the effect of complementary policies. Borensztein, De Gregorio et al. (1998) investigated the impact of FDI on economic growth in a cross-country framework by developing a model of endogenous growth to examine the role of FDI in the economic growth in developing countries. They found that FDI, which is measured by the fraction of products produced by foreign firms in the total number of products, reduces the costs of introducing new varieties of capital goods, thus increasing the rate at which new capital goods are introduced. The results showed a strong complementary effect between stock of human capital and FDI to enhance economic growth. They interpreted this finding with the observation that the advanced technology, brought by FDI, increases the growth rate of host economy when the country has sufficient level of human capital. In this situation, the FDI is more productive than domestic investment.

Calderón and Poggio [27] examined the structural factors that may have impact on growth effect of trade openness. The growth benefits of rising trade openness are conditional on the level of progress in structural areas including education, innovation, infrastructure, institutions, the regulatory framework, and financial development. Indeed, they found that the lack of progress in these areas could restrict the potential benefits of trade openness. Chang et al. [28] found that the growth effects of openness may be significantly improved when the investment in human capital is stronger, financial markets are deeper, price inflation is lower, and public infrastructure is more readily available. Gu and Dong [29] emphasized that the harmful or useful growth effect of financial globalization heavily depends on the level of financial development of economies. In fact, if financial openness happens without any improvement in the financial system of countries, growth will replace by volatility.

However, the review of the empirical literature indicates that the impact of the economic globalization on economic growth is influenced by sample, econometric techniques, period specifications, observed and unobserved country-specific effects. Most of the literature in the field of globalization, concentrates on the effect of trade or foreign capital volume (de facto indices) on economic growth. The problem is that de facto indices do not proportionally capture trade and financial globalization policies. The rate of protections and tariff need to be accounted since they are policy based variables, capturing the severity of trade restrictions in a country. Therefore, globalization index should contain trade and capital restrictions as well as trade and capital volume. Thus, this paper avoids this problem by using a comprehensive index which called KOF [30] . The economic dimension of this index captures the volume and restriction of trade and capital flow of countries.

Despite the numerous studies, the effect of economic globalization on economic growth in OIC is still scarce. The results of recent studies on the effect of globalization in OICs are not significant, as they have not examined the impact of globalization by empirical model such as Zeinelabdin [31] and Dabour [32] . Those that used empirical model, investigated the effect of globalization for one country such as Ates [33] and Oyvat [34] , or did it for some OIC members in different groups such as East Asia by Guillaumin [35] or as group of developing countries by Haddad et al. [36] and Warner [24] . Therefore, the aim of this study is filling the gap in research devoted solely to investigate the effects of economic globalization on growth in selected OICs. In addition, the study will consider the impact of complimentary polices on the growth effects of globalization in selected OIC countries.

Model Specification

Methodology and Data

This paper applies the generalized method of moments (GMM) panel estimator first suggested by Anderson and Hsiao [38] and later developed further by Arellano and Bond [39] . This flexible method requires only weak assumption that makes it one of the most widely used econometric techniques especially in growth studies. The dynamic GMM procedure is as follow: first, to eliminate the individual effect form dynamic growth model, the method takes differences. Then, it instruments the right hand side variables by using their lagged values. The last step is to eliminate the inconsistency arising from the endogeneity of the explanatory variables.

The consistency of the GMM estimator depends on two specification tests. The first is a Sargan test of over-identifying restrictions, which tests the overall validity of the instruments. Failure to reject the null hypothesis gives support to the model. The second test examines the null hypothesis that the error term is not serially correlated.

The GMM can be applied in one- or two-step variants. The one-step estimators use weighting matrices that are independent of estimated parameters, whereas the two-step GMM estimator uses the so-called optimal weighting matrices in which the moment conditions are weighted by a consistent estimate of their covariance matrix. However, the use of the two-step estimator in small samples, as in our study, has problem derived from proliferation of instruments. Furthermore, the estimated standard errors of the two-step GMM estimator tend to be small. Consequently, this paper employs the one-step GMM estimator.

In the specification, year dummies are used as instrument variable because other regressors are not strictly exogenous. The maximum lags length of independent variable which used as instrument is 2 to select the optimal lag, the AR(1) and AR(2) statistics are employed. There is convincing evidence that too many moment conditions introduce bias while increasing efficiency. It is, therefore, suggested that a subset of these moment conditions can be used to take advantage of the trade-off between the reduction in bias and the loss in efficiency. We restrict the moment conditions to a maximum of two lags on the dependent variable.

Data and Empirical Strategy

We estimated Eq. (1) using the GMM estimator based on a panel of 33 OIC countries. Table S1 in File S1 lists the countries and their income groups in the sample. The choice of countries selected for this study is primarily dictated by availability of reliable data over the sample period among all OIC countries. The panel covers the period 1980–2008 and is unbalanced. Following [40] , we use annual data in order to maximize sample size and to identify the parameters of interest more precisely. In fact, averaging out data removes useful variation from the data, which could help to identify the parameters of interest with more precision.

The dependent variable in our sample is logged per capita real GDP, using the purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates and is obtained from the Penn World Table (PWT 7.0). The economic dimension of KOF index is derived from Dreher et al. [41] . We use some other variables, along with economic globalization to control other factors influenced economic growth. Table S2 in File S2 shows the variables, their proxies and source that they obtain.

We relied on the three main approaches to capture the effects of economic globalization on economic growth in OIC countries. The first one is the baseline specification (Eq. (1)) which estimates the effect of economic globalization on economic growth.

The second approach is to examine whether the effect of globalization on growth depends on the complementary policies in the form of level of human capital and financial development. To test, the interactions of economic globalization and financial development (KOF*FD) and economic globalization and human capital (KOF*HCS) are included as additional explanatory variables, apart from the standard variables used in the growth equation. The KOF, HCS and FD are included in the model individually as well for two reasons. First, the significance of the interaction term may be the result of the omission of these variables by themselves. Thus, in that way, it can be tested jointly whether these variables affect growth by themselves or through the interaction term. Second, to ensure that the interaction term did not proxy for KOF, HCS or FD, these variables were included in the regression independently.

In the third approach, in order to study the role of income level of countries on the growth effect of globalization, the countries are split based on income level. Accordingly, countries were classified into three groups: high-income countries (3), middle-income (21) and low-income (9) countries. Next, dummy variables were created for high-income (Dum 3), middle-income (Dum 2) and low-income (Dum 1) groups. Then interaction terms were created for dummy variables and KOF. These interactions will be added to the baseline specification.

Findings and Discussion

This section presents the empirical results of three approaches, based on the GMM -dynamic panel data; in Tables 1 – 3 . Table 1 presents a preliminary analysis on the effects of economic globalization on growth. Table 2 displays coefficient estimates obtained from the baseline specification, which used added two interaction terms of economic globalization and financial development and economic globalization and human capital. Table 3 reports the coefficients estimate from a specification that uses dummies to capture the impact of income level of OIC countries on the growth effect of globalization.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.t001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.t002

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.t003

The results in Table 1 indicate that economic globalization has positive impact on growth and the coefficient is significant at 1 percent level. The positive effect is consistent with the bulk of the existing empirical literature that support beneficial effect of globalization on economic growth [9] , [11] , [13] , [19] , [42] , [43] .

According to the theoretical literature, globalization enhances economic growth by allocating resources more efficiently as OIC countries that can be specialized in activities with comparative advantages. By increasing the size of markets through globalization, these countries can be benefited from economic of scale, lower cost of research and knowledge spillovers. It also augments capital in OICs as they provide a higher return to capital. It has raised productivity and innovation, supported the spread of knowledge and new technologies as the important factors in the process of development. The results also indicate that growth is enhanced by lower level of government expenditure, lower level of inflation, higher level of human capital, deeper financial development, more domestic investment and better institutions.

Table 2 represents that the coefficients on the interaction between the KOF, HCS and FD are statistically significant at 1% level and with the positive sign. The findings indicate that economic globalization not only directly promotes growth but also indirectly does via complementary reforms. On the other hand, the positive effect of economic globalization can be significantly enhanced if some complementary reforms in terms of human capital and financial development are undertaken.

In fact, the implementation of new technologies transferred from advanced economies requires skilled workers. The results of this study confirm the importance of increasing educated workers as a complementary policy in progressing globalization. However, countries with higher level of human capital can be better and faster to imitate and implement the transferred technologies. Besides, the financial openness brings along the knowledge and managerial for implementing the new technology. It can be helpful in improving the level of human capital in host countries. Moreover, the strong and well-functioned financial systems can lead the flow of foreign capital to the productive and compatible sectors in developing countries. Overall, with higher level of human capital and stronger financial systems, the globalized countries benefit from the growth effect of globalization. The obtained results supported by previous studies in relative to financial and trade globalization such as [5] , [27] , [44] , [45] .

Table (3 ) shows that the estimated coefficients on KOF*dum3 and KOF*dum2 are statistically significant at the 5% level with positive sign. The KOF*dum1 is statistically significant with negative sign. It means that increase in economic globalization in high and middle-income countries boost economic growth but this effect is diverse for low-income countries. The reason might be related to economic structure of these countries that are not received to the initial condition necessary to be benefited from globalization. In fact, countries should be received to the appropriate income level to be benefited by globalization.

The diagnostic tests in tables 1 – 3 show that the estimated equation is free from simultaneity bias and second-order correlation. The results of Sargan test accept the null hypothesis that supports the validity of the instrument use in dynamic GMM.

Conclusions and Implications

Numerous researchers have investigated the impact of economic globalization on economic growth. Unfortunately, theoretical and the empirical literature have produced conflicting conclusions that need more investigation. The current study shed light on the growth effect of globalization by using a comprehensive index for globalization and applying a robust econometrics technique. Specifically, this paper assesses whether the growth effects of globalization depend on the complementary polices as well as income level of OIC countries.

Using a panel data of OIC countries over the 1980–2008 period, we draw three important conclusions from the empirical analysis. First, the coefficient measuring the effect of the economic globalization on growth was positive and significant, indicating that economic globalization affects economic growth of OIC countries in a positive way. Second, the positive effect of globalization on growth is increased in countries with higher level of human capital and deeper financial development. Finally, economic globalization does affect growth, whether the effect is beneficial depends on the level of income of each group. It means that economies should have some initial condition to be benefited from the positive effects of globalization. The results explain why some countries have been successful in globalizing world and others not.

The findings of our study suggest that public policies designed to integrate to the world might are not optimal for economic growth by itself. Economic globalization not only directly promotes growth but also indirectly does so via complementary reforms.

The policy implications of this study are relatively straightforward. Integrating to the global economy is only one part of the story. The other is how to benefits more from globalization. In this respect, the responsibility of policymakers is to improve the level of educated workers and strength of financial systems to get more opportunities from globalization. These economic policies are important not only in their own right, but also in helping developing countries to derive the benefits of globalization.

However, implementation of new technologies transferred from advanced economies requires skilled workers. The results of this study confirm the importance of increasing educated workers as a complementary policy in progressing globalization. In fact, countries with higher level of human capital can better and faster imitate and implement the transferred technologies. The higher level of human capital and certain skill of human capital determine whether technology is successfully absorbed across countries. This shows the importance of human capital in the success of countries in the globalizing world.

Financial openness in the form of FDI brings along the knowledge and managerial for implementing the new technology. It can be helpful in upgrading the level of human capital in host countries. Moreover, strong and well-functioned financial systems can lead the flow of foreign capital to the productive and compatible sectors in OICs.

In addition, the results show that economic globalization does affect growth, whether the effect is beneficial depends on the level of income of countries. High and middle income countries benefit from globalization whereas low-income countries do not gain from it. As Birdsall [46] mentioned globalization is fundamentally asymmetric for poor countries, because their economic structure and markets are asymmetric. So, the risks of globalization hurt the poor more. The structure of the export of low-income countries heavily depends on primary commodity and natural resource which make them vulnerable to the global shocks.

The major research limitation of this study was the failure to collect data for all OIC countries. Therefore future research for all OIC countries would shed light on the relationship between economic globalization and economic growth.

Supporting Information

Sample of Countries.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.s001

The Name and Definition of Indicators.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087824.s002

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PS. Performed the experiments: PS. Analyzed the data: PS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PS HSJ. Wrote the paper: PS HSJ.

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Understanding Cultural Globalization

• Paula Hopper
• Published 2007

155 Citations

Cultural globalization : 2001 – 10, globalization and transnational corporations, globalization and support for national cultural protectionism from a cross-national perspective, ecuadorian indigenous youth and identities : cultural homogenization or indigenous vindication, the complex process of cultural globalization in a rapidly changing society: television drama reception among the malays, cultural globalization in anne tyler’s digging to america, globalization streams in futures studies, the social imaginary in thai society: globalization, cultural dimensions and education, a cosmopolitan perspective of globalization: cultural and aesthetic consumption among young people, globalization and its methodological discontents: contextualizing globalization through the study of hiv/aids, related papers.

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Cultural Diversity in a Globalized World: Navigating Interconnected Realities

9 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2023

Eman Zahid Jokhio

Univeristy of sindh, jamshoro.

Date Written: September 10, 2023

This research paper, aims to comprehensively examine the dynamic interplay between globalization and cultural diversity. It seeks to analyze the profound impact of globalization on cultural identities, traditions, languages, media, tourism, and educational systems, emphasizing both enriching and challenging aspects. The study employs a multidimensional approach, combining qualitative analysis and comprehensive literature review to investigate linguistic ramifications, media influence, cultural hybridization, tourism’s impact, cultural appropriation, treatment of indigenous cultures, and the educational transmission of culture. Scholarly perspectives are critically examined to present a nuanced understanding of how globalization affects cultural diversity. The results highlight the complex interplay, showcasing how globalization enriches cultures through hybridization and global connections, while also posing challenges such as cultural homogenization and appropriation. Emphasizing the urgent need for policies promoting inclusivity, respect, and preservation of diverse cultures, this research advocates for fostering a global society that values and celebrates cultural richness.

Keywords: Globalization, Culture, Diversity, Hybridization, Linguistics, Indigenous, Education,, Syncretism, Tourism, Inclusivity, Homogenization

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Eman Zahid Jokhio (Contact Author)

HOME PAGE: http://usindh.edu.pk

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The Benefits of International Study

• If your degree program includes an international component, you will learn to work alongside diverse peers and develop cultural empathy.
• You will acquire the real-world knowledge you need to address today’s business challenges, which are frequently global in nature.
• Your options include participating in study abroad programs, attending a school that is part of an international network, or choosing a school with campuses in multiple countries.

  No matter where you’re from, it can be challenging to take yourself out of a familiar environment and throw yourself into something completely new. This is especially true if you’re a student embarking on undergraduate or postgraduate education outside of your home country. You might find yourself anxious about managing the intensity of study or fitting into a new social environment.

Even so, I encourage you to consider international education because of all the benefits it provides. When you are out of your comfort zone in a new city or country, you build skills that end up serving you well—not only in school but throughout your lifetime. International study brings both short-term and long-term advantages, in five specific ways.

1. You Grow and Change

Education is about more than a degree; it’s about undergoing transformation and setting yourself up for success. The probabilities of both outcomes increase when you’re learning through an international lens.

Pursuing an international degree shows curiosity and optimism. You learn not only from the curriculum, but also from the culture and environment around you.

Being in a new environment and taking on the role of outsider can stimulate your learning. When you’re in unfamiliar surroundings, you become resourceful as you seek out new support networks, learn to adapt, and find your grounding. As you face new challenges, you become more resilient and improve your problem-solving skills. You’ll also get a cognition boost if you learn a new language.

2. You Gain Cultural Intelligence

I would argue that understanding cultural and workstyle differences is critical to professional success today. It builds empathy, leads to open-mindedness, and enables individuals to build strong problem-solving skills.

At schools where global immersion is part of the DNA, international awareness is intrinsic to the overall educational experience. Often, these schools don’t just provide international study experiences for students; they also enroll students from all over the world. For instance, at Hult International Business School, where I am president, our students represent some 150 nationalities.

Understanding cultural and workstyle differences is critical to professional success today. It builds empathy, leads to open-mindedness, and enables individuals to build strong problem-solving skills.

In an internationally diverse classroom, even a simple discussion becomes a unique cultural experience in its own right. You become privy to views and outlooks you would not encounter if you were merely studying alongside people with backgrounds similar to yours. This, in turn, spurs your own thinking in surprising and innovative ways.

In today’s workforce, you must be prepared to hit the ground running alongside a distributed cohort of colleagues, clients, and partners. If your business education has given you experience working with international classmates, you will be able to comprehend and thrive in many different environments. You’ll understand how to leverage diversity to get results, and you will know how to collaborate with people who are not like you.

Once you’re hired by an organization, you will be able to assimilate quickly into the professional culture in a way that benefits the company and the team. You will be a step ahead of other new hires—possibly even ahead of some members of the management teams who are still learning how to work with colleagues who come from different backgrounds.

3. You Prepare to Become a Leader

International experience is practically a requirement for today’s leaders, because our most urgent business and societal challenges are global.

In a recent video released by AACSB, three panelists discuss how worldwide issues such as climate change, sustainability, and biodiversity loss are impacting business. And according to a recent AACSB Insights article , global events such as armed conflicts, disruptions to the supply chain, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic also are causing widespread economic upheaval.

Through international education, you will gain a better understanding of today’s interconnected and global business environment. Such understanding will help you become a better leader.

4. You Practice Real-World Business

The most important way a business school can prepare future executives is to simulate work scenarios in the classroom. In challenge-based and applied learning exercises, students unpack real-life cases that companies have struggled with—and that raise issues students might have to deal with once they’re on the job. During these exercises, students collaborate with peers and focus on achieving measurable results.

Through simulated work scenarios, students unpack real-life cases that companies have struggled with—and that raise issues students might have to deal with once they’re on the job.

When I recently visited with Hult alumni in San Francisco, they told me that these real-life cases were some of their most valuable classroom experiences. These alumni work at tech companies such as Google, PayPal, and Tesla, and they hold jobs in every type of department, from product management to coding to human resources to finance.

All of them believed that learning in immersive global settings prepared them for being in a workforce where adaptability, hustle, transferable skills, and cultural understanding are prioritized.

5. You Expand Your Network

Another important benefit to attending a school with a diverse and global student body is that you build a lifelong network via collaborations with classmates from around the world. These classmates might become business partners, colleagues, or even future investors.

Business schools that have strong international outlooks and approaches are likely to have alumni in every part of the world. These individuals come together on a regular basis to attend events, access mentor opportunities, and learn about exclusive job listings.

In-Person Immersion

You might wonder if you can realize the benefits of international education through virtual experiences and online education. These options certainly have their place among today’s educational offerings, and they can offer students accessible ways to quickly get up to speed on specific topics and industry knowledge.

But I believe that international experiences cannot be replicated with virtual replacements. Ask yourself, why do people go on holiday rather than just watch videos from their own homes? Because there’s no substitute for in-person immersion in a culture. No online experience can compare to sitting side-by-side with others as you break down problems, innovate solutions, and build indispensable skill sets.

In international classrooms, students benefit from shared experiences as they exchange ideas with faculty and with each other. Successful alumni—now industry experts—regularly join the classroom to share their insights. All participants learn from each other and enrich their individual perspectives. As a result, they develop more innovative, impactful ideas that make the world a better place.

International Options

You might be convinced that you want your business education to include international experiences, but be uncertain about the next step to take. You can consider several options.

Many schools provide students chances to study abroad through exchange programs or joint degrees offered with institutions in other parts of the world. When students take advantage of study abroad opportunities, “what they learn is definitely a different culture, definitely a different way to do business, a different way of thinking,” says Sherif Kamel of the School of Business at the American University in Cairo in a video produced by AACSB.

If you pursue a global education, you will broaden your horizons, discover new ways to solve problems, and become a more interesting person.

A growing number of schools belong to international educational alliances that make it easier for students to attend classes on multiple campuses. These alliances include CEMS (the Global Alliance in Management Education), the Global Network for Advanced Management , the EMBA Consortium for Global Business Innovation , the Future of Management Education ( FOME ) Alliance, and the Quantitative Techniques for Economics and Management network.

Other schools maintain multiple campuses around the world where students can gain a variety of diverse experiences. For instance, at Hult, we have locations in business hubs such as London, Boston, Dubai, and San Francisco. Students can choose to study at up to three different Hult campuses in a given year. We also recently introduced weeklong international learning experiences called City Seminars that enable postgraduate students to take elective courses in different cities. This summer, City Seminars will take place in Madrid, Stockholm, Seoul, Singapore, and New York City.

Broader Horizons

When I think back on my own education, I realize that the time I spent studying internationally changed my life. I grew up in the U.K. and attended Cambridge University, but I also spent time at the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. as a Thouron Scholar and did postgraduate work at Heidelberg University in Germany. During those years, I learned perspectives that I would not have been open to before, and I still have close friends from my time abroad.

Others report similar reactions to their own international experiences. For instance, in a 2020 article on AACSB Insights, Anastasia Sinegaeva describes what happened when she left her native Russia to pursue graduate education at the University of South Florida. She writes that going overseas changed the way she perceives the world, helped her develop a global mindset, and heightened her sense of cultural awareness.

“In the end, graduate education abroad enabled me to understand the businesses, markets, strategies, and people across cultures and borders. It prepared me to be a business leader of tomorrow,” she notes.

If you decide to pursue a global education, you will broaden your horizons as you discover new ways to see—and solve—problems. Not only will you be in demand with employers all over the world, but you’ll also become a more interesting person.

You will build empathy, character, and confidence. By combining your natural curiosity with a global mindset, you will develop fearlessness in the face of challenges. As you become the best version of yourself, you obviously will improve your own life. But you also will have a positive impact on society and contribute to building a better world for all.

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