Globalization, Culture and E-Business

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the way globalization, culture and e-business are interacting in the world economic environment to produce globalized trade and expansion of e-business not only across nations, but between organizations and across organizations internationally. This chapter is also concerned with the nature of globalization and gaining an understanding of what globalization means in various cultures. It will produce an understanding of why globalization is important in understanding e-business, how it impacts on e-business and how it has supported and promoted the changing nature of trade across the world. This chapter will also address why understanding culture is important in the e-business realm. Electronic business cannot be isolated from the cultures in that it works. While there is a tendency towards a world view, or globalized view, of the nature of e-business, the managerial factors and human interaction within e-business are imbued with cultural practices that challenge any sense of uniformity or heterogeneity. We will also be concerned with how e-business development is related to the expansion of globalization thinking and of the way that we are changing our worldview as a whole.