Unpacking the glocalization of organization: from term, to theory, to analysis

Over the past two decades, the notion of ‘glocalization’ came to stand for more than what the term literally encompasses. Not only does it refer to the mutually constitutive character of the global and the local; rather, it spearheads the challenge to the numerous dichotomies that have dominated previous discussions of globalization, and points to the dualities of similarity and variation as well as universalism and particularism. In this short essay, we make an attempt to specify the dimensions of complexity and multidimensionality inherent in the notion of glocalization of organization and management. We propose three sets of analytic conceptualizations. First, we identify three axes of glocalization: vertical, horizontal, and temporal. Second, we extract three core themes of glocalization: the ‘what’, ‘who’, and ‘how’. Last, we name several sequenced components of glocalization: abstraction, construction of equivalency, and adoption and adaptation. Laced together, these conceptualizations are the basis for description and analysis of glocalization. We argue that the important principle of such an analytic approach to the multidimensionality of glocalization is the intersection, or conjuncture, among these three sets of conceptualizations.