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Globalization and Glocalization: McDonald’s

Soo Ja Kim 1,  Tae-Hyeon Song 1

1이화여자대학교

ABSTRACT

For some years, there have been widespread and on-going discussions over the issue of globalization from various perspectives. Some take a positive view of the issue, saying that globalization, in the end, benefits all of us; others take a defensive stance against globalization, defining it as imperialist invasion. The same goes for the cultural globalization issue. Some argue that unless we make efforts to preserve our local culture, our cultures will be homogenized into one dominant global culture, and our cultural objects will become mere commodities in the global market with the trend of cultural imperialism. Others welcome globalization as benefiting cultural diversity, greatly esteeming the willingness of local cultures to embrace the larger global culture and assimilate into it. With our world globalizing, we are witnessing the phenomena of cultural homogenization as well as cultural heterogenization and cultural pluralism, all at the same time. In this context, the concept of glocality becomes very significant because glocalization, a combination of the terms "global" and "local," can serve as an alternative to globalization. Instead of local cultures becoming objects assimilated into global culture, glocalization may enable local cultures to better understand different cultures of the world. McDonald’s, a leading global brand, has become a symbol of globalization in cultural and economic contexts. McDonald’s, at the same time, represents glocalization with its regionalization efforts accommodating local cultures as it expands into many international markets. Since 1997, McDonald’s in Korea has been adapting to local Korean culture, offering a regionalized version of its menu, such as the Bulgogi Burger and the Shrimp Burger, to satisfy the palate of the Korean people. This wouldn’t have been possible without a deep understanding of Korean culture as well as of the sentiments of Koreans. As a multinational corporation, McDonald’s clearly saw the importance of keeping up with the current trends of local culture, communicating effectively inter-culturally, and implementing cultural regionalization strategically. Yet, on a closer look, we see the phenomenon of McDonald’s glocalization efforts as only superficial. In other words, McDonald’s regionalization efforts were made only for the purpose of making maximum profits in the market, without genuine interest in going local. Therefore, in research on glocality, we need to explore how two important issues of the preservation of local culture and the integration into global culture can go hand in hand and how a new paradigm of glocalized culture can be created.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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