Business Culture and Rediscovery of Difference

Abstract

It seemed a generation ago that, with the triumph of capitalism, the world had come to the "end of history", marked by standardization of global markets and the imminent end of local specificity. Today, however, the trend seems to be reversed - not only have local differences not disappeared from the global space of capitalism, but they have been getting more attention from international business scholars and managers. Andrew Orta aptly calls this trend the "re-enchantment of the local" (7). The book Making Global MBAs tells the story of this "reimagining of global space as a space of difference" (2) and paints a convincing portrait of the managerial subject who is best prepared to manage risks and opportunities in this new space. To this end, the author explores MBA programs as one of the key places that both produce and reflect the business culture in the United States. Each of the seven chapters of the book focuses on a specific aspect of MBA education, ranging from its history and ethnographic accounts of students' daily experiences to detailed descriptions of the curriculum designed to prepare students to do business abroad. Together they provide a comprehensive overview of the business culture in the United States and its basic assumptions about the world.