The Limits of Convergence: Globalization and Organizational Change in Argentina, South Korea, and Spain

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This work challenges the notion that globalization encourages economic convergence and cultural homogenization across national borders. A systematic comparison of organizational change in Argentina, South Korea and Spain since 1950 finds that global competition forces countries to exploit their distinctive strengths, resulting in unique development trajectories. Analysing the social, political and economic conditions underpinning the rise of various organizational forms, Guillen shows that business groups, small enterprises and foreign multinationals play different economic roles depending on a country's path to development.

Reviews

"This book offers a sophisticated and lively analysis of three well-researched and important cases of distinctive political economies. It is a valuable contribution to the debate about the impact of globalization on national trajectories and the varieties of capitalism in the modern world."--Anthony W. Pereira, Political Science Quarterly "A very ambitious study, striding across a number of disciplines... This is a groundbreaking contribution to the study of business organization and economic development."--International Affairs "This is an important book: theoretically nuanced, comparative in the best sense, and empirically rich."--Stephen Haggard, American Journal of Sociology "The strength of this book is its comparative and historical approach to the study of organizational and institutional change... [A]n informative work and a valuable contribution to the literatures on these countries and to debates about globalization generally."--Robert K. Schaeffer, Social Forces

Author Bio

Mauro F. Guillen is Associate Professor of Management and of Sociology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he is the author of "Models of Management: Work, Authority, and Organization in a Comparative Perspective" and the coauthor of "The AIDS Disaster".