Globalization Of Hong Kong Disneyland Summary

Student Answer: Since the headquarters of the Disney Corporation in the US are considerably foreign from its subsidiaries on other continents, the corporation is well aware that the transplantation of Disney assets may not fit the receiving environment in host countries. Only when adaptation to foreignness is successful can globalization become successful. Generally, foreignness refers to dissimilarity or lack of fit in operating contexts of a transnational corporation between home and host environments. Adaptation requires flexibility and tolerance, even the promotion of differences. One of the biggest obstacles to effectiveness for executives working outside their native culture is a lack of tolerance from the “locals.” However, mere tolerance of differences is just the beginning. Real adaptation requires executives to generate diversity local conditions. People think they might know a great deal about foreignness, strategic fit, and differences in host cultures, but there is something about the role of the country environment in the global transfer of corporation assets that is missing (Matustic, 2001). As this case study on the globalization of Hong Kong Disneyland will reveal, globalization theory helps fill this gap. Disney experienced unanticipated success in Japan but an equally unanticipated lack of success in Hong Kong, even though both places are in East Asia. This demonstrates that, somehow, in the transfer process, the transplanted Disney assets—as well as the