What We Talk About When We Talk About “Global Mindset”

global and the local (e.g., Kefalas, 1998; Arora, Jaju, Kefalas, and Perenich, 2004), distinguish between
and integrate across cultures and markets (e.g., Govindarajan and Gupta, 2001; Gupta and Govindarajan,
2002), and scan and pay attention to global issues (e.g., Rhinesmith, 1993; Levy, 2005; Bouquet, 2005).
For example, in defining global mindset, Jeannet (2000:11) emphasizes the ability to integrate
across domains: “The executive with a global mindset has the ability to see across multiple territories
and focuses on commonalities across many markets rather than emphasizing the differences among
countries.” He identifies several critical elements of global mindset: assessing global markets, analyzing
globalization pathways, and providing adequate strategic response. According to this approach, global
mindset must encompass strategy formulation and global strategic thinking. Jeannet (2000) also applies
the concept of a global mindset at the corporate level and suggests that it encompasses “those cultural
aspects of a company that define the extent to which the firm has learned to think, behave, and operate
in global terms” (Jeannet, 2000: 199). He notes, however, that even if a company were populated with
an adequate pool of managers, each possessing a global mindset, this would be insufficient if the
company as a whole, expressed through its structure, processes, and behavior, did not also espouse the
same principles.
While Jeannet (2000) and Tichy et al. (1992) define global mindset in terms of managers’
abilities to understand, recognize, and integrate across complex global dynamics, a few studies within
the strategic stream focus on balancing between global integration and local responsiveness (e.g.,
Murtha, et al., 1998; Begley and Boyd, 2003) or on mediating the tension between “thinking globally”
and “acting locally,” (e.g., Kefalas, 1998; Arora, et al., 2004). For example, Murtha et al. (1998) define
global mindset as the “cognitive processes that balance competing country, business, and functional
concerns” and examine the relationship between global mindset and cognitive shift in a sample of 305
managers in a US-based diversified MNC. In their study, global mindset is operationalized in terms of
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