Occidental dominance is ending and the world is becoming multipolar: Emerging Evidence from Traditional Businesses

The world is undergoing a fundamental change. Global power is now dispersed across ‘poles’ constituting a ‘multipolar world’. The objective of this research study is to increase understanding of the global development from dominance of the Occident to a multipolar world by investigating the development of businesses based on traditional non-Occident sciences. Most of the case examples used to examine evidence and effects of emerging multipolarity in the world are from India, and in addition a few are from China and Africa. The results of our study confirm the positive effects of multipolarity on legitimacy and success of traditional businesses. The study expands the existing understanding of success factors in international business of emerging economies in a multipolar world. The study also discusses literature on organizational legitimacy and presents recommendations to maintain the legitimacy of traditional businesses in a multipolar world