Relli Shechter

The Cultural Economy of Development in Egypt: Economic Nationalism, Hidden Economy and the Emergence of Mass Consumer Society during Sadat's Infitah

Abstract The article presents a new overview on economic transition in Egypt, emphasizing the role of culture in shaping its recent economic history. Since partial independence, and culminating in the heyday of the Nasserite regime, ‘economic nationalism’ became a predominant national identity mark and a concept central to a local sense of authenticity. The article discusses the meaning of economic nationalism and why it turned such a powerful symbol of Egyptianness. The prevalence of this idea slowed down a transformation to an alternative economic regime when the development effort associated with economic nationalism partially failed. Instead, a huge and unregulated (‘hidden’) economy emerged, together with a corollary local consumer society. Fiercely resisted in a public discourse captivated by an older economic imagination, both have still shaped the Egyptian economy ever since.

Glocal Conservatism How Marketing Articulated a Neotraditional Saudi Arabian Society during the First Oil Boom, c. 1974–1984

Observers of Saudi society have often expressed bewilderment toward seemingly growing contradictions between “old” and “new,” “tradition” and “modernity,” “authentic” and “foreign,” or “Islamic” and “non-Islamic” in an age of mass consumption. Glocal conservatism in marketing decoupled such conceived binary oppositions, and therefore, the insurmountable tensions they implied. A unique mélange of global and local marketing practices facilitated new consumption patterns and social stratification based on consumption in the making of a Saudi mass consumer society. Glocal conservatism in marketing was encouraged through state discourse and Five-Year Plans; consumers’; selective participation in markets; and self-motivated or self-regulated enterprises. It further enhanced an existing sociocultural order, identity and ideal, as well as local governance. This article studies this critical phase in the remaking of Saudi Arabia using contemporary business press; literature on “doing business”; academic writings on local marketing; Philip Morris’;—a tobacco multinational—records; and by analyzing ads from Okaz, a Saudi daily.

Glocal Mediators: Marketing in Egypt During the Open-Door Era (Infitah)

This article discusses the business strategies formulated by Egyptian marketers as they established their enterprises to meet new multinational corporations’ (MNCs’) demand for marketing—research, promotion, and advertising services. This transition occurred during a period of economic liberalization, known locally as the infitah (open-door era), and rapid economic growth, resulting from the regional oil-boom of the early 1970s. Local entrepreneurship and competition for accounts would create a new, “glocal” business environment in Egypt, which concurrently mediated MNCs adaptation to local economic conditions and “Egyptianized” imported goods.

Editors' Introduction: Business History and the Middle East: Local Contexts, Multinational Responses—A Special Section of Enterprise & Society

Business history is now global history. This is in stark contrast to twenty years ago, when the discipline was based only on U.S., British and, to a lesser extent, German and French empirical foundations.1 The 2003 publication Business History around the World contains area chapters summarizing business history research that essentially cover the world, reflecting the enormous growth in the discipline in Europe, Asia, and Latin America in recent years.2 Moreover, this global spread of coverage has coincided with a thematic maturing, as scholars have diverted their attention from the technologically innovative and managerially intensive, large-scale firm. Big businesses remain a key topic today, but the particular focus is more likely to be their multinationality rather than managerial capabilities.