Asian Journal of Technology & Management Research Vol. 01 – Issue: 01 (Jan - Jun 2011) GLOCALIZATION IN FOOD BUSINESS: STRATEGIES OF ADAPTATION TO LOCAL NEEDS AND DEMANDS Dr. Ajai Prakash1 Dr. V . B. Singh2 ABSTRACT Food industry, the world over, is witnessing unprecedented increase in the number of multinational enterprises. These multinational enterprises, when deciding to expand their operations to a new country, have to make a choice between following uniform business strategies as in their home country or modify their strategies to suit the host country socio- economic and political environment. Given the economic cost of modification of business strategies, the choice has widespread implications for the sustainability of multinational enterprises. The present paper argues that this decision-making is particularly critical in the case of multinational food enterprises because of large scale variability in food habits across countries and even within a country. Drawing from case studies of three multinational food enterprises in India, the paper points out that, in order to operate successfully in their host countries, the multinational food enterprises must adopt Glocalized strategies in marketing, product development, advertisement etc. Keywords: Glocalization; Multinational Food Enterprises; India; Food I.0 INTRODUCTION Attracted by mere size and growth potential of emerging economies’ food sector, a number of multinational food enterprises (MNFEs) have entered or are in the process of entering these markets either through FDI or joint ventures. Strategic alliances between local food enterprises and multinational food companies have also increased manifold in the recent past. This increasing globalization process has altered the international competitive dynamics in the food industry. The dynamism in competitive global markets calls for fundamentally different vision and strategic thinking in the food companies. In their host countries, the multinational enterprises have the option of choosing two fundamental strategies of marketing their products and services: globalized strategies or localized strategies. Globalized strategies or globalization involves developing marketing strategies as though the world is a single entity. This means marketing of standardized 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, University of Lucknow, Lucknow. 2 Vice Principal & Associate Professor, RKG Educational College, Lucknow.