Business journalist Levitt dies

Theodore Levitt, the former Harvard Business Review editor who coined the term “globalization,” has died, according to an Associated Press story. He was 81.

Levitt, who had been battling prostate cancer, died at his home in Belmont last Wednesday, according to his son, Peter.

Levitt first earned fame in 1960, after publishing “Marketing Myopia,” a Harvard Business Review article in which he called marketing a “stepchild” in most corporations that concentrate too much on creating and selling products. He said certain companies and industries were declining because management defined the scope of their businesses too narrowly.

Since its initial publication, more than 850,000 reprints of the article have been sold, making it one of the most popular review articles ever, according to the review.

Levitt first used the term “globalization” in a 1983 Harvard Business Review article about the emergence of standardized, low-priced consumer products. He defined that globalization as the changes in social behaviors and technology which allowed companies to sell the same products around the world.

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