TOPICS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

BA 447 Winter 2007

Lecture Slides/Materials

Professor: Manolete V. Gonzalez, Phd Email: gonzalezm@bus.oregonstate.edu

Office: B 224B

Office hours: T 4:00-5:00pm; W 3:00-4:00pm; Th 1:00-2:00pm

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The objective of this course is to investigate selected topics in International Business with the end in view of providing an understanding of “unique problems, characteristics, and demands” on a multinational enterprise. Because the list of issues can be potentially long, we will identify a limited set of issues and attempt to study them well. The course will be investigative in approach, with the intent of encouraging students to continue to learn beyond this course; we will also investigate these from the perspective of strategic and operational decisions that multinational enterprises face.

In terms of learning outcomes, at the end of this course, students must demonstrate:

1) An awareness of strategic issues that can affect a multinational enterprise;

2) Capacity to investigate one such issue in its complexity;

3) And to determine the impact of these issues on a particular multinational enterprise.

The structure of this course is designed to allow investigation. We will start with Thomas Friedman’s book, for no other reason than it is current and it provides a reasonably cohesive framework within which to understand how global business is evolving. We will use our discussion of this book to define an initial list of issues for further study. I have added a few other issues that I believe are relevant. We will investigate these issues through a process of readings and discussion; in most cases I will provide the initial material, in all cases, I would like students to surprise me by suggesting material that are relevant and useful. See the comment on Readings below.

REQUIREMENTS

Text: The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

Readings: Foreign Affairs, Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, New York Times and similar publications; websites of reputable/known organizations such as the World Bank, and links in the schedule.

Students are expected to read the assigned chapters of the text and contents of websites indicated in the schedule below. Students should also regularly scan the headlines of the publications under Readings and read the articles that interest you and which you think relate to topics covered in this class. If a student does not subscribe to these publications, he or she can go to the library and go over issues published this year.

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADES

There will be no midterm and final exams for this course. Because of the nature of the course, and the topics we will cover, the requirements below are intended to encourage active participation in the investigation of these topics. Students are expected to prepare for class by reading the assigned material early enough to do some personal investigation. In this manner, it is hoped the student can contribute to the discussion. Participation grades will be based on attendance and contribution to class discussions. In-class writing exercises will be given from time to time. These will not be graded.

QUIZZES AND ASSIGNMENTS

There will be graded quizzes through the term. Two heavier weighted quizzes will be announced (check footnote on schedule); all other quizzes will not be announced. There will be no make-ups for quizzes missed.

Each student should turn in at least five assignments. These assignments will consist of an article which is related to the topic to be covered during a specific section and a short statement. The article should come from publications suggested under the Readings section above. The statement should include a short summary of the article and a statement of what was interesting. You may choose to submit these assignments from any five of the sessions marked on the class schedule. These assignments should be turned in at the beginning of the class and be labeled with the topic it relates to.

TERM PROJECT

A term project will be required and will form the major portion of a student’s grade. This will consist of a written report (approximately 10 pages) and a presentation at the end of the term. The requirements for the term project will be described in a separate document. This term project is a group assignment.

GROUPS

Groups of not more than four students will be formed early in the term. Each group will be required to establish expectations/criteria covering contribution of each member to the group’s deliverables early in the term; this will be the basis for a peer evaluation which will be submitted at the same time the term project is due. These peer evaluations will be considered in determining the term project grade of each member.

GRADE DISTRIBUTION

The following will provide the basis for a students grade:

Weight

Quizzes 30%

Assignments 10%

Participation 10%

Term Project 50%

ba 447 Winter 2007 gonzalez

This version has been revised. Further changes will be announced in class and a revised version of this schedule will be posted. 2/26/07

Day	Topic (Ch # refers to Friedman book)
01/08	Introduction to the course; course requirements. Major issues facing multinational companies. Understanding global nature of companies
01/10	How the World Became Flat Ch 1: While I Was Sleeping
01/15	MLK
01/17	Ch 2: The 10 Forces that Flattened the World Ch 3: The Triple Convergence FINALIZE GROUPS DISCUSS TERM PROJECT
01/22 a, b	Ch 4: The Great Sorting Out Ch 10: How Companies Cope DISCUSS ISSUES PORTION OF TERM PROJECT
01/24	Developing Countries and the Flat World Ch 9: The Virgin of Guadalupe
01/29 b	- Continue with Ch 9: Other “Outsourcing” Countries
01/31	Geopolitics and the Flat World Ch 11: The Unflat World Ch 12: The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention
02/05	Governance. Ch 11 raises issues regarding globalization that are significant: poverty alleviation in the form of fighting disease and also enabling the marginalized; globalization, pros, cons, how; religious and ideological conflicts (which we sometimes conveniently sweep under the label “terrorism”). Ch 12 deals with how economic imperatives sometimes override political conflict. Scan for relevant material and lets discuss.
02/07 b	Corruption. Corruption is the absence of or weak governance. This is referred to in Ch 11, but I want to spend a separate session on this. Reading on the SAUD family <The House of Saud>; also scan World Bank site (TBA)
02/12	Environment/ Thinking about the future Scan Readings on following topics: energy, resource shortages, global warming, international efforts towards sustainable development, etc.
02/14 b	Environment . . . – continued
02/19	NOTE – use this week to finalize your term projects. I will be available during the usual class times for this week for consultations.
02/21	see NOTE
02/26	WTO – general introduction. http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/whatis_e.htm
02/28 b	WTO – continued
03/05	America and the Flat World Ch 5, 6, 7 & 8 See film on Wal-Mart in Frontline (PBS)
03/07 a, b	TBA
03/12 c	Presentations
03/14 c	Presentations Wrap-up Term projects due 5pm

Footnotes:

a. Expect a long quiz on these two days (up to 10% of grade each.) A change in schedule for either of these two days will be announced at least a week early and posted on this schedule. All other quizzes will not be announced.

b. This is one of the sessions where you may choose to turn in one of the five required assignments. The assignment is an article relevant to the topic for the session (or the two session sequence, if applicable), a summary, and comment.

c. There will be an in-class writing exercise on these two days, which will count towards the participation grade.