International Business / Edition 2

We know that international business is rich in people, culture, geography, politics, economics, and other human and environmental factors. This book draws upon this richness to present international business as it genuinely is—as a dynamic, culturally rich subject. This book goes beyond a "U.S. -centric" outlook and takes an inclusive view of international business by addressing its cultural aspects early and often. While it is appropriate for use in the introductory course at either the undergraduate or graduate level, International Business is written to give the instructor maximum flexibility in fitting different teaching styles and incorporating outside readings and cases—thereby increasing its scope and breadth as desired.

How Students Will Benefit from International Business

This book's approach to international business benefits students in several ways.

CULTURE EARLY AND OFTEN

Culture is an inescapable element of all international business activities. This book presents culture early (Chapter 2)and integrates it throughout every chapter of the book. This is partly accomplished by starting each chapter with a culture-rich opening company profile. Reading the opening company profiles in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 will wash away any doubt about this. We also integrate culture within each chapter by including lively examples that show how differences in culture affect international business activities.

INTEGRATIVE

International business is much more than a simple collection of separate business functions and environmental forces. Rather, it is an integrated whole consisting of national environments, the international environment, and business activities all interacting with one another. The model in the figure on page xx of this preface is unique to this book and lays the foundation for an integrated approach to international business. Feedback on the first edition tells us that students benefit by studying international business in this way—as it is in the real world. We first present the major components of national business environments and the international business environment. We then show how these environments interact with international business management, making international business different from purely domestic business.

INCLUSIVE

Appreciating the dynamic nature of the global marketplace requires an unbiased approach to international business. Feedback from the first edition shows that this is the only international business book written from a truly global perspective. This goal was achieved by members of an author team having collective expertise in three major economic regions of the world—Asia, Europe, and North America. This book also is written from a non-provincial viewpoint: Rather than "take sides" in key debates, it presents the viewpoints of each group or culture involved (see Chapter 2).

ACCESSIBLE

A successful book for the first course in international business must be accessible to all students. In this book, conceptual material and specialized business activities are described in concrete, straightforward terms and appropriately illustrated (see Chapters 5, 9, and 10).

Our goal—presenting complex material in an accessible manner—is reflected throughout the book. We are convinced that students who use a more readable international business book will master such material more readily.

TOPICAL

This book strives to capture the contemporary, topical aspects of international business. Topical coverage is developed to foster enthusiasm and to motivate students to go beyond the classroom to see how concepts relate to the real world. Many fun and interesting examples allow students to reflect upon the experiences of real companies—to see both what worked and what didn't. Finally, this book's comprehensive Companion Website contains updates of important events that keep the book continuously up-to-date.

INNOVATIVE FEATURES; THE PEDAGOGY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

We firmly believe that students are motivated to learn when a book demonstrates how important concepts are applied. To emphasize the practical side of international business, we have integrated the following innovative features into this book.

ENTREPRENEURIAL FOCUS Each chapter contains an Entrepreneurial Focus box to underscore the various ways in which chapter topics affect entrepreneurs and small businesses. Entrepreneurial and small business issues are also woven into the content of each chapter and illustrated with current, colorful examples. These examples, both in the text and in feature boxes, highlight the activities of entrepreneurs and small businesses from countries all

GLOBAL MANAGER

Each chapter features a Global Manager box that shows how key issues actually affect the daily duties of managers working for large international businesses. This feature expands on issues discussed in the text and delves into those that pose special problems for international managers. In Chapter 16, for instance, we show how managers cope with the effects of culture shock when relocating to unfamiliar cultures. Again, this feature drives home some relevant, down-to-earth lessons learned by veterans of international business management.

WORLD BUSINESS SURVEY

Each chapter contains a World Business Survey to highlight the attitudes of consumers, workers, managers, and policymakers toward important chapter topics. Underscored in these surveys is the importance of culture in forming people's attitudes. This feature is designed to help students recognize the important role of people from other cultures in international business.

FULL-COLOR WORLD ATLAS

Our experiences and those of many international business instructors tell us that far too many students are inadequately prepared in geography for their first course in international business. In response, this book includes, as a primer and reference, a full-color world atlas as an appendix to Chapter 1. Students are able to test their knowledge of the global landscape by completing 20 questions accompanying the atlas, which is also broken out into several detailed maps for closer study. Important issues regarding world geography and their impact on international business are also integrated throughout the book and its assignment materials.

BEACONS

Students learn better when they are provided with a "roadmap" to show them how chapters and topics relate to one another. Therefore, this book contains Beacons at the start of each chapter to reinforce the inter-relatedness of topics across chapters. Appropriately titled "A Look Back," "A Look at This Chapter," and "A Look Ahead," these signposts provide a structure for students as they read through the book.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES WITH CORRESPONDING SUMMARIES

Learning objectives are designed to focus on the main lessons students should take away from their study of chapter material. Each chapter also includes summaries that correspond exactly to the chapter's learning objectives.

CHAPTER-OPENING VIGNETTES

Opening company profiles launch each chapter with brief but highly informative introductions to the chapter's materials. These vignettes are designed to pique students' interest in chapter material—not bog them down in fine details to be discussed within the chapter. We find students are motivated to turn the page and read on when given short, interesting, relevant introductions to the material that they are about to study.

TOOLS FOR ACTIVE LEARNING

Feedback on the first edition shows that this book has more—and more useful—end-of-chapter assignment material than any other international business book. Well-planned assignment materials span the full range of complexity to test students' knowledge and ability to apply key principles, including:

• Questions for Review help students check to see that they have retained each chapter's key terms and important concepts.
• Questions for Discussion raise important issues currently confronting entrepreneurs, international managers, policymakers, and others. They can be used as the basis for in-class discussion, as in-class team assignments, or as homework assignments.
• In Practice exercises ask students to consider actual scenarios taken from the international business press.
• Projects take students beyond the text, engaging them in in-class debates or presentations, library or Web-based research, and interviews with local managers. One on-going project is the Investment Opportunity Notebook. This exercise asks students to apply what they've learned in each chapter to a particular investment opportunity in a particular country. Students gradually develop a report on a potential opportunity as they proceed through the course.
• Business Cases let students analyze the responses of real-world companies to the issues, problems, and opportunities discussed in each chapter.
• A Question of Ethics exercises allow students to consider the ethical dimensions of important managerial decisions.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Dynamic Art and Maps Program

This text contains a variety of colorful maps that not only convey and reinforce the knowledge of where important places are located, but which supplement concepts and data with visual learning aids. A map index assists instructors and students in quickly locating every map in the book. Highly colorful charts and figures help students grasp important information. Numerous color photos are strategically placed to add value to the text and provide students with a look at life and work around the world; informative, detailed captions tie photos to in-text material. We underscore important terms by boldfacing them in the text, defining them in the margin, and collecting them in a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book.

WHAT'S NEW IN THE SECOND ESITION?

The success of the first edition of International Business was due to its culture-rich, integrative approach and its innovative features. This edition builds on those strengths and improves upon them in several ways. First, every chapter-opening company profile is new. Because of highly positive feedback on our chapter-opening company profiles in the first edition, we continue this approach but bring fresh culture-rich company profiles to our readers (see Chapters 1, 2, and 3). Second, every chapter-closing case is either new or updated. Third, all maps, figures, and tables reflect the most recently available data at the time of publication. Fourth, because of the positive response to the Investment Opportunity Notebook included in the first edition's Instructor's Resource Manual, it has been revised and expanded to include greater detail. Fifth, we have included a completely new set of video cases that emphasize the cultural aspects of international business.

In addition to these changes, here are some specific examples of improvements to the book:

Chapter 2: Culture in Business

Responding to users' requests, we expanded and updated our discussion of culture. We did this by adding more and fresher examples to keep the presentation of culture's influence as current as possible. We also include extensive examples to show the application of the Hofstede and Kluckhohn-Strodtbeck frameworks for classifying cultures.

Chapter 4: Economic Systems and Development

We further streamlined the presentation of the different types of economic systems and economic development. In the second edition, we responded to your feedback and focus on certain country examples within the coverage of different systems. For example, when discussing central planning we include a special section on China's experience over the years and how it is adapting to market forces today.

Chapter 8: Regional Economic Integration

Based on feedback, we updated and streamlined our discussion of the major efforts toward regional economic integration around the world. The new presentation of the European Union (EU), for example, reflects less on the past events surrounding integration and more on key issues currently facing the EU such as future enlargement. For instance, we discuss the all-important Copenhagen Criteria that central and eastern European nations must satisfy before they will be considered for EU membership.

Chapter 10: International Monetary System

Feedback from the first edition tells us that instructors and readers want less discussion of the historical development of the international monetary system. Accordingly, we lessened the historical emphasis and focus on the present structure of the system. We also cover recent crises such as those in Russia and Argentina and the debate they are causing over the current system.

Chapter 11: Planning and Organizing International Operations

This chapter now appears before the chapter on analyzing international opportunities. We responded to your preference and moved the strategic and organizational coverage prior to market research activities. In this way, students get an appreciation for the larger issues international businesses face before getting into the details.

Chapters 14, 15, and 16

Although presentation of this material has been reorganized based on user feedback, it retains its tightly integrated flow. Accordingly, marketing issues are now separated from the coverage of other topics and reside in Chapter 14, Developing and Marketing Products. The popular section on acquiring physical resources now lies at the start of Chapter 15, Launching and Managing Production. After presenting important international production issues, Chapter 15 closes with a brief discussion of how companies finance their operations. As requested, Chapter 16, Hiring and Managing Employees, is now a stand-alone chapter but retains its integrated, sequential emphasis.

THE PLAN OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

This book's coverage of international business follows the model shown in the figure below. Part One of this book discusses how the world's national economies are increasingly intertwined. We learn that as globalization penetrates further into national business environments, managers everywhere must take a global perspective on business activities.

In Part Two, we explore national business environments, showing how people's attitudes, values, beliefs, and institutions differ from one culture to another. We also explain how companies modify business practices and strategies when operating under different political, legal, and economic systems.

We discuss the major components of the international business environment in Parts Three and Four. We learn why trade and investment flow across borders and why governments try to encourage or discourage them. We explore the process of regional economic integration sweeping the global economy and outline its implications for international companies. We also explain how global financial markets and the global monetary system function and show how they affect international business activities.

In Part Five, we describe the ways in which international business management differs from management in a purely domestic firm. We begin by explaining the strategies and structures that companies use for their international operations. We then show how companies analyze markets or production sites and why they select different entry modes. We wrap up our study of international business by learning how companies manage their marketing activities, their production efforts, and their human resources.

SUPPLEMENTS PACKAGE

This text is supported with a comprehensive supplement package that includes the following:

For the Professor

• Instructor's Resource Manual. The Instructor's Resource Manual is designed to guide instructors through the text. It includes chapter summaries, lecture outlines, critical thinking exercises, additional student projects, a guide to the integration of technology resources, and guidance answers to all end-of-chapter assignment material.
• Companion Website is the most advanced text-specific site on the web. Resources are updated every two weeks by professors from around the world. Features of interest to instructors include bimonthly news articles made relevant to the text with accompanying discussion questions and group exercises. There is also online delivery of PowerPoint slides and additional instructor's material. Sample syllabi and teaching suggestions are posted on a faculty community chat room.
• Instructor's Resource CD-rom. The Instructor's Resource CD-rom includes the computerized Test Item File, PowerPoint Electronic Transparencies, and the Instructor's Manual. The set of PowerPoint slides contains figures from the text, and is designed to aid the educator in supplementing in-class lectures. The Windows-based Prentice Hall Test Manager 4.0 is a comprehensive suite of tools for testing and assessment, and contains a wide variety of questions, including true/false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, short-answer/essay, and situation-based questions. The Test Manager makes it easy for instructors to create and distribute tests either by printing and distributing them or by delivering them online over a Local Area Network (LAN) server.
• AcrossFrontiers^™ cases—including:
  – International Business Today–Case Study: China
  – Culture in Business–Case Study: Latin America
  – Foreign Direct Investement–Case Study: Hong Kong

For the Student

• Companion Website. In addition to bimonthly news articles relevant to the text, the Website features Internet resources for in-depth research on selected topics, online testing with immediate grading and feedback, and additional resources for improving study and writing skills.
• Financial Times student subscription only $10.00 when professors adopt a FT/Wild/Wild/Hon text value-pack. Participating professors will qualify for a complimentary one-year personal subscription to the Financial Times (Value: $298 at regular subscription rates).