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International business

This Research Guide will help JMU students find sources to complete assignments on international business topics.

Frequently used resources in international business

Connecting from off-campus

JMU students, faculty & staff can use electronic resources from off-campus via one of these methods.

New books about International Business

The Language of Global Success

For nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of cross-border organizations, yet studies on corporate language strategies and their importance for globalization have been scarce. In The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley provides an in-depth look at a single organization--the high-tech giant Rakuten--in the five years following its English lingua franca mandate. Neeley's behind-the-scenes account explores how language shapes the ways in which employees who work in global organizations communicate and negotiate linguistic and cultural differences. Drawing on 650 interviews conducted across Rakuten's locations in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, Neeley argues that an organization's lingua franca is the catalyst by which all employees become some kind of "expat"--someone detached from their mother tongue or home culture. 

Covid-19 and International Business

The Covid-19 pandemic has induced a crisis grasping the world abruptly, simultaneously, and swiftly. As a critical juncture, it ignited a change of era for international business. This book illustrates how governments have dealt with the pandemic and the consequent impacts on international business. It also explores the disrupted operations and responses of businesses as their worldwide interconnectivity has been  seriously threatened.  The book discourses multidirectional aspects of the effects of Covid-19 on international business, ranging from the juxtaposing forces disrupting globalization and installing a change of era through decoupling of technological, production and knowledge flows to its stimulating aspects to the strategic response on business, industry and state level. 

The Effects of Globalisation on Firm and Labour Performance

This book examines driving factors and the effects of globalisation on economic development through firm and product-level data. The book is organised into four themes, i.e., productivity, innovation, wage and income gap, and within-firm reallocation of resources. The comprehensiveness and richness of firm and product-level data shed light upon the channels through which trade and investment affect firms' competitiveness and unveil factors shaping firms' heterogeneous responses towards globalisation. The book looks at Asian economies as well as Australia and how they have experienced substantial structural change and become more integrated into the global economy and will be a useful reference for those who are interested in learning more about the relationship between globalisation and firm performance. 

The Global Leadership Challenge

This book first examines the phenomenon of global business and then analyzes what is different about global business and, therefore, what is uniquely required to be a successful global leader. It lays out how companies can develop successful global leaders, and what individuals can do to develop themselves into successful global leaders. Readers will walk away with a clear understanding of how and why globalization of business took place. The book is based on more than 300 interviews with top corporate executives from around the world and across a wide variety of industries, hundreds of surveys, and over 60 years of combined experience. Top executives will find this book helpful in determining how they can ensure that their firm has the right quality and quantity of global leaders it needs to capture the global growth opportunities before them.

Cross-Cultural Challenges in International Management

The development of international business and of globalization in every field of activity requires the interaction of individuals and groups with diverse cultural, religious, ethnic and social characteristics in different institutional contexts. Cross-cultural Challenges in International Management addresses the various difficulties that may impede smooth communication and cooperation of those involved in such interactions. It examines what types of resources are mobilized to overcome such difficulties. The cultural and societal challenges of international management must be considered at different levels, the one of strategy, which the first part of the book is devoted to, but also that of management and business practices, addressed in the third part of the book. 

Absolute Essentials of International Business

As challenges to the era of globalisation emerge, international business grows in importance and complexity as a field of study. This shortform textbook introduces learners to the frameworks within which international business occurs and to the range of actions that companies might undertake in these environments. Owing to an emphasis on cross-border interactions, international business is a politicised field, and this book provides readers with the tools to deepen their understanding not only of the actions that companies might take but also of the economic, societal, cultural and political frameworks affecting how decisions are made. With a refreshing realism in its approach, this book will be perfect brief reading for students required to understand the obstacles that global business practitioners must overcome to succeed.

Corporate Citizen

The contributors to Corporate Citizen explore the legal frameworks and standards of conduct for multinational corporations. In a globalized world governed by domestic and international law, these corporations can be everywhere and nowhere at once, reaping financial benefits and enjoying the protections of investor-state arbitration but rarely being held accountable for the economic, environmental, and human rights harms they may have caused. Broad-ranging in perspective, colourful and thought-provoking, the chapters in Corporate Citizen make the case that because the success of corporate global citizenship risks undermining national and international democratic governance, the multinational corporation must be more closely scrutinized and controlled - in the service of humanity and the protection of the natural environment.

Global Business in the Age of Transformation

The phenomenon of globalization has been debated for decades. While some voices anticipate the demise of globalization and postulate about a return to former borders and glories, the realities of the world present the undeniable truth that we are all in this together. Unfortunately, it takes a crisis to move us from where we are, and the coronavirus pandemic has served that function. This book presents a straightforward commentary on the transformative impact of this global interconnective state of economies, business sectors, governments, and cultures. Drawing on insights from academics and practitioners around the world, it takes some of the mystery and anxiety out of common perceptions about economic, cultural, and social transformation and offers approaches for survival in the dramatically changing business environment.

Internationalisation and Strategic Control

This book is a study of the emergence of international business. It immerses itself in the topic of how companies can control income-generating assets in foreign countries, the key element often used to define a multinational enterprise, and propounds the notion that control of crucial dispositions by foreign companies can be achieved by other means than direct foreign investment - cash flow and portfolio ownership. Internationalisation and Strategic Control analyses the extent to which a firm can control the investments of foreign companies in the field of supply and maintenance of production machinery. It achieves this through a case study of how F.L. Smidth & Co., global leaders in providing technology for the cement industry since the 1890s, managed to achieve a vital influence over, and control of, cement-producing companies in Asia in the period 1890-1938. The study examines how this strategy was promoted by some internal and external factors and circumstances, and hindered by others.

Multinational Enterprises and Transparent Tax Reporting

This book examines tax transparency as part of multinational enterprises' corporate social responsibility (CSR). It considers revelations like the Panama and Paradise Papers that shed light on corporations' tax practices and the growing public dissatisfaction, resulting in legislative projects, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) base erosion and profit shifting. Tax transparency is defined as companies' voluntary disclosure of numerical tax data (e.g. taxes paid by country) and other tax-related information (e.g. tax policies). It is set apart from tax avoidance and tax evasion to clarify the often-blurred concepts. In this book, tax transparency is placed in a historical context and possible drivers and hindering factors to tax transparency are investigated. Tax transparency is discussed in the light of socio-economic theories (stakeholder, legitimacy, institutional theory and reputation risk management), as well as economic theories (agency theory, signaling, proprietary costs) and information overload theory.

Connecting from off-campus

JMU students, faculty & staff can use electronic resources from off-campus via one of these methods.