Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Business
and Trade
Theory, Practice,
and Policy
Claude M. Jonnard
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Preface ........................................................................................................................ v
Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. ix
About the Author .................................................................................................... x
Hi
iv International Business and Trade: Theory, Practice, and Policy
v
vi International Business and Trade: Theory, Practice, and Policy
ix
About the Author
x
PART I
International Business
Theories and Concepts
CHAPTER 1
Corporate Challenges
IN TRO D U CTIO N
The major changes that have taken place in the last two centuries are
introduced, as are the challenges that will be facing globally oriented
businesses functioning as economic surrogates of society in the twenty-
first century.
3
4 International Business and Trade: Theory, Practice, and Policy
BUSINESS IN A CH A N G IN G W ORLD
Fuzzy distinctions between domestic and international businesses. Sepa-
rating business into domestic and international components for discus-
sion purposes is largely irrelevant today. Businesses become large and
prosperous when they adopt a global vision and strategy in matters
ranging from the allocation of resources to the production and marketing
o f their goods and services.
The option of staying small and thinking “local” can be fatal. Even the
smallest community-oriented enterprises, like the neighborhood pizza
parlor, the local clothing store, the village cleaner, the corner market, and
Corporate Challenges 5
single country and prosper is probably over. Corporate growth and sur-
vival today require a global perspective and strategy. The principles of
business behavior in a global environment are as important to master
today as economics, accounting, and mathematics if managers of eco-
nomic enterprise are to succeed in this new arena of global competition,
interaction, and interdependence.
World Bank, World Development Report, 1996, Table 4, pp. 194-195, Oxford Uni-
versity Press, New York, 1996.
Corporate Challenges 7
The major challenge for the next 50 years. The major challenge for
the twenty-first century will probably be to support large and increasing
populations with enough resources and infrastructures to sustain eco-
nomic growth and development without destroying the environment.
This can be translated into “people” issues such as food and energy,
shelter, healthcare, education, welfare and social services, transportation
and communications, production and distribution, money and banking,
and income and employment.
The smallest and largest countries of the world. The World Bank, in
its 1996 publication World Development Report, lists 209 countries. Some
are tiny, like Grenada with a population over slightly more than 92,000.
Some have large populations, like China and India (1.2 billion and 914
million, respectively, in 1997).*
A few countries cover vast territories and are demographically sparse
(Mongolia with 2.4 million), and a few countries (Indonesia with 190.4
million and the Netherlands with 15.4 million) occupy small land masses
and support very large populations. With the exception of the Nether-
lands, whose population growth is relatively static (0.7%), most countries
have significantly increased their numbers since 1994. For example, as of
this writing, China has over two billion people, while India has reached
the one billion mark. It is probable that these two nations now account
for about 50% of the world’s population.*
Who Is growing and who Is not Popular literature still talks about
“industrial” societies and “developing” countries. The World Development
Report classifies countries as low-income, middle-income, and high-in-
come economies. All areas with an annual per capita gross national
product (GNP) of more than $9,000 are included among the high-income
countries.
These societies account for about 20% of the world’s population and
are growing at an average of 0.5% annually. All other non-high-income
countries account for 80% and are growing at an average of 2 to 3%
annually, depending on the region. It is estimated that if current trends
persist, 90% of all people will be living in developing areas.
There is another dimension to high rates of population growth. In
many countries, over half of the total population is under 21 years of age.
If demographic trends continue, over half of the population of these
countries will be under the age of 16.
* World Bank, World Development Report, 1996, Tables 1 and la, pp. 188, 189, 222,
Oxford University Press, New York, 1996.
8 International Business and Trade: Theory, Practice, and Policy
The richest and the poorest The five richest industrial countries in
terms of annual per capita GNP are (1997 figures) Switzerland ($40,000),
Japan ($36,000), Denmark ($29,000), Norway ($28,000), and the United
States ($27,000).
The five poorest countries are Rwanda ($80), Mozambique ($90),
Ethiopia ($100), Tanzania ($140), and Burundi ($160).
cases, the distance between the affluence of a small part of the global
village and the relative poverty of many o f its parts remains great.
G LO BAL CHALLENGES
Corporate Responsibility
The charge to multinational corporations in this era seems to have evolved
to include three areas of responsibility that are much broader and com-
plex than their nineteenth century focus on economic power and domi-
nation for the sole benefit of their owners. John Rockefeller and Henry
Flagler grew their oil, real estate, and railroad empires without much
regard for the constituencies they served and the environments they
affected.
People Issues
The continued success of private multinational enterprise may depend
upon how well these nerve centers of economic activity address the basic
needs o f all societies. Global business’s big challenge will be to success-
fully meet those needs and still be able to turn a profit. The fundamental
problems that directly affect the individual, the community, and society
at large (to name a few constituencies) are education, food and energy,
healthcare, income and employment, money and banking, shelter, trans-
portation and communications, and welfare and social services.
Education. The great majority of the world remains undereducated
and functionally illiterate. Existence of and access to college- and univer-
sity-level programs are limited. On average, in most developing areas,
less than 5% of young people between the ages of 19 and 23 attend
college/university programs. By contrast, participation rates range from
30 to 70% in developed areas.*
Food and energy. The industrialization of food production coupled
with advances in the agricultural sciences has enabled supplies to keep
pace with population growth. Yet food distribution and availability re-
main problems in many areas where low-income societies are unable to
meet local demand through domestic production and cannot afford for-
eign imports. Daily caloric intake remains under 2,000 calories in many
areas, compared to over 3,500 calories among the richer countries.**
Energy resource allocation also suffers uneven distribution. A full 75%
o f all energy resources produced in any given year is consumed by that
25% of the world’s population which inhabits industrialized areas.
Healthcare. This remains an eyesore in many countries. Human lon-
gevity in the richer areas reaches an average of 80 years in comparison
to 40 to 50 years in the poorest societies. Average life span is 39 years
in Guinea-Bissau, 42 years in Sierra Leone, and 48 years in Ethiopia.
Availability of physicians to the general population is also a good indi-
* World Bank, World Development Report, 1996, Table 7, p. 200, Oxford University
Press, New York, 1996.
• World Bank, World Development Report, 1992, Table 28, pp. 272, 273, Oxford
University Press, New York, 1992.
Corporate Challenges 11
* World Bank, World Development Report, 1992, Table 28, pp. 272, 273, Oxford
University Press, New York, 1992.
* World Bank, World Development Report, 1994, p. 6, Oxford University Press, New
York, 1994.
12 International Business and Trade: Theory, Practice, and Policy
Welfare and social services. Social security insurance and all sorts of
other social services and annuities which have been taken for granted for
so long among industrial nations barely exist in many developing areas.
There, the extended family is the major source of welfare and social
service for non-self-supporting individuals such the very young, the aged,
and the infirm. In the villages of many countries, such as India and
Bangladesh, for example, a young couple entering marriage learns that
they must rear as many as eight children or more if there are to be two
surviving offspring as the couple approaches old age. Each surviving
offspring would then be able to accept an aging parent into his or her
extended family.
Corporate Challenges
Turning problems into opportunities. Multinational businesses might, at
first blush, take the position that problems faced by much of the world
are too great to be resolved by the private sector and that they should
stick to the traditional bread-and-butter markets of the industrial coun-
tries. However, the rush by large corporations to tap Third World markets
anywhere they may exist testifies to the fact that a potential exists for
both market share and profits.
Taking the long view. Investors and professional managers are taking
the long view that these new markets will some day be industrialized and
prosperous. It is therefore the responsibility of the multinationals to
maintain a presence in and to participate in the economic growth and
development of all emerging regions.
The environmental challenge. It is clear that the processes of eco-
nomic change impact the environment. How long the planet can con-
tinue to endure the battering of its infrastructure is a matter of argument.
There is nevertheless general agreement that technologies must be devel-
oped and brought into play that will minimize environmental damage
and perhaps even repair damage already done. Hence, corporate actions
will have to balance stockholder enthusiasm and financial viability with
the need to operate environmentally friendly businesses.
The resource and technology challenge. There is a school of thought
that maintains that resources are finite. That may not be the case how-
ever. The material resources employed in the distant past are no longer
utilized in the same manner today. Ships were once made of wood and
used human labor for locomotion. Today, they are made of plastic and
steel and are propelled by diesel fuel or nuclear energy. The plastics
industry itself is a testament to the creation of synthetic resources as a
Corporate Challenges 13
Q U ESTIO NS
1.1 Describe and explain the ways in which the world has changed
since the end of the eighteenth century.
1.2 Describe and explain the ways in which the world has remained
basically unchanged since the end of the eighteenth century.
1.3 Explain the state as the “surrogate of society.” Will that change? if
so, to what? If not, why?
1.4 Explain what corporations, the state, and communities must do if the
private sector is to effectively wear its three-cornered hat.
1.5 Describe and explain some of the challenges presented by a growing
population.
1.6 Describe and explain some of the challenges presented by a declin-
ing population.