Landscape and Challenges of

International Business -
INTE60006A.
Dr. Gilbert K. Adarkwah, PhD., LLM., MSc., MA., BA
Write on the paper
1. What is international business

2. What is globalization

3. Three biggest challenges facing international business now

Agenda

1 Who are we?

2 Our syllabus

3 What are your interests?

4 Debriefing

5 Next week
Objective: Why are we here?

1. To understand the international competitive environment in which firms operate.

2. To understand the origins, development, and consequences of globalization for economic and
financial activities of nation states and firms.
3. To analyze national and international policies with regard globalization, trade and growth.
4. To develop an understanding of the business and economic environment of prominent emerging
markets.

5. Gain theoretical and analytical framework to approach International Business issues for their
Master's thesis or supervised project.
Gilbert Kofi Adarkwah
Education
Researcher in Strategy and • PhD- Strategic Management –BI, Oslo
International business • Master of Laws (LL.M.)- UiO –BI, Oslo
• MSc. International Relations -NMBU, Ås
• MSc. Business - BI/Mannheim
• BA. Marketing - INN, Rena
Experience
• Founder /CEO, Gilbert and Partners As
• CEO Advisor /Head of CEO Office, Aker Energy
• Trade and Investments attaché, UN, NYC
• Nordic Head of Pricing and Underwriting, IF
• Board of directorships:

5
Expectations

Why are you here?

Who are we?

In 1 min:
- name
- specialization
- supervised project / thesis
- what I want to deepen in this course
- what’s not on my resume
Our syllabus

https://zonecours2.hec.ca/
• Bennett, N. et G. J. Lemoine (2014) “What VUCA really means for you”, Harvard Business
Review [Click here]
• Bordo, M.D., B. Eichengreen et D.A. Irwin (1999) “Is Globalization Today Really Different
than Globalization a Hundred Years Ago?”, Working Paper 7195, Cambridge, MA, National
Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass., USA, [Click here]

• What is globalization, really, and how do we go about measuring it?

• What is the impact of globalization on multinational enterprises?
• Is globalization a positive/negative force on the economy? On societies? On the world in
general?
 VUCA: volatility, uncertainty,
complexity, and ambiguity

Bennett et Lemoine (2014)

Globalization
Globalization

The integration of goods, services, and culture among the nations of the world.

The Stages of Globalization (From Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat)

1. Globalization 1.0 (from 1492 to 1800) country

2. Globalization 2.0 (from 1800 to 2000) company

3. Globalization 3.0 (from 2000 to the present) individual

Globalization 1.0

• Occurred from 1492 until about 1800.

• Globalization was centered around countries.

• It was about how much horsepower, wind power, and

steam power a country had and how creatively it was
deployed.

• The world shrank from size “large” to size “medium.”

Christopher Columbus
Globalization 2.0 (first half)

• Occurred from about 1800 until 2000.

• Interrupted only by the two World Wars.
• The dynamic force driving change was
multinational companies.

• The world shrank from size “medium” to size

“small.”
Globalization 3.0
• Today
• The convergence of the personal computer, fiber-
optic Internet connections, and software has
created a “flat-world platform.”
• This platform allows small groups and individuals
to go global.
• The world has shrunk from size “small” to size
“tiny.”
Globalization: antecedents and outcomes
What are the antecedents of globalization? What are the outcomes of globalization?

1. Increased investments in technology Democratisation of almost

everything
The internet
Intellectual work, intellectual capital
broadband connectivity can be delivered from anywhere
undersea cables Connectedness
outsourcing
2. Democratisation of technology
Economic inter-dependency
Economy of scale and company in
critical markets drove down prices for
computers and other hardwares
Freebies  - e-mail search etc
Key aspects of Globalization

1. Economic
2. Technological
3. Cultural
4. Political
5. Military

THESE ASPECTS ARE ALL

INTERCONNECTED!
1. Economic globalization

Today:
Economies Are Increasingly Linked Together
[NAFTA (MX, CA, US), The EU, AcFTA, WTO (World Trade Organization)

• Only global international organization dealing with investor-government

disputes
Globalization has left the greatest job theft in American history?

Source: https://time.com/4386335/donald-trump-trade-speech-transcript/ Source: https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/24/news/economy/china-us-trade/

Source: https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&rdim=world&ifdim=world&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=false
24
• Source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/TX.QTY.MRCH.XD.WD
• Source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/TX.QTY.MRCH.XD.WD
Debriefing
• What is International Business?
• What is landscape?
• What are challenges?
• Why having an evidence-based approach?
Transportation costs
Average US airfaire
Transatlantic phone system
Transportation and communication costs
Another technology: the Internet revolution
Another new technology: AI

• The term artificial intelligence (AI) was coined by John McCarthy in 1955 in a proposal for a
summer research project to be held in Dartmouth in 1956 (McCarthy et al. 1956).
• A.I. is a major form of scientific and technological progress, which can generate
considerable social benefits as well as economic benefits (Agrawal, Gans, and Goldfarb
2018).
• A.I. can be understood as a technology for general-purpose use (Brynjolfsson, Rock, and
Syverson 2018).
Building the IR 4.0 Infrastructure
Eric Schmidt compared the dynamics of A.I.
development to the race to the moon.
Interview at GS (2018). Eric Schmidt: "The artificial
intelligence revolution ".
Source: https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/topics-domaines/disp-diff/mobil2.aspx?lang=eng
Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/eli-lilly-files-500m-nafta-suit-against-canada-over-drug-patents-1.1829854
Conclusion
 1 2 3 4
Containers Analog Internet AI -
communications TradeTech
It’s a flat world after all

Thomas Loren Friedman (1953)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/its-a-flat-world-after-all.html
Reports of globalisation’s death are greatly exaggerated | Financial Times (ft.com)
Participation (15%)

• In-class participation. The contribution to learning grade is based on attendance and the
significance of in-class contributions.

• The classroom participation grade captures:

1. Evidence of careful preparation of cases and readings;
2. Clarity and conciseness of recommendations;
3. Strong and convincing analysis to support recommendations.

samedi 17 juin 2023 43

 The game plan: Lecture, group work and presentations
Session # Name Student activities

1 Introduction Read assigned readings

2 Globalization: Measures, Challenges and
Trends
3 Globalization: Nations in the Global
Environment
International Trade: Institutions and
Regulations
5 International Trade: Regional Economic
Integration
6 Financial Integration and Global
Governance
7 Midterm Exam
Read assigned readings
Start forming groups
Read assigned readings
Start forming groups
Decide topics of blog entries by team (3
members per team). Join a team with the
same topic interest.
Start of work for the first team blog entry
+ Presentation of narration
Quick presentation of co-creation work
Exam
 The game plan: Lecture, group work and presentations
Session # Name Student activities

8 Foreign Direct Investments and
Multinational Corporations
9 Competition in a Globalized Word and
Global Technological Innovation
10 Political Frictions: Corruption, War, and
Terrorism
11 Emerging Markets: Base of the Pyramid,
Institutional Voids, and Market-based
Solutions to Poverty Alleviation
12 Grand Challenges: Solving the World's
Problems (and Adapting to the Response)
13 Research Project
14 Final exam
Work progress for the first team blog entry. +
Presentation
Publication of first entry (optional)
Start of work for the second team blog entry
+ presentation
Work progress for the second team blog
entry + presentation
Work progress for the second team blog
entry + presentation
finalize blog entry
Publish second blog entry
Exam
 "Medium" project (in teams) (30 %)
1. Quality of data
2. Analysis
3. Reporting
4. Peer evaluation. No free-riding!

samedi 17 juin 202 46

Midterm Exam (25 %)
• A midterm exam will take place during class time after the first six sessions.

• The content of this mid-term quiz will deal with the material that are covered from Session 1 to Session 6.

• The midterm will have short essay.

• Be as fact-driven as possible -data and references will matter in your evaluation.

• Demonstration of autonomy

• Formulation of the problem

• Review of the literature allowing to identify and solve the studied problem

• Choice of methods for the resolution of the problem

• Application of methods

• Analysis of results and conclusion

• Quality of communication in writing a report

samedi 17 juin 2023 47

Final Exam (30%)

• The final exam will be essay questions. It will be open book:

Journal articles (i.e. weekly summary articles), student
presentations, class notes, class slides, and summaries.

• You can use all the material available to you except using
Google Search.

• Evaluation criteria is the same as the midterm!

samedi 17 juin 2023 48

Beware of plagiarism

samedi 17 juin 2023 49

Next week

The dynamics of globalization

Globalization and its implications