Career aspirations of older workers: An Australian study

Global challenges associated with the ageing workforce include lower levels of education and negative attitudes of older workers towards learning and covert age discrimination in the workplace. This report discusses initial findings from a survey of older workers employed in regional areas in Australia. The older workers surveyed were predominantly blue collar with low levels of formal education. Contrary to the stereotypical views, there were few attitude differences between older (>40 years) and younger workers (≤40 years). However, gender, education level and job type had a greater impact on attitudes in the older workers when compared to their younger colleagues.     

From iconic business leader to Russian icon museum founder: Bridging business and the arts across cultures

This case study portrays Gordon Lankton, a highly successful U.S. executive who, drawing upon the relationships he had built during two decades of doing business in Russia, succeeded in having Moscow's renowned State Tretyakov Gallery lend priceless icons to his new museum in a small Massachusetts town. We demonstrate how a charismatic and gently determined executive‐turned‐museum founder exhibited transformational leadership while bridging business and the arts across cultures. The case study includes an interview with Gordon Lankton and is followed by a commentary that features an interview with Kent dur Russell (the Museum of Russian Icons curator) and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of Lankton's leadership style. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Doing business in the new Eastern Europe: A risk profile

The sweeping changes in Eastern Europe make the area seem very tempting. But it's important not to look through rosey colored glasses before making a major commitment. Recognize that there is a downside to doing business there.     

The internationalization of competition policy: implications for international business

In the post–Uruguay Round World Trading System and with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a new set of agendas on the governance of the world economy has emerged. Among them are the relationship between trade and social policy, trade and the environment, and trade and competition policy. These issues are new in the sense that policymakers have, until now, avoided drawing direct‐policy linkages between them. The main reason for this is that traditionally social and competition policies have been domestic policy domains that international policymakers were prevented from influencing. While environmental policy has been subject to several international negotiations, the link between trade and the environment has been relatively under‐discussed in the GATT. Moreover, there have been few international agreements that have drawn a direct link between trade and the environment.¹ The focus of this paper is the relationship between trade and competition policy. In particular, this paper seeks to address the issues related to international competition policy and the concerns and problems faced by international business in this context. ¹ An exception being the agreement on trade in endangered species (CITES). © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Trust and SME attitudes towards equity financing across Europe

The decision by a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) to take on equity requires trust, due to reliance on the good intentions of the parties involved. Drawing on a social capital perspective, we argue that national interpersonal and institutional trust positively influences SME attitudes towards equity financing. We also hypothesize a substitution effect between interpersonal and institutional trust. Through a large survey of European SMEs in 26 countries, we confirm the presence of these direct and interaction effects. By making explicit the link between trust and attitudes to equity financing we extend the theory on institutional drivers of SME financing.     

Nongovernmental organizations as institutional actors in international business: theory and implications

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have emerged as major actors in international business. NGOs have assumed a particularly prominent role in influencing the interaction between business and governments over the terms of international business rules, norms, and practices, especially the conditions applied to international investment projects. In this paper, we argue that the rise of NGOs as important institutional actors requires new perspectives on state–firm interactions in an era of increasing globalization. Host governments and multinational corporations (MNCs) must now critically assess the potential impact of nongovernmental actors on investment plans and projects. Drawing from institutional, agency, and stakeholder theory, we develop a model to help organizations evaluate and assess the relative importance of NGOs to the stability and longevity of international investment projects and the emergent impact of NGOs on investment projects at different stages of the investment cycle. We use the specific circumstance of infrastructure privatization and state-owned enterprise restructuring to demonstrate the potential value of this perspective to MNCs and host governments. We suggest this approach is also useful in evaluating classes of other stakeholders, and in examining other situations in which governments, companies, and NGOs negotiate over the terms of international business exchanges.     

3G Mobile: The Push to Wireless Data across Europe

As governments and firms rush to third generation '3G' mobile telecommunications, this article considers three key problems: the conflict over 3G standards, which pits European GSM equipment against a US group; the patchwork of 3G regulation across Europe; and the mechanism for awarding licences. The authors argue that the auction mechanism is far preferable for consumers to 'beauty contests' but that other countries still to award licences could improve on the UK design.     

Television food ads aimed at children in South-Eastern Europe: Cultural outlook and implications

South-East Europe (SEE) has the highest obesity rates and the most substantial consumption of television programs among young people compared to other parts of the continent. However, studies on this subject are notably absent from the existing body of literature. This research investigates differences in ad recall and preferences related to the healthiness of featured products and the alignment of advertising settings with specific cultural dimensions of SEE's ethos. The study utilizes two multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks: the social cognitive theory and the two-dimensional Minkov-Hofstede model of culture, and it employs a mixed-methods approach. Results from a survey conducted with children and a content analysis of TV ads from the region reveal that commercials promoting low-nutrition foods are more persuasive than those featuring healthy products. Consistent with the collectivist nature of SEE's culture, ads using group settings are predominantly recalled. Contrarily, in opposition to prior knowledge, the use of monumentalistic (vs. flexibility) attributes in commercials does not enhance the memory retrieval of ads. Children's ad preferences are significantly influenced by their self-concept. The implications of these findings for various stakeholders are discussed.     

Teaching business ethics: are there differences within Europe,and is there a European difference?

Book reviewed in this article:
Zsolnai, La´szlo´ (ed) The European Difference: Business Ethics in the Community of European Management Schools     

The Great Recession of 2008: Impact on the Bangladeshi economy and international business implications

This article examines the current global financial crisis (GFC) and its impact on Bangladesh's economy and discusses international business implications for the country within an institution‐based analytical framework. The article finds that the macroeconomy of Bangladesh has shown remarkable resilience in the face of this massive global crisis, and the impact has been minimal and limited to a moderate slowdown of the economy The country thus could be poised for taking advantage of international business opportunities as the global economy begins to recover. Further, JPMorgan's Frontier Five and Goldman Sachs's Next Eleven classification of Bangladesh indicates enormous potential for growth and development. The article suggests that the Bangladeshi diaspora could serve as a connecting hub so that “brain gain” could be achieved through labor migration and remittances. Strategic alliances among home and foreign firms are also important to the future capacity building of the country. However, strategic management in the form of further institutional, structural, and policy reforms are critical in enabling the country to develop an international‐business‐friendly environment conducive to taking advantage of evolving global opportunities and realizing its full potential. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Capturing intranational cultural variation in international business research: Microsocietal differences in collectivism across Turkey

We introduce an approach toward predicting intranational variance in individualism-collectivism, via utilization of ecological cultural practices and psychological cultural values. Using the climato-economic theory of culture, we modeled intranational collectivism using four measures, including normative behavioral and spatial collectivism practices, and the mean and dispersion of collectivism values, in one country, Turkey. Results evidenced confluence of findings based on both ecological measures and dispersion-based collectivism values. Conversely, mean collectivism values fared poorly. Study predictors explained up to ≈87% of the variance in intranational collectivism. Richer provinces with harsher climates were less collectivistic; vice-versa for poorer provinces with harsher climates.