Developing International Business Managers Through International Study Visits to China

Globalization is a key factor in the success of business organizations today, impacting many aspects of management performance. Understanding the global business environment has therefore become a key objective in the teaching of international business on Executive MBA programs. Drawing on the theory of experiential learning, this study examines the relationship between program structure and learning activities of an international study visit (ISV) to China and the learning experience for Executive MBA students. The findings indicate that learning experience may be most effective where the structure of an ISV incorporates certain activities that promote experiential and deep-level learning. Educational implications are discussed.     

Seeing differently: putting MBA learning into practice

MBA programmes frequently form part of managers’ training and development activities. However, such programmes have been subject to intensifying criticism, with critics arguing that MBAs do little to enhance management practice. Against this background, the paper presents an exploratory study of UK MBA graduates, which sought to identify the ways in which their MBA programme was seen to contribute to management practice. The findings suggest that the MBA is seen to add value to management practice in terms of seeing differently, in respect of self, others and organization.     

Internationalization of MBA Program in Asia-Pacific

Abstract

With the global village becoming a reality, efforts at the internationalization of business education have ceased to be merely fashionable. The internationalization of business education has become an increasing relevant and important goal for business schools. Most of the efforts have been focused at the internationalization of MBA programs as this is the level of business education targeted at the training of middle management personnel, for whom the creation of a global mindset and the exposure to the international realm of business would have the most immediate effect. With the Asia-Pacific becoming a major arena of international trade and business in what has been called the Pacific century, the internationalization of MBA programs in Asia is of great interest as most of the efforts at internationalization of MBA programs have taken place in developed countries, with much of the literature being about the North America and European experience. Little is known about the MBA programs offered in Asia and their internationalization. This paper provides some insights on the internationalization efforts at the Nanyang Business School (NBS), Singapore. The experience at the NBS is unique because its efforts at internationalization have coincided with government policy initiatives in encouraging Singapore businesses to extend their operations into countries of the region. The paper provides some lessons from the experiences at regionalizing the MBA programs in China, India and the transitional economies of Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Apart from the admission of international participants to its programs and the changes to its Business Study Missions, new initiatives have been introduced in the form of the MBA in International Business. The paper also explores other future initiatives for the internationalization of MBA programs in Asia-Pacific.     

关于旅游业跨国经营动因的思考

政府一方面是以各种各样的优惠政策积极吸引外资投资中国旅游业,另一方面又在积极推动本国旅游企业走出去跨国经营。对于这种似乎矛盾的现象需要从旅游业跨国经营的动机、跨国经营优势交换及全球化学习背景下的整体利润观等角度进行解读,对跨国经营优势概念也需要从体系化角度进行新的解读。     

Knowing your boundaries: Integration opportunities in international professional service firms

This study presents three different business models (continuous, repetitious, and unique) identified in international professional service firms that pursue a transnational strategy. These business models have varying opportunities for global integration. We extend the integration–responsiveness framework by offering a framework for analyzing how to balance global integration with local responsiveness when pursuing a transnational strategy. By identifying the content, structure, and governance transactions of the three business models, we can determine when to pursue headquarters-initiated global integration and when to choose strategies that ensure local responsiveness and subsidiary competitiveness in local markets.     

Managing Knowledge,Learning, and Time in Relationships Between Western and African Organizations

ABSTRACT

Time as a strategic variable has gained a great deal of attention in recent literature, but little has been reported on how to effectively manage time between strategic partners in a global context. In addition, there has been virtually no attention paid to time as a critical strategic variable when doing business in African countries. This paper examines the importance of time in developing effective operating relationships between Western and African countries. We posit the concept of strategic timescapes to provide managers with a way of visualizing the various dimensions of time that could vary from one culture to another. In addition, a means to effectively manage knowledge and learning between Western and African organizations is presented using the concept of “virtual” organizations to serve as the coordinating vehicle.     

International strategy and subsidiary performance in China

This study examines the underlying relationship between type of international strategy (global, multidomestic, and transnational) and subsidiary performance in the context of the People's Republic of China. After controlling for cultural, size, and equity effects, it is found that strategy type is important for the overall performance of international expansion. Different strategies affect multinational enterprise (MNE) subunits' performance differently. While global strategy is systematically related to low risk but suffers from loss of growth opportunities in an emerging market, multidomestic strategy is positively associated with local market expansion but comes at the expense of high uncertainty. Overall, transnational strategy outperforms other postures in aligning with a dynamic emerging market and attaining benefits from both ownership-specific and country-specific advantages. Transnational strategy increases operating flexibility which in turn spurs managerial discretion to respond profitably to the business potential of the global marketplace. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Boundaries on the Move. The Impact of Cultural Values and Language on Organizational Design and Communication within an Organization in Thailand

Multinational organizations cross national boundaries in their search for higher profits. As national boundaries are becoming less significant, new boundaries emerge within multination organizations. This paper will explore the interrelations between culture, organizational design and business language within such an organization. It is based on extensive fieldwork in a Thai–Western organization in Thailand. In accordance with Thai law, this organization has both Thai and Western employees. Several of these employees have been interviewed and surveyed about their perceptions of the organization, the management and the effectiveness and efficiency of the management policies. This anthropological approach revealed rather divergent perspectives of two very different groups working together in one organization. The paper will discuss the impact of the management approach on the studied organization, which determines the way cultural boundaries are dealt with. Furthermore, it will demonstrate that the influence of the chosen business language on the studied organization was very strong. A close interrelation between business language, organizational design and power relations impacted on the Thai–Western relations within the organization.     

How relevant is the MBA: A revisit

The master of business administration (MBA) is the centerpiece of management education and holds the promise of systematically preparing its graduates for their managerial roles. However, there is escalating criticism that MBA programs are losing their relevance based on empirical evidence that competencies indicated by managers to be most critical are least represented in core MBA curricula. The authors re-examine the evidence and argue that the misalignment appears to be overstated. Consideration for relevance in preparing graduates for managerial roles needs to consider not only curricula, but also actual learning, social capital from the alumni network, and the signaling effect of graduating from an MBA program.     

Pledging Integrity: Oaths as Forms of Business Ethics Management

The global financial crisis has led to a surprising interest in professional oaths in business. Examples are the MBA Oath (Harvard Business School), the Economist’s Oath (George DeMartino) and the Dutch Banker’s Oath, which senior executives in the financial services industry in the Netherlands have been obliged to swear since 2010. This paper is among the first to consider oaths from the perspective of business ethics. A framework is presented for analysing oaths in terms of their form, their content and the specific contribution they make to business ethics management: oaths may foster professionalism, facilitate moral deliberation and enhance compliance. This framework is used to analyse and evaluate the MBA Oath, the Economist’s Oath and the Banker’s Oath as well as various other similar initiatives.     

Transnational entrepreneurs: Characteristics, drivers, and success factors

Recent literature considers the significance and determinants of transnational entrepreneurship arising from the immigrant communities. However, empirical evidence remains fragmented, largely due to the contextual diversity of the phenomenon. Using data collected from the Chinese Canadian community, the current study examines the transnational entrepreneurs’ characteristics, drivers, and factors affecting their successes. The results portray a typical transnational entrepreneur as a 45-year-old or older man who is married with one child, has completed Master’s or higher education programmes, and does not have a full-time job. For these transnational entrepreneurs, seeking business opportunities is an important reason for their migration to Canada in the first place and, subsequently, business expansion by drawing resources from dual locations becomes the primary driver toward a transnational mode of economic adaptation. The findings highlight the importance of context-specific determinants of transnational entrepreneurship and provide important implications for practice and policy making.     

Prosperity Game to Teach Global Competitiveness to University Students

SUMMARY

A Prosperity Game was designed and conducted to provide an experiential learning alternative to traditional lecture-based course material in a first-year MBA class. The students played US and Japanese business, government, and other roles, and experienced ethical, political, social, financial, and competitiveness issues in the context of a global marketplace. Student journals provided an indication of the success of the method through comments that described the depth of experiential learning in a simulation environment.     

MBA Teaching Challenges in a Changing Political and Economic Environment: A Case Study of MBA Teachers and Students in Poland

Master of Business Administration (MBA) education was introduced to Poland in the early 1990s with the purpose of preparing business practitioners for effective management and leadership in a market economy and increasingly globalizing marketplace. Due to individual, institutional, and national factors; adjusting teaching to address the complex needs of business professionals has proved to be challenging and often problematic for Polish faculty. The purpose of this paper is to examine these challenges in the context of Poland's nondegree MBA programs and to explore potential solutions. The main conclusion of this paper is that adjusting teaching is a slow and complex process that cannot occur without substantial changes in values as well as proactive leadership and collaboration at the individual, institutional, and national levels.     

Organisational change and the management of training in Australian enterprises

This article presents the findings from a study of the impact of the introduction of new management practices on the organisation of training in Australian enterprises. The study investigated the impact of five common new management practices: teamworking, total quality management, lean production, business process re‐engineering and the learning organisation, as well as a number of other organisational factors. The incidences of these practices were modelled against eight measures of the organisation of training in enterprises. The results confirm that organisational change, as represented by the five new management practices, has had a significant impact on the organisation of training. However, the most significant impact on the way training is organised appears to be on the extent to which training and human resource policy are integrated with business strategy.     

Evaluating training effectiveness in India: Exploring the relationship between training components,metacognition and learning outcomes

This study aims to examine the key training factors that significantly impact the learning outcomes of trainees. A comprehensive framework is proposed to investigate the interrelationships among various training components, trainer performance, training usefulness, and their effects on metacognition and learning. Empirical testing of the model is conducted using the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach, analyzing data collected from 322 public servants in North India. The findings reveal that almost all the focal factors comprising a training programme, such as the usefulness of training, trainer performance and metacognition, positively influence trainees' learning. While training agencies should consider all components of the training programme, the perceived usefulness, trainer performance and trainees' metacognition are particularly influential factors in facilitating learning. Training components and trainer performance predict the usefulness of training. This study integrates all focal factors of a training programme into a comprehensive framework using employee data, explaining a significant portion (45%–64%) of the variance in trainees' learning. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing these focal factors thoughtfully when designing and implementing effective training programmes.     

Time compression and MBA behavioral skill acquisition

Trends in master of business administration (MBA) education are favoring coursework offerings in time-compressed environments but without careful examination of learning implications. The academic literature is weak in this area, so the authors conducted a study of 558 MBA students using a behaviorally based pedagogy in management. In contrast to previous research, the authors developed arguments supporting time compression assuming certain boundary conditions. They found that students showed better behavioral learning outcomes in a shortened, 4.5-week semester versus a full 14-week semester. The authors conclude with implications for theory and practice.     

Ethics in MBA programs: The rhetoric,the reality,and a plan of action

Unethical behavior on the part of business corporations and their leaders has led many business executives and university administrators to call for the inclusion of ethics in MBA programs. This paper reviewed studies and commentary relating to the teaching of ethics in MBA programs in the United States. The results showed that ethics has not yet gained an integral place in the curricula of business schools. A plan of action for the systematic incorporation of ethics into the MBA curriculum was proposed based on the system model of training commonly used in the training field. In concluding, a question about the total responsibility of the business schools toward the promotion of ethical behavior on the part of their graduates was raised.     

Developing Cultural Intelligence for Global Leadership Through Mindfulness

Understanding how businesses function in relation to cultural and societal influences is critical for today’s business leader who wants to interact competently across borders. However, developing and evaluating such competence is a challenge. One concept that provides a holistic conceptualization of intercultural competence is the notion of “mindfulness” or the ability to use reflection as a connection between knowledge and action. To facilitate the intercultural learning of a group of MBA students studying global leadership during a cross-cultural immersion experience in China, a model of cultural competence was introduced during their predeparture sessions. In order to demonstrate their understanding of intercultural competence, student papers were analyzed using a coding scheme for reflection. Data show that, overall, students increased their level of “mindfulness” and became more reflective, and in our hopes, more culturally sensitive as a result of this cross-cultural immersion program. Implications of this study can be used for teaching international business and improving study abroad assignments through reflection.     

Project management practices: Then and now

This article uses the results of a survey of 56 American construction project managers to identify some risks and improvement opportunities pertaining to the practice of effective project management. In the process, the most and least important project management variables are identified and ranked. Next, the extent of knowledge, extent of use, and extent of relevance to project success are examined for project managers with and without international project management experience. Results of these analyses suggest improvement opportunity for business and higher learning in terms of training and educating future project managers. Based on the results of this study, it is concluded that both higher learning and business must approach the art and practice of project management from a global open system perspective. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.