Marketing Management #2 - Part 1

The first part of my second column in Marketing Management. 
Read it after the jump.

Small Businesses Still Important

This is a preview of my new book, Global Business: Positioning Ventures Ahead to appear with Taylor and Francis in June of 2010. I will be posting little snippets from the book every once in a while. I encourage you to read, comment, share, and your thoughts to the comment section. And look for the book in June.
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The Commerce Department’s Exporter Data Base reveals that companies with fewer than 500 workers accounted for 97 percent of all U.S. exporters.

Zeit für Führungsstärke

Der zum Präsidenten Barack Obama wird Schrittmacher sein nicht nur für die USA, sondern auch für Menschen in der ganzen Welt.

Change Agents

A person or institution who facilitates a change in a firm or in a host country is a change agent.  Products or brands can act as change agents, able to alter held values or behavioral patterns that eventually result in the blurring of cultural distinctions.

In China and Hong Kong, for instance, McDonald's has altered some age-old eating habits and preferences, especially among the younger generation.  While there are many concessions to local cuisine, the most popular menu items are burgers and fries.  The fast-food chain has disciplined its Chinese customers to an entirely new dining routine - as in the United States, they wait in an orderly line, serve and seat themselves, and even clear away their trays afterward.

Adaptation is Key

This is a preview of my new book, Global Business: Positioning Ventures Ahead to appear with Taylor and Francis in June of 2010. I will be posting little snippets from the book every once in a while. I encourage you to read, comment, share, and your thoughts to the comment section. And look for the book in June.
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Firms expanding into additional global markets must tackle distribution systems, pricing, and address a wide range of ethical issues such as legal systems related to monitoring pollution, maintaining safe work environment, copying of technology or trademarks, and coping with demands for bribes.As the 2008 attacks in Mumbai show, terrorism continues to pose a risk. 

Pirates: Not Just in the Carribean

Lately, there have been threats to international business emanating from ungoverned spaces. For example, government snipers had to intervene to rescue the captain of a high jacked U.S. cargo vessel.

Marketing Management Column #1 Part 2

A continuation of my first column in Marketing Management.
Today’s column presents research on the dimensions which will shape the future of Global Marketing.
Read it after the jump.

NUR SO ZUM NACHDENKEN

Michael R.Czinkota und Thomas A. Czinkota

Die Schulferien sind zu Ende gegangen - der Urlaub vorbei. Wir haben viel Zeit mit unseren Kindern im Alter von 6, 7, und 10 Jahren beim Spielen, Denken und Diskutieren verbracht. Einige Fragen und Gedanken sind bis zum Schluss ungelöst im Raum stehen geblieben:

Sind Kinder überlastet? Unsere großen technischen und sozialen Errungenschaften ermöglichen es uns inzwischen, die Früchte unserer Arbeit auch zu genießen. Heutzutage ist es nicht mehr notwenig allein zur Sicherung der Existenz zu lernen, sondern wir können uns aussuchen was wir lernen wollen. Wir können unter anderem wählen zwischen Geschichte, Kunst, Musik und Poesie. 

U.S. Leadership Is Essential

This is a preview of my new book, Global Business: Positioning Ventures Ahead to appear with Taylor and Francis in June of 2010. I will be posting little snippets from the book every once in a while. I encourage you to read, comment, share, and your thoughts to the comment section. And look for the book in June.
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As we write this, governments worldwide are working to counteract the 2009 economic crisis by developing stimulus plans. The efforts of any one nation will have an impact globally because national economies are intertwined, but economic activity is highly concentrated among a few players – the U.S., European Union, Japan, China and Canada – who account for more than 75 percent of the world’s economy. That clout makes it critical for U.S. companies to become more involved in international marketing, whether it is export-import trade, licensing, joint ventures, wholly-owned subsidiaries, turnkey operations, or management contracts.

Please Comment:  Do you think the protectionist measures that are being enacted as a part of the stimulus plans will help or hurt domestic economic recovery?  What is the best way for governments to react to the recession?  Do you think that a global outlook is key to recovery?

KOMMENTARE AUF DEUTSCH / COMMENTS IN GERMAN

Für unsere deutschen Freunde und Kollegen bieten wir gelegentlich Kommentare auf Deutsch und/oder über Deutschland an.

For our German friends and colleagues I will occasionally offer comments in German or about Germany.

International Trade in Elephants

This is a preview of my new book, Global Business: Positioning Ventures Ahead to appear with Taylor and Francis in June of 2010. I will be posting little snippets from the book every once in a while. I encourage you to read, comment, share, and your thoughts to the comment section. And look for the book in June.
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Most people, on seeing this headline will immediately think of ivory and the trade in elephant tusks. Today, governments around the world subscribe to restrictive measures in ivory trade,  in order to protect elephants from poachers.

Here, however, we want to show that that elephants in their entirety have been an important part of international trade for millennia. In many international conflicts in ancient times, elephants were the “tanks” of the battle. Even disciplined Roman legionnaires took to flight when confronted with the giants pachyderms from Africa. For hundreds of years, Roman mothers threatened their children that “Hannibal ante portas esse” meaning that Roman archenemy Hannibal (from the key trading opposition city of Carthage) was in front of the doors of Rome. He and his tanks had devastated multiple legions during the second Punic War (218 – 201 BC)  and might have taken Rome itself, had he not been ordered back home by the leaders of Carthage.

Even earlier, the Egyptians were very active in international trade. A key priority in their trade was to acquire elephants from Ethiopia, which they transported using specially constructed boats, called elefantegos, and then used to attack the Greek empire in Persia.  

Millennia later, large discussions are ongoing, trying to assess whether nations with advanced military technology should be selling weapons systems to the world.  We all know, how such sales can dramatically affect not only the trade and capital accounts of nations, but also their politics and the freedom of their citizens.

Sources: William J. Bernstein, A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World, Grove Press, New York, 2008; Titus Livius (Livy) , The History of Rome, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing ,2006; J.B. Bury, S.A. Cook and F.E. Adcock, The Cambridge Ancient History, 7,1, Cambridge University Press, 2003 

Marketing Management Column #1 - Part 1

The first of my columns in Marketing Management. 
Read it after the jump.