Presents a set of papers that contributed to an Economic Development Institute (EDI) workshop on curriculum development. The workshop was created to reexamine the substance of EDI's curriculum and increase the institute's efforts to train project analysts. The papers cover substative issues in project evaluation, pedagogy, and EDI's general training strategy.

"Impressive... This is an evidence-based bottom-up account of the realities of globalisation. It is more varied, more subtle, and more substantial than many of the popular works available on the subject." -- Financial Times Based on a five-year study by the MIT Industrial Performance Center, How We Compete goes into the trenches of over 500 international companies to discover which practices are succeeding in today’s global economy, which are failing –and why. There is a rising fear in America that no job is safe. In industry after industry, jobs seem to be moving to low-wage countries in Asia, Central America, and Eastern Europe. Production once handled entirely in U.S. factories is now broken into pieces and farmed out to locations around the world. To discover whether our current fears about globalization are justified, Suzanne Berger and a group of MIT researchers went to the front lines, visiting workplaces and factories around the world. They conducted interviews with managers at more than 500 companies, asking questions about which parts of the manufacturing process are carried out in their own plants and which are outsourced, who their biggest competitors are, and how they plan to grow their businesses. How We Compete presents their fascinating, and often surprising, conclusions. Berger and her team examined businesses where technology changes rapidly–such as electronics and software–as well as more traditional sectors, like the automobile industry, clothing, and textile industries. They compared the strategies and success of high-tech companies like Intel and Sony, who manufacture their products in their own plants, and Cisco and Dell, who rely primarily on outsourcing. They looked closely at textile and clothing to uncover why some companies, including the Gap and Liz Claiborne, choose to outsource production to foreign countries, while others, such as Zara and Benetton, base most operations at home. What emerged was far more complicated than the black-and-white picture presented by promoters and opponents of globalization. Contrary to popular belief, cheap labor is not the answer, and the world is not flat, as Thomas Friedman would have it. How We Compete shows that there are many different ways to win in the global economy, and that the avenues open to American companies are much wider than we ever imagined. SUZANNE BERGER is the Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science at MIT and director of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative. She was a member of the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, whose report Made in America analyzed weaknesses and strengths in U.S. industry in the 1980s. She lives in Boston , Massachusetts.

In this landmark book, economist Steve Rundle and missiologist Tom Steffen offer their paradigm for the convergence of business and missions--the Great Commission Company. This revised and expanded edition provides new and updated case studies of Great Commission Companies in diverse contexts around the world.

How multinationals contribute, or don't, to global prosperity Globalization and multinational corporations have long seemed partners in the enterprise of economic growth: globalization-led prosperity was the goal, and giant corporations spanning the globe would help achieve it. In recent years, however, the notion that all economies, both developed and developing, can prosper from globalization has been called into question by political figures and has fueled a populist backlash around the world against globalization and the corporations that made it possible. In an effort to elevate the sometimes contentious public debate over the conduct and operation of multinational corporations, this edited volume examines key questions about their role, both in their home countries and in the rest of the world where they do business. Is their multinational nature an essential driver of their profits? Do U.S. and European multinationals contribute to home country employment? Do multinational firms exploit foreign workers? How do multinationals influence foreign policy? How will the rise of the digital economy and digital trade in services affect multinationals? In addressing these and similar questions, the book also examines the role that multinational corporations play in the outcomes that policymakers care about most: economic growth, jobs, inequality, and tax fairness.

For all interested in what it means to "go global," Doz (global technology and innovation) and his colleagues at INSEAD distinguish metanational from multinational companies and discuss how such companies (e.g., Nokia) innovate by effectively tapping globally dispersed knowledge about technology and consumer trends. They specify capabilities that this new breed of business needs to build and knowledge prospecting strategies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

When it comes to new products and services, what moves customers to buy? Why do they choose one product over another? What makes them bank on a company’s future? These are the billion-dollar questions facing all companies competing in highly connected markets—and today’s answers will determine tomorrow’s market leaders. In this book, marketing and communications experts Ron Ricci and John Volkmann argue that the unique features of digital products—and of consumer goods that contain digital components—force customers to consider the viability of the company behind the solution to their problems. Picking a losing company could mean getting stuck with products that can’t be upgraded or services that can’t be extended. So customers buy from the company that they believe will be the long-term—indeed, the inevitable—winner. They buy from the company that has what the authors call momentum. More than sheer motion, momentum is mass, speed, and direction, combined in a value proposition so compelling that all constituents in a given marketplace believe it—and want to go with it. Ricci and Volkmann provide a practical formula—borrowed from the world of physics and proven in the marketplace—for how companies build and sustain momentum. Drawing upon their intensive study of 20,000 consumer and corporate buyers, the authors also reveal the “six forces of digital differentiation” that characterize “inevitable” market winners in the customer’s mind. Ricci and Volkmann introduce a “momentum index” that will enable senior management, product marketers, and marketing communication strategists to: - Measure a brand’s momentum against that of its competitors Diagnose a company’s strengths and weaknesses as a market contender - Develop an action plan for sustaining or strengthening a competitive position - Apply momentum strategies to the digital features of traditional offerings For anyone responsible for managing or communicating about a company and its brands, this book shows how companies can ride momentum to industry dominance. Ron Ricci is Vice President of Marketing for Cisco Systems. John Volkmann is Vice President of Strategic Communications at Advanced Micro Devices.

What makes a country attractive to foreign investors? To what extent do conditions of governance and politics matter? This book provides the most systematic exploration to date of these crucial questions at the nexus of politics and economics. Using quantitative data and interviews with investment promotion agencies, investment location consultants, political risk insurers, and decision makers at multinational corporations, Nathan Jensen arrives at a surprising conclusion: Countries may be competing for international capital, but government fiscal policy--both taxation and spending--has little impact on multinationals' investment decisions. Although government policy has a limited ability to determine patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, political institutions are central to explaining why some countries are more successful in attracting international capital. First, democratic institutions lower political risks for multinational corporations. Indeed, they lead to massive amounts of foreign direct investment. Second, politically federal institutions, in contrast to fiscally federal institutions, lower political risks for multinationals and allow host countries to attract higher levels of FDI inflows. Third, the International Monetary Fund, often cited as a catalyst for promoting foreign investment, actually deters multinationals from investment in countries under IMF programs. Even after controlling for the factors that lead countries to seek IMF support, IMF agreements are associated with much lower levels of FDI inflows.

Breakthrough strategies for emulating or competing with your newest and toughest threat: innovative companies in emerging-market nations Western organizations are quickly losing influence to emerging market multinationals, as evidenced by such developments as Tata Motors’s acquisitions of Land Rover and Jaguar; Lenovo’s purchase of IBM’s ThinkPad business; HTC’s stature as the fourth largest global smartphone manufacturer; Haier’s 5% global appliance market share; and LG, Samsung, and Hyundai rise in the automobile, appliance, and consumer electronics market. To help you compete, The New Emerging Market Multinationals outlines the disruptive strategies deployed by emerging-market multinationals (EMNCs) and provides breakthrough strategies for following in their footsteps or beating them at their own game. Amitava Chattopadhyay is the L'Oreal Chaired Professor of Marketing-Innovation and Creativity at INSEAD. Rajeev Batra is the S.S. Kresge Professor of Marketing at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Aysegul Ozsomer is associate professor of Marketing at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Large companies doing businesson a global basis increasingly dominate the production and marketing of the world's goods and services. This new book analyses multinational corporations in an electic, nuanced manner.