choose a country and based on the concepts from Weeks 1-5, analyze the country’s dimensions of distance,
institutions, industrial clusters, and diffusion of technology. use the readings from Weeks 1-5 and cite your use
carefully.
COURSE SCHEDULE________________________________________
/1. Multinational Business (Week of September 24, 2012)
Learning Objective: Introduce the concepts of multinational business including global context and company strategy.
Reading: Ghemawat P 2011 The Cosmopolitan Corporation Harvard Business Review. May, Vol. 89, Issue 5, pp. 92-99.
2. Dimensions of Distance (Week of October 1, 2012)
Learning Objective: Assess different types of distance between countries and analyze how these distances affect
global trade and multinational business strategy.
Reading: Ghemawat P 2001 Distance Still Matters: The Hard Reality of Global Expansion Harvard Business Review,
September, Vol. 79 Issue 8, p137-147.
Case: Alkema R Koster M and Williams C 2010 Resuming Internationalization at Starbucks. (Purchase from Harvard)
Question: Should Starbucks resume its international expansion and once again intensify its commitments in overseas
markets? If so, what approach should the company take?
3. Country Institutions (Week of October 8, 2012)
Learning Objective: Discover how multinational companies can identify and adjust to different country institutional
contexts.
Reading: Khanna T Palepu K and Sinha J 2005 Strategies That Fit Emerging Markets Harvard Business Review, June,
Vol. 83, Issue 6, pp. 63-76.
Case: Khanna T Raabe E 2007 General Electric Healthcare. (Purchase from Harvard)
Question: How do country institutions affect GE’s multinational business strategy?
4. Global Clusters (Week of October 15, 2012)
Learning Objective: Understand the role of local industrial clusters in the global economy for competition and
economic development.
Reading: Porter M 2000 Location, Competition, and Economic Development: Local Clusters in a Global Economy Economic
Development Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 1, 15-34.
Case: Goerzen A and Colovic A 2009 LyonBioPole: The Challenge of Becoming a World-Class Biotechnology Cluster.
Question: How can global competition and economic development affect and be affected by local industrial clusters?
5. Global Diffusion of Technology (Week of October 22, 2012)
Learning Objective: Assess how factors affecting the global diffusion of technology influence industry emergence and
multinational business strategy.
Reading: Perkins R and Neumayer E 2005 The International Diffusion of New Technologies: A Multi-technology Analysis
of Latecomer Advantage and Global Economic Integration Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 95,
No. 4, pp. 789808.
Case: Theyel G 2012 Global Technology Diffusion and Industry Emergence: Global Wind Industry
Question: How do different factors drive the global diffusion of technology at different times during an industry’s
emergence and how does this affect multinational business strategy?