Robert Grosse, of Thunderbird in Arizona, edited this collection based on a conference in 2004 honoring Jack N. Behrman, an influential pioneer in the study of international business and government relations. Luckily for managers, the results are deep yet readable, and bring together the thoughts of leading scholars including Harvard Business School’s Louis T. Wells.
Grosse himself has written extensively on government-business relations, focusing especially on Latin America. Analysis in the book, however, leans toward governments and companies from the U.S., Western Europe, and Japan, while asking questions to broaden investigation in the future. Most contributors work at American universities, but business schools of Copenhagen and London are represented as well as the University of the West Indies and the South Korean Ministry of Culture.
The book is divided into four sections. Essays focus on international business-government history and changes over time, bargaining theory, and the viewpoints of host and home governments.
Louis T. Wells writes on protecting foreign investors in the developing world. Noting a shift in U.S. policy in the 1990s, he discusses the sometimes-insecure relationship in developing countries between U.S. investors and the local governments that can involve demands of expropriation. A separate essay looks at new relationships between firms and governments surrounding efforts to address global warming. These and the other contributions don’t provide answers but offer a wide-lens view of the realities.
At Thunderbird, Grosse is Professor of International Business and Director of the Centers for International Business Education and Research.
- Cynthia D. Churchwell