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New research on business globalization from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including strategy and tactics, executive skills, risk management.
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Political Dysfunction Makes America Less Competitive

by Dina Gerdeman

The American economy is “failing the test of competitiveness," according to a new Harvard Business School study written by Michael E. Porter, Jan W. Rivkin, and Mihir A. Desai. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

What Brands Can Do to Monitor Factory Conditions of Suppliers

by Michael Blanding

For better or for worse, it’s fallen to multinational corporations to police the overseas factories of suppliers in their supply chains—and perhaps make them better. Michael W. Toffel examines how. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Location Fundamentals, Agglomeration Economies, and the Geography of Multinational Firms

by Laura Alfaro and Maggie Xiaoyang Chen

Understanding the location interdependence of multinational firms and how they agglomerate with one another is critical to designing and improving economic policies. These authors’ analysis, using a worldwide plant-level dataset and a novel index of agglomeration, yields a number of insights into the economic geography of multinational production. In addition to market access and comparative advantage motives, multinationals' location choices are significantly affected by agglomeration economies including not only vertical production linkages but also technology diffusion and capital-market externalities.

How to Fix a Broken Global Team

Re: Tsedal Neeley

On a Cold Call podcast, professor Tsedal Neeley discusses her recent case study about a manager charged with corralling a hugely diverse, underperforming group and leading it back to success on a global scale. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Do We Pay for the Costs of Globalization?

by James L. Heskett

SUMMING UP The benefits of globalization outweigh the problems it causes, but James Heskett's readers are far from united on how to the fix human and societal costs. What do YOU think? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Solving an Economic Mystery Surrounding Argentina and Chile

by Sean Silverthorne

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. In the twenty-first century, it is struggling, its economy eclipsed by Chile. A new book by Geoffrey Jones and Andrea Lluch helps explain the “Argentina Paradox” and the influence of globalism. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Globalization of Angel Investments: Evidence across Countries

by Josh Lerner, Antoinette Schoar, Stanislav Sokolinksi & Karen Wilson

Examining a cross-section of 13 angel groups who considered transactions across 21 countries, this study finds that angel investors have a positive impact on the growth of the firms they fund, their performance, and survival, while the selection of firms that apply for angel funding varies across countries.

The Historian Who Came in from the Cold

by Dina Gerdeman

While much has been written about the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Jeremy S. Friedman’s Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World is the first book to explore in detail the significance of the “Second Cold War” that China and the Soviet Union fought in the shadow of the communist and capitalist struggle. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Internalizing Global Value Chains: A Firm-Level Analysis

by Laura Alfaro, Pol Antras, Davin Chor & Paola Conconi

Manufacturing activities that used to be performed in close proximity are increasingly fragmented across firms and countries. This paper provides strong evidence that considerations driven by contractual frictions critically shape firms' ownership decisions along their value chains.

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

by Dina Gerdeman

Improving access to financial services for the poor in developing countries seems an unmet market need. So why are so many mobile money efforts failing? Rajiv Lal says the problem begins with Marketing 101. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

Explaining China's Crash

by Christina Pazzanese

After a decade of massive growth, China’s stock market began a precipitous summer slide that that hasn't slowed yet. Dante Roscini explains what's deflating markets worldwide. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Globalization Hasn’t Killed the Manufacturing Cluster

by Roberta Holland

In today's global markets, companies have many choices to procure what they need to develop, build, and sell product. So who needs a manufacturing cluster, such as Detroit? Research by Gary Pisano and Giulio Buciuni shows that in some industries, location still matters. Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

The Future of the Greek Economy

by Laura Alfaro, Dante Roscini & George Serafeim

Before last weekend's referendum in Greece, Laura Alfaro, Dante Roscini, and George Serafeim explored the country's economic, social, and political crisis. Their insights still stand, even as Greece's situation changes hour by hour. Open for comment; 4 Comment(s) posted.

Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom

by Carmen Nobel

Women whose moms worked outside the home are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers stayed home full time, according to research by Kathleen McGinn and colleagues. Open for comment; 33 Comment(s) posted.

Leadership Lessons From Outer Space

by Carmen Nobel

Beaming in from space via teleconference, International Space Station Commander Terry Virts discusses leadership, technology, and thunderstorms with professors and students at Harvard Business School. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.

Reforming Greece: Myths and Truths

by George Serafeim

Greece has largely its leaders to blame for the country's economic crisis, but Europe could help the entire region with some well-targeted aid, says George Serafeim. Open for comment; 1 Comment(s) posted.

The Fall of Greece

by George Serafeim

When the Syriza party emerged victorious in Greece's national election last week, many citizens rejoiced at the promise of an easing of austerity measures. Professor George Serafeim believes having fresh people in government is a positive development, but fears they could point the country backward, away from competition and free-market forces. Open for comment; 10 Comment(s) posted.

A Manager’s Guide to International Strategy

by Julia Hanna

In a new book on international strategy, David Collis details the four strategic questions that need to be answered by managers in multinationals. Open for comment; 3 Comment(s) posted.

The Big Influence of Small Countries in the United Nations Secretariat

by Michael Blanding

Who calls the shots at the United Nations Secretariat? A new study by Eric Werker and Paul Novosad on the nationalities of senior staff draws surprising conclusions about the influence of smaller countries compared with world powers. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.

Who Runs the International System? Power and the Staffing of the United Nations Secretariat

by Paul Novosad & Eric Werker

National governments frequently pull strings to get their citizens appointed to senior positions in international institutions. For the United Nations' executive arm, the Secretariat—which plays a plays a key role in agenda-setting for the various deliberative UN organs, as well as managing global peace-keeping operations—there is keen competition among nations over the staffing of approximately 80 senior positions. Which nations therefore have been successful in controlling this institution? What factors have allowed them to do so? In this paper the authors examine the nationality of the most senior officials in the United Nations Secretariat over the last sixty years. Findings show that democracies, countries that invest in bilateral diplomacy, and economically/militarily powerful countries are the most effective at placing staff in the Secretariat. Furthermore, Western Europe and its offshoots have retained control over a disproportionate share of positions in the Secretariat even while their share of global GDP and population has fallen. Key concepts include: The power to control international institutions is of significant concern to governments around the world. The United Nations is arguably the world's most representative international organization. Even so, it was set up by a particular set of nations, the victors of the second world war, with the goal of sustaining a certain kind of world order. In spite of significant changes in the balance of global economic power over the past decades, the post-World War II balance of control at the United Nations has been largely sustained. Nordic countries are in a far more influential international position than the size of their population or economy would suggest. Top positions are dominated by rich democracies: the five most overrepresented countries in the Secretariat are Sweden, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and Ireland. The United States is overrepresented, and China is significantly underrepresented. In spite of the decline in US influence, the Secretariat remains pro-American relative to the world at large. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.