Volume 19, Number 2 Article by Nandini Vaidyanathan June, 2007
Elements of International Business : By S N Chary, 2006, Wiley India, pp 403, Price: Rs 349.
This is a handbook of international business not just for Indian students studying it as part of their management curriculum but also for all aspiring and practising entrepreneurs who wish to promote global businesses. The chapters are arranged in such a way that the matter flows logically and smoothly. The material organised under each chapter is delineated with precision and tidiness. The use of cartoons to drive home the point will work well particularly with the student community.
The language is simple, unfussy and eminently readable. Each chapter is divided into sub-chapters with self-explanatory titles. The text commences with taking a hard look at the risks and opportunities involved in the process of going global and ends with a well-edited summary of where international businesses are today and where they are likely to head in the future. Inter-alia, it analyses culture management, international trade, international politics and economic integration, international organisations, FDI, and going global as a business strategy..
The second part, ‘Building the Checklist Appraisal Grid for Evolutionary Models’, is where the author does a comprehensive literature review. There is a review of the three most influential theories in biology – the theories of Lamarck, Darwin and Spencer. There is also a review of various evolutionary theories starting with Campbell’s VSR (variation-selection-retention) model. Population ecology, evolutionary economics and dynamic capabilities are reviewed as extrinsic, combined and intrinsic approaches to organisational evolution. This leads to a review of the co-evolutionary approach that formed the basis of the author’s model development in the last section. The end result of this exercise is that a checklist is built up on conceptual issues, cautions, limitations and challenges on which any evolutionary model can be appraised.
The business activities that take place in a foreign land may assume different forms. It could be export of goods and services; it could be export of technology; it could be a licensing arrangement with a partner abroad to produce something abroad; capital investment in machinery, assets and infrastructure outside the country; or a joint venture with a foreign partner or a wholly owned subsidiary set up for manufacturing, trading or providing services.
The book features several Indian case studies and has references to Indian companies and their forays abroad. A welcome aspect of the book is that India’s global footprint is seen in the context of Asia as well as in the larger context of the developed economies of the West. The section on ‘Tips while conducting business in different countries’ in Chapter 2 is divided into business with the Americans, the Japanese, Europeans and the Arabs and is a must-read for all those who are embarking on a business relationship with them.
The chapter entitled ‘International politics and economic integration’ is a very sensitive treatise on the importance of empathy and understanding that needs to be communicated by developed economies when their not so developed brethren begin a business relationship with them.
The author taught at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore for over 25 years and has written several books, papers and articles. The book reflects the seasoned teacher and writer that he is. The publishers, Wiley India, have done an admirable job in packaging the book
The only lacunae I found in terms of content, especially from a management student’s perspective, is that while marketing and human resource strategies are satisfactorily covered, for some inexplicable reason, finance and accounting, manufacturing and logistics as aspects of international business are all ignored. As a teacher of International Business, I urge Prof Chary to include them in the next edition. Or better still, to devote Volume II entirely to these aspects.
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