International Business Commons^™

The Conundrum Of Industrial Policy: Incompatibility With The Rules Of International Trade Law, Yong-Shik Lee

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Since the end of World War II, successful developing countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and, more recently China, have leveraged industrial policies—notably trade measures and subsidies—to achieve economic development. However, these industrial policy tools often conflict with the rules of international trade established under the World Trade Organization (WTO law), which aims to minimize government interference and reduce trade distortions. Paradoxically, such regulatory constraints hinder the development aspirations of many countries. Meanwhile, major global economies, including the United States, China, and the European Union, have revived industrial policies to support their key industries, such as semiconductors and electric …

The Feasibility Of Containerization In The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System, Nick Edwards

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The use of waterways to transport goods has always been a staple of civilization dating back to some of our earliest days. And throughout history it has always played a pivotal role in our economies and affected the very way in which our civilizations developed. Perhaps one of the world's most important waterways is the Great Lakes that lie directly in the heart of the North American continent and connect the heartland of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, providing a vital mode of transportation for shipping a variety of products from North America’s heartland to the rest of …

Online Learning In The Science Of Supply Chain Management Psa 500, Andree Rathemacher

Library Impact Statements

No abstract provided.

The Dynamics Of Trade Margins: Evidence From The European Integration, Sang-Wook (Stanley) Cho, Julián P. Díaz

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We analyze the exports trade margins dynamics for ten transition countries, both at the industry and product level, during the period of accession to the EU. We find that trade along both margins was driven by only about 1% of almost 5000 (HS 6-digit) products. Moreover, the largest intensive and extensive margin gains were mostly concentrated around the same subset of sectors. Last, we find a positive correlation between productivity growth and the extensive margin across the transition economies.

Corporate Governance A Comparative Analysis In India And The Us, Pallak Bhandari

Honors Projects in Accounting

My senior capstone project focuses on the importance of transparency and monitoring within corporate governance, especially in India and the US. To understand corporate governance, I studied the different theories and models of corporate governance as well as sustainability reporting. This research discusses the legal and regulatory environment within India and the US, and through a comprehensive study of the regulatory bodies within the two countries, I determined the best practices of corporate governance. I conducted a comparative analysis across India and the US with focus on 13 elements: insider trading, disclosure and certification of financial statements, remuneration disclosure, code …

International Currency Correlation, Thomas Griffin

Honors Projects in Finance

The purpose of this project is to examine the effects that one country’s currency can have on another countries currency. Currency is one of the key determinants of how a country’s economy is performing compared to the rest of the world. Some currencies have a negative or positive correlation with other currencies around the world. This data will help investors determine what they can expect to happen to a countries currency when there is a fluctuation in another currency. Certain industry practices where this information will be useful include the hedge fund industry and other global companies. This will be …

Global Economic Expansion And The Prevalence Of Militarized Interstate Disputes, Lucas Hahn

Honors Projects in Economics

Over the past several decades the entire world has experienced both the positive and negative effects of globalization. The question that this report will address is whether or not global economic expansion has led to a decline in the prevalence of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) and what factors influence the prevalence of MIDs. This report will take an in-depth look at Thomas Friedman’s “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention”. It also includes a quantitative analysis in which regression techniques were used to see how different economic factors influence the prevalence of MIDs, while also introducing a previously unused independent variable …

Marco Polo: Pioneer Of East-West Communication, Transportation And Trade, Chien Wen Yu

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of European Elections On Their Stock Markets, Andrew Lafortune

Honors Projects in Finance

This paper seeks to provide insight on changes in the European political landscape and how these changes may affect the financial markets in Europe. By analyzing market trends in eight different European countries—Belgium, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, Switzerland and Greece—since 1990, this paper attempts to identify any significant relationships between the results of an election and the performances of the major stock indices of these countries. By comparing country index returns starting one hundred days before and ending one hundred days after each election date to a global index, this paper explores the amount of risk in each …

Common Grounds Café, Michaela Bolotin, Kristina Campano, Samantha Wagner, Amjad Talib

Public & Community Service Studies Student Scholarship

Students participating in an Alternative Spring Break trip to Nicaragua in 2012 focused their exploration on coffee growing and production; they visited a Fair Trade grower, and became interested in developing a longer-term project. Simultaneously, the College’s School of Business began sponsoring an Entrepreneurship Society, while the Feinstein Institute for Public Service and the Smith Hill Community Development Corporation began convening an economic development incubator group as a project of the newly opened Providence College/Smith Hill Annex. These multiple interests coalesced as students, faculty and community came together to open Common Grounds Café.

Wto: The End Of The Wto & The Future Of International Trade, Ethan Rutledge

Ex-Patt Magazine

Progress in the harmonization of the international trading system has stalled since the Doha Round. What is next for the future of international trade?

The Cost Of Culture The Impact Of National Culture On The Pass-Through Of Commodity Shocks, Christine Gerrity

Honors Projects in Finance

This study analyzes the impact of national culture on the pass-through of commodity price shocks to retail goods. In particular, this study explores the commodities of coffee, cotton and steel. Through the use of regression analysis, this study looks to determine the relationship between two key predictive variables: risk tolerance of a country and commodity shocks within a company’s associated commodity market, and their impact on the value of companies within that country. Additional factors are explored at the firm financial level and the firm country level. The purpose of this study is to examine if consumers of one country …

An Examination Of Localization Success Factors Of Chinese Big Four Accounting Firms, Alexa Mcisaac

Honors Projects in Modern Languages

In May 2012, the Chinese government mandated that once the Big Four accounting (KPMG, PwC, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte) joint venture agreements expire, the firms must begin to localize most of the senior management. Although most of the Big Four firms employ many locals, there are more expatriate partners than Chinese counterparts. Because of this, the Big Four firms must quickly find qualified local senior management personnel. Amongst compliance and global regulatory issues, the Big Four firms must develop a strategy for localizing. Through a survey, this study aims to examine how expatriates and local Chinese managers perceive the …

The Future Of International Trade: Sustainability Is Key, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

What can multinational companies do to ensure that international trade flourishes in years to come? Gerry Craggs, the Far East managing director of steel trading company Stemcor, says that companies like his need to focus on developing sustainable trading policies rather than immediate gain. "Sustainable trading is not driven by short term profit but by providing optimal medium and long-term supply chain solutions that benefit all participants," he told Perspectives@SMU on the sidelines of the 5th anniversary celebration of the university’s International Trade Institute (ITI). Craggs is also Chair of the International Trading Concentration Sub-Committee at the institute that consists …

Increasing California Dairy Exports To Japan And South Korea, Kristina Soper

Dairy Science

The opportunities for increasing exports of California dairy products to the Japanese and South Korean markets were determined by identifying current obstacles in the California dairy industry and determining the characteristics of consumers in the Japanese and South Korean markets. As the largest milk-producing state and the supplier of 7.5% of total U.S. dairy exports, California’s economic activity greatly affects the rest of the nation and the world. The trends in the California dairy industry include increasing total milk production and per-cow milk production, a diminishing number of total dairy operations, and a rising number of large dairy operations. These …

Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Manova Kalina

Research Collection School Of Economics

We examine the collapse of international trade flows during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis using detailed data on the evolution of monthly U.S. imports over the November 2006 - April 2009 period. We show that credit constraints and the reduction in the availability of external capital were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes. We identify the effects of credit tightening by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial dependence across sectors. We find that countries with higher interbank interest rates and thus tighter …

International Business Environment Analysis, Sana Khalil

Business Review

This paper presents business environment analysis on the basis of cultural and economic differences. It elucidates the potential conflicts, risks and discusses the business opportunities that lie amid this whirlpool. The cultural differences are analyzed using Hofstede's dimensions and subsequent implications are discussed. It elucidates that the socio-economic differences require the managers to use their discretion while developing business strategies or goods and services for different markets. Since BRICS nations are emerging as potential business markets for firms around the globe and have attracted much attention and debate, I have chosen to present a comparative analysis using BRICS countries and …

Do Foreign Direct Investment And Trade Openness Accelerate Economic Growth?, Donna Chan Wah Hak

Honors Projects in Economics

This research investigates the impact of trade openness and foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth. Using a framework proposed by Barro (1991), panel data regression analysis is performed on 5-year time periods between 1985 and 2005. A sample of 89 countries is analyzed using data collected from the World Development Indicators (WDI), Penn World Table, Barro and Lee (2010), and Polity IV Project datasets. The empirical analysis shows that conditional convergence occurs among the countries in the sample and that FDI net inflows per worker slightly increases the speed of conditional convergence. This study also finds evidence that FDI …

Stock Exchanges In The Middle East: Risky Business Or Smart Investing?, Jed A. Haddad

Honors Projects in Finance

The goal of any investor is to obtain the highest possible return for his or her money. However for years, the debate has continued; stocks, bonds, mutual funds; which of these financial instruments will produce the greatest gain to give the investor the highest profit? Historically, stocks have been known to provide investors with high returns. With the world becoming increasingly globalized, international markets have proven to offer investors more options to help diversify their portfolios. The Middle East has been known as a region of recent economic growth and stability. Three prominent examples of such are Kuwait, Israel, and …

The Effect Of The Governance Environment On International Business: Three Essays, Jun Wu

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

We examine how governance environment affects business activities across countries. Using an updated framework of governance environments, we classify countries into three groups based on their dominant modes of governance: (1) rule-based (strong rule of law), (2) relation-based (weak rule of law and strong informal network based on private relations), and (3) neither-based (absence of both public rules and private network). We then examine how different governance types affect trade patterns and foreign investment flows. Chapter 2 theoretically proposes that the governance environment of a society plays a significant role in influencing international trade and foreign investment across countries. Chapter …

Off The Cliff And Back? Credit Conditions And International Trade During The Global Financial Crisis, Davin Chor, Kalina Manova

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the collapse of international trade flows during the global financial crisis using detailed data on monthly US imports. We show that credit conditions were an important channel through which the crisis affected trade volumes, by exploiting the variation in the cost of capital across countries and over time, as well as the variation in financial vulnerability across sectors. Countries with higher interbank rates and thus tighter credit markets exported less to the US during the peak of the crisis. This effect was especially pronounced in sectors that require extensive external financing, have limited access to trade credit, or …

Assessing The Export Competitiveness Of Chinese Industries, Marc Fetscherin, Ilan Alon, James P. Johnson

Faculty Publications

This article presents a framework for measuring, illustrating and comparing industry export competitiveness that takes into account (i) industry specialization, (ii) industry export growth rate and (iii) relative industry size. We apply the framework to a data set of 97 different industries from China over a 5-year period (2001–2005). According to our results, over 70 per cent of Chinese industries are ‘dynamic’, meaning that their export growth is higher than the world average export growth. Almost 50 per cent of the Chinese industries examined are competitive in global markets, with 20–25 per cent of the world export market share in …

International Trade And Women Merchants At Gbagi Textile Market, Ibadan, Mutiat Titilope Kareem-Ojo

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper examines the historical background of Gbagi textile market in Ibadan and the response to international trade among women merchants at the market. It discusses the relationship between Lebanese traders in Nigeria and Yoruba women merchants at the market. In this connection, the paper explains how the presence of the Lebanese influenced textile trade. It also examines how women merchants adapted to the changes associated with international trade relations. The paper concludes by analyzing the changes that occurred in the market via the trading activities of women merchants.

United States Raisin Export Market Trends In The United Kingdom, Paul Mcchesney

Agribusiness

One of the agricultural products that the United States exports to England in large quantities is raisins. Raisin exports from the United States to England increased dramatically by 84% from 2007-2008 (USDA 2009). This study was sought to discover the cause of this large increase of raisin exports from 2007-2008, as well as to assess the current international raisin market.

To determine the cause of the increase in raisin exports to England, the top four raisin exporting countries in the world were analyzed to determine if their export quantities had a factor in the United States raisin exports to England. …

A Tale Of Two Standards: An Exploration Of Us Gaap And Ifrs, Allyson Lagasse

Honors Projects in Accounting

The research in this paper has two objectives. Beginning with an examination of the historical development of how financial reporting standards are set in the United States and around the world, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board will be studied. Setting financial reporting standards in the United States is currently a responsibility of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, while many countries abroad utilize International Financial Reporting Standards, maintained by the International Accounting Standards Board. After detailing the historical development of each of the two boards and the sets of standards they maintain, the paper continues …

Does The ‘Ease Of Doing Business’ In A Country Influence Its Foreign Direct Investment Inflows?, Katherine Piwonski

Honors Projects in Finance

Foreign direct investment has been studied for years. It is generally accepted as a positive influence on the domestic market and governments have begun actively seeking it out. This study is meant to possibly connect government actions, for which the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business Index’ was used as a proxy, to an increase in foreign direct investment inflows. The goal of this study is to help governments make more informed decisions about if and how to attract foreign direct investment. The research was done by running a regression model to find a connection between changes in foreign direct investment inflows …

U.S. Business And Global Barriers To Entry, Caitlin Long

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

An exploratory view of barriers to entry in countries of significance to U.S. companies, this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of prevalent business strategies of U.S. trading partners as well as a forecast of their international business policies. Diverse macro-environmental variables, such as economy, culture, and regulations result in varying barriers to entry for U.S. based firms to conduct business in U.S trading partners’ countries. This thesis will determine how these macro-environmental factors foster or stunt growth and strategies governments employ to attract businesses.

China And Latin America: A Match Made In Trade Heaven Or Dependency Reloaded?, Meghan Skira

Senior Honors Projects

China’s economy is expanding rapidly, and the emerging powerhouse is searching for energy resources, raw materials, and markets to maintain its economic growth. China has shown an insatiable appetite for Latin American natural resources, commodities, and agricultural products, from oil to lumber to copper to soybeans. Trade values between the two regions increased greatly from $1.3 billion in 1980 to about $13 billion in 2000 to over $50 billion in 2005. Latin America has the raw materials that China needs to fuel its economic expansion and offers a large market for cheap Chinese manufactured goods. Many analysts claim that Sino-Latin …

La Mondialisation Qui Menace L’Identité Française Et Ses Relations Avec Le Commerce, Kelly Mcbrien

Senior Honors Projects

Globalization is an integral part of our society today: economically, socially and politically. Some may see Globalization as the world coming together through the ease and speed of capital, goods, services, ideas, information, and technology across our “shrinking” borders. Others may hold a more negative view of Globalization, and may see it as simply growing conflicts between nations and cultures. One of the central problems of globalization is the fear of homogenization or Americanization. Many cultures see globalization as cultural uniformity. As Benedict Anderson has said, “one man’s imagined community is another mans political prison.” This quote can help to …

Nigeria's External Trade And The New Perspectives For Its Enhancement, G. K. Sanni

Bullion

Trade has been universally acknowledged as indispensable tool to rapid economic growth and development. This is because increased participation in trade is associated with higher inflows of foreign investment and new technologies which can be adopted to transform the economy through appropriate policy. This paper analyses Nigeria's foreign trade with a view to examining the composition and direction as well as impediments to the growth of trade, and proffer suggestions for enhancing Nigeria's foreign trade. The paper is divided into five sections. Following the introduction are the theoretical issues. This is followed by the analysis in section three of the …