The first section of the course provides the basic frameworks for understanding competitiveness in international business at the level of the industry, location, and firm. These frameworks identify the opportunities presented in a dynamic global environment. But taking advantages of those opportunities faces enormous managerial challenges, and the second section of the course focuses on using and deepening those analytical tools in the context of specific problems and contexts. The goal of this course is to provide the foundations for taking effective action in the multi-faceted world of international business.

Engardio, Pete, Aaron Bernstein, and Manjeet Kripalani. "Is Your Job Next?" Business Week. February 3, 2003.


Lecture #2: Industry Factors

Readings:
Prahalad, C. K., and Yves Doz. "Mapping the Characteristics of a Business." Chapter 2 in The Multinational Mission. The Free Press, 1987.

Lessard, Donald R. "Frameworks for Global Strategic Analysis." Journal of Strategic Management Education. Senate Hall Academic Publishing, 2003.

Case Study: The Pharmaceutical Industry (five readings on course website):

1. The Pharmaceutical Industry: Changing Technologies
   Excerpt from: "The Pharmaceutical Industry." The Economist, February 21, 1998, pp. 3-5.
   
   
2. Key Strategic Issues in the Pharmaceutical Industry
   Summary based on: Huff, Anne Sigismund, James Oran Huff, and Pamela S. Barr. When Firms Change Direction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
   
   
3. "Risks and Rewards in the Global Market Place"
   Wechsler, Jill. "Risks and Rewards in the Global Market Place." Pharmaceutical Technology Europe Vol. 13, No. 5. May 2001, pp. 20. Copyright 2001, Gale Group, Inc. and Advanstar Communications, Inc.
   
   
4. Profiles of Four Leading Pharmaceutical Firms
   Information collected from Hoover's Online (http://www.hoovers.com) and Datamonitor (http://www.datamonitor.com) about: Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Merck, and Novartis AG.
   
   
5. A Note on the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you see as the key drivers of change in the pharmaceutical industry over the decades, in terms of the pressures for local responsiveness and the pressures for cross-border integration? What would you predict for the next decade?
2. What strategic responses from firms are sustainable in this changing environment? What might affect their choice of positioning?
   
   

Lecture #3: Location Factors: National Roots of Competitive Advantage

Readings:
Michael, Porter. "The Competitive Advantage of Nations." Article No. 90211. Harvard Business Review 90-2. March-April 1990, pp. 73-93. 

Case: P. Ghemawat, "The Indian Software Industry at the Millenium." Harvard Business Case No. 9-700-036. Boston: Harvard Business School, July 31, 2000.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are India's most important location advantages, in terms of the Porter model? Does India fit the "Diamond" model of a competitive location?
2. If you were the CEO of a major US software company, would you consider setting up a subsidiary in India?
3. If you were the CEO of one of the top Indian companies described briefly in the case (Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Infosys), what would your strategy be in the future for leveraging India's location advantages and addressing its weaknesses?
   
   

Lecture #4: Firm-Specific Advantages: Location-Based Advantages, Location-Bound Advantages, and Capabilties.

Readings:  
Kogut, Bruce. "Designing Global Strategies: Comparative and Competitive Value-Added Chains." Chapter 1 in Gupta and Westney.

Westney, Eleanor. "A Note on Sequential Models of Internationalization." (Course Website)

Deveny, Kathleen. "McWorld? McDonald's Can Make a Big Mac Anywhere, But Duplicating Its Culture Abroad Won't Be So Easy." Business Week. October 13, 1986, pp. 78-86.

Serwer, Andrew E. "McDonald's Conquers the World." Fortune. October 17, 1994, pp. 103-116.

Discussion Questions:

1. To what extent did McDonald's firm-specific advantage rest on the location advantages of its home base (the United States)? How did this affect its internationalization process (if at all)? How might it affect McDonald's international expansion in the future?
2. What capabilities did McDonald's have to develop in the course of its internationalization process? How did it do this?
   
   

Lecture #5: Changing Models of Cross-Border Business

Readings:
Bartlett, Christopher A., and Sumantra Ghoshal. "Managing Across Borders: New Organizational Responses." Chapter 7 in Gupta and Westney.

Case: Westney, Eleanor. "ABB: From Icon to Crisis." MIT Sloan School of Management. (Course Website)

Discussion Questions:

1. Was ABB's organization really as well-suited to its business strategy in the early 1990s as researchers seemed to think? What were its strengths and weaknesses?
2. Why did ABB weaken the geographic side of its matrix over time? What were the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?
3. What do you think of Centermann's 2001 re-organization? What alternatives might ABB have considered?
   
   

Case: Bartlett, Christopher A., and Anthony St. George. "Acer America: Development of the Aspire." Harvard Business Case No. 9-399-011. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2001.

Discussion Questions:

1. Hart and Milstein advocate a segmentation of markets into three categories.  What are the implications of their model for MNCs from developed countries?  From developing countries? For developing countries?
2. What is your evaluation of Acer's market strategy (its choice of markets and products)? What is your assessment of Acer's North American market strategy?
3. What were the key problems faced by Acer in developing the Aspire? What recommendations would you make to Acer for future market strategies and for product development, based on this experience?
   

Lecture #8: Developing Firm-specific Advantages from Being International - The Globalization of the Supply Chain

Readings:
Levy, David. "Lean Production in an International Supply Chain." Chapter 3 in Gupta and Westney.

Case Study: Ferdows, Kasra. "Making the Most of Foreign Factories." Article No. 97204. Harvard Business Review. March-April 1997.

Discussion Questions:

1. Levy's article is based on intensive research conducted in the mid-1990s. Do you think conditions have changed to make his assessment of the challenges of managing global supply chains less valid?
2. Some of Ferdows' key examples focus on the changing role of Singapore in global supply chains. The operations in Singapore are, however, nearly all wholly-owned subsidiaries of MNCs. What differences does it make when the operations are locally owned, as they in Taiwan, for example?
   

Lecture #9: Developing Firm-specific Advantages from Being International - The Globalization of Technology

Readings:
Birkinshaw, Julian M., and J. N. Fry. "Subsidiary Initiatives to Develop New Markets." Chapter 9 in Gupta and Westney.

Case Study: Chapters 1 and 2: Doz, Yves, José Santos and Peter Williamson. “From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy.” Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.

Also press clippings on Novartis' corporate R&D center in Cambridge: Krasner, Jeffrey. “Drug Giant Novartis Seen Leasing Cambridge R&D Space.” The Boston Globe. May 3, 2002, pp. E1.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the key challenges that a firm like Novartis faces in setting up a new research center outside its major centers of technology development? What recommendations would you make to Novartis?
   

Lecture #10: Expanding Abroad: Cross-Border M&A

Readings:
Ghemawat, Pankaj, and Fariborz Ghadar. "The Dubious Logic of Global Megamergers." Article No. R00405. Harvard Business Review. July-August 2000.

Discussion Questions:

1. The business press greeted the Daimler-Chrysler merger as a sound strategic move that would have highly positive implications for both. It was far more skeptical about the soundness of the Nissan-Renault venture (and Renault was a second choice partner for Nissan). Yet the Nissan-Renault venture today is seen as much more successful. Why did the business press get it wrong - or do you think they got it right, but that a longer term is necessary to judge the success or failure?
2. Do these two cases fit or not fit Ghemawat and Ghadar's criticism of "global megamergers"?
3. What do you see as the key lessons for cross-border merger and acquisition from the two cases? Explain why you identified those lessons.
   

Lecture #11: Expanding Abroad: From Emerging Markets

Readings:
Dawar, Niraj, and Tony Frost. "Competing with Giants: Survival Strategies for Emerging Market Companies." Article 99203. Harvard Business Review. March-April 1999.

Case: Nanda, Ashish, and Leopoldo E. Lopez Mendoza. "PDVSA & Citgo (A): Seeking Stability in an Uncertain World." HBS Case No. 9-899-220. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1999.

Nanda, Ashish, and Leopoldo E. Lopez Mendoza. "PDVSA & Citgo (B): Fully Integrated?" Harvard Business Case No. 9-899-221. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1999.

Discussion Questions:

Lecture #13: In-Class Final Exam