Informal Networks in International Business sheds light into the complex nature of informal networks and the respective context in which they operate as well as exploring the challenges and opportunities they produce for a modern international business.

Building upon the extensive and expansive tradition of research on social capital and inequality, this Handbook summarizes current social capital research and showcases cutting-edge applications. It highlights the major theoretical and methodological advancements in the field and provides a comprehensive review of the diversity of research on social capital and its relationship with the creation and maintenance of different forms of inequality.

This innovative work examines the concept of the informal network and its practical utility within the context of counterterrorism. Drawing together a range of practitioner and academic expertise it explores the character and evolution of informal networks, addressing the complex relationship between kinship groups, transnational linkages and the role that globalization and new technologies play in their formation and sustainability. By analysing the informal branch of networked organization in the context of security policy-making, the chapters in this book seek to address three questions: how do informal networks operate? which combination of factors draws individuals to form such networks? what are their structures? Informal networks are necessarily elusive owing to their ad hoc development, amorphous structures and cultural specificity but they are nonetheless pivotal to the way organizations conduct business. Identifying and manipulating such networks is central to effective policy-making. Terrorism, Security and the Power of Informal Networks argues that informal networks are important to policy-makers and their mastery is critical to success both in tackling the challenges of hostile networks and in the processes of organizational reform currently preoccupying governments. Practitioners, policy-makers and researchers in the fields of international politics, international relations, history and political science will find much to interest them in this timely resource.

Written by two leading international business scholars, the Second Edition of International Business takes a truly global perspective that goes beyond the United States, presents the latest concepts, tools and events and adopts integrated and problem-solving approaches for all chapters. The book highlights the role of culture, politics and legal issues in international business and illustrates how they influence institutions, structures and processes that permeate all functions of business. This is the only international business textbook that offers dedicated discussion of small and mid-size international firms (where many students are likely to be employed) in addition to large multinational enterprises. It is also the only text to offer chapters on corruption, e-commerce, and international entrepreneurship. The book offers a highly integrated and action-focused approach to the field that helps the reader make explicit connections across concepts and functions, develops the skill to address various IB issues and problems, and most importantly, broadens understanding of the global business environment and its repercussions for executives. In addition to superior internal integration of the various issues discussed in the book (for example this may be the only IB text where the chapter on finance and accounting has specific references to culture and how it affects those functions), the book provides easy to understand links to functional business areas, thus enabling better integration within the BA or MBA business curriculum. This book is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate business students taking such courses as international business, international Management, Global Business, Global Business Strategy, Multinational Management, Foreign Direct Investment.

Includes: Postscript 1994.

Beginning with an examination of the nature of services, their categories, and increased importance in the world economy, Feketekuty analyzes the problems of dealing with barriers to trade in this area through international agreement. He discusses how traditional trade theories need to be modified to account for the characteristics for trade in services and the relationship between barriers to international trade in services and government regulations. He concludes with guidelines for organizing and shaping the negotiations on trade in services in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. ISBN 0-88730-241-6: $26.95.

Informal Networks in International Business sheds light into the complex nature of informal networks and the respective context in which they operate as well as exploring the challenges and opportunities they produce for a modern international business.

Globalisation has instigated huge changes in the competitive environment for business entrepreneurs, and both large and small firms now frequently operate in similar conditions. Most research studies in international business have tended to focus on the market growth and internationalisation of large-scale and multinational companies as opposed to the experiences of more small-scale enterprises. The research outlined in this volume is radical and different in this regard. Employing cases studies from a range of Norwegian-based SMEs (Small-to-Medium-based enterprises), this volume explores the diverse factors which influence the speed of entrepreneurial internationalisation and the significance of this development for both the entrepreneur and the government bodies which provide support to such businesses. Market advantage frequently accrues to those who enterprises who internationalise quickly and who are quicker than others to embrace both foreign markets and a more internationally-focussed signature brand or identity. This research outlined here is an important addition to the growing body of literature which analyses the forces influencing modern-day market internationalisation.