Knowledge that Transforms

International counterfeiting of products covered by intellectual property laws is a major issue in international business. The United States government in particular has threatened to invoke trade legislation to retaliate against countries that fail to attack domestic piracy activities. This paper briefly reviews the economic consequences of international product counterfeiting. It cautions that while such piracy has net costs, widespread retaliation through trade protectionism could also prove costly. It recommends a policy approach that facilitates “private” protection of property rights.

In developing entry marketing strategies for new product markets companies might be advised to target product markets where significant market shares are likely to be achieved. The literature on market share change is reviewed to identify situational and marketing strategy factors associated with market share achievement. Certain hypotheses suggested by this and related literatures were then tested using a database of products introduced into the Japanese market. The results of this analysis indicate that a few key situational and marketing strategy variables account for a large proportion of the variation in achieved market share in Japan.

Throughout the course of a career, an individual must make numerous role transitions, instigated through such events as overseas transfers, domestic transfers, promotions, company reorganizations, and inter-company job changes. This paper examines the relationships between several variables and work role transition in the case of an overseas assignment to Japan. Role ambiguity and role discretion were found to influence work adjustment, while predeparture knowledge, association with local nationals, and family's adjustment were found to correlate with general adjustment of American expatriate managers in Japan.

This paper reports some of the findings of a multi-phased, and multi-method study on the organizational attributes that facilitate creation, adoption, and diffusion of innovations by subsidiaries of multinational companies. Comparison of results obtained through case research in nine companies, multiple-respondent questionnaire surveys in three companies, and a single-respondent survey in 66 North American and European multinationals reveal unambiguous and positive impacts of normative integration through organizational socialization and dense intra- and inter-unit communication on an MNC subsidiary's ability to contribute to the different innovation tasks. The findings are less consistent with regard to the effects of local resources and autonomy and it appears that the influences of these two attributes are strongly mediated by the levels of normative integration and organizational communication.

Data processing and telecommunications have become more sophisticated. More data can be analyzed and moved faster than ever before. This is potentially helpful for international business, but has raised concern among governmental officials and has resulted in a host of regulations pertaining to transnational data flow.