Knowledge that Transforms

The following article is based on the Presidential Address delivered by Robert G. Hawkins of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the 19 October 1984 meeting of the Academy of International Business in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Hawkins assesses the success (and failure) of the field of international business study in its 3 objectives—education, research, and the ability to influence policy making—and comes to conclusions and recommendations for the future.

This paper explores the importance of comparative productivity accounting and productivity-based analysis in export decisions at the firm level. The structure of the relationships between productivity ratios, input prices, scale effects, demand patterns, and exchange rates is developed within the context of a simple microeconom model. This framework is extended to encompass comparative productivity and cost analysis across international markets, and to derive conditions for export profitability under different market structures. Subsequently, the role of relative productivities in relation to other market and monetary variables is explored in detail using retrospective case study illustrations. Finally, the managerial implications of a productivity-based approach to export decisions are discussed.

This article reviews and synthesizes the emergence and growth of U.S., Western European, and Japanese MNCs in the postwar environment, the growing role of state enterprises, and the recent emergence of Third World MNCs. While U.S. foreign direct investments have expanded and continue to be highly significant, some important recent developments are the more rapid growth of Western European and Japanese MNCs, the increased role of the U.S. as a host country for investments, the emergence of multibusiness by MNCs, the more numerous actors involved in global business, and the dramatic, more rapid changes in the world environment. This article explores developments in host- and home-country policies, some of the other major actors in international business, “newer” forms of international participation along with some hypotheses, and concludes by analyzing a few major changes in global environments and multinational management.

A number of recent studies have concluded that the foreign language fluency of the general population of the United States is very low. The purpose of the present study is to identify language requirements for business students in U.S. colleges and universities that offer a major, minor, or co-major in international business and a functional area at the graduate and/or undergraduate levels, and to determine approximate levels of fluency in foreign languages of these students.

In-depth case studies of 4 firms and a questionnaire survey of 52 companies show that the mother-daughter structure prevalent in Swedish MNCs is changing. Firms tends to adopt organizational structures ‘in between’ a pure mother-daughter one and one divided along product or technology lines. Rather than introducing formal matrix structures, relatively simple organizational forms are complemented by changes in information systems, budgeting procedures, rotation of personnel, and so forth. The control style is changing in the direction of slightly more formal performance evaluation. The changes can be understood as adaptations to growing size of the firms, increased product diversity, acquisitions of foreign companies, technological maturity, entry of new managers, and slower demand growth.

The Academy of International Business members were polled to elicit their opinions of the relative quality of international business programs in American schools. They were also asked for their criteria.

With the Winter 1984 issue of JIBS, Rutgers Graduate School of Management completes 2 terms or 10 years of publication of JIBS. This has been a challenging but rewarding experience for me and my staff at Rutgers. We take pride in the progress we have achieved after starting with meager and inadequate resources to make the Journal of International Business Studies the outstanding refereed professional journal in the field. This achievement was possible only through the dedicated efforts and cooperation of several score of individuals – more than we can mention in this note – including our small staff, members of the Editorial Board, Section and other Editors, other reviewers, many officers of the Academy of International Business, authors who submitted manuscripts, and various scholars who advised us on the editorial policies and thrust of the Journal.