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Ed Sim offers this blog post about globalization, referencing some interesting sources and graphics.

Paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis examines Int'l capital flows in the context of a simple Diamond-Dybvig model in which there are neither moral hazard nor adverse selection problems, thus isolating exchange rate risk as the propagator of capital flows.

Note: Business 2.0 is now part of CNNmoney and some older articles are no longer available

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excellent article talks about the need to be global and asks and answers 6 fundamental questions in attempt to sort out the issues

This IMF working paper analyzes the costs and benefits of full dollarization compared to its closes alternative, a currency board. The paper lists several advantages and disadvantages while reviewing how various country characteristics influence the balance of arguments.

E-commerce integrated domestic and global markets from its very inception. Negotiating on trade issues related to e-commerce will demand self-inspection of key domestic policies, particularly in telecom, financial services, and distribution and delivery. Furthermore, technical aspect of e-commerce should change the way that developing countries approach the external negotiating process to depend more on cooperative efforts.

In light of the torrent of anecdotal evidence suggesting that e-commerce firms may be on the endangered species list, the E-Commerce Times investigated the big picture of the industry. What we found may surprise you.

Exchange rate changes are volatile and difficult to explain. Economists have long suspected that monetary policy shocks might play an important role in accounting for this behavior. This paper combines recent developments in international finance and econometrics to assess what firm conclusions can be drawn about the role of monetary policy shocks in exchange rate behavior.

NextLinx partners with Clicklogistics.com to target marketplaces and exchanges

Setting up a foreign office? Leave those American hiring practices at home. So says this informative article focused on international human resources issues.

This 39-page report was written by Paul Collier, David Dollar, and Nicholas Stern, all of the World Bank. It provides "an interpretative view of the development experiences of the past 50 years," with a special emphasis on the past ten years. The authors's analysis of development in the 1990s found, overall, that market-oriented reform worked unreliably and often neglected "the institutional foundations necessary for markets to be effective for poverty reduction. It is not enough to focus attention on 'getting prices right'; public action is needed to 'get the markets right'." The report especially examines development in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. It also looks at financial institutions, public service delivery, and financial sectors.

As corporate America buys and sells more goods and services abroad, the number of company employees kidnapped for ransom in places like Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines and Chechnya has increased. Along with that increase have come escalating demands for ransom money, more expensive insurance policies and more sophisticated negotiation tactics on both sides of the table. Knowledge@Wharton looks at recent developments in the kidnap and ransom business.

English isn't managing to sweep all else before it - and if it ever does become the universal language, many of those who speak it won't understand one another.

Web site globalization is becoming a high-priority item in many e-business plans. Many enterprises embarking on such projects now recognize that more is involved than simply content translation. This article offers a five-step plan to Web site globalization highlighting these issues, in order of importance. Quickly, they are:
1. Get the business strategy right
2. Think global: Globalize the infrastructure
3. Act local: Localize each region
4. Divide responsibilities, specify roles, and establish processes
5. Automate ongoing maintenance

"Unsatisfactory" is the word that best describes the contemporary debate over globalization. There seems to be a consensus that globalization - whether economic, political, cultural, or environmental - is defined by increasing levels of interdependence over vast distances. But few people have undertaken the task of actually trying to measure those levels of interdependence. For instance, how do we determine the extent to which a country has become embedded within the global economy? How do we demonstrate that globalization is racing ahead, rather than just limping along? And how do we know just how worldwide the World Wide Web has become?

With this challenge in mind, we present the A.T. Kearney/FOREIGN POLICY Magazine Globalization Index TM, which offers a comprehensive guide to globalization in 50 developed countries and key emerging markets worldwide. The Globalization Index "reverse-engineers" globalization and breaks it down into its most important component parts. On a country-by-country basis, it quantifies the level of personal contact across national borders by combining data on international travel, international phone calls, and cross-border remittances and other transfers. It charts the World Wide Web by assessing not only its growing number of users, but also the number of Internet hosts and secure servers through which they communicate, find information, and conduct business transactions.

The Globalization Index also measures economic integration. It tracks the movements of goods and services by examining the changing share of international trade in each country's economy, and it measures the permeability of national borders through the convergence of domestic and international prices. The index also tracks the movements of money by tabulating inward- and outward-directed foreign investment and portfolio capital flows, as well as income payments and receipts.

It's not enough to have Web pages that sell wares in English. With 75% of the world's Web market expected to live outside the United States by 2005, global appeal is the byword.

Note: Older EBF articles are not currently online. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. If you click you will be taken to the Archive.org site to find an archived copy.

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Valter Lazzari, Full Professor of Banking and Finance at Università Cattaneo and Università Bocconi, Milan introduces this important topic with an essay on first principles, current debates and future prospects. Then eight other experts explore a range of issues including differences between North American and European practices, regional models within Europe, the impact of voting restrictions, the challenge for financial institutions and NGOs, and the attractions and shortcomings of the two-tier board approach. Then Graham Gilmour pulls together the different strands of the debate and offers a practical way forward for managers.

Editor's Note: For more from EBF on corporate governance, see
Board performance, not just board conformance
http://www.mbadepot.com/redir.php?ID=1756&file=links
Corporate Governance Audited
http://www.mbadepot.com/redir.php?ID=1501&file=links
Corporate Governance - Equity culture at risk
http://www.mbadepot.com/redir.php?ID=2930&file=links
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
http://www.mbadepot.com/redir.php?ID=2932&file=links

Note: Older EBF articles are not currently online. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. If you click you will be taken to the Archive.org site to find an archived copy.

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This article claims to consider the arguments for and against the culture-contingent explanation of managerial diversity. Although the issue is introduced, no useful arguments are made. What is very useful about this article however, are the profiles given of the management styles for different European countries, namely:
- The French Model of Centralised Management
- The British Model of Pragmatic Management
- The German Model of Professional Management
- The Italian Model of Dependent Management
- The Swedish Model of Participative Management

For a searchable repository of market data check out our Market Research Center

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Increased understanding of consumer preferences for foreign versus domestic products and the linkage to price and quality attributes can facilitate more effective product positioning, more efficient strategy development, and overall knowledge of the dynamics of international markets. According to this study of American shoppers, consumers appear to prefer domestically manufactured goods and are often willing to pay a higher price for them. Read on for more findings and for a nice high-level introduction to the idea of conjoint analysis.

Stephen Davis of Davis Global Advisors expects the most dramatic changes in corporate governance in the next few years to take place in Germany. The Schröder government's elimination of corporate capital gains taxes, effective next January will, he predicts, encourage companies to unwind their cross-shareholdings.

Why do some retailers expanding abroad perform better than others? This article looks at some of the reasons why and introduces the concept of psychic distance in explaining performance variations.

Quick but useful look at the development of a standardized method of displaying the world's languages on computer screens.

Differences in local preferences require organizations to adapt pricing policies when appealing to international markets. In Japan, for example, status, quality and price are so deeply linked that price reductions often have the surprising effect of reducing sales. This paper seeks to discuss the factors that must be taken into account when determining the international pricing of a product. It also seeks to identify ways in which international pricing can be used to gain a competitive advantage.

Global expansion is normally a business tool used to perpetuate growth. However, in some cases, it can also cause problems for the economy. INSEAD Professor Daniel Traça reveals how the expansion of global trade may increase job insecurity and diminish wages. And that's just one of his surprising findings.

New evidence suggests that the most popular routes to global success are not always reliable.

Note: written in 1993 so the early part of the article is not of much value - read on toward the bottom for useful tidbits, namely the 11 traits correlated with high performance in international markets

There's nothing new about globalization—but it is becoming more complex, or "thick," write Joseph S. Nye and Robert O. Keohane of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. One result: Small occurrences can have global consequences. Plus: Nye Q&A.

Advocates of more effective corporate governance have been focusing on corporate reform at the expense of institutional reform. Now is the time to change tactics.

Note: Older EBF articles are not currently online. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. If you click you will be taken to the Archive.org site to find an archived copy.

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Popular voices against international capitalism have become increasingly strident. The other side of the case – notably the positive social and economic impact of globalisation – deserves to be heard.

Note: Older EBF articles are not currently online. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. If you click you will be taken to the Archive.org site to find an archived copy.

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Giant companies like Coca-Cola are adopting localised marketing strategies after decades of globalisation. It is time to ask if global marketing's financial benefits are being outweighed by other costs, writes Isabelle Schuiling.