International Business Realisms: Globalizing Locally Responsive and Internationally Connected Business Disciplines

Globalizing Locally Responsive and Internationally Connected Business Disciplines

A. Arora

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781137379078
• eBook ISBN: 9781137376466
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

International Business (IB) is a complex and interdisciplinary field. It encompasses regular currency and political risks alongside fundamental uncertainties and variations in international development, collaboration, social values, and shared objectives. As globalization expands our markets across national boundaries, institutional innovation and experimentation is essential for countries to brand their products globally and develop internationally acclaimed products. The contributors of International Business Realisms analyze instances of interdisciplinary marketing and branding for the global market place and distill practical implications for effective international and domestic marketing.

1

The “Global Logistics and International Business 2.0” Curriculum Internationalization Experience

Anshu Saxena Arora, Jun Wu, Suman Niranjan, Reginald Leseane, Shalonda Bradford, and Hae Y. Choi

Abstract: In response to the challenges of globalization, many universities have adopted the strategy of “internationalizing the curriculum” for developing leaders that drive global problem solving with all stakeholders, rather than “simply” training skilled professionals for business. This chapter presents a case study about internationalization and introduction of an innovative curriculum in “Global Logistics” at a business school in a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the State of Georgia, United States. In order to provide students with a complete global experience for employment in the global economy, the business school introduced a new program with emphasis on Logistics and Supply Chain Management (SCM), and International Business Environment called “Global Logistics and International Business (G-LIB).” In this chapter, we discuss the need of having an international business logistics program at a HBCU and discuss its implications for faculty, students, and businesses.

Arora, Anshu Saxena. International Business Realisms: Globalizing Locally Responsive and Internationally Connected Business Disciplines. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. DOI: 10.1057/9781137376466.

Introduction

The past two decades have witnessed the development and continuing evolution of a number of related disciplines including SCM, marketing, distribution channels, logistics, and purchasing, and very importantly, how these disciplines interact with each other during global operations. The effect of globalization is far-reaching and profound. Reflective of both academic development and managerial innovation, advances occurring within the business fields and across them have yielded considerable insights and furthered business knowledge and practice, thus altering the scholarly landscape and managerial practice. This academic change and innovation has affected the governance and management of universities (Peters and Roberts, 2000; Pratt and Poole, 2000). Among all the elements of an internationalized campus, curriculum stands out as the most important part of internationalizing efforts because all students have to experience it (Green and Olson, 2008). SCM education needs to be implemented with a focus on international business as supply chain strategy is an integral part of international business strategy.

Supply chain strategy in strategic and effective SCM can be viewed as the pattern of decisions related to sourcing products, capacity planning, conversion of raw materials, demand management, communication across the supply chain, and delivery of products and services (Narasimhan et al., 2006); thereby linking SCM strategy with the business and corporate level strategy. The origin of the term “supply chain management” is thought to reside in the work of consultants during the early 1980s (Oliver and Webber, 1982). A review of the supply chain management literature during the late 1980s and the early 1990s reveals the interchangeable use of neologisms: logistics management, network sourcing, supplier-base reduction, and inter-organizational integration.

In the late 1990s, to some extent, supply chain management supplanted the term “logistics” (Rogers and Leuschner, 2004). In an attempt to clarify confusion surrounding the term, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) announced a modified definition of SCM and a statement that clarified its scope and boundaries. CSCMP defines SCM thus (see www.cscmp.org): “Supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities.” Importantly, SCM also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, SCM integrates supply and demand management within and across companies worldwide. Today, while some researchers continue with the pursuit of a definitional consensus, others have followed a shift in SCM research emphasis to developing management models to guide SCM implementation globally.

This managerial SCM global evolution has fundamentally altered the scholarly landscape addressing the related fields of logistics and SCM, and globalization, and created a need for introducing these interdisciplinary business areas as a part of academic curriculum in universities worldwide.

This chapter presents a case study focusing on the challenges faced by College of Business Administration (COBA) at a HBCU located in the state of Georgia, USA, in an attempt to innovate the logistics and SCM program and internationalize its business curriculum by introducing a new “Major” and “Minor” in G-LIB for the undergraduate business students. This chapter addresses the following research questions:

Is there a need for internationalization of the curriculum at the business school under study? What benefits will this HBCU have by integrating the local industries with the internationalized logistics and SCM curriculum developed?

What are the organizational challenges faced due to the introduction of the G-LIB program?

What are the challenges and benefits of having collaborations with international companies and universities?

Literature review

Curriculum internationalization is a multidimensional concept, which could be defined and approached in several ways. There is a substantial literature on curriculum internationalization in schools of business. Some researches focus on the various dimensions of curriculum internationalization (Crosling and Martin, 2005; Crowther et al., 2000; Edwards et al., 2003; Whalley, 1997), some focus on external variables that influence its adoption (Beamish and Calof, 1989; Elahee and Norbis, 2009; Green, 2002; Parker and Heriot, 2009; Toyne, 1992), and many believe that curriculum should be internationalized by different business disciplines such as Economics (Fuess, 2001; Kedia et al., 2001), Management (Rezaee et al., 1997), Accounting (Rezaee et al., 1997), Business law (Murray, 2001; Roorda, 1993; Sanchez, 1997), Marketing (Tyagi, 2001), and quantitative methods/statistics (Krehbiel and McClure, 1993).

Some scholars give specific guidance for curriculum internationalization. For example, Self and Self (2009) suggest that taking 10 to 15 students and spending 7 to 10 days in a country will be a good way for business schools to meet accreditation standards and internationalize their curriculum meanwhile.

G-LIB program as an academic goal for curriculum internationalization

Many global manufacturers and supply chain partners on both upstream and downstream side of the supply chain have embraced SCM to improve product development, product/service quality, and results in eliminating waste leading to effective, strategic, and sustainable competitive advantage. Recognizing the importance of global supply chain consistency for overall corporate performance, firms have started to pay attention to the effect of functional level supply chain capabilities on the corporate performance and have attempted to reflect this effect while formulating the corporate level global supply chain strategy (Klassen and McLaughlin 1996). Similarly, the customers, end-users, and business partners (distributors, dealers, retailers, etc.) from downstream side of the global supply chain contribute in the product design and product solutions and effective global supply chain management strategies. We feel that the supply chain partners on both upstream and downstream side of the supply chain should be referred to as “design partners,” “collaborators,” “integrators,” “innovators,” and “transformers” to the entire supply chain process and experience.

Global Supply chain strategy must be internally consistent with other functional and corporate strategies and externally with suppliers’ capabilities. Limited attention is given to successfully integrate global supply chain management processes, designing and managing global supply chains, empirically testing these international supply chain models, and the performance expectations of successful global SCM program implementations (Lambert et al. 1998). Figure 1.1 (Ayers, 1999) illustrates the relationship of the SCM tasks. Supply chain design begins with strategy, so it is at the center of the figure. The remaining tasks, including the collaboration, partnerships, and management and development of information, need to align with these strategies.

While the alignment of the five SCM tasks (as shown in Figure 1.1) need to be implemented globally for a successful SCM experience, these concepts are worth understanding from an academic viewpoint as well. The students of today are the “global leaders” of tomorrow and sooner they understand these nitty-gritties of international business, the better they are prepared for the future.

Figure 1.1 Supply Chain Management tasks

Source: Ayers, 1999.

Academically, studying global logistics and international business is rewarding as it provides an added dimension of understanding logistics and SCM from an international perspective. In addition, organizational issues in implementing curriculum internationalization scholars have attracted a lot of researchers (Cavusgil, 1991; LeBlanc, 2007; Palmer, 2006; Scherer et al., 2000; Trevino and Melton, 2002). Some researchers attempt to develop models and typologies of the curriculum internationalization process (Edwards et al., 2003; Kwok et al., 1994; Whalley, 1997). Carnall (1997) identifies three conditions for effective change: awareness, capability, and inclusion. Three requirements for change identified by Dirks et al. (1996) are self-initiated, evolutionary, and additive. Edwards et al. (2003) states three levels of internationalization: international awareness, international competenc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  The Global Logistics and International Business 2.0 Curriculum Internationalization Experience
• 2  Crisis Management Challenges in a Socially Networked World: BPs Response to the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
• 3  The SHARP Conceptual Framework for Young African-American Adults...What Is Cool?
• 4  Exotic, Erogenous, Erotica: Veiled Signs of Advertising Erotica for Luxury Brands
• 5  How American Are All-American Brands? A Case of Gap, Inc. as Made in America Brand
• 6  US Securities and Exchange Commission Charges Thornburg Mortgage, Inc. for Fraudulent Accounting
• 7  Drops in the Glass: The Influence of Alcohol Advertising on Young Adults
• Index