International business fundamentals and global operations

International Business

Discuss the primary advantages and disadvantages of globalization. Do you believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? How can the effects of the disadvantages of globalization be reduced?

The advantages of globalization include the ability of free trade to offer a greater diversity of goods and services to consumers, to foster greater competition between enterprises, to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between nations, encourage greater cultural tolerance, and stimulate investment in less developed nations. Its disadvantages include the exploitation of the developing world and the homogenization of local culture because of Western, popular culture's great power. One way to reduce the disadvantages of globalization is for corporations from the developing world to use local workers for higher-level positions, train them, and invest in the nations where they are manufacturing and selling their goods. This will encourage local, national businessmen and women familiar with the culture to learn from the technology and methods of production of other nations and to flourish.

Describe the three broad types of economic systems and explain their significance today.

Capitalism, communism, and socialism are the three main economic systems that dominated the past century. Most nations today are 'combined' systems, in that they balance government intervention in the economy and worker's lives with free market enterprise. Few 'pure' capitalistic or communist systems exist today. Most regions of the world are breaking down barriers to free trade, as exemplified in the example of the European Community or European Union (EU), but they still have methods of protecting workers against the excesses of capitalism, such as giving workers unemployment insurance and by providing healthcare for citizens. Also, the collapse of the world credit market has motivated many nations to regulate and even nationalize aspects of the private banking system.

Describe the concept of social mobility and the extremes in terms of a society that has low social mobility and a society that has high social mobility. Would you rather live in a society with a high level or a low level of social mobility? Why?

I would rather live in a world characterized by high levels of social mobility. Pursuing one's dreams, even if they are different than one's parents, and enjoying greater educational opportunities than the previous generation is only possible if there are high levels of social mobility. If a person wishes to become a lawyer, rather than a farmer like his father, or if a person wants to move far away from his hometown and to start anew in a new city -- these dreams are only possible in societies with high degrees of social mobility. Social mobility allows for individual choice and creative thinking.

Free trade occurs when a government does not attempt to influence through quotas or duties what its citizens can buy from another country or what they can produce and sell to another country. Present and describe a current example.

An excellent example of unfettered free trade may be found in the current example of the European Community, where goods and services may pass unrestricted through borders. Free trade has been greatly beneficial to consumers and producers within the EU. The EU has become one of the most powerful economic entities in the world community. Consumers have a wide array of choices of the best possible goods and services from all EU nations at competitive prices in the tariff-free, quota-free environment.

Who gains and who losses from the imposition of a tariff on an imported goods? How can it be determined whether the net gain from the tariff exceeds the net loss?