Recently there has been an explosive growth of interest in Latin American markets, above and beyond Mexico. Over the years, business executives and academics from the industrialized world seldom paid serious attention to South America for its market potential. The ratification in 1994 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among the United States, Canada, and Mexico awakened them to look to the south of the US border. Then exactly one year later, on January 1, 1995, MERCOSUR (Mercado Com??n del Sur) went into effect among the four countries in the Southern Cone region of South America - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Subsequently, in June 1996, Chile and Bolivia agreed to join MERCOSUR, extending the frontiers of the South American trading bloc. Chile's participation took effect on October 1 1996, and Bolivia's formal association with MERCOSUR began on January 1, 1997. Indeed, MERCOSUR's goal is to incorporate all South American countries by 2005 before linking up with NAFTA.
This book offers in-depth analysis of trade and liberalization movements in Latin America, examines managerial issues related to collaborating with Latin American companies, and explores macro- and micro-financial implications of investing in Latin American countries.

This textbook provides students with comprehensive insights on the classical and contemporary marketing theories and their practical implications. A fourth, revised edition of Marketing Management, the text features new classical and contemporary cases, new interdisciplinary and cross-functional implications of business management theories, contemporary marketing management principles and. futuristic application of marketing management theories and concepts. The core and complex issues are presented in a simplified manner providing students with a stimulating learning experience that enables critical thinking, understanding and future application. Each chapter features a chapter summary, key terms, review and discussion questions and a practice quiz. Throughout the text there are also specific teaching features to provide students and instructors with an enhanced pedagogical experience. These features include: The Manager's Corner: These sections provide real-world examples that instructors may highlight to exemplify theory or as mini-cases for discussion. Marketing in Action: These sections ask students to apply concepts and theories to actual business situations. Web Exercises: These mini sections provide students with real world issues and suggest websites for more information. In addition, the authors provide ancillary lecture notes and Solution/Instructors manual online to aid instructors in their teaching activities.

Global Supply Chain Management brings together in two authoritative volumes the best and most interesting academic work on global supply chain management from international business and international management, marketing, strategic management, operations management, purchasing and supply management, and economics. It includes the various theories, levels of analysis, concepts, and empirical trends that have come to shape our understanding of this recently emerged area of research. The questions it answers include 'In what way do buyer-supplier relations differ across countries', 'What are the consequences of offshore sourcing for firms, industries, and countries', 'How should firms manage cultural differences between themselves and their suppliers', and 'How can firms use global SCM to improve their performance'. This book will be an invaluable resource to any academic researcher or student with an interest in global SCM, but is also accessible enough and useful for practitioners who deal with this topic at a strategic or tactical level.

This unique book explores the complex issue of how successful multinational firms manage interfaces of R&D, manufacturing, and marketing on a global basis, emphasizing the linkages among them in the value chain. The author calls this interface issue global sourcing. The major objective of the book is to investigate the market performance of various global sourcing strategies employed by multinational firms. In particular, successful Japanese cases are scrutinized to better understand the nature of global competition being shaped by Japanese firms. Based on his extensive theoretical and empirical research, the author provides practical and normative guidelines for managing new product design and development, manufacturing, and marketing around the world. These include proactive product standardization, emphasis on both product and manufacturing process innovations, integrated procurement of major components, and marketing on a global basis.

The book is divided into two parts. Part I investigates European and Japanese multinational firms' sourcing strategies and related management issues that facilitate development of their sourcing strategies. Part II examines whether practical and normative implications gleaned from the experiences of European and Japanese firms equally apply to successful U.S. multinational firms. Although the European and Japanese data and the U.S. data are not directly comparable, similar findings warrant generalilzability of the performance implications of various sourcing strategies. Finally, based on research findings, the author offers long-term implications for emerging issues, including the role of product design as a competitive weapon and emerging strategic alliances for new product development on a global basis.

The U.S.-Japan bilateral trade relationship is perhaps the most consequential and the most tumultuous in the world. Government and business leaders devote substantial time and effort to resolving the stream of disputes that arise between the two allies and trading partners. Many of the issues are rooted in the perception that Japan's impressive economic success may be due in some degree to anticompetitive practices through which Japan's domestic markets are protected, and that an unfair advantage is granted to Japanese companies as they expand abroad. Regardless of the validity of these opinions, their existence exerts a negative influence upon this important bilateral relationship.

Top scholars in the field of international business (IB) contribute to this comprehensive analysis of the current state-of-the-art in IB research. The focus of the book is to examine the current state of international business research from an issue-oriented approach rather than the functional approaches that have been characteristic in the recent evolution of the field. In evaluating the current state and future research directions in research areas unique to international business, the book is structured in three parts: the macro-environment, interactions between business and institutions, and competition and strategy. The thirteen chapters in the book deal with specific topics (including regional integration, cultural and financial globalization, intellectual property protection, firm relations with various governments and multilateral agencies, business groups, international acquisitions and alliances, and the impact of the internet on international business) and provide descriptive and theoretical approaches to the understanding of contemporary and potential future issues in international business research. Scholars, students and policymakers interested in international business issues will find this collection a unique and useful tool in their work.

The context of international business has evolved over the years, and has always reflected the climate of the time. This book addresses three major changes that have taken place in the last decade in a series of articles compiled by the authors.

Over the past two decades; the nature of international marketing has faced huge change. Increasingly challenged with the unprecedented emergence of globally integrated, yet geographically scattered activities multinational marketing has had to respond accordingly. The SAGE Handbook of International Marketing brings together the fundamental questions and themes that have surfaced and promises to be an essential addition to the study of this critical subject area. In an internationally minded and detailed analysis, the contributors seek to examine the state of the art in research in international marketing, with particular emphasis on the conceptual framework and theory development in the field. Looking at new research, formative and fundamental literature and the nature of strategic alliance and global strategy, this timely and comprehensive handbook offers the reader a compelling examination of the central concerns of marketing for an international community.