Finding ways to alleviate global poverty poses a major challenge for political leaders and intellectuals worldwide. The contributors to this volume, top scholars of international business, examine the effects of globalization on the developing world and address ways in which multinational corporations (MNCs) can play a positive role in the fight against poverty.The essays illustrate how, by creating new business models, multinational enterprises are best equipped to relieve global poverty. By making investments among the poor - in pursuit of profit and shareholder wealth rather than as charity - the economic activity generated by investments would go a long way towards reducing poverty. The contributors show how following this strategy would lead to today's poor becoming part of the economy and emerging as visible customers for MNCs. They address the many facets of this plan in chapters on: MNCs and host environment and policies, strategies and their impact, governments and civil society, international business models, and global institutions and social responsibility. This unique solution to poverty reduction will be of great interest to scholars of international relations and business, international corporate managers and executives, government officials, and NGO executives dealing with global matters.

The world of multinational enterprises is changing dramatically. Their complex and dynamic international context presents them with special challenges - threatening their survival on one hand, and presenting them with unprecedented opportunities on the other. In this volume, international experts analyze different aspects of the transformations in global governance: ideological variations, trade governance, competition policy and the rise of civil society. They discuss the implications for multinational-government relations, multinationals' self-governance, relations with NGOs and issues of competitiveness. The book focuses on two forces integral to the process of globalization. The first is the evolution of inter-governmental organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, and various agreements pertaining to trade, environment, labor, competition and investment. The other equally important factor is the rise of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which have a significant impact on the strategies of multinational enterprises, governments and inter-governmental organizations. The contributors explore these forces in chapters detailing shifts in governance and their implications for multinationals, governments and society in general. This cohesive examination of an under-analyzed area will appeal to students and scholars of international business, and other researchers in management schools, think tanks, management consulting companies, government agencies, inter-governmental organizations, and NGOs.

The frequency and scale of damage inflicted by climate-related disasters, including floods, drought, heat waves and hurricanes, has been increasing at an alarming rate. This volume provides a timely and thoughtful discussion of strategies for adaptation to climate change, which can complement mitigation strategies being developed by other experts throughout the world.The book focuses on eight geographically diverse territories in Asia, which are among the areas that will experience the most severe impacts of climate change and are the most vulnerable in terms of capacity to cope with the damage. The authors discuss adaptation strategies to safeguard food and water supplies, address urban problems, support migrant workers, protect coastal cities and preserve biodiversity. They also offer a critical analysis of plans that have proven successful to explore what additional steps can be taken to address the gaps. The collection of observations and recommendations in this book will prove invaluable to policy makers in countries that are facing similar threats and looking to build their adaptive capacity to cope with climate change. It will also appeal to academics interested in environmental ecology, sustainable development, global climate change and Asian studies. Contributors include: M. Billah, N. Chhinh, S. Jamil, H.-J. Jung, C. Kim, K.-H. Kim, J.I. Lewis, J. Lin, T. Siddiqui, B. Singh Karky, J. Usmani, S. Vachani