Introduction to the book

Introduction: The Fundamentals of Global Business softcover paper version of the book is available in Amazon, bookstores and libraries. E-book is available for free here. The free version on the Book is sponsored by Smart Continent Management Institute.

This book is intended for the global academic community – university students and professors and lecturers who are making enormous efforts to educate next generation and to make as many people as possible competitive in the global business environment. The book is not limited to university societies, it is a great way for those working in international companies to look at the structure of global business as a phenomenon and find applications in their field. The book is indispensable for young enthusiasts who intend to establish or have established their own business and seek to compete with international companies. The book reveals step-by-step the tools of a multinational company advancement and power that have been used for four hundred years since the establishment of the first multinational organization in the early 17th century.

Since the variety of business forms in the world is very large, the term organization is used in the book that replaces such words as company, firm, corporation, enterprise. Brands of currently operating companies are also not mentioned in this book, as the author does not want to promote and advertise them to readers. Instead, references are made to specific industry leaders, sometimes mentioning organisation’s country of origin.

The World Bank estimates that the number of students in the world will reach 220 million in the third decade of the 21st century. In the two decades since 2000 this number has doubled in the world. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of students doubled just in the second decade of the 21st century. As the world transitions from an industrial to a knowledge economy, the number of students is likely to increase, which should increase human well-being and ensure world peace. As the number of students increases, the need for academic staff, infrastructure and available teaching materials inevitably increases.

For a long time, a university education has been inaccessible or unaffordable for everyone who wanted to acquire it. The experience of COVID-19 has taught humanity and encouraged the wider use of remote communication technologies. Virtual workplaces and virtual studies have become the new norm. Although this created great challenges, it also allowed humanity to exchange knowledge even faster and spread university education around the world wider.

This book is a way for students to have an accessible and affordable lecture series on global business. Also, the book is very convenient for teachers, as it provides an opportunity to use the material of the lecture year both in the classroom and virtually.

Fundamentals of Global Business is aimed at students of the first courses of business and economics studies. The book consists of four parts, which are divided into fourteen chapters. In the first part, the reader or listener of the book is introduced to the history of global business and international economics theories. In the second part, four main types of organizing global business are introduced and detailed to the reader – international trade and export-based development, international franchises and intellectual property-based business, vertical and horizontal alliances, and foreign investments. In the third part, the reader is introduced to the diversity of business environments – economic, political, legal, cultural differences between countries, differences in labour relations, negotiations, communication. The fourth part presents the diverse aspects of global business physical distribution and procurement operations, international logistics, technical features and standards of international transportation of raw materials, components and goods, which are very significant for gaining competitive advantage and business efficiency in international competition.

Every individual, born and raised in a certain environment, looks at the world through the environment, attitudes, and value systems of that country. Very often, a person who gets to another country or another continent notices that there everything is different from what he is used to. What was considered the norm becomes unusual, and what was unusual becomes normal. The purpose of the book is to show diversity from a bird’s eye view and prepare the student to understand diversity and be able to adapt. The book presents differences by looking at them as a phenomenon, but without moralizing or judging one or another culture or point of view.

The book is very useful for students of economics and business and other specialties. For economics and business students, this book is a systematic introduction to business studies that makes sense in the first or second year of undergraduate studies. Later, specific disciplines – economics, management, marketing, logistics – can be deepened in subsequent courses, learning from books and professors of a narrow specialty. The book is also highly recommended for non-business and non-economics students. In the knowledge economy, it is important not only to teach a person about chemistry, pharmacy, engineering, physics, etc., but also to understand how that knowledge can be applied in business around the world. The author strongly recommends that the global business course must be included in as many study programs as possible outside of economics and business, as it is a necessary to understand that how the business world is structured and what the challenges and differences of global business are.

Most business books, especially academic ones, are written by representatives of the English cultural cluster, professors from the UK or the USA. Their contribution to the sciences of management and economics is enormous and it is very important to appreciate it. However, this book is written by a non-English cultural cluster author, it looks at the principles of business organization in all cultural clusters and different countries as a phenomenon, unrelated to the eyes of the observer, in order not to divide into right and wrong, developed and developing. The author acknowledges that the world is dominated by international organizations, the majority of which originated from the USA, the United Kingdom, as well as from Germany, the Netherlands, France, and other rich Western European countries significantly. However, the active development of companies in Asian countries and the competitive challenge, the business potential and economic ambition of South America, Africa, Eastern and Central Europe and other parts of the world make the world a more level competitive playing field for various industries. The second decade of the 21st century has ended, and the third has begun with significant geopolitical changes and a reset of world power relations, and the established world order after the World War II begins to tremble. So, this book is an excellent way to introduce the reader to the world of global business in a new way to achieve peace and economic prosperity for the people of the world, regardless of how simplistic or idealistic it may appear.

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