Oppel (as cited in Torres, 2009) argues that global business in the future will require leaders, and managers, to be like explorers, guiding their organizations through unfamiliar and turbulent environments. With markets, suppliers, competitors, technology and customers around the world constantly shifting, traditional leadership models no longer work. In their book titled, Global Explorers, Hal B. Gregerson, Allen J. Morrison & J. Stewart Black (as cited in Torres, 2009) argue that global leaders, and managers, will need to be proficient with languages and have knowledge of multiple cultures and experiences in other countries. “They must also have multidisciplinary perspectives, which are essential for problem solving in complex and changing environments. They must transcend the old ways of transactional relationships and seek more enduring, sustainable and transformational relationships. Leaders must empower their employees and seek to facilitate the employee’s development interests” (Oppel, as cited in Torres, 2009).
As the world becomes more economically global, leaders, and managers, must be more culturally diverse-oriented in avoiding ethnocentrism and self-reference criteria approaches and in understanding cross-cultural behaviors and motivations in mobilizing the support of all employees, regardless of geographical and cultural differences. This is a basic requirement for developing effective global organizations.
To this end, Strategy is probably the most basic and the most advanced discipline in management. The basic purpose of strategy is to make a series of moves designed to achieve sustained competitive advantage, which consists of superior performance in comparison to competitors over extended periods of time. Therefore, the fundamental principles of international business strategy should be regularly reconsidered by managers at the highest levels and understood by individuals just starting their business careers.
Required Reading:
Please refer to each Activity for required readings within Activity Resources.
Assignment 5 International Strategic Alliances Griffin and Pustay (2010) argue that cooperation between MNCs can take on many different forms, such as cross-licensing of proprietary products, sharing of manufacturing facilities, co-funding of research projects, and marketing of each other’s products using existing distribution networks. These forms of cooperation are collectively called strategic alliances, or business arrangements.
Activity Resources:
Review of Dess, G. G., Lumpkin, G.T., & Eisner, A. B. (2010). Chapter 7
Review of Griffin, R. W., & Pustay, M. W. (2010). Chapter 13
Liu, W. (2009)
Luo, Y. (2008)
Ulset, S. (2008)
Main Task Part 1: Describe Key Points of International Strategic Alliances
The goal of this discussion is for you to summarize your thoughts on international strategic alliances, review ones that are successful and alliances that were or are not successful. Being able to successfully describe effects alliances will be beneficially in understanding what can be done to avoid the situation in the future. This discussion will be open-ended to afford you the opportunity to interact with your course instructor and possibly other students.
Length: Content post 150-200 words; response post 75-100 words.
Both your content post and your response post should reflect a collegial attitude, be free of grammar and spelling errors, and include criteria mentioned above.
Post the response for Part 1 into the Activity Discussion Forum area below the Activity screen.
Main Task Part 2: Analyze and Evaluate the Impact and Effectiveness of utilizing international Strategic Alliances in Global Business
For this assignment, please respond to the following discussion questions: What are the basic differences between a joint venture and other types of strategic alliances? Could a firm conceivably take too many strategic alliances at one time? Why or why not? And what are the three basic ways of managing a strategic alliance?
Support your paper with a minimum of five (5) external resources In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including older articles, may be included.
Length: 5-7 pages not including title and reference pages
Your paper should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to University’s Academic Integrity Policy.