BA 590: Organizations, Markets and Institutions

Prof. Ruth Aguilera, Spring 2010

This course seeks to get an overview of research in international business with particular emphasis on comparative research.  We will be reading books, most of them former dissertations, which tackle different research questions, and are set up in different institutional contexts and industries.  We will pay special attention to the theoretical underpinnings framing the research as well as the research design and empirical testing of the theoretical framework.

Course work:

Ten weekly critical book reviews (600-900 words)                                        30%

Class participation                                                                                      50%

(includes responsibility for leading class discussions in teams of two)

Final 5-7 page research grant (imagine you want to ask for $17,000)               20%

Course Materials:

All books are placed in reserve at the Commerce Library and there are multiple copies in the I-Share library system.

Most of the books in the reading list are available for free at: http://books.google.com

BACKGROUND READING (over winter break):

Becker, H. S. (2007). Writing for Social Scientists. How to Start and Finish your Thesis, Book, or Article. Chicago, Chicago University Press.

Daft, R. L. 1995. “Why I Recommend that your manuscript be rejected and what you can do about it.” In L.L. Cummings and P. J. Frost. Publishing in the Organizational Sciences.

Bacharach, Samuel B. 1989. "Organizational Theories: Some Criteria for Evaluation." Academy of Management Review.

Stinchcombe, A. L.(1968). Constructing Social Theories. Chicago University Press. Chapters. 1-2.

SKIM: The JIBS 40/AIB50 Anniversary Issue: Innovations in International Business Theory.

Vol. 40, 9, December 2009.

To be handed in class:

Stinchcombe, A. 1986. On getting ‘hang-up’ and other assorted illnesses. In Stratification and Organization. Cambridge University Press.

READING LIST:

Jan 20

Introduction to Organizations and Markets

Davis , Gerald. 2009. Managed by the Markets. How Finance Reshaped America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jan 27

Managing the Multinational Firm

Kristensen, Peer Hull and Jonathan Zeitlin. 2005. Local Players in Global Games. The Strategic Constitution of a Multinational Corporation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Please try to attend the talk by Andrew Moravcsik, Department of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University.

Why is Europe, not China or India, the Second Superpower of the 21st Century?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010; 4:00pm

Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum; 600 S. Gregory Street, Urbana

Feb 3

Foreign Direct Investment, Social Construction and Embeddedness

Bandelj, Nina. 2008. From Communists to Foreign Capitalists. The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Post-Socialist Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Feb 10

Global Value-Chain, Labor, Technology (political science)

Berger, S. 2005. How We Compete. What Companies Around the World Are Doing to Make it in Today’s Global Economy.

Feb 17

Governments and Foreign Direct Investment (political science)

Jensen, Nathan. 2006. Nation-States and the Multinational Corporation. A Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment. 

Feb 24

State Intervention, Deregulation, Oligopolistic Competition, Internationalization

Guillén, Mauro. 2005. The Rise of Spanish Multinationals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

March 3

Comparative Legal and Institutional Analysis (legal studies)

Milhaupt, Curtis and Pistor, Katharina. 2008. Law and Capitalism. What Corporate Crises Reveal about Legal Systems and Economic Development around the World.

March 10

Japan, Financial Crises Recovery and Reforms

Vogel, Steven K. 2006. Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry Are Reforming Japanese Capitalism.

March 17

Finance and Markets

MacKenzie, Donald. 2008. An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets.

********* SPRING BREAK *********

March 31

Business groups, Networks (Korea/Taiwan) [split in two groups]

Feenestra and Hamilton. 2006. Emergent Economies, Divergent Paths. Economic organization and International Trade in South Korea and Taiwan.

            Part I. business groups and economic organization

            [Part II. Emergence and divergence of the economies]

April 7

Innovation, Information Technology and State Policy

Breznitz, Dan. 2007. Innovation and the State: Political Choice and Strategies for Growth in Israel, Taiwan, and Ireland.

April 14

Birth and Spread of Industries and Globalization

(Guest Speaker: Prof. Andrew Orta, Dept. of Anthropology)

William Mazzarella. 2003. Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India.

April 21

Politics and Institutions

Gourevitch, P. A. and Shinn, J. 2005 Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

April 28

Grand Concluding Session on Organizations, Markets and Institutions

(Guest Speaker: Prof. Jerry Davis, University of Michigan)

9am in BIF 4001 (subject to change)

Davis , Gerald. 2009. Managed by the Markets. How Finance Reshaped America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

May 5

Wrap up and Presentation of research grant proposal

The END!

OTHER USEFUL REFERENCES IN INTERNATIOANL BUSINESS (not required):

Rugman, Alan and Brewer (eds.), The Oxford handbook of International Business. Oxford University Press.

Dunning, John H. and Sarianna M. Lundan. 2008 (2^nd edition). Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy.

Morgan, Glenn and John Campbell. Forthcoming in March 2010. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Institutional Analysis.

Campbell, John. 2004. Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

North, W. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.