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Thunderbird School of Global Management

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Thunderbird School of Global Management 1 Global Place
Glendale, AZ, 85306
United States
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Demographic Information

Number of full-time MBA students (2011): 

244

Number of part-time MBA students (2011): 

0

Total duration of full-time MBA program: 

16 months

MBA faculty (Fall 2010): 

63

Females as percent of student body: 

30%
Who Are the Students? See what percentage of the 2010-2011 graduating class came to this MBA program from the private sector, the non-profit sector and government jobs
 
Private Sector (80%)
 
Non-profit (14%)
 
Government (6%)


Description of MBA Program: 

Thunderbird’s commitment to preparing MBA students to manage social and environmental issues begins with our mission statement – “We educate global leaders who create sustainable prosperity worldwide.” Through our educational programs, we train talented business managers who also understand the social and environmental impact of their decisions.



How does the MBA program 'walk the talk' of social and environmental impact?: 

Thunderbird felt compelled early on to respond to these calls from UNGC signatories and, therefore, became part of the process of both developing and ultimately implementing the PRME. Thunderbird began a broad consultative process that included faculty, administrators, alumni and students around an internal dialogue that asked: How would we approach management education if we consider management to be a true and honorable profession like medicine or law?

 

This reality lead Thunderbird to develop its own Professional Oath of Honor in 2006, drafted by the student-led Thunderbird Honor Council.

 

For Thunderbird this higher goal has been framed as creating sustainable prosperity worldwide or prosperity that can be shared intragenerationally and intergenerationally.

Academic Department

Course Name: Bus Intelligence/Corp Security
Instructor: Dr. Paul Kinsinger

This seminar will focus on the role that business intelligence—defined in this class as the systematic collection, synthesization, and analysis of actionable information on a company’s external operating environment—can play in strengthening corporate decision-making by illuminating the playing field; how to deal with the ethical issues regarding business intelligence practices. Along the way, you should develop a keener understanding of, and appreciation for, your own executive decision-making process, including your ability to assimilate outside expertise and your innate information and style biases. This, in turn, should help you address your own decision-making "blindspots."

Course Name: Business Environment of Kenya
Instructor: Olufemi Babarinde

Students learn about the Kenyan business environment in the broad contexts of the Southern African sub-region, the African continentand the global economy to the extent that some of the seminar participants are interested Global Development as a career path, understand the challenges and complexities of sustainable "development" in a classic semi-periphery economy/society, and how to tackle them.

Participants will learn some of the challenges that managers, expatriates, firms, consultants, and organizations routinely face in the rapidly evolving and complex South African emerging market.

Course Name: Communication and Negotiations
Instructor: Dr. Dennis Leclerc, Dr. Karen Walch

The course provides students with knowledge, skills, insights, and experience necessary to be a communicatively competent international manager and negotiator. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to understand theories of cross-cultural negotiation and how these impact business interactions as well as gain insight into personal and cultural "baggage" that influences your cognitive, affective, and negotiation behavioral processes. Students are also able to expand skills in achieving communication and negotiating competence through the understanding and practice of increased appropriateness, flexibility, and adaptability.

Course Name: Competing through People
Instructor: Dr. Caren Siehl, Dr. Amanda Bullough, Dr. Anthony DiBella

This course explores the mix of organizational practices and people that can be the basis of sustainable competitive advantage in the contemporary global business environment. Topics covered include cross-cultural issues in managing people; traditional and emerging models of organizations; organizational culture; leadership; employee skills and motivation; reward systems; change management and value-based leadership.

Course Name: Conflict Mgmt & Social Change
Instructor: Dr. Eileen Borris, Dr. Karen Walch

The course will provide students with knowledge, skills, theoretical insights, and frameworks necessary to understand and practice conflict management in business, nongovernmental, and public sector environments.

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Understand theories of the conflict management field, how these frameworks impact conflict resolution interactions and how they influence on each other.

2. Gain insight into the cognitive and psychological elements concerning the roots of conflict and how to plan for and implement conflict resolution strategies

3. Expand skills in mediation and methods of facilitation and problem solving skills

CSR-10%

Stakeholder Mgmt-30%

Sustainable Dev't-10%

Systems thnk-10%

Diversity mgmt-20%

Course Name: Corporate Financial Reporting
Instructor: Dr. Graeme Rankine

This course is designed to provide an introduction to a number of new topics in financial accounting. In addition, readings in this course are intended to introduce the student to a range of financial reporting issues and resources well beyond the introductory level.

The focus of the course will be on corporate financial reports as communication devices

for the financial public, and as an integral part of corporate strategy . It will address

choice of methods and measures, presentation, and disclosures to effect corporate

strategies, while sharpening the skills of the student in interpreting these communications. Besides, the course covers the topic of the process of collecting and presenting information - about environmental, social and economic costs and benefits/advantages – for each proposed alternative when a decision is necessary.

Course Name: Corporate Social Responsibility
Instructor: Dr Greg Unruh

The late 1990s were a turning point in the management of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. A spate of events, especially in 1995, set the tone for future societal demands on business. Royal Dutch Shell, seen for nearly a decade as the best managed company in the world, stumbled horribly in its management of environmental and societal concerns. Shell’s attempt to sink the Brent Spar, an oil storage platform, in the North Sea fostered outrage and boycotts in Europe. In the same year, Shell found itself mired in conflict with the Ogoni Peoples of Nigeria, which lead to broad civil society criticism and condemnation. By insider accounts these combined environmental and social challenges left Shell management and employees traumatized. They also forced Shell’s senior executives to reevaluate the company’s approach to the management of societal and environmental concerns.

Shell’s 1995 troubles were an iconic parable for managers across industries. Most business executives had been trained to focus single mindedly on the creation of profit and shareholder value. However, civil society is increasingly demanding a broader social role for business. While mangers of existing firms struggled with these new demands, other companies were experimenting with an expanded vision of business as an agent of positive social change. 1995 is also remembered for the pioneering release of The Body Shop’s first Values Report, which publicly set forth a series of non-financial goals for the company. Under the colorful leadership of Anita Roderick a new breed of company was emerging that sought to put ethics and corporate social responsibility alongside profit maximization at the core of the business mission.

This course intends to provide the knowledge of CSR issues as well as the strategies and tactics leading companies are using to manage their responsibilities to stakeholders around the world.

Students completing CSR Strategy and Tools will:

- Analyze the emerging role of business in addressing global social and sustainability challenges.

- Evaluate the changing demands of society on managers and corporations and the associated risks and opportunities.

- Assess current and cutting edge business strategies for squaring social, environmental and ethical responsibilities with competitive demands.

Course Name: Country Risk Management
Instructor: Wetzel, Linda

Global managers must be concerned with the risks to their businesses posed by political, social, and financial forces at work internationally and in specific regions and countries. The triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational success. This course is centered around state-of-the-art assessment models used by businesses and foreign investors. Issues include methods of measuring and forecasting risk; and methods of mitigating risk such as political risk insurance.

This seminar introduces participants to the concept of country risk as it affects foreign businesses and investors, and develops participants' abilities to identify, analyze, and design management strategies for such risk. A key take-away is familiarity with and hand's-on practice in applying models of risk assessment – a marketable credential in an increasingly globalized and risk-laden international business arena.

Course Name: Cross Cultural Communication
Instructor: Dr. Denis Leclerc, Dr. Eileen Borris, Dr. Mansour Javidan

This course presents, in a dynamic and interactive format, a framework of models and skills for communication performance in competitive global business settings. This course assists students in implementing strategies for mastering interpersonal encounters, including conflict resolution, in multicultural environments. This course not only examines theories of communication, but places students in experiential situations in which they develop valuable skills for global management. Through use of cases, self-assessment questionnaires, multicultural team exercises and simulations, this course equips the global manager with the ability to solve problems and take advantage of opportunities in a multi-cultural world.

CSR-5%

stakeholder mgmt-30%

sustainable devt-10%

systems thinking-10%

diversity mgmt-35%

VBL-10%

Course Name: Doing Business in Panama
Instructor: Dr Dennis Corrigan

Doing business-Ocean to Ocean-in Panama is interactive, designed to give you a non-stop comprehensive, integrated view of environment for Panamanian investment and business opportunities, while broadening your overall management perspective. Activities, tours and visits are all designed for Experiential Learning or Adventure Travel Experience-allowing and encouraging active participation; experience beyond the classroom in order to acquire practical business Know-How and understanding and appreciation of cross-cultural nuances.

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Type of Offering

Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women training program
Type: Annual Event
Date: January, 2011

This program is part of the larger '10,000 Women' initiative sponsored by Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs Charitable Fund that supports partnerships between business education programs in the United States and Europe, and business schools in emerging economies.

The curriculum for the business training program was developed by faculty at Thunderbird, ranked as the number one school in international management, in collaboration with faculty at AUAF in Afghanistan. It includes basic business training in entrepreneurship, marketing, management, accounting and finance, networking, and strategic planning. Thunderbird also works closely with the AUAF to increase capacity at the University.

In addition to training in business and management, the women are given access to a resource center on AUAF's campus, where there are computers, books and meeting space available for their use during the course, and after they have completed the training. Women also have access to mentors, opportunities for internships and networking events. As a result of this training, participants gain higher levels of financial self-sustainability and are able to further contribute to the development of the Afghan economy.

Thunderbird Oath of Honor
Type: Event
Date: January, 2011

The Thunderbird Oath of Honor is believed to be the first of its kind at a business school. Rooted in the School’s strong commitment to global citizenship, the Oath derives from the school’s belief that global managers must contribute to the creation of sustainable economic and social value.

Global management is an honorable profession that requires technical competence, professional skill and a non-negotiable commitment to ethical professional practice, he said. "The presence of the oath will help remind every member of our community that as professional global managers, we remain committed to a responsible exercise of our duties and to having a positive impact in our communities."

The oath was drafted by the student-run Thunderbird Honor Council after Cabrera challenged the students in 2004 to be the first business school to establish an oath that would guide them during their business careers. In June 2006, the Thunderbird Board of Trustees voted to formally assimilate the oath into the school’s overall educational experience by including it in the application process, the curriculum and at graduation, when students will be asked to sign it. Hundreds of students have voluntarily signed a version of the oath in the past few years. According to Dr. Greg Unruh, director of Thunderbird’s Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global Management, the oath guarantees that Thunderbird candidates are aware that enrolling at the School means agreeing to share the community’s core values. He said the oath also will help the School attract students who already have well-developed ethics.

While we believe in the value of ethical training at the graduate level, we also recognize that recruiting students with an already-developed sense of ethics will ensure that the community of Thunderbird graduates is of high integrity, Unruh said. "It is from this base that we can build a strong culture of ethics on campus and as global business professionals operating around the world." Having drawn the attention of the global educational and business community, the Thunderbird Professional Oath of Honor has been featured in numerous business publications and academic, business and government conferences including the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

President's Greening Initiative
Type: President Initiative
Date: January, 2011

This program monitors and implements the Annual President's Campus Greening Challenge, which include:

- water usage

- landscaping

- energy usage

- carbon report card

Solar Systems for Thunderbird
Type: Annual Event
Date: January, 2011

* Evaluate the feasibility of installing solar panels to generate carbon-free electricity

* Goal: as much electricity from solar source as possible (limited roofspace)

* End goal: complete independence from conventional power sources

Lighting Audit
Type: Greening initiative
Date: January, 2011

* Purpose: Identify areas while lighting upgrades can be made (e.g. occupancy sensors, dim lighting, etc)

* Develop a project plan to implement audit suggestions

Campus energy audit
Type: Annual Event
Date: January, 2011

* Perform energy audit/ Carbon Footprint analysis for T-bird campus

* Work with administration to get a 'full' audit that includes recommendations and/or change implementations

Business Partnership in Jordan
Type: Partnership Event
Date: January, 2011

These programs were focused on enhancing the capacity, functionality and sustainability of businesses in Jordan for the economic and social benefit of the country. Specifically, the programs were centered on the acceleration of established businesses, increasing entrepreneurial capacity among youth and women, and leadership training for managers and executives of small and medium enterprises. The four main components to the Jordan Partnership were: SEEDS, Maharat at Thunderbird, Jordan Internships, and Executive Training seminars in Amman.

Project Artemis
Type: Annual event
Date: May, 2011

We have run four Project Artemis programs for Afghan women, one for Jordanian women, and in May 2011, we will be running one for Pakistani women. Project Artemis is a unique business-skills training program that aims to build the entrepreneurial skills of promising businesswomen in developing countries. Included in the project are two weeks of business and entrepreneurial decision-making training; mentorship by women entrepreneurs; site visits to U.S. businesses; and follow up support and business coaching online. Our Thunderbird MBA's volunteer with the program doing everything from tutoring to business networking, to program management assistance.

Project Artemis helps educate the best and brightest of women. Fellows move forward with their individual accomplishments that make, not only a personal economic impact, but a contribution to the greater society, spurring other women to build businesses, and to learn English and business and computer skills. The impact of Project Artemis also spreads to a greater Afghan community: Business education leads to the establishment of stronger businesses, and strong businesses lead to economic growth, prosperity and peace.

Sustainability at the Commons
Type: Greening initiative
Date: January, 2011

* Decrease energy use

* Create incentives for students to use sustainable products

* Decrease waste production

Green Procurement at Thunderbird
Type: Annual Event
Date: January, 2011

* Research top products purchased by Thunderbird (office supplies & paper products)

* Present alternative/sustainable alternatives taking into consideration cost/quality

UPS shares 5 keys for global business
Date: April, 2010

Package delivery giant United Parcel Service has come a long way since David Abney arrived in 1974 as a part-time employee loading and unloading packages. At the time, the company was still struggling to reach all corners of the United States. Today, UPS has grown into a Fortune Global 150 company with 415,000 employees in about 200 countries and territories. Abney also has come a long way and now works as chief operating officer at UPS. He talked April 6 at Thunderbird about lessons learned along the way for creating sustainable prosperity through global trade.

Ambassador shares case study of Korean success
Date: September, 2009

The Honorable Kathleen Stephens, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, has witnessed a three-pronged transformation in the country since she first arrived as a Peace Corps worker in 1975. But the diplomat rejects the notion of a “Korean Miracle,” as the transformation is sometimes called. “It wasn’t a miracle,” she said Sept. 15 at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. “It was hard work, a lot of determination and good policy.” Stephens visited Thunderbird as part of a U.S. tour organized by the Korea Economic Institute in Washington.

Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs in Peru
Type: Partnership Events
Date: January, 2011

A project that offers training to women micro and small entrepreneurs throughout Peru. Managed by the Office of Thunderbird for Good, Thunderbird is collaborating with the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank Group (MIF/IDB), Goldman Sachs, Mibanco, Universidad del Pacifíco, and the Australian Government to bring business education and access to capital to thousands of women. The project has two components each targeting a distinct group of women microfinance clients.

Greenwatt Project
Type: Student Initiative
Date: January, 2011

Generating 100% of Thunderbird’s electrical energy consumption from clean, renewable sources within the next 10 years. A majority of this energy will be produced via on-campus photovoltaic solar panels.

- The GreenWatt project will bring public relations benefits to Thunderbird including: additional students, faculty, donors, corporate clients.

- Present value of this project using dividend calculations in perpetuity roughly $20 million. (This assumes approximately $1 million annual electrical bill with 5% annual growth rate in rates)

- Hedge against rising utility costs.

- On-going student involvement and education related to executing this project.

Clinton Global Initiative University Conference
Date: April, 2011

We had two students attend the Clinton Global Initiative University conference in 2010 and will have students attend the April 2011 conference as well. We have a commitment at the CGIU for a project where students travel to Peru to help advise Peruvian businesswomen.

The students who attended were involved in this commitment. The Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) was created to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world. CGI U hosts a meeting for students and national youth organizations to discuss solutions to pressing global issues. Each student creates a Commitment to Action, which is a specific plan of action that addresses a pressing challenge on their campus, in their community, or in a different part of the world.

Xerox Center
Type: Greening Initiative
Date: January, 2011

* Replace all copy paper with 100% recycled or high-yield paper

Opportunity International: Fighting poverty through power of business
Date: November, 2010

Opportunity International CEO Bill Morgenstern works in the social sector but believes in the power of business to make the world a better place. “Over the last 50 years, the only places where advancement has been made in reducing poverty have been in regions with sustained economic development through the infusion of capital,” Morgenstern said Nov. 10, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management. His organization uses a not-for-profit model to grow for-profit enterprises in developing countries through micro-loans, savings and insurance programs and training for more than two million people. “What we are doing is going to the bottom of the pyramid, providing capital and allowing an economic engine to get started,” he said. Participants must meet certain criteria before loans are handed out. “We don’t offer a handout,” he said. “It’s more of a hand up. We offer people an opportunity and some hope to help them make a difference in their own lives.”

Sustainability Activity
Type: Student Initiative
Date: January, 2011

* Make a 'business case' for sustainability to senior level administration --> commitment to sustainability efforts as part of T-bird's mission statement

* Create a mission/vision statement for Thunderbird's sustainability efforts

* Provide a 'common ideal' for all sustainability projects and for students to work towards

SEEDS mentorship inspires Jordanian businesswoman
Date: November, 2009

Jordanian interior designer Rima Qunsol came to Thunderbird Oct. 16 with dreams of launching her own furniture line in Amman. She left two weeks later with even bigger plans after meeting a U.S. mentor assigned to her through SEEDS, a business education and mentorship program for Jordanian women entrepreneurs. “My experience at Thunderbird for the last two weeks is something,” Qunsol said Oct. 29 after spending a day with her new mentor. “But the last 24 hours is something else. It’s been an eye opener in so many ways.”

Global Citizenship Events
Type: Annual Event
Date: January, 2011

The core pillar of the Thunderbird educational experience is an introduction to Global Citizenship, which occurs through a variety of extracurricular events. Events include Ethics Day and the Charles Olin Norton Lecture Series where featured speakers discuss issues of sustainability.

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Growing Green: Three Smart Paths to Developing Sustainable Products
Author(s): Ettenson, R; Unruh, G

Most companies know that they need to be greening their offerings--if not to gain advantage, then simply to keep up. In this article the authors offer a framework for embarking on the green-product development process, introducing three broad strategies that companies can use to align their green goals and capabilities. An "accentuate" strategy involves evaluating products in the company's current portfolio and playing up or extending latent or existing green attributes (as Arm and Hammer did when it repositioned its 150-year-old baking soda as "the #1 environmentally sensible alternative for cleaning and deodorizing"). An "acquire" strategy involves buying someone else's green brand--an approach used effectively by L'Oreal when it acquired The Body Shop, Unilever when it acquired Ben & Jerry's, and Colgate-Palmolive when it acquired Tom's of Maine. Finally, companies with innovation expertise can use an "architect" strategy, building green products from scratch, as Clorox did when it developed its celebrated Green Works line. Unruh and Ettenson offer case studies, outline benefits and hazards, and describe the optimal organizational and competitive circumstances for each strategy.

Journal Title: Harvard Business Review Volume: Edition: Page Numbers:
How toxic colleagues corrode performance
Author(s): Pearson, C

We’ve been studying incivility for a decade, and we’ve found that common (and generally tolerated) antisocial behavior at work is far more toxic than managers imagine. Berating bosses; employees who take credit for others’ work, assign blame, or spread rumors; and coworkers who exclude teammates from networks—all of these can cut a swath of destruction that’s often visible only to the immediate victims. Targets of bad behavior become angry, frustrated, and even vengeful. Job satisfaction falls, and performance plummets. Some employees leave. But those who stay may take a bigger toll on the organization. As a senior vice president of a Fortune 50 firm told us, “They can and do sit in the boat without pulling the oars...and that may be worse than leaving.”

Journal Title: Harvard Business Review Volume: Edition: Page Numbers:
Learning from Toys: Reflections on the 2007 Recall Crisis.
Author(s): Teagarden, M

The year 2007 will be remembered as the year the toy industry was shaken by a seemingly endless stream of recalls. The scope of this recent wave of recalls associated with lead-tainted toys coming from China has focused the attention of parents and others responsible for ers who sell these toys, companies who import these toys, and numerous government officials on the problem of toys that have been painted with lead-tainted paint. Much of the focus of this crisis is on China and its contractors. This is counterproductive and reactive. The problem of lead-tainted imports is not new. The fact that China is currently in the crosshairs is to a large degree a function of their growth in importance as a preferred site for outsourced manufacturing. It is a volume issue. Lead-tainted imports have many causes, and these will be explored in this article. This article concludes with a discussion of lessons that managers can take from this crisis.

Journal Title: Thunderbird International Business Review Volume: 51 Edition: 1 Page Numbers: 5-17
Making if overseas
Author(s): Javidan, M ; Teagarden, M; Bowen, D

The conventional wisdom holds that the best way to develop global leaders is to circulate talent through positions overseas. Expose promising managers to new cultures, the thinking goes, and they'll grow and thrive. Unfortunately, that approach isn't enough. Plenty of smart, talented executives fail spectacularly in expatriate assignments. So what does prepare people to thrive in leadership roles abroad? Years of research by the Thunderbird School of Global Management, involving more than 5,000 managers around the world, reveals that success abroad hinges on something called a global mind-set. This mind-set allows executives to cope with the challenges of working in unfamiliar cultures and helps them influence stakeholders who are unlike them. It has three main components: intellectual capital (global savvy, cognitive complexity, and a cosmopolitan outlook); psychological capital (passion for diversity, thirst for adventure, self-assurance); and social capital (intercultural empathy, interpersonal impact, and diplomacy.) It can be measured--with a diagnostic developed at Thunderbird. And it can also be measurably improved--through a development plan that focuses on building each kind of capital.

Journal Title: Harvard Business Review Volume: Edition: Page Numbers:
Managerial implications of the GLOBE project: A study of 62 societies.
Author(s): Javidan, M

This paper provides an overview of the GLOBE project, a comprehensive study of leadership and culture in 62 societies and discusses the practical implications of the study for managers and leaders. The GLOBE study identifies nine cultural and six leadership dimensions and was designed to examine a number of theoretical propositions and research questions. This paper, while emphasizing aspects of the study from the Asia Pacific region, highlights six major managerial implications of the GLOBE project ranging from more static information on the cultural attributes and leadership dimensions of specific countries or groups of countries (clusters) to more dynamic implications such as relationships between culture and leadership, and relationships between culture and societal phenomena. The paper concludes by emphasizing the significance of the GLOBE study's practical implications for global managers (including HR practitioners) in today's global business world.

Journal Title: Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources Volume: 47 Edition: 1 Page Numbers:
Motives for helping: Exploring cultural influences on extra-role behavior
Author(s): Sully de luque, M

This paper suggests that motives for engaging in affiliative-promotive "helping" extra-role behavior is related to cross-cultural differences. The cultural dimensions of in-group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, performance orientation, and humane orientation, and their differential effect on helping extra-role behavior in a diverse workforce are examined. Theoretical implications provide guidance for future empirical research in this area, and provide managers with more realistic expectations of employee performance in the workplace.

Journal Title: Multinational Business Review Volume: Edition: Page Numbers:
Networking, resource acquisition, and the performance of small and medium sized enterprises: An empirical study of three major cities in China
Author(s): Hisrich, R

Resource-based view (rbv) research argues that firms with valuable,
rare, non-substitutable, and inimitable resources have the potential of
achieving unique competitive advantages, thus winning superior performance
(Barney 1991; 1995; Wernerfelt 1995). However, to date not enough
attention has been given to the positive effects that a strong, diverse network
can have on resource acquisition methods employed by a firm and
the firm’s resulting performance. This paper provides insights into our
understanding of methods for acquiring the necessary resources, particularly
through networks. Specifically, the research focuses on the relationship
between resources and performance by addressing the following
questions: (1) Do the range and intensity of a firm’s network influence
the resources acquisition? (2) Do the capability and outcome of resource
acquisition impact subsequent performance of small and medium-sized
enterprises (smes)?

Journal Title: Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development Volume: 7 Edition: 3 Page Numbers:
Servicing Offshoring: The Evolution of Offshore Operations
Author(s): Youngdahl, W; Ramaswamy, K; Dash, K

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of economic development on culture and the significance of cultural change on the evolution of offshoring of services and knowledge-based activities. The paper offers a conceptual model that links economic development, national cultural predispositions, and the future of offshoring service and knowledge functions. It builds on a range of academic literatures within these core areas to derive a set of propositions that offer insights into the manner in which the relative success and evolution of offshoring service and knowledge work would be impacted by a country's economic development posture and its cultural roots and value systems. The model presented here is also well complemented by examples from real offshoring projects to offer the reader a comprehensive picture of the central propositions put forth. Several propositions, formulated at the multidisciplinary intersection of service operations management, strategy, and international studies, provide ample opportunities for further discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary examination of complex interactions of economic development, culture, and offshoring approaches.

Journal Title: International Journal of Operations and Production Management Volume: 30 Edition: 8 Page Numbers:
The Etiology of Liquidity Crises and How Managers Can Be Better Prepared
Author(s): Mathis, J; Kallberg, J; Tuzzolino, F

Financial shocks have become an increasingly pervasive feature of the global economic landscape. Among the two most prominent that have faced corporate managers during the past decade are the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000 and the ongoing global financial and economic crisis. These not only have had a chilling impact on the industries most directly involved, but they also occasioned a massive spillover into other industrial sectors, and in financial markets in general. “Contagion” is perhaps the most devastating aspect of such crises.

Journal Title: Thunderbird International Business Review Volume: 51 Edition: 2 Page Numbers:
Winning the green frenzy
Author(s): Unruh, G; Ettenson, R

Green competition is shifting from a race to launch ecofriendly products to a battle over what actually constitutes a green product.
Unless you’re engaged in the debate and in shaping the rules, you risk being assessed
against sustainability standards you can’t meet. Successful companies leverage
opportunities to become an influential or dominant force in the green-standards
battle. That requires understanding the standards that exist in your industry and
also your own green capabilities. Once you have that understanding, you can determine which of four strategies is best
for your company: (1) adopt the existing standards; (2) co-opt and modify them to suit your capabilities and processes;
(3) define standards for your industry; or (4) break away from existing ones and craft your own.

Journal Title: Harvard Business Review Volume: Edition: Page Numbers:
“Africa is Open for Business: A Continent on the Move”
Author(s): Babarinde, O.

Until recently, it seemed African countries had not been on the radar screen of many non-African companies with global operations, let alone constituted prominent components of their global supplychain networks. While several factors might have accounted for the marginalization of Africa by the global business community, perhaps the most critical was the seemingly incessant unflattering portrayal of the continent by Western media. African governments have been using a slew of tools and strategies to reform their economies and polities and to make the African business environment more business-friendly, and the non-African business community is availing itself of bursting business and investment opportunities in the continent.

Journal Title: Thunderbird International Business Review Volume: 51 Edition: Page Numbers:
“Bridging the Economic Divide in the Republic of South Africa: A Corporate Social Responsibility Perspective”
Author(s): Babarinde, O.

Almost 15 years since the end of apartheid rule in the Republic of South Africa, the society is still profoundly bifurcated today as it was in 1994 when the first nonracial general elections were held. A majority of the population is impoverished, official unemployment is staggering, the economy has cooled, wealth/income is grossly unevenly distributed (particularly along racial lines), crime has soared, HIV/AIDS is debilitating, and the population is getting restless. This inquiry discusses how and what the business community is doing in the manner of “giving back” to the community, via corporate social responsibility, to help ameliorate the untenable situation.

Journal Title: Thunderbird International Business Review Volume: 51 Edition: Page Numbers: