It is fascinating to talk to my students about Social Constructivism and how it applies to international business, international relations, politics, economics, society, culture, and the environment. It is shocking for many of them, particularly when they realize that the ideas and belief systems that molded them as individuals, citizens, and consumers were shaped by […]
While the workers around the world mobilize to commemorate the International Workers’ Day, in the United States labor and labor agendas are barely remembered. Even on the issue of labor rights our country is divided. Although some sectors of our society have voiced their solidarity for the teachers’ strikes that have erupted in West Virginia, […]
Illicit drugs, corruption, transparency and governance, the crisis in Venezuela, and the assassination of Ecuadorian journalists in the hands of dissidents from the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) were some of the themes highlighted at the Eighth Summit of the Americas that took place in Lima, Peru. Connectivity among the hemispheric […]
Seventy years ago, the Liberal populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was gunned down in downtown Bogotá, Colombia, as the hemispheric nations gathered in the same city to discuss the economic fate of the region as it geared away from the global war economy of the 1940s. His assassination sparked a long civil war that is […]
The reason why my family and I moved to Maine sixteen years ago was not the result of the traditional rational decision making process taught in economics and business 101, it was more down the line of behavioral economics, a theory of economics that contradicted rational assumptions of human behavior, and that recently earned Richard […]
The recent tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel announced by President Donald Trump have shaken the international trade system forcing other nations and economic blocs to retaliate, at least rhetorically. The European Union, for example, said they would study the possibility of raising tariffs on the export of American bourbon and peanut butter.[1] Brazilian […]
This past weekend I was once again lucky enough to attend the 31st Annual Camden Conference, a nonpartisan citizens’ forum that puts our state at the epicenter of global debates. This year’s focus, “New World Disorder and America’s Future” allowed the general public, high school, and college students to reflect on the current dynamics of […]
In past blogs I have highlighted some of the global-local dynamics that impact Maine, including the NESTLE – Poland Spring Water connection and the foreign ownership of our energy grid under Canada’s Emera and Spain’s AVANGRID Inc., owner of Central Maine Power Company. Recently, in my Global Business class we centered on another “Glocal” case that is […]
Data analysts, policy makers, economists, the media, and multiple other political, social, economic, cultural, and environmental stakeholders speculate and debate over whether or not the “glass is half full or half empty.” If you are a local microbrewer from Maine you know that the glass is half full and if you are drinking the beer […]
Opportunism, innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, first-mover, trendsetter, market expansionism, monopoly, vertical integration; these are some of the basic concepts of global business strategy implemented by corporations across the markets of the world. These are the strategies being implemented by the marijuana entrepreneurs that want to capitalize on the global expansion of this commodity. The emergence of […]
