NBS Country Guides

1
NBS Country Guides

• U. Srinivasa Rangan, Associate Professor,
  Strategy and Intl. Business
• Frances Nilsson, Manager, Collection
  Development, Horn Library
• Rachel Zyirek, Reference Librarian, Horn Library

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National Business Systems Approach

• The starting point was the National Business
  Systems stream that was designed to provide MBA
  students with a conceptual framework to analyze
  any country from the point of view of investing
  in, operating out of, or competing against firms
  from that country
• Plan was to make it available as a useful guide
  for internationally focussed efforts -- courses,
  overseas programs, etc -- of others on campus

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A Country Guide Template

• Macroeconomic indicators
• statistics, developments, and forecasts
• National Business Systems Approach
• institutional mechanisms such as human capital
  systems, corporate governance, and labor
  governance
• policy mechanisms such as trade policy,
  industrial policy, and technology policy
• Others
• key industries, foreign investments, etc.

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National Business Systems exam

• In May, 150 Full time MBA students in 27 teams
  research a country over 3 days
• 9 countries are researched
• 3 teams, 1 per section, are researching the same
  country for presentation
• In December, 6 Lucent teams have similar exam
  with 6 countries researched over 45 days for a
  written report

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Country Study Guides May 1996 - May 1999

• Included web-based and paper books, periodical
  sources services, both free and subscribed
• Organized by type of publication publishing
  agency with descriptions of contents

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Country Study Guides Organization Sample

• Basic Sources-EIU U.S. Country Commercial Guide
• Factual overviews
• Country government web sites publications
• U.S. government publications web sites
• International organizations
• Other commercial international services
• Subscription services for further study
• Statistical sources

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Guides Found Useful by Others

• Graduate and undergraduate courses
• International Business Enterprises
• Global Strategic Management
• Global Industry Competition Simulation
• Overseas Electives
• Already Lausanne, Paris, Ireland, Argentina,
  Chile
• In future Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Japan
• International Programs
• IMIP students, Semester Abroad students
• Business plans

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Enhancements Needed

• Better subject access
• More international organizations
• More countries (at least all 50 EIU)
• Industry sources
• Coordination with LA Institute, Asian Institute,
  Glavin Center, International Programs

9
Database Options Investigated

• Web interface with MS Access - not robust enough
  for intense use
• Lotus Notes - required programming firmer
  agreement on outcomes

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Outcomes

• Detailed Any Country Study guide
• Subject guide along NBS exam topics with major
  industries section
• 77 Simpler Country -Specific Guides
• Separate U.S. intl. agencies guides
• Separate regional guides Africa, Asia, Europe
  Latin America

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Updating

• Students check EIU links weekly.
• All links checked bi-monthly.

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Questions or Suggestions?
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Links

• Country Studies index - http//fusion.babson.edu/h
  tml/library/pg.cfm?ID59
• Any Country page - http//fusion.babson.edu/html/l
  ibrary/pg.cfm?ID360
• Resources by Topic - http//fusion.babson.edu/html
  /library/pg.cfm?ID364
• MOB7556 Geography Competition-http//fusion.bab
  son.edu/html/library/pg.cfm?ID343
• U.S. Government sites - http//fusion.babson.edu/h
  tml/library/pg.cfm?ID362
• International organizations - http//fusion.babson
  .edu/html/library/pg.cfm?ID363
• General Africa sites - http//fusion.babson.edu/ht
  ml/library/pg.cfm?ID367
• General Asia sites - http//fusion.babson.edu/html
  /library/pg.cfm?ID361
• General European sites - http//fusion.babson.edu/
  html/library/pg.cfm?ID366
• General Latin American sites - http//fusion.babso
  n.edu/html/library/pg.cfm?ID365