THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CONFERENCE

Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Finance in China: A Case Study

Ted Azarmi, Ph.D., California State University, Long Beach, CA

ABSTRACT

In 1977, Mr. Wu was employed as the head carpenter for a middle school in Huai Nan, a city with a population of about one million in Anhui province of China. His monthly salary was 60 RMB (less than $8 at today's exchange rate). He took care of the school's needs for furniture such as desks, bookshelves and occasionally made furniture for the teachers. The following year, Mr. Wu started his own small business. Initially, it wasn't a brilliant product idea or a new innovation that motivated him to switch careers from a state-employed worker to a private entrepreneur. It was simply that Mr. Wu and his wife both were hoping for a better standard of living for themselves. Mr. Wu set up shop on a sidewalk. He would show up with his carpentry tools and supplies on the same corner of that sidewalk every day, take orders for small furniture and make them on the spot. Mrs. Wu took a job as a tailor to make sure that the family made it through these lean years.

Strategic Decision Making In Today’s Managed Care Environment

Dr. Jeff Ritter*, President / CEO, Strategic Consulting, Inc., FL

ABSTRACT

Strategic planning in health care today has become extremely important. In selecting health care coverage, consumers see managed care as a double-edge sword. On the one hand, the cost of a managed care plan is much more appealing than traditional indemnity plans. One negative impact is losing the freedom of choice in selecting a particular provider, who many not participate in the network. What makes this even more complicated, is when business and government mandates or requires consumers to join a managed care plan. In this era of market based managed health care delivery, effective communication is more important than ever before (Root and Stableford, 1999). The article goes on to discuss how this is even more complex with the Medicare and Medicaid populations. Marketing refers to attempts to manage behavior by offering reinforcing incentives and/or consequences in an environment that invites voluntary exchange (Rothschild, 1999). The level of satisfaction is correlated to the ability to select a plan without coercion. Marketing strategy will play a vital role in healthcare decision-making. Marketing strategies that involve segmenting, mass customization, and competitive pricing will come out ahead (Veit, 1999). Brand loyalty in the Medicare marketplace is what most managed care organizations strive for. This has become extremely difficult with so many plans leaving the Medicare market (Health Affairs, 2000) because of reduced reimbursements from the government. One essential strategy is using multi-channel communications that include printed materials, public service announcements, seminars and workshops. Health plans must address long term strategy issues such as entering and leaving certain markets. There are economic, social, and ethical issues associated with these decisions.

An Examination of Management Philosophy

Dr. Turan Senguder, Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

ABSTRACT

What is your personal management philosophy? The first job of the management is to make a business perform well. The management takes given resources -- such as manpower, money, machine and materials -- and orchestrates them into production to accomplish organizational goals. When employees’ basic human needs go unsatisfied, their psychological and physical health as well as their productivity suffers. The participative management meets such needs. Participation in an organizational development is likely to include problem solving, decision making and goal setting activities. Employees may participate in any or all of the areas at any one time. Management should share decision-making authority and responsibility with its workers. Management should also communicate openly and candidly. However, this approach may not work well with all employees. Some workers can take only limited responsibility. They prefer to let others shoulder the main burden of responsibility. Therefore, management should differentiate talents and energies of their workers. Each worker is uniquely complex; To help workers achieve their best performance level, management must understand each worker’s needs. Needs are what make all of us tick. Workers are motivated to behave in certain ways because of their need for money, security and status. Work helps to satisfy a worker’s physical and emotional needs. Weekly paychecks, for example, enable workers to obtain food, clothes and housing. Besides security, workers may also seek status through promotion, a merit salary increase, the learning of new skills, and the invention of a new product.

Measuring Destination Attractiveness: A Proposed Framework

Dr. Sandro Formica, ESSEC Business School, Paris, France

ABSTRACT

The driving force of the tourism industry is represented by the attractions offered by the destination. Travelers have no reason to visit destinations that have nothing to offer. Tourism research has demonstrated that attraction studies are necessary in the understanding of the elements that encourage people to travel. Achieving the goal of measuring destination attractiveness requires the understanding of its components and their relationships. There are two ways of examining attractiveness: by studying the attractions or by exploring the attractiveness perceptions of those who are attracted by them. As competition among tourism destinations increases and tourist funding decreases, it is of vital importance to evaluate the inventory of existing attractions and the perceptions that travelers have of those attractions. Tourism literature provides only a limited number of studies addressing destination attractiveness. The purpose of this study is to explore past studies on destination attractiveness and propose a procedure for its measurement. The principles of regional analysis, tourism planning, and tourism attraction research provide the foundation for such evaluation. The proposed procedure is based on the assumption that tourism is a system, which is the result of supply and demand interaction.

Predicting Leaders and Team Leaders in Times of Great Change

Barbara E. Kovach, Ph.D., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.

ABSTRACT

People in organizations have been experiencing unprecedented change in the last decades, as a result of competition from domestic and foreign settings and new technological capabilities. As a consequence, organizations have been seeking means to heighten their productivity. Two of the most frequently touted results of this search are a call for leadership and more effective teams. Yet as psychologists review the literature in the mid- to late-1990s, one after another comments on the lack of data and/or lack of research over the preceding 30 years. We want people who know how to cope with change, but know little about them. We want leaders who can live in a changing field, but do not know how to shape our selection procedures to cull these individuals from the managerial pool. We want good teams, but know little about who is a good team member and/or a good team leader. In response to this need and the research literature’s focus on individual perceptions and expectations as a key to understanding peoples’ organizational behavior a set of instruments were designed two decades ago and since tested on over 5,000 individuals

Practical-Theoretical Approach in the Application of Theory Models of Organizational Behavior

Dr. Robert DeYoung, Saint Thomas University, Miami, FL

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the idea of incorporating a practical-theoretical approach to the application of theory relevant to the instruction of organizational behavior. In an effort to move beyond the mere traditional theoretic-based approach of instruction, the practical-theoretical approach brings to life the concepts, allowing the student to experience the learning within the controlled confines of academia. The paper identifies two important components necessary to the practical-theoretical approach: (1) The identification of a commonality among the students and (2) the discovery of meaningfulness in the issue being discussed. Commonality refers to something each student has in common. Meaningfulness refers to anything that is important to each student. The organizational behavior theories used as an example in this paper include Bandura’s Model of Organizational Behavior and E. F. Harrison’s Rational Model of Decision Making. The Model of Organizational Behavior is used as a foundation throughout the course to establish a clear understanding of the behavioral dynamics that occur inside the organization. The practical application of the theory-based Rational Model of Decision-Making brings to life an understanding of the theory that implicitly applies to the student. The use of the practicum supports the importance of the practical-theoretical approach to pedagogy.

Using Organizational Behavior Theories To Manage Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation

Nancy Borkowski, DBA, St. Thomas University, Miami, FL

William Allen, PhD, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, MA

ABSTRACT

By building on sociological and organizational psychology concepts versus reinventing the wheel, healthcare administrators can develop the right mix of management strategies to assist in the adoption and implementation of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) into their organizations. Physicians control approximately 80 percent of how and where medical services are delivered. Therefore, concerns over healthcare costs and delivering quality, efficient, and effective medical care have led to a growing interest in the standardization of and accountability in health care delivery by altering physicians' practice patterns through the use of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). It is estimated that a CPG costs an organization between $100,000 and $500,000 to develop. As such, there is great concern as to why CPGs have been remarkably unsuccessful in influencing physician practice patterns (Greco & Eisenberg, 1993; Kosecoff et al., 1987; Lomas et al, 1989). The primary reason cited for this lack of success has been the disproportionately little attention paid to CPGs’ implementation relative to their development and dissemination (Fang et al., 1996; Mittman et al., 1992). Understandably so. Implementing a CPG guideline is far more difficult than its development because implementation requires widespread physician behavior changes, which is a complex undertaking (Epstein, 1991; Main et al., 1995; Sisk, 1998).

Market Orientation, Organizational Competencies and Performance: An Empirical Investigation of a Path-Analytic Model

Kamalesh Kumar, Ph.D., The University of Michigan-Dearborn, MI

ABSTRACT

Results of a survey of 159 acute care hospitals were used to test examine the specific ways in which market orientation of an organization contributes to the creation of organizational competencies that contribute to superior performance. Results indicated that market orientation makes a significant contribution to the creation of a number of organizational competencies which in turn lead to superior performance in the areas of cost containment and success of new services. Implications for managers were also addressed.

Caribbean and US Shopping Behavior: Contrast and Convergence

Dr. J. A. F. Nicholls and Dr. Sydney Roslow, Florida International University Miami, FL

Dr. Lucette B. Comer, Purdue University, Indiana

ABSTRACT

Situational influences devolve from factors that are pertinent to a particular time and place and specific to a potential purchase. In this study, patrons of a mall in the United States are compared with patrons of a mall in Trinidad in respect of demographic attributes, situational variables, and shopping behavior. There were wide-ranging differences between the two populations in respect to the possession of situational variables and purchase behaviors, although the difference in demographics was limited to a single attribute. Since all 17 situational variables exhibited significant statistical differences, this suggest that within the United States population situational factors are operating dissimilarly than for the population in Trinidad. In light of these findings, alternative ways in which merchants might react to these findings are suggested.

Intercultural Perceptions of Business and Management Practices: A German-American Learning Experience

Dr. Josef Neuert, Prof. Achim Opel, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Germany

Dr. Dietrich L. Schaupp, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

ABSTRACT

The increasing globalization of societal and economic activities around the world has generated much interest in and a need for joint partnerships between international businesses and educational institutions that teach management education. Of major interest in business today is how to structure international business operations in order to gain competitive advantages in international markets. As more and more companies expand into international markets, it is imperative that managers become prepared to discharge their duties in a global context. This paper first examines specific cultural dimensions of influence on international management. It then describes the West Virginia University – University of Applied Sciences Fulda joint EMBA program, which was designed to create a greater awareness and understanding among students for intercultural management aspects, especially within Germany and the European Union. The discussion of this program is followed by the outline of the basic research approach of the joint German-American learning experience. Finally, after describing the design of the field study some major results and conclusions are presented.

An Ex-Post Investigation of Interest Rate Parity in Asian Emerging Markets

Todd M. Shank, Ph.D., University of Portland, Portland, OR

ABSTRACT

Divergent views exist regarding the question of how interest rate differentials among foreign countries relate to corresponding exchange rate differentials among those same economies. Interest rate parity (IRP) theory suggests that if interest rates are higher in one country than they are in another, the former country's currency will sell at a discount in the forward market (Van Horne, 1998). In other words, interest rate differentials and forward-spot exchange rate differentials should offset one another. If not, opportunities for profit by engaging in covered interest arbitrage would exist, although profits must be sufficiently large enough to cover transactions costs and other market frictions.