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FEATURES OF THE BOOK

29 October, 2015 - 13:03

Great care has been taken to make the book as effective a teaching aid as possible. The mixture of visual stimuli with text is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the book. At the beginning of each chapter is a flow diagram of the main concepts and subconcepts covered in the chapter. This diagram is accompanied by a list of learning objectives and a short overview, which serves as a prelude to the main part of each chapter. The body of each chapter contains a combination of text and graphical material. A recapitulation at the end of each chapter provides a concise summary of the main points. Finally, questions and exercises at the end of each chapter give students an opportunity to test their understanding of the material covered in the chapter.

The concept that ties the text together is the systems approach. This approach looks at an MNC as an open system that is in continual interaction with its external environment. The emphasis on the MNC's external environment is manifested in features called Emerging Issues. These sections describe factors in the external environment that are likely to have a marked impact on the strategies and structures of MNCs. The Emerging Issues allow the instructor to expose students to societal issues that are not usually textbook material. Six such issues have been included, one for each of the first six chapters.

The conciseness of the book is perhaps its greatest advantage. Most professors have pet topics or techniques that they like to emphasize in their courses-simulation exercises, the Pacific Basin and Japan, the European Common Market, or industry analysis, for example. This kind of special emphasis takes time. A lengthy text presents a problem for the instructor, who has to skip some material to accommodate his or her own interests.