Global Business and Economics

The course is based on one over-arching conceptual theme – economic linkages. The general aim is to outline and explain how business activities in developing countries are established, consolidated and expanded (or curtailed and discontinued!) through commercial networks. No business activity – be it as simple it can be – is taking place in a vacuum: clearly businesses are connected to markets (of many different shades) but in addition they are vertically linked to input suppliers (of many different forms) and horizontally linked to competitors (of many different degrees). These commercial networks are not purely economic but are embedded in social, political and cultural institutions, formal as well as informal. Furthermore, commercial networks unfold at different spatial scales. Loosely defined these may be conceptualized as the local, national, regional and international scale. However, global dynamics are increasingly incorporated in all commercial networks.

The ambition is to provide this broad understanding of the nature and scope of commercial networks while focusing on the economic aspects of linkages within commercial networks. The course is organizationally structured in three separate but inter-related spatial and functional categories that are appropriate for a focus on economic linkages:

1. Enclaves: Localized singular commercial activities, globally integrated but functionally isolated,
2. Clusters: Spatial agglomeration of commercial activities, i.e. vertically linked, horizontally linked or unrelated (but exploiting positive externalities like infrastructure, labor markets, etc.), and
3. Chains: Cross-territorial linkages of commercial activities that are spatially segregated but functionally integrated.

Within these categories, the course will deal with different economic sectors (primarily agriculture and manufacturing) and different spatial spheres (primarily ‘the rural’ and ‘the urban’). Lectures and seminars will emphasize one particular sector and one spatial sphere while paying due attention to external linkages. Hence, by using the mixture of sectors and spatial spheres in the context of economic linkages it is possible to:

1. disseminate knowledge of empirical manifestations (i.e. tangible learning about the real world of global business in its many and varied forms), and
2. convey the important message that despite the separation of sectors and spheres (in the abstract) they are intrinsically linked through business networks (in the concrete).