CBA 300 - International Business: Week 1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering core definitions, drivers of internationalization, environmental forces, and historical concepts from Week 1 of International Business.

International Business

Business carried out across national borders.

Foreign Business

The operations of a company outside its home, or domestic, market.

International Company

A company with operations in multiple nations.

Environment

All the forces influencing the life and development of the firm.

Uncontrollable Forces

External forces that management has no direct control over, consisting of physical, competitive, political, distributive, sociocultural, economic, socioeconomic, technological, financial, and legal forces.

Controllable Forces

Internal forces that management administers to adapt to changes in uncontrollable external forces.

Domestic Environment

Uncontrollable forces originating in the home country of the firm.

Foreign Environment

Uncontrollable forces originating outside the home country, which carry different values, are harder to access, and are more interrelated.

International Environment

The interactions between domestic and foreign environmental forces, interactions between foreign environmental forces of two different countries, and the interaction of people.

Self-Reference Criterion

The unconscious habit of judging a new environment by one's own cultural values, which is one of the most common causes of bad international business decisions.

Mercantilism

An economic system of the 17th and 18th centuries in which national power was tied directly to merchant capital operating abroad.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

Direct investment in equipment, structures, or organizations abroad at a level sufficient for real management control, excluding portfolio investment in foreign stock markets.

Exporting

Transporting a domestic good or service to a destination outside the company's home country or region.

Importing

Transporting a good or service into a country or region from a foreign origin point.

Market Drivers

Forces driving internationalization by following expanding customers, serving converging consumer needs with standardized products, or tapping markets with rising GDP per capita.

Cost Drivers

Forces driving internationalization to reduce costs through economies of scale and leveraging country-cost differences in labor and materials.

Competitive Drivers

Forces driving internationalization to compete directly with global rivals, defend home markets, secure supplies, and protect existing business.

Technology Drivers

Forces driving internationalization through cheaper, faster global communication, transport, computer-based virtual integration, and artificial intelligence.

Government Drivers

Forces driving internationalization through liberalized trade policy, trade barrier reduction, regulatory reform, and privatization.

Tariffs

Taxes placed on imported goods for protection or revenue that reshape supply chains, raise costs, and alter competitive positioning.

Mobility of Labor

The cross-border movement of workers providing firms with access to diverse talent pools and specialized skills, reshaping where firms can operate.

Mobility of Capital

The movement of investment capital across foreign markets for risk diversification and choices between outsourcing, nearshoring, and domestic production.

Mobility of Information

The rapid global flow of communication and data that enables efficient decision-making and rapid adaptation to market shifts.

Global Mindset

A perspective offering cultural awareness, strategic flexibility, innovation, and enhanced ability to spot global opportunities and lead diverse teams.

Global Value Chains

Cross-border production networks coordinated by transnational corporations through which roughly 80% of annual world trade flows.

Six Blind Men and an Elephant

A parable illustrating how viewing international business through only one discipline at a time provides an incomplete view of the global system.

The Global Business Context Framework

A framework placing firm management and execution at the center, surrounded by international politics, economics, regulations, non-state actors, cross-state interests, culture/history, technology, and regional bodies.