New trends in international business.  

For modern stage Reforming the Russian economy is characterized by trends of its increasing integration with the world community, the active entry of domestic enterprises into foreign markets, and the intensification of the development of new forms of international business. Under these conditions, interest in the study of international marketing is objectively increasing.  

New approaches to organizing and managing the international activities of an enterprise arise from its goals and objectives, which have changed significantly under the influence of objective trends in the development of social production, globalization and internationalization of the market and increased competition in it. First of all, this led to a reorientation of the international activities of enterprises from the export of products from the home country to the implementation of production in foreign branches, branches and subsidiaries with the subsequent sale of these products in foreign markets. These changes are driven by the desire of enterprises to make the most of the opportunities for additional benefits that international business gives them. These benefits are determined by the use of labor resources (personnel) with lower wages; reduction of taxes and the possibility of obtaining benefits; bypassing antimonopoly legislation; reduction in costs for raw materials and transportation, etc.  

The material is systematically presented on a new scientific and educational direction - the world economy and international business, the science of modern trends in the development of the world economy and the most important directions and factors in the development of international business. This is the first textbook that fully complies with the new educational standard in this area. Numerous specific examples are used to examine the main trends in the development of the world economy, methods of regulation, research, forecasting and modeling of the world market and international business. The features of modern international financial business, international exchange of intellectual property, international trade in goods and services for various purposes (telecommunications, insurance, tourism, sports and philatelic).  

The textbook material is two-level; all issues are considered at the macro level and at the level of individual sectors of the economy and the most representative corporations of large industrial, commercial, financial, insurance and other businesses. The analysis is carried out not only in retrospect, but also taking into account the latest trends in the development of the world economy and international business.  

Simultaneously with the increase in the scale of activity of the institutions that form the framework of international business, the tendency towards the internationalization of small and medium-sized businesses is increasing. The incentive for this is the development of venture (risk) capital - at the stage of introducing innovations and organizing the release of new products.  

One of the main trends in the modern development of the world economy is the intensification of relations between the state and international business towards the penetration of capital into the sphere of state ownership. The forms of such expansion can be very different from contracts for the management of existing enterprises to private companies performing the full cycle of construction and operation of new facilities.  

Even after this, changes can occur that overturn even the most carefully prepared forecast. A business may be affected by inflation, deflation, labor strikes, hot and cold international strife, technological changes, government spending, unemployment, consumer optimism or pessimism - any significant social, political or economic change. Within a given industry, forecasts are affected by the introduction of new products and new manufacturers, changes in competitor strategies, and upward or downward price trends. The art required to predict or anticipate change goes beyond the technical knowledge of economics. It requires sound business thinking and judgment and just plain luck.  

One of the development features advertising business in the last 10-15 years there has been the creation of an international network of advertising agencies. In the early 1980s, large American agencies dominated global markets. Since the mid-80s, there has been a trend of change in the existing advertising services market associated with the creation of a new “Common Market” in Europe, which united over 320 million consumers.  

The trend towards globalization of the world economy, which intensified at the end of the 20th century, also affected the insurance market. The convergence of the economies of different countries creates fundamentally new conditions for the insurance business and contributes to the unification of insurance conditions. Negotiations on Russia’s accession to the WTO and the entry into force in 1999 of the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the European Union on partnership and cooperation stipulate the need for full use international experience in organizing the insurance business, as well as developing clear conditions for foreign insurers’ access to the Russian market.  

In the future, enterprises must move to a production structure where there are no procurement and tool shops, where the number of mechanical and repair shops has been reduced. One of modern trends improvement of the production structure currently continues to be the formation of flexible production processes. The production structure of the enterprise, consisting of flexible modules aimed at changing needs, reflects the new nature of production as customer-oriented, which corresponds to new trends in creating a perfect production structure. Such methods and forms of changing it as business process reengineering, the total quality management system according to international standards ISO 9000 in its various modifications are also aimed at this.  

Events in the 1980s and technological advances such as fax machines, satellite communications, and high-speed transportation eliminated many of the barriers between different countries and their populations. Political changes were accompanied by the development of trends towards the elimination of restrictions on commercial activity as major government organizations, as well as new small businesses just starting their work on the world stage. Literally all companies had to deal with the presence of foreign participants in local markets. At the same time, there was a growing awareness that the whole world had become a market. And along with the awareness of this fact, the question arises of how to engage in international trade.  

The process of erosion of the traditional features of the largest consulting firms, characteristic of professional organizations, has recently affected the institution of partnership. This seemingly archaic legal form of organization for most professional services companies from the point of view of modern business has been unshakable for decades among the leaders of global consulting. However, at the most last years There are obvious signs that even in the Big Four firms, where the institution of partnership has always been something of a sacred cow, it is no longer considered sacrosanct for the consulting business. In particular, the process of spinning off KP MG's consulting business into a new international consulting company, which began in 2000, was accompanied by an initial public offering of its shares on the US stock market in February 2001. In the summer of the same year, Accenture's partners also decided to transform their company into a public one. Many analysts believe that this is just the beginning, and in the coming years the trend of transformation of global consulting leaders from professional partnerships to joint-stock companies will only gain momentum.  

Globalization is the tendency of new opportunities and threats to arise due to the global, international nature of business. Today it is impossible to focus business on growth and increasing profits without taking into account the use of, for example, best resources at the global level. To strengthen the organization in the future, it is necessary to take into account the interests of various participants in its activities. These are owners, consumers, suppliers, business partners, local authorities, the state and the workers themselves. And if the organization ceases to bring profit to its owners, then it is liquidated or reorganized. These trends of change in organizations lead to changes in the essence of management and the requirements for it.  

For most Russian high-tech industries, the main problem was solving the problem of competition - cooperation with global manufacturers. New innovative business in Russia is guided by models of using scientific knowledge in economic activity proven by world practice. In the context of globalization, Russian companies cannot abstract themselves from global trends in innovative development, their integration into the system of global economic ties turns into one of the most important factors determining competitiveness. The meaning of their strategy is to focus on the creation and dissemination of technological innovations of global application, which have promising international markets and integrate the innovation systems of individual countries and regions.  

The most important pattern of modern development of the world economy is the transformation of the industrial economy into a post-industrial one. The main structural transformation is a change in the relationship between the two main divisions of social production in favor of services. It is based on increasing efficiency in industries material production. An equally important reason for the development of this area is profound transformations in the system of social needs. The increasing sophistication of equipment and technology, the growth of the living standard of the population - the increase in its educational and cultural level - are expanding the range of needs of production and the population far beyond the limits of their types satisfied by production.

The development of the service sector primarily on a market basis, along with the expansion of private entrepreneurship in the fields of healthcare and education, deregulation and privatization of public sector structures, significantly expand the boundaries of the market and competition in services and stimulate their cross-border expansion. The rapid development of the service sector is a universal process characteristic of all countries.

Another feature of modern economic development- integration of services and material production. In new technologies of universal application, services and material products are practically inseparable. The growing intertwining of the production of goods and services indicates their economic equivalence; hence the incorrectness of any opposition between the two divisions of social production.

The sectoral structure of services shows a shift towards production and consumption complex types activities. The leader is a complex of business and professional services represented by marketing, advertising, management, leasing services, as well as information and computer, consulting, auditing and accounting services; 80% of the world's GDP produced in this area comes from the developed countries.

Industry remains the most important sector of material production. It ensures the material and technical development of other sectors of the economy; It is in industry that the most significant scientific and technical achievements are first mastered.

The share of the fuel and energy complex is stabilizing. In recent years, due to rising oil prices, its importance has increased again. Accelerated growth The electric power industry is determined by the needs of society for an environmentally friendly source of energy. Tendency towards stabilization and even some reduction in specific gravity atomic energy associated with the need to ensure environmental safety.

The emergence of a global economy.

As it develops, the market economy goes beyond national borders and acquires the features of internationalization economic life. It is expressed in the constant increase in international economic relations, interdependence of various countries and regions of the world, economic entities at various levels. At the end of the 20th century. The internationalization of economic life has risen to a qualitatively new stage - globalization: the process of increasing interaction between subjects of the world economy is acquiring a worldwide character.

The globalization of the world economy is manifested in the accelerated growth of world trade and an even more rapid flow of capital, as well as in the intensification of intercountry movements of other factors of production; hypertrophied cross-border movement of huge financial resources, far outstripping the growth rate of the industries and trade they serve; new roles for international organizations managing these processes. The international sphere of the economy is developing faster than domestic production.

The growing interdependence of the economies of all countries is associated with a gigantic expansion of trade in machinery and equipment, which accounts for over 40% of all world trade. At the same time, the role of targeted deliveries is strengthened, and trade relations themselves acquire a cooperative character. A significant place is occupied by the supply of complete equipment for the construction of enterprises. Exports of electrical and electronic equipment, instrumentation products, aerospace engineering, telecommunications equipment, as well as chemical and pharmaceutical products are growing rapidly.

Developed countries occupy a leading position in world trade. In 2008, they accounted for 61% of exports and about 60% of imports. This is significantly more than their share of global production. However, over the past decade and a half, the participation of developing countries in international trade has increased. China's foreign trade is developing especially intensively. In 2006, it ranked third in the world in terms of its share of global exports after Germany and the United States. At the same time, seven highly developed countries led by the United States account for 80-90% of world production and almost the entire world export of high-tech products (the United States accounts for about 40%).

The role of services is increasing in international exchange. Currently, their share in world exports of goods and services is about 25%, and in the volume of foreign direct investment? exceeds 50%. Developed countries account for about 90% of world exports and 80% of services exports.

In the modern world market, technology appears in two forms:

• § In the materialized form (the latest industries, tools, technological lines, equipment, materials);
• § In the intangible (knowledge, experience, scientific and technical information). The basis of technological exchange in intangible form is the dynamically developing licensed trade.

The most important feature of the development of world economic relations in recent decades is the acceleration of intercountry capital movement. The main exporters and importers of capital are developed countries. They account for almost 90% of the accumulated volume of exported investments and over 60% of imported capital. The United States occupies a leading position in this area. They are followed by Japan, Great Britain, Germany, France.

Thus, as a result of qualitative changes in the system of international economic relations, globalization is filled with new content. International production with deepening specialization is playing an increasingly important role, crowding out traditional forms of trade and commodity-money relations and promoting the establishment of new forms of economic cooperation.

The world is at the very beginning of the movement towards globalization. Approximately half the population of developing countries lives in closed economies, little affected by international economic exchange and capital movements.

The most global is the world foreign exchange market. The globalization of credit markets is developing rapidly. Volume of international lending ( bank loan and bond issues) over the last quarter century has increased 15-20 times.

The stock market has created its own reality. By 2008, the total nominal value of “virtual business” was three times the volume of global GDP. The geographical scope of the world stock market is expanding, and the absolute monopoly of a small number of leading developed countries is becoming a thing of the past. At the same time, the importance of countries belonging to the so-called emerging countries is increasing.

Along with globalization, another form of internationalization is actively developing in the modern world - regionalization - the organization of production and market in a certain geographical space. Most countries in the world are members of one or more regional trade and economic groupings. There are a total of 215 regional and bilateral trade agreements in operation around the world.

Regionalization, on the one hand, represents a certain stage on the path to globalization; on the other hand, the special interests of participants in regional associations weaken the regulatory mechanisms agreed upon within international organizations. Regionalization is the basis for the formation of economic polycentrism in the world.

In various regions of the world, primarily in its developed part, centers of international integration are forming, with a tendency to gradually expand. International integration is the highest level of internationalization, when the growing economic interdependence of countries turns into the merging of national markets for goods, services, capital and labor and the formation of an integral space with a single monetary and financial system, a single basically legal system and the closest coordination of domestic and foreign economic policies relevant states. Thus, if globalization is a new quality of internationalization at the stage of extreme possible development breadth, then integration is the highest stage of its development in depth.

At the same time, the process of transnationalization of the world economy is intensifying. Its carriers are transnational corporations (TNCs) and banks. TNCs transfer abroad not only goods, but also the very process of applying capital, connecting it with foreign labor force within the framework of international production. Within such international economic complexes, the circulation of goods, financial resources, patents, know-how and other economic resources occurs. This has provided unprecedented opportunities for choosing the optimal combinations of all the components of entrepreneurial success. New forms of mutual cooperation between TNCs from different countries, especially non-stock ones, are actively developing. Minimizing production and distribution costs in this way and maximizing profits allows TNCs to continuously expand their geographical field of activity.

TNCs unite national economies not so much according to geographical criteria, but on the basis of deeper specialization and cooperation of production. They create their own subsystem of the international division of labor, which largely predetermines the configuration of the world economy, which does not coincide with the political map of the world.

The global nature of TNC operations puts objective boundaries in the way of national regulatory mechanisms and limits the scope of government control to relatively narrow national boundaries. A transnational corporation is characterized by a kind of dualism: it is both an integral part of the national economy and a key element of the world economy.

As a result of the above processes, the economies of an increasing number of countries and regions are becoming an organic part of the world market economy and are strictly included in world economic relations. Economically, the world is acquiring the features of integrity on a planetary scale. In the global economy, the scope of general economic laws and functional relationships is expanding.

National economies are still the main centers for organizing production, exchange, distribution and consumption of labor products, as well as economic activity. As the results of a study by UN economists show, of the 100 largest economic entities in the world, only 29 are private corporations, and the rest are sovereign states. The value added created by the 100 largest companies was 3.5% of global GDP in 1990, and 4.5% in 2000.

Each state is distinguished by specifics generated by the peculiarities of historical, economic, and sociocultural development. Attempts to blindly copy the experience of other countries, the use of imposed international organizations uniform economic policy recipes turn out to be, as a rule, unproductive, and sometimes lead to a worsening of the economic situation. National interests continue to remain the most important factor social development and international relations. The state continues to play a leading role in solving many economic, social, environmental issues, not to mention ensuring national security.

As globalization develops and the range of problems resolved at the interstate and supranational levels expands, a counter-tendency is intensifying - national states are increasingly defending their interests and opposing the transfer of part of their sovereignty to economic issues international regulatory authorities.

Close economic interaction contributes to the emergence of similar development trends in different countries and brings closer the dynamics of economic indicators. Within certain limits, economic structures are being aligned.

At the same time, globalization does not eliminate the diversity of development options and economic mechanisms in individual countries and groups of states.

Globalization creates new problems for the world economy. It results in an increase in the dependence of all countries on the international market and the dynamics of prices for raw materials. What is new is that if previously the transmission of negative impulses from one region to another occurred primarily through channels foreign trade, then currently, due to the growth of capital mobility, the financial and credit sector is becoming the most important mechanism for such transfer. The dangers of the emergence and global spread of financial crises are increasing manifold. The benefits of globalization resulting from the reduction and elimination of barriers that exist between national economies are distributed unevenly. The greatest benefits from liberalization go to the economically strongest countries, which seek to ensure the unity and integrity of the world economy by spreading Western models of socio-economic development and values ​​to all regions of the world. That is why in Lately Many developing countries actively oppose the globalization of the world economy. The anti-globalization movement is widespread in developed countries. Hence the need arises to improve the international mechanism for regulating the world economy.

Thus, most important feature development of world economic relations in recent decades - acceleration of intercountry movement of capital. International production with deepening specialization is playing an increasingly important role, crowding out traditional norms of trade and commodity-money relations and contributing to the establishment and development of various new forms of economic cooperation.

At the same time, the process of transnationalization of the world economy is intensifying. Its carriers are transnational corporations (TNCs) and banks. As a result of the above processes, the economy of an increasing number of countries and regions is becoming an organic part of the world market economy and the economic world is acquiring the features of integrity on a planetary scale.

Russia will have to find its place in the global economy. To do this, it must use the strengths of its economic, industrial, scientific, technical and intellectual capital. A lot of effort will be required to ensure a transition in the international division of labor from raw materials to knowledge-intensive specialization. The task of doubling GDP is directly related to a significant increase in production efficiency and the successful implementation of national projects.

When starting any business activity on the territory of a foreign country, it is worth paying attention to the differences in legal systems, since they can create serious obstacles to business activities.

There are great differences in the legal systems of different countries around the world. Former British colonies follow the traditional common law of Great Britain, while most Western European countries use a civil law system dating back to the Roman Empire. In a number of countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, religious law is used, and in countries with planned economies - bureaucratic law. Laws passed by local authorities state power, can influence the global market in different ways. A country's government may impose restrictions on a company's ability to conduct international business and may also have an indirect impact on a company's competitiveness by increasing its cost of doing business. In addition, the country's laws governing international transactions may apply to the company's activities outside of its borders. Let's look at the legal aspects of international business in more detail.

Doing business internationally has significant differences compared to doing business within a country. Great importance for successful activities

firms are acquiring things that national companies don't even have to think about. In this regard, it becomes obvious that it is necessary to carefully study the features of conducting and managing international business, which is exactly what international management does.

"International Business" - this is an entrepreneurial activity associated with the use of capital in various forms and the benefits of increased business activity; carried out for the purpose of making a profit and extends to the international economic sphere.

International business includes any business transactions carried out by two or more countries. When private companies participate in international business, business transactions are usually carried out with the aim of making a profit. Activities of companies with state uniform property is not always profit-oriented.

The main reasons for doing international business:

1) access to new sources of minerals and raw materials;

2) access to new labor markets;

3) desire for new markets.

Characteristics of international business:

1. Profit is made by taking advantage of the benefits of going beyond national markets.

2. Enterprises receive additional economic opportunities arising from: resource features of international markets; capacity of foreign markets; legal features foreign countries; specifics of interstate political and economic relations.

3. Due to the internationalization of each business, a global business service becomes maximally accessible, independent of nationality, focused only on economic efficiency.

4. The outstanding role of the cultural factor in the activities of international companies.

5. International business is a system of constantly updated and complexly interacting professional knowledge that is fundamentally more high level than is available in any national business.

6. International business absorbs the best national examples, all the best in world practice.

7. The fundamental difference between international business is the reverse assessment of domestic state situation: Negative trends in the economy may open up additional opportunities for the development of international companies.

8. Unlike national competition, international business can feel the support of its state in the fight against competitors in many forms.

9. Information is the main strategic resource of international business, adaptation is its main strategic weapon.

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

Silantieva Elena Aleksandrovna, candidate economic sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of World Economics and international relationships, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow

Annotation:

The development of international business is one of the main issues facing the world community at the moment. The article discusses actual problems obstacles to the dynamic development of business around the world and ways to solve them.

International business development is one of the burning questions posed in front of the world community at the moment. In the article actual problems that hinder dynamic development of business throughout the world and their solutions.

Keywords:

the problem of international business development; risks of international business; ways to solve problems of international business development.

the problem of the development of international business; risks of international business; the solutions to the problems of international business development.

UDC 339.9

With the globalization of the world economy, there is a simultaneous increase in the number of companies that enter the world market. The international business concept has been known since the time of the East India Company. Over time, international business began to develop throughout the world. Thanks to it, information and capital are exchanged, innovations and technologies are introduced into the world, goods and services become available to everyone (for example, Ford, Toyota, Honda, McDonald, KFC, Burger King), an atmosphere of friendship is established between countries, and production is globalized ( for example, parts of a Dell computer are made in different countries, assembling the parts and selling it in others).

Relevance The research is that international business plays an important role in the development of the modern world economy, but it faces problems that hinder its development.

Purpose work is to identify the main problems of business development around the world. In accordance with the goal, the following are formulated tasks:

Analyze the dynamics of international business forms;

Identify problems in the development of international business;

Suggest ways to solve them;

Draw conclusions based on the analysis.

There are two forms of international business - export-import and foreign investment. Export-import transactions include trade in goods (raw materials, clothing, etc.) and trade in services (financial, transport).

After analyzing the dynamics of the development of international trade and foreign investment, the following conclusions can be drawn. The bulk of international trade is trade in goods, with services making up a much smaller share. World Trade commodities has increased sharply over the past decades. World economic crisis affected both global trade and foreign investment, with a decline observed in 2009. There is also a deterioration in indicators in 2014, which is associated with a decrease in prices for oil and raw materials.

International business is experiencing certain difficulties. Let's look at some of them. Firstly, transactions are carried out in foreign currency. Therefore, the exchange rate may vary. Culture and social aspect other countries must be taken into account; for this it is necessary to know foreign languages, as well as obtain information about foreign countries. The big obstacles are political, commercial and financial factors. It is also difficult to satisfy the demands of the international market; for this, most of the time has to be spent on research and surveys of the local market. Business development and its prosperity depend on national conditions.

Business is hampered by the unstable situation in a particular country. This includes political, economic, and financial instability. As for political stability in the country, international business is attracted to investments in such a country. Political instability is a big risk for international business. There are generally three risks associated with it.

The risk associated with owning property. In some cases, ownership is transferred by one country to another without any further compensation through confiscation or expropriation.

The risk of business operation due to changes in laws and authorities, terrorism, civil wars, tax regulation, and so on.

Political fluctuations have a bad impact on international business. In this state, international business, before joining new political conditions, needs to obtain information through analysis that will answer the questions of what form of government, protectionism or free trade in the country, whether the government encourages international companies that are going to invest in the local market, what clients and competitors in this market.

Political stability affects business. To make decisions about future investments in foreign countries, information about the political state of the country is collected from the following sources: personal visit to the country to obtain information from local businesses, bank, stock market, country embassy, ​​International Chamber of Commerce, which is one of the best sources of information .

Countries are considered economically stable if they have high national income, price stability, high productivity in the production of goods and services, and high employment rates in technological innovation and investment. Also high rate economic growth GDP characterizes a high standard of living, well-being and investment. These factors are very important for international business to invest in such a country. International business first analyzes the economic situation before investing in a country.

Cultural customs - religion, ethics and behavior vary from country to country. They have a direct impact on lifestyle, education, economy, political structure, law. For example, a country with an extremist culture is considered unstable. And most of the investor shows a lack of confidence in investing in such countries.

In some countries the law has become a barrier to foreign investment. Reasons include high tax rates on foreign investment, limited export and import.

Every country wants to export surplus natural resources, agricultural products and industrial goods, but to import goods and products that are not produced domestically. There are regulatory measures like tariff barriers (customs duties), non-tariff barriers, quantitative restrictions, foreign exchange restrictions, technological and administrative rules, trade agreements, etc. All these stand in the way of free trade and free flow foreign business.

Another problem for business is economic unions. There is a growing trend among nations to form small groups of economic unions that negotiate more preferential terms for business with each other.

In order for business to develop smoothly around the world, it is necessary to improve international legal framework in the field of international business. For more dynamic business development, a World Committee for the Development of International Business should be created, which would analyze the current state of business and take measures that would positively influence the improvement of foreign trade relations between countries. International companies should conduct training to improve the skills of their personnel, which would help them more clearly navigate the international economic space. Countries must build their public policies focusing on creating stable international business ties.

Thus, from all of the above, we can conclude that international business is one of the key aspects of the development of the state. Thanks to international business, there are positive consequences (for example, the creation of more jobs, international business has high profitability for both the state and organizations). Firms that seek to invest in a foreign country must conduct an analysis of capital development, economic, political culture and legal stability of the state. To conduct export-import transactions, you need to thoroughly study the local market, local culture, and analyze the economic and political situation in the country. State support for international business is also important. If countries join forces, then soon it will be possible to observe stable business relations between states.

Bibliography:

1. Basic statistics and trends in international trade 2016 [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditctab2016d3_en.pdf .(access date: 05/03/2017)
2. Foreign direct investment [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.WD.GD.ZS? (access date: 05/03/2017)
3. International economic relations. International business [Electronic resource]. Access mode: http://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=19890184.(access date: 05/03/2017)

Reviews:

05/07/2017, 16:25 Borovsky Vladimir Naumovich
Review: The article is relevant, but where is the analysis itself?

05/10/2017 13:13 Response to the author’s review Tatyana Anatolyevna Kovalchuk:
Dear Vladimir Naumovich, analysis characterizes a detailed study, consideration of any fact, phenomenon, event. In my work, I identified problems and indicated exactly how they affect the development of international business, and also suggested ways to solve them. Sincerely, Kovalchuk Tatyana

At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. international business has become such a comprehensive and pervasive phenomenon modern civilization It seems that it is almost impossible to give an unambiguous definition to this most complex phenomenon of the world economy. Therefore, below is the so-called constructive definition, that is, a set of those characteristic features, with which the category “international business” can be quite fully described:

1. Because we're talking about about business operations, then international business, like domestic business, has as its main goal making a profit.

2. Despite the fact that there are many examples of international business in which the partners are, on the one hand, a private company, and on the other, a certain government agency another country, nevertheless, either inter-company transactions of this kind should be considered more typical, or intra-company transactions - in the case when different divisions of the company are located in a number of countries and these divisions interact with each other (the most typical in this case are the so-called multinational corporations). In other words, international business is primarily the business interaction of private firms or their divisions located in different countries.

All of the above applies to business as such, but an answer to the main question is necessary: ​​what makes a business become international, what determines the feasibility, usefulness, and often the need for a company to go beyond the borders of its own country?

3. International business is based on the ability to benefit precisely from the advantages of cross-country business transactions, that is, from the fact that sales of this product in another country, or the establishment of production by a firm from one country in another, or the provision of services jointly by firms from two countries - a third, etc., provide the parties involved in the business with greater advantages than they would have if they did business only in their own countries. This -- key moment not only in understanding the nature and specifics of international business itself, but also in explaining the emergence and development of international management as such.

Indeed, the actual decision to begin international operations is (even if purely formally) the first step that ultimately leads to the transformation of corporate management from country to international (in this case we do not touch on the question of how “international” will cover everything or only certain aspects of corporate management). Thus, already at this starting point one can see the dialectical unity of the two categories, the analysis of which is the subject of study in this chapter.

Being a powerful tool for the country's economic integration into world economy, and therefore - an instrument of globalization as such, international business in modern conditions is defined by the following characteristic features:

1. Accessibility and universality. Although international business is regulated by the relevant laws of countries, it is increasingly becoming a kind of inherent opportunity for almost every company in almost every country, fundamentally changing the strategic and tactical prospects of firms and opening up previously unseen potential fields of business activity. At the same time, there are, of course, limitations.

2. Stepwise development. The point is that the entry of a company into international business, essentially and as a rule, begins with the simplest forms (see above) of ordinary foreign trade and, as it develops, reaches the highest form - a multinational corporation. The essence of this feature does not come down to the natural requirement of accumulating experience and building potential - both the very entry into international business and further achievements in it will force the company to overcome certain thresholds: if at the initial stage this is at least a threshold, for example, of a quality level of the company’s goods and the rationality of its costs, allowing more or less normal sales of goods abroad, then as it develops, these are also issues of competent development of distribution, effective use international capital and labor markets, competent work with international transport networks, etc.

To all this one can object to the following: in the end, to one degree or another, gradation was observed before the era of globalization. What's new today? The answer is obvious: a different, fundamentally new technological basis.

3. Technological globalization. The possibilities of computerization, informatization and telecommunications have fundamentally changed the nature of international business, which in modern conditions has acquired three fundamentally new features:

It can be effectively carried out “without leaving the office”;

It can be carried out in real time;

It can, with the help of telecommunications, cover all the markets of goods, capital, labor, information, etc. that are of interest to a business.

4. “Financialization”. This term was coined by J.-P. Servan-Schreiber and very accurately reflects the most important feature of “globalized” international business: the financial content of international business transactions, from their conception to real result, becomes the core of international business, that peculiar center around which all interests, decisions, and strategies revolve.

Of course, even before the era of globalization, profit (and this, in the end - financial category) was the main goal of international business, but the essence of the new period is that the search and use of international competitive advantages now began to be firmly based on the achievements of financial management, the latest and numerous financial instruments growing out of the gigantic opportunities of the global financial market. Overlapping with the unique capabilities of computerization and telecommunications, financialization has become essentially the measure of excellence in any international business.

5. Complex interaction of national and international. Perhaps, on no single issue of international business has there been so much controversy among both researchers and practitioners as on the issue of the impact of convergent and divergent processes in the sphere of national cultures on the business life of the planet.

On the one hand, globalization clearly led and is leading to purely convergent processes: starting from jeans, televisions and hamburgers to the formation of some kind of multinational business culture, certain principles and rules of which are shared by almost the majority of serious businessmen in the world. But, on the other hand, national and cultural differentiation is growing, which in extreme forms of nationalism and/or religious intolerance manifests itself in severe conflict forms; It is obvious that there is a completely natural desire of peoples and ethnic communities to preserve their cultural and national values, attitudes, and behavioral stereotypes, to protect them from the eroding influence of some “average” (mainly, of course, American) mass culture. Often this desire takes the form of various kinds of restrictions and prohibitions specifically on international economic activity in a particular country.

And finally, professionals in the international business system are constantly convinced that although heightened national feelings bring many problems for their work, at the same time they also provide an interesting field for new achievements and powerful growth in the efficiency of intercountry business transactions, if they are correctly taken into account and The national-cultural moment is used competently.

Today it is hardly possible to unambiguously answer the question of what is more in modern international business - convergent or divergent, but both practitioners and theorists have no doubt about the main thing: an effective strategy of any company (with rare exceptions) in the era of globalization must combine within itself the maximum use of the national wherever possible. It is by no means accidental that in all the largest and even medium-sized business training centers in the world today, so much attention is paid to the disciplines of regional studies and national-cultural cycles. This knowledge is in demand today by the best practices of international business, and in this sense it is the most objective criterion of both the existence of the problem itself and its real significance.

An analysis of international business would be clearly incomplete if we did not pay attention to another of its most important features, namely, the importance of knowledge and competence in its effectiveness.

Indeed, no matter which of the characteristic features of the category under consideration we take, each of them depends decisively on the extent to which the company’s personnel actually have and, more importantly, are able to practically use the entire amount of knowledge, skills and abilities, without which entry into any area of ​​international business is not only ineffective, but often simply impossible. Let us once again look at the main conclusions of our analysis from this angle.

The accessibility and universality of international business, in a certain sense, is a provoking factor, since outwardly it makes entry into it quite easy. But the well-known slogan “Don’t get into international business without achieving success at home” serves as a kind of fuse here: businessmen who have gone through a serious business school at home will, of course, be quite cautious in their first steps abroad. And in this regard, stepwise development is a natural strategic line for the accumulation of knowledge. At the same time, it is not particularly important whether this knowledge will be technological, legal, etc. - what we are talking about is that the transition to each subsequent step is possible only with the appropriate “baggage” from all the company’s personnel, one way or another involved in these processes.

As for technological globalization and especially financialization, this is already a kind of aerobatics in terms of the level of knowledge that the company’s personnel possess in these most complex areas. This knowledge and the ability to use it introduce the company into the elite of international business, into that relatively small circle of corporations that, relying on the combination of computerization, telecommunications and the capabilities of financial markets and managing this triad through the competence of personnel, achieve the greatest heights of efficiency and maximum return on investment. international business resources. Directly adjacent to all this is the area of ​​the most subtle and least formalized knowledge: knowledge of cultural and national characteristics foreign business and the ability to use this knowledge not only to increase the efficiency of the company’s foreign operations, but also to obtain long-term social, political, psychological and other positive effects of activities in the host countries, without which there cannot be a modern business that is aware of its social responsibility to its own and to others countries.

To summarize, we can say that the modern process of international economic integration is objectively itself a product of the integration of knowledge - and not just knowledge, but ultra-modern and very dynamically updated knowledge. This knowledge system is increasingly generated by international business practices and is global by its very nature. This last remark is extremely important, since the effect of globalization, that is, the fact that this knowledge system is most effective precisely on the global business field, precisely determines the main distinctive feature modernity. If we go a little further, we can state with confidence: the non-participation of a company (especially a country) in international business today immediately and sharply limits business efficiency (potential and real) for the obvious reason that it cannot use not only the opportunities of international business, but also which is much more significant and weighty - global international business. At the same time, the ascent to each next step has strictly interconnected and constantly changing premises and consequences, namely:

Only the accumulation of an appropriate critical mass of knowledge and competence allows a company to move to next level globality in international business and, accordingly, potentially receive all the effects of this level;

On the other hand, one of the most important effects This (new) level of globalism is a new accumulation of knowledge and competence for further advancement. This dialectical relationship, however, needs one clarification.

We are far from thinking about some kind of automatism and predetermination of these transitions: dozens of reasons can slow it down, speed it up, block it altogether, or even reverse it - here are the actions of competitors, market dynamics, the general economic situation, and political and social changes. Many of these factors are exogenous to the firm and are not subject to any significant control. Nevertheless, if we look deeper into the essence of the phenomenon being analyzed, we come to two fairly objective conclusions.

Firstly, even the exogeneity of factors does not at all reduce the role of competence (for example, a company did not recognize the changing market conditions in time - but this is largely the level of competence of its marketers; the general economic situation worsened, and the company was unable to effectively compress its business in the most risky regions - but this is again a question of the level of competence of its managers).

Secondly, the direction and intensity of the transition are still largely determined by the strategy and political decisions of the owners and management of the company and in this sense, although not automatic, are still manageable to a certain extent.

These are, in basic terms, the important points that make the oft-quoted words of M. Pilditch especially relevant for international business: “The company needs to become a knowledge-oriented organization.” Perhaps the only clarification to this fundamental thought, adapting it to international business today, is “oriented towards integrated knowledge”, since it is the integrative nature and constant updating that form the basis for the effectiveness of the use of knowledge in international business in the era of globalization.

In this regard, it is useful and important to remember that the stage of development of a company in the field of international business operations, in turn, is seriously influenced by the stage of country development. J.-P. Servan-Schreiber quotes an interesting thought from one of the largest Italian entrepreneurs, Carlo de Benedetti: “Turkey is the Spain of twenty years ago and the Italy of forty years ago.” In this sense, a Turkish company operating on international market, must have knowledge and business competence of its personnel that is 20-40 years ahead of the real situation in its own country! Despite all the arithmetical conventions of the example, it is indicative in the following respect: a company operating in international business sets the bar for the knowledge and competence of its personnel when it chooses a country of penetration - and at the same time understands that the country’s known backwardness can various reasons be a source of additional profits both today and in the future. It is no coincidence that the end of Carlo de Benedetti’s above thought about Turkey sounds like this: “One fine day it will come to Europe. And today we pay an insignificant price for Turkey.”

With this remark we will complete the main consideration of the category “international business”, although in the future we will constantly return to its individual parts and characteristics, deepening and expanding the understanding of the category in relation to the objectives of our book. However, the results of the main consideration are quite sufficient to move on to a theoretical analysis of the central category of the textbook - the category of “international management”.

But this transition itself, naturally, requires a final systematization of those characteristic features that the category “international business” has and the study of which, in fact, is the subject of study in the first section.

So, analysis of international business in the context of problems effective management allows them to identify the following generic features:

1. Making a profit as a target determinant of conducting international business differs from a similar characteristic of country business by the desire to use the advantages of going beyond purely national borders for cost-effective business operations.

2. In an effort to realize these advantages (and to begin with, to find them), entrepreneurs strive to use additional economic opportunities arising from:

Resource features of foreign markets (meaning resources of any kind);

Capacities of foreign markets;

Legal features of foreign countries;

Specifics of intercountry (interstate) political and economic relationships regulated by appropriate forms of interstate interaction.

3. International business varies significantly depending on two main parameters of its development and, first of all, on the depth of involvement (level of internationalization). A kind of development axis “purely country business - multinational business” precisely includes the stages of growth of this level: from one-time export supplies to the foreign market to the developed structure of a multinational corporation, for which R&D, production and distribution are areas covering the entire globe and covering dozens of countries and hundreds of markets.

4. The more internationalized any country business is, the more global business services are available to it, that is, a package of various services that is absolutely independent of nationality and focused only on economic efficiency: from scientific to financial and from transport to the selection of international teams, which allows today to fully realize the opportunities of internationality in business.

5. There are a number of indispensable conditions that international business sets for any company seeking to seriously enter into it, and the most important of them is taking into account the cultural factor in business, that is, the entire set of requirements and restrictions imposed by the culture of a given country on those who conduct there is business in her (or with her). This problem is acute just to the extent that the cultures of the country where a given company is based and the country in which it is located differ. The gain (or loss) of additional profit due to the cultural factor depends, naturally, on the organization, situational factors, etc.

6. The global nature of international business is its most important defining feature today: it essentially embraces the global system of information business exchange, the global financial market, the global structure of technological innovation, etc. (and is itself covered by them). As we move from level to level of internationalization, the importance of how this quality manifests itself in this business or, more precisely, how the effectiveness of this business is determined by the use of globalization. And globalization itself organically intertwines within itself those five characteristic features that are noted above (accessibility and universality; stepwise development; technological globalization; financialization; divergent-convergent interaction of the national and international).

7. And finally, international business as a system of updated and complexly interacting professional knowledge of a fundamentally higher level than that found in any country business is another and, apparently, the most important modern characteristic of this category.

8. “Multi-surface” of contact with the market and “extraction” of the best national samples allows international business to constantly absorb the best in world practice. International business as a “pollinating bee” is of particular interest today.

9. Information is the main strategic resource, and adaptability is the main strategic weapon.

10. The fundamental difference between international business is the possibility of the so-called reverse assessment of the country situation: negative trends in the country’s economy (or its individual industry) can be assessed completely differently by an international company, since it is these trends that can open up additional business opportunities for the company.

11. Unlike intra-country competition, international business can feel the support of its state in the fight against competitors in many implicit forms.

Based on this systematization, a comparative table “Country business - international business” has been compiled, which, in turn, will serve as a constructive mechanism for the transition from a country management model to an international one. The final comparative analysis carried out within its framework now allows us to quite clearly define and constructively consider the category of “international management”.