Humanistic Perspectives on International Business and Management

The world is witnessing a number of severe crises including climate change, rise of international terrorism, social inequities, food shortage, material and spiritual poverty. Some argue that globalization has exacerbated these crises, while others argue globalization can be part of the solution. Globalization, understood as the cross-border integration of markets for products, labor, capital and knowledge, clearly is a force that has the potential to change the experience of human existence as well as its consequences for current and future ecosystems. These changes are driven by the increasing interconnectedness of financial systems, international trade, increased labor mobility, information and communications technology, and foreign direct investment.

Some scholars argue that we have moved beyond the age of globalization towards an age of globality. In such an age, individual actions, local business practices and national politics all have global impact. It therefore matters on more than one level about how we think about business in a global community. In Humanistic Perspectives on International Business and Management, the contributing authors provide space to global perspectives on how we can rethink and reposition international business and management practice to be a part of the solution to our global problems. These contributions provide impetus for further research, practice and pedagogy development.

Nathaniel C. Lupton is Assistant Professor of Management Systems at Fordham University, USA. His research interests include the internationalization and knowledge management processes within multinational enterprises, innovation and economic development, and foreign direct investment. His research has been published in Academy of Management Perspectives, International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, Journal of Knowledge Management and Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations. Currently, Nathaniel is working on research projects related to leveraging combinations of scientific and traditional forms of knowledge, different approaches to innovation and new value creation, primarily in the context of emerging economies, especially India.

Michael Pirson is an Associate Professor of Management Systems at Fordham University, USA. Before beginning his academic career, he worked for an international consulting group for several years and then started his own private consultancy. He has worked for and with businesses, nonprofits, embassies, political campaigns, and local and national governments in Switzerland, France, China, Costa Roca and the United States. He is founding partner of the Humanistic Management Network, an organization that brings together scholars, practitioners and policymakers around the common goal of creating a 'life-conducive' economic system, and a research fellow at Harvard University and serves on the boards of three social enterprises in the United States.