Cases in the Environment of Business or Germany since 1945

Cases in the Environment of Business: International Perspectives

Author: David W Conklin

The Ivey Casebooks Series is a co-publishing partnership between SAGE Publications and the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. Due to their popularity in more than 60 countries, approximately 200 new cases are added to the Ivey School of Business library each year. Each of the casebooks comes equipped with instructor's resources on CD-ROM. These affordable collections will not only help students connect to real-world situations, but will benefit corporations seeking continued education in the field as well.  

Broadening the scope of environmental forces to a global rather than a domestic context leads to cross-country comparisons that add complexity to the subject matter, enrich analytical theories, and heighten the interest of students. Students gain an appreciation for the many ways in which environmental forces interact, creating a set of risks and opportunities that is unique in each country and that must be evaluated in formulating trade and investment decisions.

Cases in the Environment of Business offers an outstanding collection of relevant, classroom-tested cases.  In discussing the cases, students will participate in managerial decisions in an international context.  Most cases deal with a variety of environmental forces, but generally a single set of forces plays a predominant role. The instructor's resources on CD-ROM includes detailed 6-10 page casenotes for each case, preparation questions for students to review before class, discussion questions, and suggested further readings.


Cases in the Environment of Businessaddresses the following five sets of environmental forces:

• Industry Structure Responses to strategies of customers, suppliers, and competitors, ; dependence of profitability on unique value-added attributesand the shift of certain activities to low-wage countries
• Macroeconomic Variables Income levels and growth rates, foreign exchange rates, inflation rates, interest rates, and unemployment rates
• Political Variables Regulations, financial incentives, taxation, foreign investment restrictions, and international trade and investment agreements
• Societal Variables Labor and environmental practices, ethics, corporate social responsibility, boards of directors, and demographics
• Technological Variables Technological  infrastructure and the pace and direction of technological changes, including, in particular, the Internet and e-business.    

The IVEY Casebook Series
Cases in Business Ethics Cases in Entrepreneurship Cases in Gender & Diversity in Organizations Cases in Operations Management Cases in Organizational Behavior Cases in the Environment of Business Cases in Alliance Management
Mergers and Acquisitions: Text and Cases

Table of Contents:

	Introduction to the Ivey casebook series
1	The dependence of profitability on industry structure	1
2	Understanding and managing macroeconomic risks	117
3	Managing within alternative government structures	249
4	Responding to societal forces	389
5	Investment decisions in the context of technological changes	465
6	Integrative cases	559

Interesting book: Volkswirtschaft und die Theorie von Spielen

Germany since 1945

Author: Lothar Kettenacker

Defeat and unconditional surrender were the foundations on which postwar Germany was built. The overall impact, however, was not apathy, but a mentality which was down to earth, pragmatic, and forward-looking. Crucial structures survived which contributed to West Germany's phenomenal recovery, while the East was forced to submit to a ruthless Soviet leadership. Kettenacker's book offers a fascinating survey of the fortunes and features of East and West Germany--how the two states drifted apart; the differences between their economies, politics, and cultures; and the problems and events surrounding their recent unification.