I am happy to announce that my book titled “International Business” has been published in Last week of May 2025 by Himalaya Publishing House its ISBN Number is 978-93-6557-175-2. 

This book “International Business” is comprehensive and practical, covering core concepts with real-world examples, caselets, case studies, and organizational consequences. It is up to date with current events and research. The book covers major aspects of international business, including globalization, international trade, foreign direct investment, international finance, international marketing, MNCs and their subsidiaries, CAGE model, Diamond model and international strategies. The book incorporates the latest events, statistics, and research findings in the field. The material is lucid for the students; it talks about how to apply concepts in real-world business situations. The language is clear and brief, avoiding unnecessary jargons. The author has created a clear and logical structure, making it easy for students to follow the flow of information. 

Globally, the Indian market is termed as ‘emerging’ market. The Indian academia is also evolving to compete with the briskly changing global market due to the VUCA. This book is an attempt in the backdrop of such evolving academia. Based on the feedback received from students and faculty on my earlier publications, I felt that there was a distinctive need for a reference book that connects the conceptual field of consumer behaviour with more emphasis on the Indian context, not only in terms of basic concepts but also in terms of examples and caselets.

The following objectives have been covered in the book:

• Attract foreign demand.
• Utilize technology.
• Use of economic resources in form of mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures etc.
• International diversification.
• Exporting goods and services.
• Giving license to produce goods in the host country.
• Global customer base.
• Facilitates the transfer of technology, knowledge, and resources between countries, contributing to economic development.

The book covers the latest syllabi in total eight chapters.

1. Introduction to International Trade

2. Evaluating Country Attractiveness

3. Understanding Cultural Difference and its impact of Business

4. International Finance Decision

5. Forex Markets

6. WTO Regional Trade

7. Managing MNCs and subsidiaries

8. Impact of I-R Model on Subsidiary Management

In his ground-breaking book, Blinded by Science, published in 2011, Mathew Silverstone reveals many new evidences to prove that in so many ways we damage our health blindly following science and technology. He talks about how trees, plants, water, the sun and the moon can all play a role in our daily lives to make feel good and balancing our lives. We therefore need to take good care of environment because the ecosystem including all the communities of living organisms found in a specific place, their habitats and their interactions in which we live provides natural services for humans and all other species that are essential to our health, quality of life and survival. We must for our good nurture Mother Nature.

We are so blinded by science & technology that we ignore our environment totally. Our over dependence on medical science blinds us to so many side effects because of consuming them;    drugs interfere with the way neurons send, receive, and process signals via neurotransmitters in our body. We blindly consume drugs as per prescription without a second thought. Their chemical structure has uncountable side effects on our body that work inside the gastrointestinal system. Most drugs can cause nausea or an upset stomach. For drugs used on our skin, rashes and irritation is a common complain, https://clubgreenwood.com/CGstore/soma-carisoprodol/.

Has science explained all facts of the world we live in? It’s worth noting why Matthew Silverstone, a serial entrepreneur wrote this record breaking book when his career came to a halt midway because of a rare illness of his son, Mathew and his wife had to give rest to their careers to take care of their son. The boy was going down steadily with hardly any energy to do anything even in early mornings. When a friend suggested that junior Silverstone should hug a tree in the garden daily for long periods of time, the father and mother mocked the friend with their exposure to “scientific” facts.

The distressed son however took Silverstone’s friend’s advice religiously. As the son gradually improved to the sheer cynicism of both the parents, they wanted to know what he does. They saw him hugging a tree in their garden every morning for an hour. Boy recovered completely. The father wanted to know if there is any “scientific” basis for this subjective miracle. Although Mathew is not a PhD or MD, he became a shade better than
both of those put together.

He started questioning everything that he had been told about science. He comes from a very traditional medical background, both his brother and father are Professors of medicine, so it was not easy for him to shed off his traditional medical ideas and start questioning the very foundation of these concepts. Once he started to do so, and found that the answers to the questions were not what he thought, he started to treat the whole idea as if it were a new business and spent two years researching and developing the ideas behind his book Blinded by Science.

Science is based on factual data. Each query can be proved with the researched data. What cannot be answered in science but is a factual experience of people goes into the area of metaphysics which is a major branch of philosophy. It concerns existence and the nature of things that exist. Metaphysics is a sum of theory of reality of what cannot be reached through objective studies of material reality. Physics is usually meant to be a study of our physical world, as far as we can study it by experimentation, things that can be measured, weighed and counted.  Whereas, metaphysics (Meta = beyond) attempts to deal with that which is beyond the reach of physics.

Our understanding of metaphysics forms our thinking; how we apply our interpreted perspectives, our awareness to our lives. If someone is asked his/her philosophy regarding the true nature of all things, the answer would be a reflection of how he/she thinks, believes, and feels about self, others, the world, the universe, God, and nature. It would also be an indication of the actions this person takes when faced with decisions in regards to morality, ethics, relationships, work, health, recreation, study, and all aspects of their daily lives.

Mathew Silverstone has covered following chapters in his book: 

Vibration

All things in our universe are constantly in motion, vibrating. Even objects that appear to be stationary are in fact vibrating, oscillating, and resonating, at various frequencies. And ultimately all matter is just vibrations of various underlying fields. As such, at every scale, all of nature vibrates.

Water

Water is so much more than we think. Water has ability to retain memory – called water memory. During the 1990’s, Dr. Masaru Emoto performed a series of experiments observing the substantial effect of words, prayers, music and environment on the crystalline structure of water. Emoto is a Japanese doctor of alternative medicine and a scientist with an open mind. Water can answer so many unsolved questions which science cannot.

Sun & Moon

Sun and moon affect us physiologically; such as our thyroid glands, or sleep pattern, the way we feel. Tides are the result of the gravitational haul from the Moon and Sun that the Earth feels. If we disregard the Sun for now, the Earth’s oceans facing the Moon bulge up in response to the lunar gravitational force: a high tide. The Sun’s influence on tides is just under half as strong as the Moon’s. We cannot imagine life on earth without sun and moon.

Magnetism

Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield for us! Earth’s magnetic field does not move quickly or reverse often. Therefore, it can be a useful tool for helping people find their way around. For hundreds of years, people have used magnetic compasses to navigate using Earth’s magnetic field. They cause major illnesses such as diabetes, chronic fatigue, balancing of our body etc. Vegetation grow because of earth’s magnetism.

Bees and birds

The decline in the bee population is a catastrophe. If the bee population declines it is very dangerous for our survival. The decline can cause our food supply is in grave danger. Bees allow plants to pollinate and without pollination new plants are not created. If the bees collapse and die out then so does a large proportion of the world’s food supplies. Bees and birds are not only extremely important for humans, but also for entire ecosystems to function.

Our over dependence on technology

The author asks whether the benefits of progress in technology are really worth the damage they are doing to our health? According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in 1985 the global population of diabetics was thirty million, 0.6% of the world population. This increased to one hundred and seventy one million, (2.8% of the global population) by 2000 and it is expected to more than double to three hundred and sixty six million, (4.5% of the global population) by 2030. Doctors attribute this rise in diabetes to poor diet and limited exercise, resulting in obesity and seldom look for causes other than lifestyle and genetics. We are over dependent on mobile phone and Internet. We are overly dependent on technology. Roots are playing a major role in industry, medical science, education and many other walks of life which is certainly not a good sign. The overuse of technology can lead to our dependence on it, in multiple ways. Let us make an effort to reduce it before it is too late.

Industry analysis is a strategic tool designed for market assessment to provide a business with an idea about complexity of a particular industry. The industry analysis involves reviewing the economic, political and market factors that influence the way the industry has developed and is performing.  Major factors include the power exerted by buyers and suppliers, how competitive the market is and the likelihood of new entrants. Small as well as big businesses often spend a large chunk of time planning their firm’s operations. Majority of that time is spent planning initial operations and expected financial returns. Once the business is in progress, business owners continue the planning process to ensure their venture remains profitable. Industry analysis is an important part of a business planning. This analysis often looks at the external factors that can affect a company.

Industry analysis enables a company to develop competitive strategies to survive in a market and using the forces in its favor. The key to developing a competitive strategy is to understand the sources of the competitive forces. By developing an understanding of these competitive forces, the company can:

• Emphasize on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).
• Elevate its position in the industry.
• Clarify areas where strategic changes will result in the greatest payoffs.
• Emphasize areas where industry trends indicate the greatest significance as either opportunities or threats.
• Trim down weaknesses and threats by using competitive advantages.

Everything that goes on in the industry and the external factors affect the businesses existing businesses. Therefore a better understanding of the industry helps a business survive better. More understanding of the industry highlights chances of prosperity for a business as it has more advantage and protection. While preparing a business plan the general industry economics, participants, distribution patterns, factors in the competition is described to portray the survival and growth of a business. The internet has created an enormous impact on the state of industry information. Finding information isn’t really a problem anymore. Today at click of button, loads of information is accessed by anybody. The Internet has brought in a lot of transparency. Two decades back, dealing with information was more of a problem of sorting through it all than of finding raw data. Today, there are websites for business analysis, financial statistics, demographics, government policies, trade associations, suppliers, buyers, supply chain managers – you name it and just about everything and you will have access to all that is required for making a business plan and industry analysis.

For making an accurate industry analysis you must know:

Industry participants: You should know who else sells in your market. You can’t easily describe a type of business without describing the nature of the participants. There is a huge difference, for example, between an industry like broadband television services, in which there are only a few huge companies in most of the countries, and one like dry cleaning, in which there are tens of thousands of smaller participants. The participants in the industry have their own style of running their businesses. The leaders in the industry call the shots. The procedures in the industry can change suddenly, which in turn can challenge operations of many smaller companies.  Today we see that the fast food business is composed of a few international brands participating in thousands of branded outlets, many of them are franchised. We have a gamut of local, national and multi-national chains evolved and the scenario which looks very competitive.

Economists talk of consolidation as an encouraging economic parameter; we see smaller participants disappearing from the market and a few large players emerging. In accounting, the majority of the world’s auditing services are performed by only four accounting firms. Known as the ‘Big 4’, these firms completely dominate the industry, auditing more than 80 percent of all US public companies. In addition, these mammoth organizations advise on tax and offer a wide range of management and assurance services. They are Deloitte LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG.

The last major change to the fortunes of the global accounting firms followed the collapse of the Enron Corporation which was audited by Arthur Anderson. In the outcome of the collapse, the accounts company was found guilty of criminal charges relating to its business practices. Although the conviction was eventually overturned, the damage to its reputation meant Arthur Andersen was unable to recover and eventually sold most of its business to members of what would come to be known as the Big 4.

Distribution Pattern: Products and services can follow many paths between suppliers and users. One needs to know how distribution works in an industry. Each sector has its distribution pattern set. One needs to see whether in a particular industry retailers are supported by regional distributors, as is the case for computer products, magazines, or auto parts. Does an industry depend on direct sales to large industrial customers? Do manufacturers support their own direct sales forces, or do they work with product representatives? Brilliant marketing logistics covers physical distribution plus managing marketing channels. The importance of transportation to economic growth and productivity is undisputed. Transportation confers place-utility and time-utility to products and services.  At the macro level, progressive transportation modes contribute handsomely to the national economy. At the micro level, techniques have been developed and refined for determining the economic impact of transportation programs and projects. It has been observed that there is a shift in hiring services of contracted and third party transporters by many organizations.

Some products are almost always sold through retail stores to consumers, and sometimes these are distributed by distribution companies that buy from manufacturers. In other cases, the products are sold directly from manufacturers to stores. Some products are sold directly from the manufacturer to the final consumer through mail campaigns, national advertising, or other promotional means.

In many product categories there are several alternatives, and distribution choices are strategic. Encyclopedias and vacuum cleaners are traditionally sold door-to-door, but are also sold in stores and direct from manufacturer to consumer through radio and television ads.

Technology can change the patterns of distribution in an industry or product category. The internet, for example, changed options for software distribution, books, music, and other products. Cable communication is changing the options for distributing video products and video games. Distribution patterns may not be as critical to most service companies, because distribution is normally about physical distribution of specific physical products such as a restaurant, graphic artist, professional services practice, or architect.

So far the pharmaceutical companies used to sell medicine stocks directly to 5000 odd stockiest and distributors, they in turn sell the products to 10000 wholesalers and the wholesalers then sell them to six lakh retailers. This trade practice has been existed in the industry for several years and All India Organization of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) was directly controlling this arrangement disliked by many pharma companies and patient community.

Industry sources said that the new order in the pharmaceutical trade is going to be in place in Maharashtra to start with. The representatives of the pharma trade and industry had a meeting with the Commissioner of Food & Drug Administration last week and he is understood to have told the industry and trade that no wholesaler should be denied direct supplies of drugs by the manufacturer. Denial of drug supply to any wholesaler would amount to restrictive trade practice and will be in violation of the Drug Price Control Order and Competition Act attracting penal action. The new distribution system will be enforced by other states also shortly. Drug manufacturers are not however happy with the new distribution system as they may have to deal with a large number of wholesalers now onwards and that may add to additional costs.

Competition: It is essential to understand the nature of competition in your industry. This is still in the general area of describing the industry or type of business. Explain the general nature of competition in this business, and how the customers seem to choose one provider over another. What are the keys to success? What buying factors make the most difference? Is it price? Product features? Is it service? Support, training, delivery schedules what is it? Are brand names important in the market? Which are the leading brands, why are they leading? What positioning strategies have been used by the marketers? So you see there is so much to find out about the competition.

The market is determined by supply and demand. Creating and maintaining relationship with customers is become an inseparable part of business. The concept of CRM is viewed differently in different sectors of business. Customer relationship or customer care is not just being polite to them – it is looking at the entire customer experience – or walking in the shoes of the customers. This journey starts before you even meet your customer, the trick is to forget all that you know or think you know about the market. Start thinking why your customers would want to buy your product? How it would solve their problems? How the substitute product would satisfy their needs? How you product reaches them in time? With companies offering technology-based solutions for everything, customer care has become more important than ever before. Sales literature and indeed entire campaigns are based on describing the technology, usage, power of the product, marketing channel details, price points etc.

In the computer business, for example, competition might depend on reputation and trends in one part of the market, and on channels of distribution and advertising in another. In many business-to-business industries, the nature of competition depends on direct selling, because channels are impractical. Price is vital in products competing with each other on retail shelves, but delivery and reliability might be much more important for materials used by manufacturers in volume, for which a shortage can affect an entire production line.

Market leaders: The market leader is dominant in its industry and has substantial market share. If you want to lead the market, you must be the industry leader in establishing an innovation friendly organization, developing new business models and new products or services. The market leaders usually have the cutting edge technologies. They offer superior solutions to the customer’s problems. And, most importantly their products are well differentiated. Market ledgers have an edge over the other players in the market. They make the strategic changes and changes in the policies.  The following graph shows strengths and challenges in the construction sector of India.

India is on the verge of witnessing a sustained growth in infrastructure build up. The construction industry has been witness to a strong growth wave powered by large spends on housing, road, ports, water supply, and rail transport and airport development. While the construction sector’s growth has fallen as compared to the pre-2008 period, it has picked up in the recent past. Its share as a percentage of GDP has increased considerably as compared to the last decade. To put things in perspective, the total investment in infrastructure – which in this case also includes roads, railways, ports, airports, electricity, telecommunications, oil gas pipelines and irrigation – is estimated to have increased from 5.7% of GDP in 2007 to around 8.0% by 2012. The Planning Commission of India has proposed an investment of around US$ 1 trillion in the Twelfth five-year plan (2012-2017), which is double of that in the Eleventh five-year plan.

Besides Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON), National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), Rail India Transportation and Engineering Services (RITES), Engineers India Limited (EIL), in private sector M N Dastur and Co, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), L&T and GVK are leaders.

Industry reports are prepared by the following:

Government Agencies: They prepare and compile various industry reports to judge the overall economic health of the nation. Examples of these are reports by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Research Firms: These firms conduct market surveys and compile different industry reports and sell them to companies and government organizations. These reports are purchased to facilitate decision making. Firms such as PWC, Ernst & Young, IMBR are famous for preparing industry analysis reports.

Individual Companies: Different companies in an industry prepare industry reports for their own use in order to facilitate decision marking and internal management. These industry reports are generally not available to outsiders.

An Industry report consists of the following elements:

Industry definition: An industry report includes a comprehensive definition of the industry, mentioning what the industry includes and what comes outside its purview.

Major industry players: It mentions the names and other relevant information about major companies that generate the largest revenue in the industry.

Market share: The report presents a breakdown of the different markets of the industry and its share in each market.

Historical and current trends: These trends include the facts and figures (such as revenue, sales and profits) of various companies in the industry. Historical trends in the industry are generally presented for five to ten years and the current trend pertaining to the prior financial year.

Employment statistics: It includes an account of the total employment figures and distribution in different companies within the industry. Key statistics also include the composition of men and women in the labor force.

SWOT analysis: This is an overall analysis of the industry in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Achievements: It mentions the significant milestones and achievements of the industry. This could include new innovations in the industry or the industry’s contribution to social-economic development.

Outlook: The report includes the prospects of the existing companies in the industry as well as the scope for new players.

An industry report contains graphs, charts and tables, generally supported by written commentary. This enables even non-professionals to get an understanding of the industry.

Some important insights such as low cost production structure (compared to the industry cost structure) could be through economies of scale or other operational efficiencies, strong technology capability, location to customers (if close, time to deliver to market will be relatively fast and shipping costs will be low) and sustainability of the business if taken into account in analyzing the industry will be of great help.

It is critical that you understand what an industry’s key success factors are; the only way to discover them is to do a thorough industry analysis.

Innovation stimulates growth of a business. The ability to keep on generating winning ideas for new products and services is one of the keys to business success. Entrepreneurs value innovations; they have a natural instinct regarding innovations, because they know that innovations in products, service, or a business process make their business unique, allowing the business to acquire core competence.

Innovations in business need to be diffused in society. When new products are introduced in markets they do not get adopted by consumers very easily. People are generally averse to adopting new ideas, new products, new theories, and new concepts because for fear of failure. Lot of research has been conducted in social science on the topic of adoption of newness and it is found that people who adopt an innovation easily and relatively early have different characteristics than people who adopt an innovation later.  Therefore, marketers study the target markets before launching their products. It is important to understand the characteristics of the target population because they might help or hold back adoption of the new product.

‘Diffusion’ as a concept was first introduced by a French sociologist Gabriel Tarde in late 19th century. Later it was elucidated by German and Austrian anthropologists Friedrich Ratzel and Leo Leo Frobenius.

In early 1920s and 1930s agricultural technology was advancing at a faster pace. Farmers had started adopting hybrid seeds, fertilizers, agricultural equipments and technologies for augmenting their produce. In 1943, in Lowa, Ryan and Gross, both social scientists made concrete observation and finding on the topic of diffusion of innovation; they researched the pattern of adoption of hybrid corn seeds by farmers. Thus first time diffusion of innovation was studied in rural context. It first made its mark in rural sociology. Diffusion of Innovation has been applied to numerous contexts since then; marketing, city development, medical sociology, health science, health promotion, research, knowledge management, and many complex areas.  Diffusion of Innovation has particularly been used to large extent in the field of medical sciences, medical technique and health communication.

In 1962, Everett Rogers, a professor of Communication Studies, published his seminal work: Diffusion of Innovations. Rogers produced his research from over 508 diffusion studies across the fields that initially influenced the theory. Among the topic were anthropology, sociology, rural sociology, education, and medical sociology. Everett Rogers produced a theory of the adoption of innovations among individuals and organizations. Later, he published in his first edition of book in the same year.

Rogers recommended that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, occasion (time), and a social system. This process relies heavily on psychologies of people. The innovation must be widely adopted in order to get accepted and self-sustain. Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass. The expansion of the car industry is well described and is a classical example to describe the diffusion of innovation theory. The modern communication is infusing more and more innovation in the cars. The car industry is approaching a dramatic shift entering into a new phase of communication driven by modern communication technology and environmental concerns. The new car models will sooner or later have smart phones on wheels.

The categories of adopters are: innovators, early adaptors, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Diffusion manifests itself in different ways in various cultures and fields and is highly subject to the type of adopters and innovation-decision process.

Innovators: These are enthusiastic customers who want to be the first ones to try the innovation. They are adventurous and interested in trying out new ideas, services and products. These people are risk takers, and do not shy from trying out and sometimes getting bad results in trying new products. They are the ones to be tapped to reach out and market new products.

Early Adopters: These are opinion leaders in the markets. They enjoy leadership roles and are relatively flexible to adopt changed opportunities. They are already aware of the need to change; they are always on lookout for more progressive changes in the society. Strategies to appeal to this population include detailed ‘how-to’ manuals and information sheets on implementation. They don’t need to be perused too much to buy new products. They are more than eager themselves for change. Early adopters are typically described as curious, exploratory consumers who buy first, talk fast and spread the word to others about the pros and cons of what they have purchased.

Early Majority: These people are rarely leaders, but they do adopt new ideas before the average person. They are observant and patient by nature. They like to satisfy themselves by seeing others comfortably using the new product, idea or theory. They look out for evidence that the innovation works before they buy and adopt it. Strategies to appeal to this population include success stories and verification of the innovation’s effectiveness. They rely a lot on evidences.

Late Majority: These people are skeptical of change; they will adopt an innovation only after it has been tried by the majority. They like to go by statistical proof on how many people have tried and are happy with new product. Strategies to appeal to this population include information on how many other people have tried the innovation and have adopted it successfully. They need statistical sheets for studying.

Laggards: These people are bound by tradition and are very conservative. They are very skeptical of change and are the hardest group to please. They are averse to change. Strategies to appeal to this population include statistics, fear appeals, and pressure from people in the other adopter groups.

This example might be apt in expressing how diffusion of innovation worked in case of smart phone in America. The 2.5% Innovators were tapped in February 2007; one month after the iPhone was announced. They were all BlackBerry users. The Early Adopters (the 13.5% which followed the innovators) were all using smart phones by the beginning of 2010. They were served mainly by iPhone 3GS and Blackberries. The Early Majority (34%) were on board by October 2012, just in time for iPhone 4, Android, Galaxy. We see now the Late majority (34%) which will run out by November 2015 and Laggards (16%) would get anyways dragged to buy smart phones only when they go in to replace their old phones. The iPhone 5S came out about one third of the way through this period. So, Americans need more innovative smart phones as more than 50% market is already penetrated.

People are not born as particular a particular category of adaptors:

If a person in early adopter in case of buying a car or a smart phone, he might be late majority or laggard while considering a Post Graduation degree program. A person who might be innovator in watching any new movie might be laggard when it comes to investing in mutual fund. So it is not a hard and fast rule that people are born as innovators, early adaptors, early majority, late majority and laggards.

Factors which influence adoption:

While buying any product customers do look out for less complex products. Product description should be short and in simple language. People like compatibility with the product they buy. Compatibility refers to the offering’s philosophy, culture and values. In short, how easily can the customers integrate the product’s offering in their lives is important. Customers also look out for relative advantage of the product. This means how much improvement the new product is offering. Clearly, communication has a big role to play here. The product must be easy to try out. How easy the offering is to experiment with will have a big impact on adoption rates.  And last, but not the least peer influence matters a lot in adoption of new product and service even in case of early adaptors; built-in social networking such as face book, WhatsApp, Linkedin apps that update your timeline show friends using the product or services that prompt you to buy with a post or a tweet of theirs.