LEE SPITZLEY AND RICH YUEH A summary of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Friedman

Overview How the world became flat  Ten forces  Triple convergence  The great sorting out America and the flat world Other topics Discussion Spitzley & Yueh

How the world became flat Spitzley & Yueh

Introduction Origins of Friedman’s inspiration International collaboration Research style Spitzley & Yueh

Ten flatteners 1. Fall of the Berlin Wall 2. Netscape 3. Workflow software 4. Uploading 5. Outsourcing Y2K Spitzley & Yueh

Let’s Discuss What psychological impacts resulted from the fall of the Berlin Wall?  Removal of “barriers,” open global communication What is a modern day “Berlin Wall?” Has it been removed? / How can it be removed? Spitzley & Yueh

Ten flatteners Offshoring Supply-chaining Insourcing  His term for domestic outsourcing In-forming The steroids  Mobile devices, not BALCO Spitzley & Yueh

Let’s Discuss Are “steroids” a modern day “Berlin Wall?” Can in-forming be a bad thing?  WebMD Spitzley & Yueh

The triple convergence Convergence 1: Workflow software integration Convergence 2: Adjustment to technology Convergence 3: New players Spitzley & Yueh

What’s next? Spitzley & Yueh

The great sorting out Connect and collaborate “Horizontalization” International laws and barriers Intellectual property Spitzley & Yueh

Let’s Discuss Case examples  Victor’s data collection  CMI AVATAR Qualitative research  Interpretivism is creating knowledge about the inferences people draw from and the meanings people ascribe to the words and actions of others  Phenomenon  Horizontalization – all data has equal weight; qualities are described, experiences are linked, full description is derived Spitzley & Yueh

America and the flat world Ricardo’s comparative advantage Free trade Spitzley & Yueh

Other topics The right kind of work The value of education Synthesize, explain, leverage, & adapt Passion for learning Spitzley & Yueh

Let’s Conclude Reflect Adapt Learn to learn Spitzley & Yueh

General Discussion Spitzley & Yueh

Discussion Do you agree with his findings? What shortcomings does this book have? Research methods? Spitzley & Yueh

Implications as researchers Less than 10% of management research covers international management (Werner, 2002) Competition from other researchers outside the US Spitzley & Yueh

The influence on the US Leamer (2007) Spitzley & Yueh

What did Friedman miss? Distance!  Cultural  Less than 5% of phone calls are international  Political and regulatory  Less than 10% of direct investment is international  Ghemawat (2007) covers many differences and how to adapt 88% of Fortune 500 firms had at least 50% of sales in their home regions (Rugman & Verbeke, 2004) Spitzley & Yueh

References Friedman, T. L. (2007). “The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century.” 3 rd ed. Picador, New York, NY. Ghemawat, P. (2007). “Redefining global strategy: Crossing borders in a world where distances still matter.” Harvard Business School Publishing. Boston, Massachusetts. Leamer, E. E. (2007). “A flat world, a level playing field, a small world after all, or none of the above? A review of Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat.” Journal of Economic Literature 45(1): 83–126. Rugman, A. M., and A. Verbeke “A perspective on regional and global strategies of multinational enterprises.” Journal of International Business Studies 35(1): 3–18. Werner, S “Recent developments in international management research: A review of 20 top management journals.” Journal of Management 28(3): 277–305. Spitzley & Yueh