Book Review: The Competitive Advantage of Nations

This is crucial reading for any student interested in international business.

This book by Michael Porter explores the reasons why any nation develops a competitive advantage in an industry. The answers often lie in national historical experiences, education, the nature of government regulation, access to capital, and geographic necessity.

Fascinating studies of why certain countries export chemicals, some excel in container ships, still others make the best appliances and more. Colorful analysis too of that elusive thing "national character" that will teach you how to approach this seemingly vague construct with analytical tools. The levels of trust, competitiveness (both good and bad), collaboration, openness to innovation and more traits are discussed.

After you identify and use an advantage, you must defend it! Author Michael Porter consistently stresses education as crucial in developing and maintaining competitive advantage. There are some case studies of some industries in Great Britain and United States losing their advantage, so pay attention!

Learn to analyze a country (including America) and then identify advantages.

Scarecrow Books are Great Intros for Complex Topics

All Scarecrow Press books here. The first one somehow isn't Scarecrow and then the rest are.

I have fond memories of Scarecrow Press. If you needed an introduction or overview of almost anything – the history of Panama, anthropological theorists, you name it - you would eventually run into Scarecrow Press.

Just a couple of hours reading these books did wonders to increase your comprehension of advanced or graduate-level courses.

You can either search the link above or type in your keyword and then the word Scarecrow.

Editorial: What Are Libraries Good For Anyway?

So I get this question sometimes.  Here's my answer.

The library does make its resources available on the Internet.  All you need to do is use our databases or if you are not affiliated with the university, you can get access through your local public library.

The library has a public institution, democratic mandate to make its resources available to all people. This is not true of for-profit companies, like Google, who have no ethical responsibility at all or legal mandate to provide you access to information.

When you find a good academic information on the Internet, it's because a library or a similar nonprofit institution put it there. Google didn't put it there.

You cannot depend on random people to post resources on the web.  First, they could take it down, die, or very likely do not own the copyright and will be forced to take the material down. Besides, random people more than likely do not own the back issues of important academic journals or rare historical material.

It's a really bad idea to digitize everything and then destroy the physical copies.  First of all, overcentralization leads to the risk of unforeseen system failure.  Then you have the risk of
cyber-terrorism.  Finally you have the risk that powerful forces decide to alter the historic or scholarly record in ways that will be undetectable to many people.  Or god forbid choose to destroy the cultural record of the people, as has been done many times throughout history.

Finally, print will always be relevant.  Internet-based databases are a wonderful finding tool.  But computer screens are not conducive to high level thinking and reflection.  When's the last time you spent more than 20 minutes reading something on a computer screen line by line?  Print and literacy produce higher-level abstract thinking and higher cognitive function.

Link to Federal Reserve Speeches

Here's the link to past Fed Reserve speeches.

Don't fight the Fed, as they say. The speeches tell you what the Fed is going to do and their thought process. Right or wrong, they make the market, so listen.

Herbalife, Pyramid Schemes and John Oliver's Take

Multilevel marketing, or for some people, pyramid schemes, have been in the news recently. Tune in for a lively critique of this business model.

Mergent Tutorial

Here's a tutorial about using our database Mergent. It's a great way to do advanced company financials research.

Vemma Drink Biz Model Controversy

From Rolling Stone:

"Vemma is the latest mutation of an American invention. Multilevel marketing began in the middle of the past century with one company, a predecessor of Amway. The idea was simple: Instead of just selling a product, you could recruit people to sell it, too. Then, when they made a sale, you both shared in the profit. Recruiting soon became a lot more profitable than merely selling, a shift in incentives that produced a first in American consumerism: Suddenly the pitch was more important than the product. In some cases it wasn't necessary to even have a product. For some 50 years, lawmakers, consumer advocates and lobbying groups have argued over whether this unique setup constitutes a legitimate business or something more sinister, like an illegal pyramid scheme"