Editors: Vas Taras and Maria Alejandra Gonzales-Perez
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan – 900 pages
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram

The core thesis of this book is that the basis of all learning is experience. If you read, you are essentially learning from the experience of the writer, of some event. If you watch a movie or a television program, the author has put his experiences down on paper and the script writer has adapted the writing to enable it for easier use in the electronic media.

It is generally agreed that there is no better way to learn than through personally experiencing an activity, and better still, doing that activity. If you were a medical resident, would you learn better watching a surgeon perform an operation or actually doing the operative procedure yourself? Of course watching first is a requirement for learning, but acquiring surgical skills demands that you practice doing (often many times) what you see done.

In the same way, learning to do international business requires doing the business. For example, exporting products made in the United States requires selling those products to say, Chinese importing companies. But before you get your first order, a lot of knowledge has to be acquired.

You need to look first of all, at the competitive aspects of the product you are offering, such as the value you are offering, which is a combination of its quality, price, and delivery situation.

This thick book, chock full of information, contains the writings of 88 researchers and professors on several areas of study in international business. Most of the contributors are in the United States, but they are also in several other countries (in almost all continents of the world) namely: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

You will find in the 52 chapters of this work a wide range of subjects on many aspects of international commerce. But all its contents are organized around two broad Parts:

I. Theories and Concepts of Experiential Learning in International Business / International Management

 II. Examples of Experiential Learning Projects in International Business / International Management

 

Editors:

Vas Taras received his PhD in International Human Resource Management and Organizational Dynamics from the University of Calgary in Canada, and his Masters in Political Economy from the University of Texas. He teaches International Business at the Bryan School of Business and Economics at the University of North Carolina. He is the X-Culture Project Director (www.X-Culture.org). Vas conducts research in the area of management and development of cross-cultural teams.

His writings have appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of International Business Studies (of which he is also an editorial board member), the Journal of International Management, Organizational Dynamics, and other respected outlets. He is an associate editor of the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, the Journal of International Management, and Management Research Review. He is a recipient of numerous research and teaching awards for his work in international business.

Maria Alejandra Gonzales-Perez is Full Professor of Management at Universidad EAFIT in Colombia, and editor-in-chief of the business journal AD-minister. She holds a PhD in International Business Corporate Responsibility and a Master’s in Business Studies from the National University of Ireland in Galway. She was trained as a clinical psychologist at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia. She has published several books, book chapters, and papers in the areas of internationalization, corporate social responsibility, and international migration.