Global Business: Oversight without Inhibiting Enterprise

• Date: 01 January 2006
• Published date: 01 January 2006
• Author: John Philip Jones
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716205282264
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0002716205282264THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYGLOBAL BUSINESS 603January

This article is focused on the role of international busi-

ness in wealth creation. It discusses the issue of what reg-

ulations should be imposed, country by country, to

encourage legal and ethical conduct by international

firms. In a libertarian view, many excesses are self-

correcting because businesses wish to operate in indi-

vidual countries on a long-term basis. Serious abuses are

rare but take place nonetheless, sometimes with disas-

trous consequences. The only effective way to control

abuses is through tighter scrutiny of foreign direct

investment (FDI) at a local level. Abuses affect individ-

ual countries and must therefore be policed in those

countries, despite sometimes endemic corruption.

Local politicians and bureaucrats—who issue FDI

licenses—must be motivated by concern for public wel-

fare and nothing else.

Keywords: global business; capitalism; foreign invest-

ment; foreign subsidiaries; corporate social

responsibility

In this article, global business means two

things: first, the export of goods and services,

mostly from large countries to small ones; and

second, the establishment of separate enter-

prises in foreign countries, with capital from

(and therefore much control exercised by) pri-

vate companies in the home market. I am mainly

concerned with the latter. This article does not

discuss the transfer of capital sums as loans and

grants through public aid programs run by gov-

ernments and United Nations agencies. These

262 ANNALS, AAPSS, 603, January 2006

John Philip Jones entered academe in 1981 after a

twenty-five-year career in advertising with J. Walter

Thompson in Europe and is a tenured professor in the

Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He has pub-

lished twelve books on advertising and numerous jour-

nal articles. Among his many awards are Distinguished

Advertising Educator by the American Advertising Fed-

eration (1991), a leadership award from Cowles Busi-

ness Media and the American Association of Advertising

Agencies (1996), the Telmar Award for extending the

concept of Short-Term Advertising Strength (STAS)

from television to print media (1997), and the Syracuse

University Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Aca-

demic Achievement (2001).

DOI: 10.1177/0002716205282264

Global

Business:

Oversight

without

Inhibiting

Enterprise

By

JOHN PHILIP JONES