Using experiential exercises to underscore the challenges and opportunities of emerging markets

Abstract

Experiential exercises are one of the most effective tools for advancing student learning in management and organization. The challenges associated with understanding the complexities of international business (I.B.) environments, negotiating market entry strategies with host governments and potential partners, and the ongoing issues related to managing joint ventures and other types of alliances, are important elements of I.B. education, in general, and courses related to emerging markets, in particular. Cultural differences, development gaps, differing views on the role of the state in economic life, and the recent emergence of concerns about the social and environmental spillovers associated with economic globalization (such as human rights violations by M.N.C.s and environmental degradation in developing countries), all interact to make doing business in emerging economies challenging and difficult. These same factors, however, also generate new opportunities and suggest new business approaches. In this paper, we describe our experiences with use of experiential exercises to underscore critical I.B. concepts specific to emerging markets. We begin with a brief summary of some of the recent management literature on emerging economies, noting the relative paucity of rigorous pedagogical materials that focus specifically on the challenges and opportunities associated with doing business in emerging markets. We then summarize some of the literature related to the effectiveness of experiential exercises in management education and offer a framework for examining a range of issues associated with I.B. concepts as they related to emerging markets. We provide a short summary of emerging markets exercises developed and used by the authors in courses at various levels and describe two of these exercises in depth. We suggest that because most students in North America have had less exposure to emerging markets and are therefore less familiar with the particular features of emerging economies, experiential exercises are an especially valuable tool in helping underscore the unique characteristics of these markets and the sometimes unusual situations facing managers operating in these environments. We conclude with a reflection of our experience with use of these materials and describe some of the learning outcomes we expect and have observed related to use of these exercises. We include author contact information for instructors interested in using the exercises we have developed. © 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.