Thought Leadership

The Rise of New Economic Powers and America’s Future

The Rise of New Economic Powers and America’s Future by Dr. Kislaya Prasad, research professor and academic director of the Center for Global Business, released in early 2020 is a commemorative record of the Center’s Emerging Markets Forum (EMF) series that was held from 2011 to 2018. The EMF series and this book were supported in part by CIBE, a Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Over the course of the eight years, EMF featured over 110 prominent speakers from organizations and companies such as the Brookings Institution, World Bank, Ford Motor Company, and Tata Communications.

According to Prasad, “readers of the book will find answers to questions such as: What role women are playing in the economic transformation in emerging markets? Is Africa an attractive place for U.S. companies to do business? What does India bring to the table?”

In keeping with the Title VI CIBE mission of making international business resources widely accessible, the Center will make the book available to faculty, educational institutions, and other organizations as the content remains timely and relevant in understanding the impact of emerging markets on international and U.S. business.

Cuba in Transition: Lessons from a Faculty Development in International Business Program

In May 2016, the Center for Global Business organized a program for business faculty from the U.S. to study in Cuba. It was a fascinating moment in Cuba’s history - diplomatic relations had just been re-established with the U.S., there was a surge in U.S. travelers to the island, fundamental economic reforms were underway, and Cuba was readying itself for a generational transition in leadership. The goal of the program was to develop a better understanding of the working of the Cuban economy, focusing on new business prospects created by economic reforms and changes in U.S. policy.

The group visited numerous economic enterprises, attended lectures given by eminent scholars and business executives (both Cuban and European), and got a chance to view the economy close up. Participants brought diverse expertise and disciplinary perspectives to the program, and this volume brings together their reactions to the changes underway in Cuba. The range of topics covered include conspicuous consumption, leisure, agricultural productivity, business education, innovation and entrepreneurship, grey market activities, worker cooperatives, the housing market, operations management, and economic development. The contributors do not attempt to be exhaustive but to convey what they found to be important and interesting. The collection is a record, at a unique time, of a society and economy in transition.

AI Use and Regulation: A Survey of US Business Executives

Artificial Intelligence is having a significant impact on companies worldwide, leading them to reassess their products and processes. Governments are faced with the consequential choice of how to regulate AI. In this dynamic business environment, to better understand how these changes are impacting US companies, the Center for Global Business conducted a survey of US executives from a range of sectors and asked them about Artificial Intelligence use at their companies and their views on AI regulation. The results of the survey are summarized in this report.

Here are five key takeaways:

1. People are concerned about job displacement. Younger executives and those more closely involved with AI are more concerned about the impact on their careers.

2. There is strong support for AI regulation. Asked about three types of AI regulation – transparency about AI use, explainability of autonomous decisions, and third-party auditing for bias in algorithms – respondents expressed strong support, although support for mandating explainability was slightly lower.

3. Restrictions on export of key AI technologies are favored by respondents in the Manufacturing sector. Respondents from companies with greater global sales favor export restrictions.

4. Generative AI is being widely used across sectors. The two most important uses overall are to power chatbots, and in marketing. In the Tech sector, another important use is for coding. After GenAI, machine learning and computer vision are the next most important applications.

5. Improving the customer experience and improving operations are the key drivers of AI adoption. Major reasons given for not adopting AI technologies were an absence of a clear use case or perceived need and limited technical expertise or resources.

Download the full report.

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