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SFU business scholar earns global competitiveness research award

The American Society for Competitiveness (ASC) has presented its prestigious 1997 Award for Advanced Global Competitiveness Research to international business scholar Rosalie Tung of Simon Fraser University.

The ASC was founded in 1989 by leading business executives and academics to promote dialogue and action on issues related to world competitiveness. Previous recipients of the ASC award include Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School and Prof. C.K. Prakalad of the University of Michigan.

Tung, who is the Ming and Stella Wong professor of international business at SFU, has gained recognition worldwide for her research on international human resource management and cross-cultural management. She has developed a theory for the selection and training of people for international assignments and has applied her theories to challenges faced by Canada and other countries with a diverse labor force.

Estimates indicate that about 20 per cent of Canada's labor force will be made up of visible minorities by the year 2000. Those companies that are best able to manage such diversity will be the most successful, Tung argues.

Her research has also focused on the culture of east Asians and how it affects their business practices. "With the growing economic collaboration between companies from different countries around the world, it's increasingly important for both theorists and practitioners to understand the similarities and differences that underlie management theories and practices across nations," Tung explains.

Tung has earned other major honors for her work in recent years. Last spring, she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a body dedicated to the promotion of academic research. Tung is just the third academic in the society's 100-year history to be elected in the field of business administration and the first in international business.

She was also recognized by The Journal of International Business Studies as one of the world's five most cited authors in international business during the period 1989-1993. Citation rates represent a significant gauge of a scholar's influence in a particular discipline.

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