FAMU School of Business and Industry (SBI) Associate Marketing Professor Roscoe Hightower Jr. will participate in the Faculty Development in International Business Program in Brazil later this month.The 10-day program will introduce participants to the major emerging economy of Brazil, with a more specific focus on the challenges of long-term sustainability. During the excursion, the 13 faculty members and 10 graduate students from institutions of higher education across the United States will travel to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the country’s two largest urban centers.
“I hope to learn about Brazil... and the Brazilian perspective of doing business, focusing on the economy and the cultural norms,” said Hightower.
Through the program, sponsored by Indiana University's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), Hightower will have the opportunity to strengthen his understanding of the country's unique business challenges through a structured itinerary of visits to domestic and multinational companies, tours of cultural and historical sites and presentations by researchers and professionals.
While in Brazil, Hightower plans to gather data for an ongoing research project dealing with a Green Servicescape instrument that has been tentatively accepted for the Fourth International Congress for Facilities Management in Vienna, Austria in November 2011.
“Right now, FAMU is No. 1 in the world in correctly conceptualizing and measuring the servicescape construct,” he said. “It is up to me to get this message out to the community-at-large, and this trip helps to enable me in accomplishing this by providing opportunities to talk to the public about my research.”