What will spark the next phase of economic growth? As businesses seek an answer, some are betting on emerging economies. Others say entrepreneurs will be the drivers. Still others think women will be the dominant source of expansion.

This week’s guest, HootSuite VP Brian Bailard tells us how to gain strategic and competitive advantages from social media.

Governments and healthcare organizations worldwide are implementing smart health cards.

And the fight goes on.

Last week we debated which policy approach will produce robust, sustainable economic growth in the US and Europe: austerity policy & trickle-down economics versus “bubble up” economics with broadly shared prosperity.

Few things pose more risk to international businesses than the eruption of mass violence in one of our markets—violence that can spill beyond its borders.

What does Hugo Chavez‘s reelection mean for international firms? Is the pendulum swinging back to the leftist, anti-business policies of the past? We’ve seen the “Chavez effect” in Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia & Nicaragua.

With a middle class estimated at over 300 million, everyone wants to export to China. But how do you crack this notoriously difficult market? Many companies have tried—and failed or at least run into huge and costly problems.

A sea change has taken place in international advertising and marketing. Long considered the ugly stepchild of digital marketing, affiliate marketing has become one of the leading drivers of brands’ online marketing success.

The world is awash in unsustainable levels of debt, says Charles Kolb, President of the French-American Foundation; and that debt is damaging the economies and stability of the US, Europe—and their enabler, China.