For Immediate Release 
June 15, 2005 
 
Media contact: Ron Cole, manager of news and information services, 330-941-3285. 
 
YSU wins grant to explore emerging business 
markets 
 Two faculty members in Youngstown State University?s Williamson College of 
Business Administration have been awarded a federal grant that will give students and 
local business representatives the opportunity to study and visit emerging markets in 
Eastern Europe and Asia. The grant also supports curriculum development and study 
tours focusing on emerging economies. 
 The $183,000, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the first 
federal grant for WCBA, was awarded to Ram Kasuganti, professor and chair of 
management, and Assistant Professor Rangamohan Eunni, for a project titled the 
Emerging Markets Initiative. 
 The project will help to further expand the business curriculum at YSU by 
improving faculty skills and research in international business/management education, 
and developing more courses in international business, Kasuganti said. New cross-
disciplinary courses include Managing in Emerging Economies, International 
Entrepreneurship and Multinational Enterprise Strategies. The project also will help 
provide opportunities for local businesses to participate in the global economy, he said. 
 ?There is an urgent need for our regional businesses to explore and seize the 
business opportunities in emerging markets,? Kasuganti and Eunni wrote in their grant 
proposal. ?With its avowed commitment to serve the regional community by establishing 
partnerships, [YSU] has a special responsibility to educate the region?s business 
community about these opportunities.? 
 Outreach activities for the regional business community will include field study 
tours to emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia, conferences on business 
opportunities and consulting support to area businesses to facilitate international 
expansion initiatives in Eastern Europe and Asia. 
(more) 
YSU grant/Add 1 
 
 The initiative calls for a team of students, faculty and regional business 
representatives to participate in a field study tour to the Czech Republic and Hungary in 
March 2006 and to India in March 2007. 
 ?The key is not to be isolationist but to be more proactive and to take advantage 
of opportunities,? Kasuganti said. He said businesses can no longer focus solely on local 
needs but must work within the global economy.  
It is hard for small or new businesses to compete in saturated markets like Canada 
and Western Europe, but Kasuganti said there are many opportunities for local businesses 
to expand into some of the developing economies in the world.  
The Emerging Markets Initiative has the support of the Ohio Governor?s Regional 
Office, the Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic Consortium, Mahoning County 
Commissioners Office and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. 
The grant is part of the U.S. Department of Education?s Business and 
International Education Program, which provides grants to internationalize the business 
curriculum of colleges and universities and to conduct outreach activities that assist the 
local business community in competing in the global arena. Other universities receiving 
grants this year include Kansas State, Texas A&M, Northern Iowa and South Florida. 
 
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