Questions and Answers of International Management

What is global competition and what does it mean to the global manager?
Now that Brexit is a reality, how has it affected the strategic and operational decisions that managers, in the UK and outside, make?
What are the political and economic risks that managers must consider when conducting business in developing countries?
Which countries are currently considered politically too risky to conduct business, and why?
How can managers mitigate political risk?
International managers know that a country’s laws are a reflection of its culture, religion, and traditions. Briefly explain common law, civil law, and Islamic law.
What is meant by the digital economy? What can managers do in order to protect proprietary technology?
Why is cultural appropriateness an issue in technology transfer?Provide examples and challenges that may arise.
The terms e-business and e-commerce are often used interchangeably. Discuss the difference between the two terms and why it matters.
What are some of the barriers managers face in creating a global e-business?
While forming an economic group creates trade, it can also have some drawbacks. What are the potential costs of economic integration?
Conduct further research on Jack Ma, cofounder and Executive Chairman CEO of the Alibaba Group, and his predictions for the digital age and global competition. How has the digital economy been
Many companies have focused on cost savings and outsourced manufacturing to China. However, many global supply chains were impacted when COVID-19 shut the Chinese borders. What are some lessons
In small groups, discuss the history of the common market and the European Union (EU). What are the sentiments surrounding the EU? What are the economic challenges facing the EU today?
In 2019, the Indonesian government threatened to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement and thereby bring a World Trade Organization challenge in their ongoing tariff trade spat with the European
How are corporate social responsibility and ethics similar? How do they differ?
Provide arguments for why companies should include ethics in their strategy in order to reap long-term benefits.
Discuss the differences between moral universalism, ethnocentric approach, and ethical relativism, and the challenges of each stance.
Ethical issues are often subject to interpretation depending on home and host country cultures. How can managers ensure that they are making an ethical decision in a given situation?
An important part of MNCs demonstrating social responsibility is investing in emerging and frontier markets. What are some examples of social responsibility?
How is ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) similar to and different from CSR? What is meant by ESG risk?
What is Porter and Kramer’s concept of shared value? Provide examples of how a company striving to become more sustainable can create shared value.
Human rights issues are more complex when operating in the international arena. Why is this so? Provide examples and discuss the objectivity of the sources.
Why is there a trend toward reshoring, and how can reshoring relate to sustainability?
What are the three dimensions of sustainability and the challenges in integrating them in business systems?
Epstein’s model describes formal and informal systems for implementing sustainability strategies. Clearly, top leadership is a criterion for success, but how can companies measure their success?
In addition to the IKEA in India example, what are some other success stories of companies that derive business benefits from CSR?
Bribery and corruption are severe forms of unethical behavior.When conducting business around the world, managers must not only avoid breaking the law, but also follow high ethical standards. Form
Consumers often boycott companies that have exhibited unethical behavior. Discuss what is considered unethical behavior and companies that are known violators.
Look up works on the concept of the Bottom of the Pyramid, which was introduced by Prahalad and Hart. What is this concept and how does it differ from Porter and Kramer’s philosophy of Creating
Tim Bradshaw in London December 14, 2018 Facebook has been hit with the broadest data protection investigation yet in Europe after the social media group revealed another leak of private photos
In March 2017, a federal judge in California dismissed a long-running (12-year) class action lawsuit against Nestlé SA(Nestlé) and two more companies over claims the global chocolate manufacturer
On February 2, 2016, The Body Shop International Plc.(Body Shop), a UK-based retailer of natural-based and ethically-sourced beauty products, unveiled a new global CSR strategy to reassert its
What should an international manager appreciate in another culture in order to be empathetic and understand it?
Describe four cultural dimensions identified in the GLOBE Project. Give some concrete examples where they can help managers to be more successful.
What is meant by “the local language of time,” and how does time relate to task-oriented versus relationship-oriented situations?
When using the Internet, explain how attitudes toward information privacy are rooted in culture and what this means for multinational e-businesses.
Why should managers develop cultural profiles? What benefits can they expect?
How does understanding culture relate to a contingency management style? Can you cite some examples?
What is meant by parochialism, and why should it be avoided?
Working in pairs, choose a country each from the different continents. For each country, look for evidence where the Internet and other cultural interactions have changed or influenced a culture.
Choose a country that scores very differently than your own on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of power distance, masculinity, and individualism. How would these differences require a different
In small groups, discuss Hofstede’s perhaps most misunderstood cultural dimension: uncertainty avoidance. Compare two Northern European to two Southern European countries. What are their
In 1976, Edward T. Hall developed the iceberg analogy of culture. Hall posits that the only way to understand an internal culture, which is below the tip of the iceberg, is to actively participate
Imagine your department head has asked your team to apply and update Hofstede’s value dimensions to understand Internet and social media usage. What behaviors can you identify and how can you
One of the GLOBE Project team’s nine cultural variables is future orientation, which refers to the level of importance a society attaches to future-oriented behaviors, such as planning and
“Qantas Flight 23 to Sydney is now boarding. Please have your boarding passes and passports ready for the attendant at the gate.”Les Collins picked up his briefcase and started toward the jet
Communication is subject to noise, and even more so in intercultural communication. What is meant by noise, and what are some examples of noise in your own experience?
Trust is an important variable in communication. Provide trust-building examples, such as what it takes to build trust in your country for common transactions like interacting with a bank.
What is digital trust and how can companies build digital trust in their brand? Provide examples.
Nonverbal communication can be very subtle and difficult for other cultures to understand. Give some examples of the four nonverbal communication categories (kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage, and
Why does technological communication require more cultural sensitivity than face-to-face communication? What are some examples where the communication process may be affected?
How does culture influence an organization’s information system?
What can managers do to become aware of their own cultural baggage and how it affects the cross-cultural communication process?
Why is face-to-face communication generally preferable when sending messages?
In pairs, imagine that you are buyers from one country and sellers from another. Your colleague says that it is not necessary to spend time and effort studying the selling-country culture before
In small groups, pick countries that are culturally very different from your own. Imagine that you are preparing to visit that country and need to adjust your communication style.Describe what aspect
On Wednesday, November 21, the WeChat account of the official People’s Daily issued a statement believed to be from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; the Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) fashion show in
When negotiating across borders, managers can expect more complexity due to differences in negotiation processes.Provide some examples of such complexity that managers should anticipate.
Choose a culture that differs from your own and give examples of what managers should prepare for when planning a cross-cultural negotiation.
Why is the persuasion negotiation stage—where the hard bargaining starts—challenging for international managers?
Communication styles differ and there is no “one-size-fitsall”winning negotiation style. Provide examples of how different cultures establish trust when negotiating.
How can a culture’s decision-making process (top-down, consensus, or coalition building) affect negotiations?Provide examples.
What does active listening mean, and what are the active listening techniques that a skillful manager can use when negotiating?
What are some examples of how culture influences decision-making in negotiation?
Explain the difference between utilitarianism and moral idealism, and how these different approaches affect decision making.
Choose two countries from different continents and research how they would approach relationship building in a negotiation process. What are the differences? What are the similarities? Where can
Look up Fisher & Ury’s work (e.g., Getting to Yes) on BATNA(Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement). Discuss what it is and how it can be useful to prepare before starting the negotiation
On September 15, 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel signed a historic agreement called the Abraham Accords at the White House in the United States to normalize relations between the two
From her office, Eunice catches a glimpse of the 11.45 A380 bound for Singapore; needless to say, it’s on time – a typical Swiss cliché. Like the Singapore Airlines campaign slogan, no detail is
The pleasant February morning had taken a perplexing turn for Anuj Pathak. He had reached the office after a jog at the beach as had become his habit in the last few months in Mumbai. He had barely
Discuss and provide examples of how trade barriers can be reactive reasons for companies to go abroad.
Why have companies in emerging markets become more competitive abroad?
What type of incentives do governments offer in order to attract foreign companies and why do they provide such offers?
Why is it important for companies to monitor global environmental trends?
The strategic management process can be divided into two stages. What are they and how do they differ?
What is a company mission statement, and why is it important?
What is the purpose of an environmental assessment?
What are the levels of risk for strategic entry scanning and how are they useful in environmental scanning?
What is organic growth? What are the other options for international growth?
In what ways does e-business differ from traditional exporting of goods and services?
What should companies be particularly aware of when investing in developing countries?
How can culture influence strategic choices?
What are some examples of industries that exploit economies of scale by going abroad? Form groups of three and choose an industry to illustrate this concept (e.g., automobiles, mobile phones and
How do companies express their core competencies? In your groups, find examples of three companies that manufacture products, and three companies that sell services. Discuss your findings and
What are some recent examples of companies that ignored substitute products? This could also include services or other innovations. Discuss your findings and consider why companies have missed
Historically, many companies started to look for exporting or international opportunities and markets when the domestic market was saturated. Today, however, some companies are born global, such as
Form groups of four. Each group should choose a company that wants to go international and prepare a plan for gathering relevant information for that company and industry. What should they be
The class can divide itself into groups where there are two groups for each emerging market. The task is to divide, for example, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, into clusters to find similarities in
Hundreds of UK businesses are setting up shop in the Netherlands in a new twist to the United Kingdom’s Brexit saga. When Andrew Moss sought advice from a senior government advisor about his
What are strategic alliances and why do companies implement them?
What are the main strategic alliance categories?
What are some reasons that motivate companies to engage in global and cross-border alliances?
Given the challenges in implementing strategic alliances, what are some guidelines for successful alliances?
How should a company prepare itself in order to achieve successful strategy implementation?
How would you advise SMEs on implementing strategies abroad?
What are some challenges for implementing strategy in emerging markets?
What does international joint venture (IJV) control mean, and why is it important?
How can governments influence strategic implementation?
How can e-commerce aid strategy implementation?

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