8.6 End-of-Chapter Questions and Exercises

These exercises are designed to ensure that the knowledge you gain from this book about international business meets the learning standards set out by the international Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business website, accessed January 26, 2010, http://www.aacsb.edu. AACSB is the premier accrediting agency of collegiate business schools and accounting programs worldwide. It expects that you will gain knowledge in the areas of communication, ethical reasoning, analytical skills, use of information technology, multiculturalism and diversity, and reflective thinking.

Experiential Exercises

(AACSB: Communication, Use of Information Technology, Analytical Skills)

  1. Identify a local company whose products or services you really admire. Conduct an assessment of why, where, and how this company might expand internationally. In class, talk through the pros and cons of what you’ve recommended.
  2. Using the same company from the first exercise, undertake PESTEL, globalization, and scenario analyses of the new international target market. What are the implications of your analyses for the recommendations you compiled? What resources did you draw on and what key questions remain unanswered?
  3. Kohl’s Corporation is a very large and successful US retailer. It has no physical or Internet retail outlets outside the United States. What opportunities might this company have for global expansion? What modes should it explore? Should Kohl’s stay “local”?

Ethical Dilemmas

(AACSB: Ethical Reasoning, Multiculturalism, Reflective Thinking, Analytical Skills)

  1. Entry into new markets, regardless of entry mode, typically requires extensive relationship building. In some countries, such relationship building includes the exchange of gifts. At the same time, many companies are bound by laws, regulations, or business associations that prohibit bribery. Bribery is an offer or the receipt of any gift, loan, fee, reward, or other advantage to or from any person as an inducement to do something that is dishonest or illegal.Hossein Askari, Scheherazade Sabina Rehman, and Noora Arfaa, Corruption and Its Manifestation in the Persian Gulf (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010), 9. Review the most recent International Chamber of Commerce Commission report on corruption, “ICC Rules of Conduct and Recommendations for Combating Extortion and Bribery” (available at http://www.iccwbo.org/policy/anticorruption/id870/index.html). It discusses what the implications of these rules might be for gifts.
  2. For each of the entry modes identified in this chapter, develop a list of the key areas of ethical lapses. Draft a policy statement that a firm can use to manage and prevent these lapses.
  3. Using the Internet or your library, conduct a search on the topics of “infant formula” or “disposable diapers” and “emerging economies.” What are some of the ethical issues that are raised when discussing the export of these products to emerging markets?