Thinking

Thinking Question 1: Explain three differences between international and domestic logistics. (5)

First is transportation. Domestic logistics probably only requires road and maybe rail transportation. International logistics will require air or sea transportation, making it more expensive and longer.

Second is cost. International logistics has to deal with tariffs and exchange rates, whereas domestic logistics does not.

Third is supply chain relationships. International logistics has to manage relationships with people from different countries and cultures, making it harder than domestic logistics. Domestic logistics is just one culture, and there’s less people involved, making it easier than international logistics.

Thinking Question 2: Explain the three types of promotional strategies. Which type do you think is best? Why? (5)

The first type is to use existing ads. This is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest method. It’s good if the new country has a very similar culture to your home country and speaks the same language.

The second type is to translate existing ads. This is still fairly easy, fast, and cheap. It’s good if the new country has a very similar culture to your home country but speaks a different language.

The third is to create new ads tailored to the new country. This is slow and expensive. It’s good if the new country has a different culture and speaks a different language from your home country.

Generally speaking, international expansions involve going to a new country with a different culture, so it’s usually safest to create new ads. This reduces the risk of a marketing fail.

Thinking Question 3: Explain the pros and cons of working abroad. (5)

Pros of working abroad include more cultural awareness, improving courage and thinking abilities, and possible earning a higher salary. By working abroad, you get to learn how different people think and live differently, which makes you more open-minded and accepting of others. It will also increase your courage because it’s scary to go to a new place. You can possibly earn a higher salary depending on the country and job.

Cons of working abroad include loneliness, language barriers, and possibly lower living conditions. You would be away from family and friends, so if you struggle with the unknown and with making new friends, you might get very lonely. If the new country speaks a different language, then you need to learn that language. If your home country has very good conditions, then the new country might not have as good of conditions.

Thinking Question 4: Explain one NGO and why they are important in international business. (5)

The Fair-Trade Labeling Organization ensures that a product that you buy has ethical behavior throughout the whole supply chain. For example, FLO coffee means that the farmers were paid a fair wage, the crops weren’t unethically treated with excessive pesticides, the factories had good working conditions, etc.

FLO is very important in international business today because many businesses are trying to cut corners and save costs in order to make more money. That only hurts consumers and everyone in the long-term. Consumers often don’t know which companies are being unethical, so FLO does the job of guaranteeing which products were made ethically.

C&A

C&A Question 1: Which Hofstede factors relate to business ethics? Explain with examples. (10)

The essence of ethics is to think long-term for the most amount of people.

LTO: higher LTO means you would think long-term, so this culture is likely to be more ethical.

IDV: Lower IDV means you think of the collective group over yourself, so this culture is likely to be more ethical.

MAS: Lower MAS means you value harmony and taking care of others instead of being selfish and trying to win all the time, so lower MAS is more likely to be ethical.

IND: Lower IND means you are likely to restrain yourself from short-term pleasure in order to accomplish long-term benefit, so lower IND is likely to be more ethical.

C&A Question 2: If a company wants to expand to a new country, what should the marketing team do to prepare a marketing plan?

First, they should do a customer analysis. They need to analyze the new country’s customers in terms of their culture (IND and UA), motivation, and demographics. The customer analysis is the most important because the business has to customize its product to meet the needs of the customer.

Next, they should do a competitor analysis. They need to look at what the direct competitors focus on for their competitive advantage. For example, is it price, quality, service, or something else? This is important because we should pick something a motivation factor to focus on that is different from the direct competitors. It is possible to challenge a competitor on the same competitive advantage, but that’s much harder to succeed and very risky.

Third, they need to make the action plan, which is the 4P’s: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. They need to decide how to modify the product, what pricing strategy to use, what promotional strategy to use, and the logistics such as store locations and transportation.

C&A Question 3: Explain the two common ethical issues in international business today and how people can fight these issues. (10)

Issue 1: Child Labor

Child labor is when companies hire labor from factories in developing countries, and these factories use children who are forced to work there in bad conditions for unreasonable hours. This happens because the government regulation there is very weak, and these children come from really poor villages with no opportunity to go to school. In order to fight this issue, companies need to have a clear code of ethics for themselves and for their suppliers. They also need to go and inspect these factories personally and invest money in helping these factories be more productive so that they don’t feel tempted to try to cut corners and do unethical things.

Issue 2: Pollution

Pollution is when companies dump harmful chemicals into our air, water, or land. This happens because companies are focused on producing as much as possible as cheaply as possible. Being environmentally friendly takes investment to create clean technology, and many companies don’t care to do so because the culture is very low LTO. They only think about their short-term benefit and profit rather than thinking to protect the environment for future generations. In order to fight this issue, the customers need to speak out about this issue and get the government to enact laws and enforce those laws. It is already happening, but we can still do better.

C&A Question 4: Explain the pros and cons of different political systems. Which type of political system do you think is best? Why? (10)

Democracy Pros:

Citizen’s voice is heard, and each citizen is entitled to an education and economic opportunity.

Democracy Cons:

Politicians often think short-term because they have a 4-year time limit in office, which prevents them from doing long-term actions to help the country. Also, they spend a significant amount of money and time trying to get elected and re-elected rather than using that time to help the country. Another problem is that politicians get funding from large corporations, so they end up trying to make these corporations happy instead of the citizens.

Autocracy Pros:

The ruler thinks for the whole country rather than rich corporations who have funding power. The ruler is also able to think and do long-term good for the country.

Autocracy Cons:

Historically, autocratic countries were associated with oppression, media control, and lack of freedom.

We can’t say any political system is definitely better. The system is a tool. How good the system is depends on how good the people running the system are. If we have virtuous people running an autocracy, which we saw in ancient China, it results in a peaceful and prosperous society. If we have non-virtuous people running the government, then no matter what political system is used, it will still create a messy society.