MB0037 - International Business Management Assignment Set-1
MB0037 - International Business Management Assignment Set-1
Management
Assignment Set- 1
Advantages to consider:
Table 2.1
In this new millennium, few executives can afford to turn a blind eye
to global business opportunities. Japanese auto-executives monitor
carefully what their European and Korean competitors are up to in
getting a bigger slice of the Chinese auto-market. Executives of
Hollywood movie studios need to weigh the appeal of an expensive
movie in Europe and Asia as much as in the US before a firm
commitment. The globalizing wind has broadened the mindsets of
executives, extended the geographical reach of firms, and nudged
international business (IB) research into some new trajectories. One
such new trajectory is the concern with national culture. Whereas
traditional IB research has been concerned with economic/ legal
issues and organizational forms and structures, the importance of
national culture – broadly defined as values, beliefs, norms, and
behavioural patterns of a national group – has become increasingly
important in the last two decades, largely as a result of the classic
work of Hofstede (1980). National culture has been shown to impact
on major business activities, from capital structure (Chui et al.,
2002) to group performance (Gibson, 1999).
In line with the view of Hofstede (2001) that culture changes very
slowly, culture has been treated as a relatively stable characteristic,
reflecting a shared knowledge structure that attenuates variability
in values, behavioral norms, and patterns of behaviours (Erez and
Earley, 1993). Cultural stability helps to reduce ambiguity, and leads
to more control over expected behavioural outcomes (Weick and
Quinn, 1999; Leana and Barry, 2000). For instance, most existing
models of culture and work behaviour assume cultural stability and
emphasize the fit between a given culture and certain managerial
and motivational practices (Erez and Earley, 1993). High fit means
high adaptation of managerial practices to a given culture and,
therefore, high effectiveness. The assumption of cultural stability is
valid as long as there are no environmental changes that precipitate
adaptation and cultural change. Yet, the end of the 20th century and
the beginning of the new millennium have been characterized by
turbulent political and economical changes, which instigate cultural
changes. In line with this argument, Lewin and Kim (2004), in their
comprehensive chapter on adaptation and selection in strategy and
change, distinguished between theories driven by the underlying
Structure
The WTO has nearly 150 members, accounting for over 97% of
world trade. Around 30 others are negotiating membership.
Secretariat
The WTO Secretariat, based in Geneva, has around 600 staff and is
headed by a director-general. Its annual budget is roughly 160
million Swiss francs. It does not have branch offices outside Geneva.
Since decisions are taken by the members themselves, the
Secretariat does not have the decision-making role that other
international bureaucracies are given with. The Secretariat’s main
duties are to supply technical support for the various councils and
committees and the ministerial conferences, to provide technical
assistance for developing countries, to analyze world trade, and to
explain WTO affairs to the public and media.
The WTO is run by its member governments. All major decisions are
made by the membership as a whole, either by ministers (who meet
at least once every two years) or by their ambassadors or delegates
(who meet regularly in Geneva). Decisions are normally taken by
consensus.
All three are in fact the same – the Agreement Establishing the WTO
states they are all the General Council, although they meet under
different terms of reference. Again, all three consist of all WTO
members. They report to the Ministerial Conference.
Third level: councils for each broad area of trade, and more
back to top
Three more councils, each handling a different broad area of trade,
report to the General Council:
• The Council for Trade in Goods (Goods Council)
• The Council for Trade in Services (Services Council)
• The Council for Trade – Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS Council)
As their names indicate, the three are responsible for the workings
of the WTO agreements dealing with their respective areas of trade.
Six other bodies report to the General Council. The scope of their
coverage is smaller, so they are “committees”. But they still consist
of all WTO members. They cover issues such as trade and
development, the environment, regional trading arrangements, and
administrative issues. The Singapore Ministerial Conference in
December 1996 decided to create new working groups to look at
investment and competition policy, transparency in government
procurement, and trade facilitation.
One step away from the formal meetings is informal meetings that
still include the full membership, such as those of the Heads of
Delegations (HOD). More difficult issues have to be thrashed out in
smaller groups. A common recent practice is for the chairperson of a
negotiating group to attempt to forge a compromise by holding
consultations with delegations individually, in twos or threes, or in
groups of 20 – 30 of the most interested delegations.
One term has become controversial, but more among some outside
observers than among delegations. The “Green Room” is a phrase
taken from the informal name of the director-general’s conference
room. It is used to refer to meetings of 20 – 40 delegations, usually
at the level of heads of delegations. These meetings can take place
elsewhere, such as at Ministerial Conferences, and can be called by
the minister chairing the conference as well as the director-general.
Similar smaller group consultations can be organized by the chairs
of committees negotiating individual subjects, although the term
Green Room is not usually used for these.
They are not separate from the formal meetings, however. They are
necessary for making formal decisions in the councils and
committees. Nor are the formal meetings unimportant. They are the
forums for exchanging views, putting countries’ positions on the
record, and ultimately for confirming decisions. The art of achieving
agreement among all WTO members is to strike an appropriate
balance, so that a breakthrough achieved among only a few
countries can be acceptable to the rest of the membership.
Answer: Given its provisional nature and limited field of action, the
success of GATT in promoting and securing the liberalization of
much of world trade over 47 years is incontestable. Continual
reductions in tariffs alone helped spur very high rates of world trade
growth – around 8 per cent a year on average during the 1950s and
1960s. And the momentum of trade liberalization helped ensure that
trade growth consistently out-paced production growth throughout
the GATT era. The rush of new members during the Uruguay Round
demonstrated that the multilateral trading system, as then
represented by GATT, was recognized as an anchor for development
and an instrument of economic and trade reform.
"The T&EA not only has helped us to identify and recruit qualified
software graduates from Northern Ireland’s universities, it is also
assisting us with a unique initiative to bring additional sources of
high quality talent to the company," McFerran said.
Innovation In Training
Impressed by the number and quality of information technology
graduates from the region’s universities, IMR recognized an
untapped resource in the well-educated, versatile graduates of
other fields in Northern Ireland. Working with the T&EA, IMR
developed "IMR Academy," an intensive
20-week training program at the Belfast Institute of Further and
Higher Education, to expand the skills of qualified applicants who
are not computer software graduates, but who are equally well-
educated in other disciplines and who have demonstrated aptitude
for learning computer software programming.
Tom Scott of the T&EA said IMR applicants are assessed throughout
the program and those who successfully complete the course are
awarded a National Computing Certificate and full-time employment
with IMR. Approximately 40 trainees have already participated in
the program.
Competitive Advantage
Northern Ireland recently has attracted information technology –
based investments from other multinational companies such as BT,
Fujitsu, Liberty Mutual Group, Seagate Technology, STB Systems
and UniComp. These companies cite Northern Ireland’s work force
and favorable cost base in their decisions to locate in the region.
With salaries and fringe costs for well trained software engineers in
Northern Ireland approximately 50 percent lower than costs for US
engineers, and low employee turnover and favorable rates for office
space, the overall annual per capita operational costs to develop
high quality software can be significantly less compared with these
same costs in the United States.
Assignment Set- 2
Lessons from the recent crises in emerging markets are that for
such countries with important linkages to global capital markets, the
requirements for sustaining pegged exchange rate regimes have
become more demanding as a result of the increased mobility of
capital. Therefore, regimes that allow substantial exchange rate
flexibility are probably desirable unless the exchange rate is firmly
fixed through a currency board, unification with another currency, or
the adoption of another currency as the domestic currency
(dollarization).
• exchange rates among the euro, the yen, and the dollar are
likely to continue to exhibit volatility, and schemes to reduce
volatility are neither likely to be adopted, nor to be desirable
as they prevent monetary policy from being devoted
consistently to domestic stabilization objectives;
2. Obstacles to diffusion
It has been suggested that Europe runs some five years behind the
U.S. in electronic commerce, but some sources dispute this,
suggesting that lack of success among American retailers may have
other origins, such as inadequate adaptation (for example, some
British users are put off by American English). There are, however,
some factors which cause most countries run behind. Even in
Europe, Internet access penetration rates are lower than they are in
the U.S., and the slower speed associated with downloading Asian
characters is discouraging. In some countries, credit card
penetration is lower, and even in European countries with high
penetration rates, consumers are reluctant to use them. Further, the
fact that consumers in most countries have to pay a per minute
phone charge discourages the essential casual and relaxed
Mandate
Lessons from the recent crises in emerging markets are that for
such countries with important linkages to global capital markets, the
requirements for sustaining pegged exchange rate regimes have
become more demanding as a result of the increased mobility of
capital. Therefore, regimes that allow substantial exchange rate
flexibility are probably desirable unless the exchange rate is firmly
fixed through a currency board, unification with another currency, or
the adoption of another currency as the domestic currency
(dollarization).
• exchange rates among the euro, the yen, and the dollar are
likely to continue to exhibit volatility, and schemes to reduce
volatility are neither likely to be adopted, nor to be desirable
as they prevent monetary policy from being devoted
consistently to domestic stabilization objectives;
Answer:
Product decisions
In decisions on producing or providing products and services in the
international market it is essential that the production of the
product or service is well planned and coordinated, both within and
with other functional area of the firm, particularly marketing. For
example, in horticulture, it is essential that any supplier or any of his
"out grower" (sub-contractor) can supply what he says he can. This
is especially vital when contracts for supply are finalized, as failure
to supply could incur large penalties. The main elements to consider
are the production process itself, specifications, culture, the physical
product, packaging, labelling, branding, warranty and service.