Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
The following learning objectives are taken from the textbook and can be used to test your
understanding of each chapter, and will also encourage you to think critically about what you have
read and to apply it other situations and organizations or industries.
Chapter 1
1.
Among the enterprises that you know, can you identify one that can be classed a global
company? Why?
2.
Why, in Figure 1.8, are savings accounts positioned low on global approaches and high on
local approach while investment banking is high on global approach and low on local
approach?
3.
In Figure 1.7, food retailing is positioned as a local business, with a very low globalization
score. However, in the press, companies like Tesco, Wal-Mart and Carrefour are classed as
‘global retailers’. Explain this discrepancy.
4.
What are the social factors that have been pushing for globalization and which have been
pushing against?
5.
What are the benefits of having a local approach?
6.
When the Otis Elevator Company introduced the change described at the beginning of the
chapter, there was a lot of resistance from the various heads of the European subsidiaries.
Why? What arguments do you think the people hostile to globalization used?
7.
Can Apple be classed as a global firm? Why?
Chapter 2
1.
In 2010, the distribution of sales and people of AXA, the insurance company, is shown
below:
Europe
NAFTA
Asia
Rest of World
Revenue (billion €)
49,600
10,300
9400
12,800
Personnel
75,000
17,000
15,000
19,000
2.
Assuming that the figures are representative of the situation in 2010, what is AXA’s position
on a GCI/GRI mapping?
3.
In your opinion, for which industries could the UK, Italy and Australia be ‘key’ countries?
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
4.
What could be the benefits of positioning oneself as a standardized global niche
differentiator (see Table 2.3, p. 39)? What kind of competitive advantages does it require?
5.
What are the capabilities needed to be a broad adaptive cost leader?
6.
What are the ways to sustain competitive advantage?
7.
What types of competitive advantage does being a first mover provide?
8.
Can you sketch the mapping of the value chain for:
(a) A consulting firm
(b) An airline
(c) A trading firm
(d) A corporate and investment bank?
9.
For each of the entities in Question 7 (a)–(d), can you represent a possible global distribution
of their value chain, as illustrated in Figure 2.8 (p. 40)?
Chapter 3
1.
Why have Philips and Matsushita changed their organizational design over time?
2.
What are the benefits of having a geographical organization?
3.
What are the typical difficulties in implementing a matrix organization?
4.
What are the characteristics of the transnational model?
5.
To what extent does the transnational model differ from the other organizational model?
Chapter 4
1.
The text distinguishes between alliances and coalitions, co-specialization and learning. To
which category do you think the One World Alliance, in which American Airlines, British
Airways and Cathay Pacific participate, belongs? What do such partners look for?
2.
What are the sources of value creation in an alliance?
3.
What are the criteria to be assessed in order to determine the strategic fit between
partners?
4.
What is an extractive agenda in an alliance?
5.
What impact may cultural differences between partners have on global alliances?
6.
What are the six domains that need to be negotiated in relation to the interface and
governance of an alliance?
7.
Compare joint venture decay with the ‘death valley’ spiral.
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
8.
What would be the problems associated with selecting a partner in the same industry for a
new entrant in a country? What would be the benefits?
9.
What are the implications of linking up with a political partner?
10. What risks does a new entrant face when partnering with a distributor?
11. Do you see major differences between global strategic alliances and joint ventures for
market entry?
12. What are the criteria for successful alliances?
Chapter 5
1.
The chapter describes six examples of cross-border mergers: can you identify the source of
value creation in each case?
2.
What are the problems in conducting due diligence in a global context?
3.
What determines the bargaining range of a negotiation?
4.
What are the critical issues in the post-acquisition transition phase?
5.
In what circumstances is the symbiotic mode of integration appropriate?
6.
What are the most frequent sources of failure in M&As?
Chapter 6
1.
Take two countries of your choice and compare their country risk profile.
2.
What is the ‘middle-class effect’?
3.
What determines the quality of demand?
4.
What are the tools used by governments to promote foreign investments?
5.
Can you give examples of a hub in Africa, an emerging giant in Latin America and a resourcerich country in Eastern Europe?
1.
What are the relative advantages/disadvantages of setting up a wholly owned subsidiary
instead of a joint venture?
2.
What is a ‘window of opportunity’?
3.
Under which conditions does being a first mover give sustainable competitive advantage?
4.
What are the major problems associated with licensing?
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
5.
What potential problems does a foreign investor experience in an industrial joint venture
with an ex-local agent or distributor?
6.
Why do joint ventures often fail?
Chapter 8
1.
What are the benefits of global standardization?
2.
Can you identify 10 ‘global’ products?
3.
In Table 8.2, (p. 232) most of the top global brands are from the United States. Why do you
think this is?
4.
Why has Unilever announced that it is reducing its brands from 1600 to 400? What are the
risks of so doing?
5.
What potential problems will a marketer encounter in having a ‘global’ advertising
campaign?
6.
What are the benefits of using a single advertising agency?
7.
Why can global pricing lead to sub-optimization?
8.
What is the difference between global account management and global solution selling?
9.
What are the typical problems associated with global account management?
Chapter 9
1.
Compare Singapore and Malaysia as a possible location for: (i) a PC assembly plant, (ii) a
wafer factory, (iii) a regional maintenance centre, (iv) a customer training centre for
international customers, (v) a chemical processing plant.
2.
According to Ferdows (1997), what are the differences between a ‘contributor’ factory and
an ‘outpost’ factory?
3.
What are the new roles that De Meyer and Vereecke (1995) assign to ‘foreign’ factories?
4.
What differentiates global manufacturing of goods from global production of services?
5.
What is a vertical electronic marketplace?
6.
Surf the Internet and find: one horizontal e-procurement site, one vertical e-procurement
site, and one exchange (different from the examples given in the text).
7.
What are the three major functions of global logistics?
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
8.
For the point of view of an infrastructure, compare the relative advantages and
disadvantages of turnkey projects, direct project management and BOT.
9.
What is the ‘hostage’ problem in BOT contracts?
Chapter 10
1.
Why is the international product life cycle model no longer appropriate to explain global
innovation?
2.
What are the constraints on implementing a distributed R&D network?
3.
What are the appropriate HRM practices conducive to global R&D?
4.
When is technology transfer complete?
5.
Give two examples of ‘explicit’ knowledge and ‘tacit’ knowledge in a business context of
your choice.
6.
What are the major challenges that the ‘metanational’ model of knowledge creation, sharing
and ‘melding’ tries to address?
7.
How can research performance be measured?
8.
How can you protect intellectual property rights (IPR) in a global firm?
Chapter 11
1.
What types of cultural difference can business managers experience? Give examples.
2.
What is the ‘silent language’ of negotiation?
3.
A lower-level manager discovers that their boss is making a wrong decision that could affect
the company negatively. According to Hofstede’s cultural mapping, how would you expect
this manager to behave if they were: (a) an Indonesian? (b) an Australian?
4.
What consequences can you draw from Laurent’s management assumptions differences for
the organization of a subsidiary in China?
5.
What cultural issues can you anticipate when a partnership is planned between a UK listed
e-company and a Korean family conglomerate?
6.
How would you recommend an American manager to plan a negotiation with a Japanese
counterpart?
7.
What ‘cultural misbehaviour’ of misunderstanding have you experienced person ally, or have
you heard of? How could it have been avoided?
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
Chapter 12
1.
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of having a high proportion of global
managers to local ones?
2.
What are the main difficulties that expatriate managers are confronted with when assigned
to an emerging country?
3.
What are the main problems of short expatriate assignments?
4.
One of the main problems global firms are confronted with in countries such as China is the
turnover of local managers. How can this be prevented?
5.
What are the benefits of mentoring an expatriate?
6.
More and more Western countries’ expatriation packages are disappearing and are being
replaced by local contracts. Why? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
7.
What are the benefits and problems of applying a standardized performance evaluation
system across the world?
8.
What will be the key content of a management program designed to train managers to
become ‘country managers’?
Chapter 13
1.
What are the three types of risk that a global company is exposed to as a consequence of
currency fluctuations?
2.
On 14 January 2002 it was announced that the US carrier Jetblue would buy 10 Airbus 320
for US$500 million. The planes were to be delivered over four years (two in 2002, two in
2003, three in 2004 and 2005). Airbus incurs 70 per cent of its cost in Euros. What can Airbus
Industries do to cover its currency fluctuation risks?
3.
Why are most major British global companies in favour of joining the eurozone?
4.
What are the benefits and problems for a Japanese firm being listed on the New York Stock
Exchange?
5.
Why is the Adjusted Present Value (APV) method preferred to the Cost of Capital
Adjustment (CCA) method in valuing international projects?
6.
How can a company deal with strategic exposure?
7.
What is a letter of credit?
8.
Why are correlation coefficients between stock market returns so high (Table 13.1)?
9.
What type of global financial management tools would a global firm have used to counteract
the adverse impacts of the 1997 Asian Crisis?
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
10. The central finance function is one of the central corporate functions of a conglomerate.
11. Can companies take advantage of favourable exchange or tax rates and make purchases in
different currencies/countries?
12. Name six commodity products which have forward and futures trades. Can you think of a
commodity product not related to natural resources which has forward and futures trades?
13. When a global company originates from a country which may not have a sound financial
system (e.g. Korea), should its overseas offices/subsidiaries hedge their local currencies
against the currency of the head office or hedge it against a foreign currency (e.g. US$), which
is less prone to attack from international finance companies (IFCs)?
14. Why do you think the Japanese stock market, in Table 13.1, was not correlated to other
markets?
Chapter 14
1.
What are the differences between an emerging country and a developing country?
2.
Why is a growing middle class contributing to growth?
3.
What benefits do emerging markets champions get from OEM contracts?
4.
What are the threats coming from emerging markets champions to Western global firms?
Chapter 15
1.
What are the main causes of corruption?
2.
What corrupt practices involving global firms have you heard of?
3.
What dilemma may a country manager face when confronted by a request to solicit a bribe
to obtain a major contract?
4.
What policies should a global firm implement to prevent corrupt practices?
5.
How can corporate policies be designed to contribute to global environment protection?
6.
What should the country managers do if a local supplier in a developing country is
employing 12-year-olds as labour force?
7.
Should a global company pull out of Myanmar, a country well known for human rights
abuses by the military power?
8.
Draw a global ethical web for a pharmaceutical company engaged in anti-HIV drug
production.
Learning assignments for Global Strategic Management
9.
What are SRI funds? Select an SRI fund and track its evolution as compared to the general
evolution of the stock market.
Chapter 16
1.
Why is globalization increasingly being called into question?
2.
Does globalization increase the income gap?
3.
If China becomes a global economic/political power, its corporations will challenge
established global firms. How will this affect the global economy?
4.
Why are the Internet and biotechnology major technological trends likely to influence the
future development of globalization?
5.
How will the ‘global warming issue’ affect the global economy?