IntBus ZHAW

A ________ is one or more resources or capabilities a company possesses that few other firms have.

________ refers to the superior features of a country that provide unique benefits in global competition, typically derived from either natural endowments or deliberate national policies.

In recent years, business executives and scholars have used ________ to refer to the advantages possessed by nations and individual firms in international trade and investment.

Which of the following is a comparative advantage?

Which of the following refers to the ability of a nation to produce a good more efficiently than any other nation?

________ is the belief that national prosperity is the result of a positive balance of trade, achieved by maximizing exports and minimizing imports.

The final assignment for Daniel Parilla's international business class involves taking an in-depth look at one of the six classical perspectives that explain the rationale for international trade. Daniel plans to present an argument in favor of mercantilism. Daniel will be attempting to convince his classmates that mercantilism leads to national prosperity. Daniel's peers will be given the opportunity to counter his argument.

According to the ________, a country benefits by producing only those products in which it has complete advantage or that it can produce using fewer resources than another country.

According to the internationalization process model, a firm advances to the ________ stage by initiating limited international activity, typically in the form of basic exporting.

Competitive advantage refers to the ________.

Which of the following refers to an important monopolistic advantage for firms?

The new trade theory is mainly at odds with the ________ theory.

________ theory suggests that firms using FDI as an internationalization strategy must own or control certain resources and capabilities not easily available to competitors.

Current trends suggest that early internationalizing firms will ________.

________ describes the total value of assets that MNEs own abroad via their investment activities.

Which of the following refers to a collaborative venture which results in a new legal entity?

American managers tend to see products as going through the same life cycle as people. Hence products are born, go through a phase of rapid growth, then mature, and finally die. Mature products, like ripe corn, should be harvested before they die. Such products are sometimes called "cash cows." They should be milked for everything they are worth before they near the end of their useful life. What is missing from the metaphor is the reproductive cycle. Products of almost any age can generate new products if they are well cared for. Products A and B can "give birth" to Product C. This reproductive metaphor is less common in the US, and American managers are quick to plan for the death of Product A because it makes room for Product B. This is what is referred to as planned obsolescence

Customer service is an important marketing strategy in Ireland, but efficiency must not entail sacrificing the human relationship. Most Irish people would prefer to wait longer in a queue for friendly service than to be served more quickly but in an impersonal manner. Personal contact is very important for Irish consumers. Thus, doing business in banks and post offices, for example, is generally a pleasant experience in Ireland, in that one is greeted with friendly service. Marketing strategies, which aim to save the consumer time by ruling out the personal touch, have had limited success so far. For example, shopping by mail-order catalog is currently being aggressively pushed at Irish consumers but, despite the busy nature of most people's lives, it has failed to catch on as yet. 

In China, the company that is the first to introduce a certain product is usually the most successful. One of the main reasons behind this is that such a company can literally construct the market by creating stories or rumors beneficial to its products. These stories are as readily believed by Chinese consumers as facts, especially when the stories have an academic element to them, and they will be used as benchmarks to compare other products. Companies entering the Chinese market later, even with better products, will find it extremely difficult to counter these stories.

The usual practice in America is deviance-correcting feedback. You start to implement an action. You get feedback that you are not quite on target. You take corrective action and persevere in your chosen direction. The Japanese proceed differently. They produce a variety of outputs in the expectation that some will be more acceptable than others; hence all deviate from each other. The customers tell you which deviation they prefer and the result is deviance-amplifying feedback, or what is called "the Second Cybernetic Revolution" It is as if you were sailing for America, but chanced on Bermuda and decided to live there instead. 

"Business before pleasure" is a proverb that collides with Chinese values. Business seminars are a good example of this. Seminars are a convenient way to introduce products in China, where traveling can be cumbersome and time consuming. However, Chinese expect a seminar to be a combination of business and a holiday. Seminars are usually held at resort-type places, and the organizers pay special attention to the quality of the meals. The social interaction during breakfast, lunch, and dinner is at least as important as that during the formal seminar sessions and the last day is usually kept open for social activities like sightseeing. Another aspect of Chinese seminars is that after dinner, business and casual chatting are often intermingled.

Competitors in Japan and Southeast Asia tend to develop relationships rather than simply develop themselves. While American suppliers will rarely behave so as to lose money on a contract, Japanese suppliers will sacrifice several contracts to build up a relationship with a customer they believe to be important. Given norms of reciprocity and obligation in Japan a supplier who overfulfills his contract-or in other words, does more than what is specified in it, can expect to see next month's order doubled or quadrupled, in an attempt to repay his kindness. You are not expected to meet specifications, you are expected to surpass them; the more you do for your customer the more he will do for you, in a system of escalating reciprocity on both sides. 

The orientation of the Dutch is reflected in their presentation style. Don't expect a Dutch salesperson or team to give a passionate presentation about their product. Presentations tend to be sober and low key, but at the same time informal and friendly. This style may be misinterpreted by people from other cultures. For example, since the Dutch are not inclined to show tremendous enthusiasm, Americans can misinterpret this to mean that Dutch presenters don't really believe in their products. Germans tend to interpret the Dutch informal presentation style as unprofessional; the Dutch tendency to use self-mockery may be seen by Germans as a lack of self-confidence. 

Presentation styles in Taiwan are subdued. The Taiwanese are used to sales representatives who are not very expressive. Therefore using a lot of hand gestures and body movement may be less effective when presenting to the Taiwanese. They may be suspicious of salespeople who are overtly enthusiastic or who spend a lot of time talking about the tremendous superiority of their product. Talking "too much" is often associated with not knowing much, or to use a Chinese saying, "You have more saliva than tea."

Yakult is a fermented yogurt drink that claims to have a positive effect on health. Yakult developed a unique delivery system for this product in Japan: house-tohouse delivery by so-called Yakult ladies. These Yakult ladies are young women, dressed in a company uniform including a hat and gloves, who distribute the product in their own neighborhoods. Yakult tried the Yakult lady system in the Netherlands when they first introduced the product there in 1994. However, the Dutch viewed unannounced visits to their homes as violations of their privacy. Another problem was that it was difficult to find women who were willing to sell products in their own area. The fact that company uniforms are not very popular among the Dutch made it even more difficult to find women willing to take these jobs.

CMS Energy, an international company involved in a power plant project with a local Singaporean partner, placed an advertisement in Singaporean newspapers in order to show its commitment to Asia in general and to Singapore in particular. The advertisement emphasized that the company was committed to the people of Singapore and to bringing energy to Asia. The ad gave details about plants in other Asian countries. In addition, there was a personal presentation of the management team at the new Asian regional headquarters in Singapore. The presentation included pictures and information about their personal backgrounds and their Asian experience. It explicitly stated that one of the executive directors – who was from Singapore – had a wonderful wife and three delightful daughters born in Singapore and that he would bring Singaporean family values into the management team.

Japanese social life and consumption patterns are different than in most western nations. Tokyo, for example, is a collection of "villages," each with its shopping center. Because houses and refrigerators are small and fresh fish and vegetables are greatly prized, the Japanese shop daily. They go by bicycle or on foot, and shop in thousands of mostly small, mom and pop stores supplied by two tiers of wholesalers. Service is very personal and friendly, and the predilections of individual customers are well known. 

Singapore has always been a very diverse society in which the need for marketing to different ethnic groups has been taken for granted. Since the beginning of the last century, Chinese Singaporeans have distinguished between "Chinatown business," "ah so business" (Chinese business outside of Chinatown), and "ang moh companies" (western business). Because of rapid economic developments, different age groups in Singapore have very different consumer patterns as well, and it is extremely important to differentiate marketing for the different age groups. Singaporean companies have a tradition of adapting to different market needs in a flexible way.

Learning languages - universal, cultural or personal level?

Which of the following is TRUE about low-context cultures?

Firms with high power distance are most likely to be characterized by ________.

________ is the most common primary language in the world.

Which of the following refers to the extent to which people can tolerate risk in their lives?

Cross-cultural proficiency is characterized by all of the following EXCEPT ________.

Feminine cultures tend to emphasize ________.

________ belong(s) to the folk cultural makeup that we are aware of.

Self-reference criterion is ________.

Which of the following types of assumptions is the cause of most problems between business managers and foreign employees?

Values in a culture ________.

Explain Trompenaars Hampden Turner’s (THT) Cultural Dimensions

Which of the following is TRUE about language?