Business Sours on China.

Business Sours on China. Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2010

2010http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125650352968686.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_world

Tougher government policies and intensifying domestic competition combine to make one of the world's most important markets less friendly to multinationals. This can be discussed will covering multinationals, pages 147-148 of Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel's Marketing 11th edition and pages 55-57 of Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel's MKTG4 and political and legal considerations in the global external environment.Two other articles in the same issue of the Wall Street Journal cover the same sections of our text. The first is "Google's Ad partners in China Say Standoff Threatens Their Business."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125420301711134.html
Googles' partners in China are saying that if Google closes its Chinese search engine their businesses will be in jeopardy and demand to know how they will be compensated. The second is "China Slams Luxury Goods' Quality."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125422114724504.html
Authorities in wealthy Zhejiang province, near Shanghai, took aim at Hermes, Hugo boss and Tommy Hilfiger by saying, "International designer clothes, blindly worshipped by Chinese consumers and enjoying 'supernatural treatment'...have once again proven to be unsuitable for China."


Questions for classroom discussion:

(1) What political and legal factors should a multinational firm consider before entering the Chinese market?

(2) Name several other elements in the global external environment a multinational should understand before "going global."

Sony TV Business to Go on the Attack (Wall Street Journal, 03/10/10)


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704145904575111053206940546.html?mod=djem_jiewr_MK_domainid

Sony Corp. said its television business will shift to attack mode in the coming fiscal year as it ramps up TV shipments by about 70% to more than 25 million units and aggressively pushes its 3-D models. Competitive advantage is discussed on pages 40-43 of Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel's Marketing 11th edition and pages 19-20 of Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel's MKTG4.

Caterpillar Joins 'Onshoring' Trend

Caterpillar Joins 'Onshoring' Trend (Wall Street Journal, 03/12/10)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703625304575115922854225564.html

Caterpillar is considering relocating some heavy-equipment overseas production to a new U.S. plant, part of a growing movement among manufacturers to bring more operations back home. This strategy is contrary to offshoring as a method of competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is discussed on pages 40-43 of Lamb, Hair and McDaniel's Marketing 11th edition and pages 19-20 of Lamb, Hair and McDaniel's  MKTG4.