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advantages of international expansion
Benefits of International Business Activities
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Business in US and The Czech Republic The purpose of this document is to present solutions and recommendations for Steve Kafka, an American of Czech origin and a franchisor for Chicago Style Pizza, who has decided to expand his business into the Czech Republic. This document focuses on the major differences and incompatibilities between the U.S. and Czech cultures. The script also shed lights on the business risks and mitigation on Czech culture. The paper also talks about the comparative advantages that exist in the Czech Republic and Hofstedes four primary dimensions for Steve to evaluate the Czech business environment.
A business can either take a step forward or a step back depending on the external and internal influences and how they handle them, they can either flourish or enter stages of degradation and cessation. External and internal influences on a businesses plays a part in the opportunities that arise in the industry the business operates in, otherwise the business may choose to venture out of it’s defined industry depending on the opportunities at hand. Businesses are affected by internal and external influences to a degree where they are either benefiting or suffering from the way they handle opportunities that arise. The five articles depict the problems encountered by businesses no matter their size or industry.
A mutual accord in the international business literature is that business has increasingly become more globalized. Nonetheless, it is not only businesses that have become more globalized but also people who have become more global, (Friedman & Liu, 2008). As a result of increased globalization, cultural diversity is a common phenomenon in organizations. The implication of such a phenomenon is that managers are increasingly supervising employees from different cultural backgrounds, beliefs and attitudes than themselves, (Steers, Nardon & Sanchez-Runde, 2013). Such is the case for Molson Coors. Molson Coors found itself in a challenging situation where its cultural values markedly differed with those of Starbev, a Czech Republic
Czech Republic is a country right in the middle of Poland, Germany, Austria and Slovakia. It is a moderately free economic nation however over that last two decades has developed positive economic reform (Czech Republic, 2008). Businesses and investors are attracted to the “strong and growing economy, equitable and stable conditions, a qualified workforce and the low cost of doing business, (Czech Republic, 2008)” just to name a few. This makes an ideal choice for Steve since he has had the opportunity to learn the culture. Of course Steve would have learned that foods like pizza are popular in Czech so it is not like it would be something new to them (Culture grams, 2008). The Czech Republic culture would not seem strange to the United States. As a matter of fact, they are not much different at all. Some of their cuisines may have slight variances however; they still like to eat quick snacks on the side of the road just like many in the United States (Culture Grams, 2008).
Handling business in Germany with confidence can be tough for individuals who don’t comprehend its business culture. Germany is a society with strict cultural components that are clearly delimited; discipline, freedom, individuality, status, and respect are the evident components translated to a business. In Germany, history, management style, and also business structures and interactions are factors that make this country unique; the knowledge and understanding of these specific cultural boundaries can make the difference between success and failure in the business arena.
Each country has its own culture, with subcultures inside the dominant culture (Schaefer, 2009, p.69). “Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted custom, knowledge, material objects, and behavior” (Schaefer, 2009, p.57). Values, artifacts, and ideas are also part of culture (p57). With globalization there is the integration of these cultural aspects, as well as language, social movements, and ideas throughout the world (Schaefer, 2009, p.20). Internationalization helps with this integration. Internationalization is the process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can easily be adapted to specific local languages and cultures (Linfo, 2006). Numerous American retail firms have expanded to other countries. Many have been quite successful due to their internationalization. However, failure to study the culture, retail practices, and consumer market of the country they intend to expand to can be quite costly. Although Home Depot is one of the world’s largest home improvement stores, their expansion to Chile cost them enormous financial loss, resulting in their divestment (Bianchi & Ostale, 2006, section 1, para3). This paper will look at successful international expansion of Home Depot stores, analyze what mistakes were made in Chile, and make suggestions of what could have been done differently.
Purpose: This paper will address the feasibility of a US company entering the market of Hungary. I will explore four major cultural components of the country that affect doing business in Hungary.
“Red is a positive color in Denmark, but represents witchcraft and death in many African countries,” (Understand and heed, 1991, p.1). Simple understandings, such as this one, can make the difference in a business’ success or failure in a foreign country. Various countries have different customs and beliefs that need to be accustomed to when business are to be successful. American businesses especially have difficulties with this concept. “At times in the past, Americans have not had a good track record of being sensitive to cultural distinctions,” (Understand and heed, 1991, p.3). Perhaps this is because America is made up of so many different cultures that American people have become so used to easily adjusting to each other’s differences that they forget that other cultures are not as flexible. Today, more American’s are becoming more sensitive to the differences of other cultures. This sensitivity and understanding has come with a price, after a long string of business failures. It is not until a business fails miserably in another country that they see the adjustments that should have been made in order for their success to be a possibility. With an understanding and sensitivity to the customs and beliefs of other cultures, it is possible for successful businesses that have originated in western cultures to also be successful in foreign countries as well.
International Business is an important aspect for the world’s economy. Interacting with other countries connects the world in ways for both the government and for the citizens. Each country the United States connects with influences our country in both positive and negative ways. But one of the most prominent countries that the US does business with is Switzerland. A country comfortably settled in the middle of France, Germany, and Italy, it has made a positive effect on America’s economy and culture. Understanding Switzerland’s culture is an essential piece of knowledge to successfully do business with them.
Written communication is expressing oneself clearly, using language with precision, constructing a logical argument, note taking, editing and summarizing, and writing reports.(Spears, R. A. (2001). When doing business with a foreign country such as Brazil, one needs to also factor in the countries political history, religion, and culture of your audience.
The importance of culture in International business today cannot be underestimated and it is imperative that attention is paid at strategic, organizational and the individual levels. The “Blue Ridge Spain” case elucidates these at all three levels. My analysis of this case is from the perspective of the Spanish corporation, Terralumen S.A. National culture is the shared implicit beliefs and tacit values that truly differentiate one cultural group from another. I will be using Geert Hofstede’s frame work to deconstruct this case into its separate dimensions.
Steve Kafka, an American of Czech origin and a franchiser of Chicago Style Pizza, has decided to expand his business and open a franchise in Prague, Czech Republic. Before venturing into the global business sector, Steve needs to conduct an in-depth analysis in order to become familiar with the Czech culture. This analysis will present opportunities and risks that Steve will need to achieve and overcome so his end-state goal of expanding his Chicago Style Pizza business can be realized. This paper will investigate and discuss the major cultural differences and incompatibilities between the United States and the Czech Republic defining the apparent risks, and how to mitigate those risks that may develop from these differences. Discussion will then turn to the comparative advantages within the Czech culture, how using Hofstede’s four primary business decisions will help Steve evaluate the business environment, how trade barriers may impact business, and analyze the demand for pizza and how to assess its cost structure.
Globalization can not only affect a company opening an office in another country but it can affect a small local business as well. As the internet brings the world closer together it becomes far more likely that a business that opened with no intention of selling internationally will have customers form different parts of the world asking for their product. For instance a steel company located in Pennsylvania may suddenly find orders coming in from South American factories. How the steel plant chooses to handle this new international customer could mean ...
The differences in cultures between Sweden and Italy had already become apparent in 1993, when Pharmacia merged with an Italian pharmaceutical company, however the inclusion of the American company into a corporate culture which had only so recently been developed and accepted by employees of the companies involved in the original merger created further cultural confusion. “Communication problems, beyond the obvious language differences, became a real barrier to honest dialogue”. This quote, coming from one of the American representatives of Upjohn goes to prove that there was an obvious problem with the interaction between managers of the three countries involved in the deal.
Daniels, J. D., Radebaugh, L. H., and Sullivan, D. P., (2011). International Business: Environments and Operations. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
International business contains all business transactions private and governmental, sales, investments, logistics, and transportation that happen between two or more regions, nations and countries beyond their political limits. Generally, private companies undertake such transactions for profit governments undertake them for profit and for political reasons. It refers to all those business activities which involve cross border transactions of goods, services, resources between two or more nations. Transaction of economic resources includes capital, skills, and people. for international production of physical goods and services such as finance, banking, insurance, and construction.