MASTER PRO LEA

MANAGEMENT
INTERNATIONAL TRILINGUE

Bachelor of International Management-1

Coursework material

Antoine SERVEL- Associate Professor Semester 1

[email protected] 2022-2023
 Objective of the class

The “Political and economic environment” class is 12 hours for M1 FI and 12 hours for M1 FA.
Each class will be divided between lectures, videos, articles and case studies.
You will find the coursework material on the university website in a PDF format as well as extra
resources.

The objective of the class is to understand the environments where companies operate and
consider all relevant elements in developing and implementing effective international
strategies and organizational policies. You will develop the abilities to apply the concepts of
topics to a specific situation. It will put you in the shoes of decision makers.

Each class will be divided between lectures, videos, articles and case studies.

You will find the coursework material on the university website in a PDF format as well as extra
resources. We will cover these themes this year:

CHAPTER 1: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

AND GLOBAL TENSIONS
CHAPTER4. INTERNATIONAL STRATEGIES IN A
CHAPTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGES OF COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
CHAPTER 5: INTERCULTURAL TEAMS AND
CHAPTER 3: NAVIGATING CULTURAL GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCES
DIFFERENCES IN INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS

After every chapter, you will be given a short case study to write or present.

What level you are expected to have

The level required for the “baccalauréat” is B2. This is the level you should have. C1 is the level
you should aim for.

If you do not have the required level, you will have to practice on your own outside of class. Your
teacher can provide resources to help you.

1
 Self-Study
You may work with your computer in class, but access to social media, emails and websites which
are not recommended by the teacher will result in exclusion from the class. Google Translate and
Reverso are also prohibited.

Some essential websites for English practice:

- Wordreference: http://www.wordreference.com/
- Linguee: http://www.linguee.fr/
- Eanglais: http://www.e-anglais.com/

Some essential websites for business English:

- Business English Site: http://www.businessenglishsite.com/
- BBC Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/
- Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/

Some essential sites to find information on political, economic and social environments:
- WorldBank: https://data.worldbank.org/country
- Trading economics: https://tradingeconomics.com/countries
- International Monetary Fund: https://www.imf.org/en/countries
- OECD: https://data.oecd.org/
Company websites with country profiles:
- Societe generale: https://import-export.societegenerale.fr/en/country
- Nordea Trade: https://www.nordeatrade.com/en/explore-new-market/australia/political-
context

You have to read the news to build knowledge on the world we live in.
-The Guardian - The Conversation -Salon -Voices of America - The Balance -WSJ- Vox -
Harvard Business Review -NYT

What you will be tested upon

You will have tests during the semester:

- An individual written final exam based on the coursework 50% -- a case study (commentary on
documents): December 14th
- 2 case studies 20%
- Final group project 30%: December 23th

BE CAREFUL WITH TIME MANAGEMENT

1
CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: IN THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION

DOCUMENT 1: BALDWIN, R. “If this is globalization 4.0, what were the other three?” WeForum. December
2018. .................................................................................................................................................................... 6
DOCUMENT 2: Global Economics. “Is this the end of globalization?” Youtube, July 11th, 2022........................... 8
DOCUMENT 3: IPSOS. WORLD OPINION ON GLOBALIZATION 2021. August 2021 ........................................ 9
DOCUMENT 4: Foreign Direct Investment in 2021-2022.................................................................................... 10
DOCUMENT 5. Measuring how globally integrated a country is....................................................................... 13
DOCUMENT 6: The global impact of the Covid crisis ......................................................................................... 14
DOCUMENT 7: Global Economics. “What makes a K-Shaped recovery scary?” Youtube, September 2020. ... 15
DOCUMENT 8: Visual capitalist. The State of democracy around the world, 2022 ........................................... 16
DOCUMENT 9: World Economic Forum, Global Risks Survey, 2022................................................................... 17
DOCUMENT 10: Mike Ives and Zixu Wang. “Mostly Bluster: Why China Went Easy on Taiwan’s Economy”. NYT,
August 2022 ....................................................................................................................................................... 18
DOCUMENT 11: Wall Street Journal. “Why Big Companies Love Inflation”. Youtube. February 2022. ............ 20
CHAPTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGES OF CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
DOCUMENT 1: Financial Times. “Climate change explained : how much will it cost?” December 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDklzmG0f4 ............................................................................................ 21
DOCUMENT 2: A complex issue and impossible solutions? ................................................................................. 22
DOCUMENT 3: MNC Stakeholders ..................................................................................................................... 23
DOCUMENT 4: STEWART, E. “Corporations aren’t going to save America” Vox, July 26, 2021.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22585831/starbucks-bathroom-privatization-government .......................... 24
DOCUMENT 5: International codes of conduct for MNEs .................................................................................... 27
DOCUMENT 6: THE RETAIL INDUSTRY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ............................................................................ 29
DOCUMENT 7: Bloomberg Law. Will the Global Minimum Tax End the Race to the Bottom? “Youtube, March 2022.
............................................................................................................................................................................. 30
DOCUMENT 8: Transparency International. “Corruption Perception Index.” 2021. ............................................ 31
DOCUMENT 9: BUSINESS ETHICS AND CULTURE ............................................................................................... 33
DOCUMENT 10: BUSINESS OR POLITICS- DEBATE ............................................................................................. 35
DOCUMENT 11: BUILDING NEW SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS ................................................................. 36
CHAPTER 3: NAVIGATING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

DOCUMENT 1: Cultural Intelligence Test............................................................................................................ 37

DOCUMENT 2: MANAGEMENT STYLES ACROSS COUNTRIES-Commisceo Global,2017. .................................. 38
DOCUMENT 3: Meyer, Erin. The Culture Map. New York: Public Affairs, 2014. ................................................ 39
DOCUMENT 4: Hostede’s cultural dimensions ..................................................................................................... 41
DOCUMENT 5: Shad Morris, “Cross-Cultural Management” Youtube, 2017 ...................................................... 45
DOCUMENT 6: Diversity training examples ........................................................................................................ 46
HOW TO REFERENCE SOURCES IN YOUR ESSAYS ............................................................................................. 47
CASE STUDY “SMART” INSTRUCTIONS ............................................................................................................. 48

1
 Outline of the class

CHAPTER 1: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND GLOBAL TENSIONS

A. What is globalization ?
B. The state of the global economy
C. Forces having an impact on globalization
D. How do companies operate in a complex global environment?

CHAPTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGES OF CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

A. What is corporate social responsibility?
B. A complex and confusing environment
C. The global issue of corporate taxation
D. Business and Politics
E. Business ethics
F. Implementing CSR strategies

CHAPTER 3: BUSINESS AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

A. Navigating different cultural environments

B. Culture and Management

2
 FINAL CASE STUDY INSTRUCTIONS
Case studies focus on real-world problems and decisions companies face.

You are consultant for large companies.

Your job is to help companies and governments understand a
situation and a problem and give your opinion and advice.
You present your findings and your advice to the company or
government members

➔ Work in groups of 4.
➔ You must choose one of the following case studies-available on EPREL.

❖ BTS, K-Pop and Hallyu: How does the Korean governement’s soft power
strategy impact business internationally?

❖ H&M in China: How can the company navigate new markets and human rights
issues?

❖ Shake Shack: How can an enlightened burger company steer away from beef?

❖ Oatly and the evolution of the plant-based milk industry: How can a brand take
on the milk giants?

❖ Hershey’s and human rights: How can a company keep its promise to be
sustainable?

➔ Every case study is composed of around 10 pages, videos to help you and questions to guide
your work. You can also add your own resources.
➔ Use the methodology at the end of the file
➔ You must include a bibliography. Use the example at the end of the file

➔ You must present your work in the form of a 5-7minute online meeting with visuals and a 3-4-
page professional summary (TNR 12/Spacing 1.5/ margins 2)

o You will name your documents as such: NAME.NAME.NAME.NAME.LMI1.IAE

o You will upload it here: M1 FI / M1 FA

5
 CHAPTER 1: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND
GLOBAL TENSIONS
DOCUMENT 1: BALDWIN, R. “If this is globalization 4.0, what were the other three?”
WeForum. December 2018.

Part1 .Globalization 4.0 has only just begun, but we are already vastly underprepared for it,” wrote Klaus
Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, last month when announcing the theme
of Davos 2019. In the world of buzzwords, Globalization 4.0 was sure to follow Industry 4.0(which referred
to the digitization of manufacturing). (…)I believe that future globalization will be very different from the
globalization we know today, and the globalization we have known in the past. Moreover, it is coming
incredibly fast - and in ways few people expect.

In fact, I believe this strongly enough to have written a book on the theme, which will — strangely enough —
appear just in time for the Davos meeting in January 2019.

Here’s my economic reasoning in a nutshell. Arbitrage drives globalization. Whenever relative prices differ
across countries, people can make money with a two-way, buy-low-sell-high arbitrage. When it comes to goods,
the arbitrage is called trade. For centuries, technological limits meant that the arbitrage mostly took place in
goods. Globalization mostly meant goods crossing borders.

From around 1990, information and communication technology (ICT) made a different type of arbitrage
possible: factories crossing borders. The coordination technology allowed G7 firms to spread some stages of
production to nearby developing nations while still keeping the whole production process running smoothly and
reliably. The vast wage differences made this manufacturing-location arbitrage profitable.

The greatest remaining global arbitrage opportunities are wage rates in the service sector. Pay for similar
tasks routinely differ by 10 times across countries. That’s a 10,000% difference - a very tempting arbitrage
opportunity. Yet up until now, few firms could arbitrage those differences due to technical barriers. The basic
problem has to do with the fundamental reality of service and professional jobs. Face-to-face interaction is
necessary for many of these. Until recently, the state of technology made the cost of overcoming these barriers
prohibitively high. But digital technology is changing that reality. Digital technology - or digitech, for short - is
tearing down the barriers to wage arbitrage in the service sector.

Digitech is making it easier for people sitting in one country to do things in offices in another country. In my
2019 book, The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics and the Future of Work, I call it telemigration, but
it is really just international telecommuting and it is already very common in some sectors like web development.

This new form of globalization - this new wage arbitrage, if you will - is being enabled by international
freelancing platforms like Upwork.com, by advanced telecommunications technology, and by machine
translation (as I pointed out in a previous blog post).

In the broader perspective on economic globalisation that I’ve been pushing since 2006, telemigration is the
“third unbundling”. The first unbundling was trade in goods, which was spurred from the 1800s by a steep fall
in the cost of moving goods. The second unbundling was the geographic separation unleashed by ICT. That
makes the coming globalization into the third unbundling; the geographic separation of labour and labour
services via digitech that makes remote workers seem less remote. This begs the question - how did we get all
the way to Globalization 4.0 if there have been only three unbundlings?

Part 2. In my earliest writing on globalization, I viewed trade-in-goods-based globalization as consisting of two

very distinct phases. In 1999, Philippe Martin and I wrote a paper titled, Two Waves of Globalization:
Superficial Similarities, Fundamental Differences. If we resurrect that distinction, we very naturally see the first
three globalizations.

Globalization 1.0 was pre-World War 1 globalization, which was launched by a historic drop in trade costs
when steam and other forms of mechanical power made it economical to consume goods made faraway. This
6
globalization came with almost no government support. There was no global governance, unless you count the
British Navy as the UN, the Bank of England as the IMF, and Britain’s free trade stance as the WTO. And there
was little domestic policy to help share the gains and pains of more intense international arbitrage in goods.

Globalization back then fanned the fortunes of a nation’s most competitive citizens and companies but fractured
the fortunes of a nation’s least competitive citizens and companies. It took place in the context of very bare-
knuckled economic systems (laissez-faire capitalism, imperialism and various forms of autocracy). That
combination did not end well. Two world wars, the Great Depression, and the rise of communism and fascism
resulted in hundreds of millions of humans being killed by other humans.

A resolution was eventually found. Capitalism’s face was softened with the New Deal in the US, and social-
market democracy in other rich economies. In another large slice of the world, communism softened into a kinder,
gentler version. Taken together we can view this as a distinct phase; call it Globalization 2.0.

Globalization 2.0 is the post-World War II phase where trade in goods was combined with complementary
domestic policies that helped share the pains and gains of globalization (and automation). The market was in
charge of efficiency; the government was in charge of justice. Internationally, Globalization 2.0 saw the
establishment of institute-based, rule-based international governance, specifically the UN, IMF, World Bank,
GATT/WTO and many specialized agencies like the Food and Agricultural Organisation and International
Labour Organisation.

Globalization 3.0 is what I called the second unbundling, or the New Globalization. Arvind Subramanian called
it hyperglobalization, Gary Gereffi called it the global value chain revolution, and Alan Blinder called
it offshoring. The key is that globalization now meant factories crossing borders, and - critically - the know-how
of G7 firms along with them. This created a new world of manufacturing in which high-tech was combined with
low wages. This new combination disrupted the lives and communities of workers struggling to compete with
high wages and high tech as well as those struggling to compete with low wages and low tech. Workers
employed in goods-producing sectors were the most affected, since this unbundling mostly affected goods-
producing sectors. In particular, the monopoly that G7 factory workers had on G7 manufacturing technology
was broken when their employers moved jobs and know-how abroad.

Globalization 4.0 is what I call the third unbundling. It is what will happen when digitech allows arbitrage of
international wage differences without the physical movement of workers. While Globalization 1.0, 2.0 and
3.0 were mainly a concern of people who made things for a living (since globalization focused on things that
we made), Globalization 4.0 is going to hit the service sector. Hundreds of millions of service-sector and
professional workers in advanced economies will - for the first time ever - be exposed to the challenges and
opportunities of globalization. Worryingly, the service sector is also where AI-driven automation will displace
many workers. If the blue-collar workers disrupted by Globalization 3.0 join hands with the white-collar workers
who will be disrupted by Globalization 4.0, we may have an upheaval on our hands - what I call the Globotics
Upheaval. Reading recent headlines, this upheaval may be wearing a gilet jaune.

Every great transformation creates triumphs for those who can seize the opportunities and tragedies for those
who can’t. Future globalization will bring us to a better world if we prepare well and if our governments take
care to not let it happen too quickly. Explosive economic changes have, in the past, led to explosive social
upheaval. Our governments need to help people adjust, and – if it all goes too quickly – they will need to slow
it down.

PART 1 PART 2

1. What is “Industry 4.0”? 1. What was globalization 1.0?

2. What is “arbitrage?” 2. How has capitalism changed to enable more
3. What changed in the 1990s? trade?
4. How different are wages around the world 3. What was globalization 2.0?
for the same tasks? 4. What is the role of international
5. What is telemigration? organizations?
6. What were the first, second and third 5. What is globalization 3.0?
unbundling? 6. What is globalization 4.0?

7
 DOCUMENT 2: Global Economics. “Is this the end of globalization?” Youtube, July
11th, 2022

PART1. UP TO 2,46. PART2, UP TO 2,46

1. What did the pandemic reveal?

1. How are we connected?
2. What was the consequence of bans on medical
2. What is the question asked at the
exports?
beginning of the video?
3. What is the political danger to globalization and
3. What has interconnectivity enabled?
which form did it take in the USA?
4. When did current globalization start?
4. What were the two policies put in place in the
How?
USA?Give the two other examples.
5. What happened after WWII?
5. What is the role of the Russian attacks on
6. What enabled the spread of modern
Ukraine?
globalization?
6. What is the term used to describe US Chinese
7. What enabled the diffusion of cultures?
relationships?
8. What helps improve developed
7. Give two examples of global resilience
economies?
8. How is global trade evolving?
9. Why has globalization become a divisive
9. What happened in Africa and in Asia?
issue?
10. How is supply chain changing?
10. What has its effect been on the middle
11. How is globalization evolving?
class? Why?

11. What is the domino effect? Explain.

GO FURTHER:
Watch the video and summarize it in 10 lines.
DW. The globalization backlash; a new world economic order? Youtube, July 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhvkvTJdbl8

8
DOCUMENT 3: IPSOS. WORLD OPINION ON GLOBALIZATION 2021. August 2021

These findings are the result of a survey of 19,017 adults aged 16-71 in 25 countries around the world. The survey was
conducted between 26 March and 9 April 2021.

IN GROUPS OF 2/3.

1. Look at the charts on this page: IPSOS. WORLD OPINION ON GLOBALIZATION 2021.(Control+click)-also available on
Eprel.
2. Present the findings. Do you agree with people from your country? Why?
3. Using what you know from your country, how can you explain the result?
4. Do you agree with the statements from Sean Doherty, Head of International Trade and Investment at the World Economic
Forum: “International trade and investment can grow economies, reduce poverty, improve healthcare and empower
people worldwide," (…)"However, changes caused by trade can be disruptive and painful, and can sometimes
undermine local reforms. The seeming contradiction in survey results is understandable: people want more of the good
and less of the bad of globalization. (…) "To grow the gains and achieve fair outcomes for all, governments need
to listen to local priorities and work together on policies related to the environment, jobs, tax, the digital economy
and other issues which reach across borders.” August 2021.

9
DOCUMENT 4: Foreign Direct Investment in 2021-2022
A. Understanding the figures

1. Look at the charts on global foreign direct investment and answer the questions.
2. What do you think the drops in global FDI correspond to?
3. What happened during the pandemic?
4. What is happening now?
5. Which countries seem to benefit the most from FDI and what is the reason, according to you?
6. Go to the OECD website and choose World+Europe+USA+China+ France+ the country of your
choice. Can you see similarities in shapes? FDI DATA EXPLORER

https://www.oecd.org/investment/investment-policy/FDI-in-Figures-April-2022.pdf

10
 2. UNCTAD, “Global foreign direct investment recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 but uncertainty
looms in 2022”, June 9, 2022

The World Investment Report 2022 launched by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
indicates that foreign direct investment (FDI) recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 reaching nearly $1.6 trillion but this
course is unlikely to be sustained in 2022.
Sustainability themed investment products in global financial markets rose by 63% from 2020 and governments around the
world seek to develop regulatory frameworks for sustainable finance.

Flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) recovered to pre-pandemic levels last year, hitting nearly $1.6 trillion but the prospects
for this year are grimmer the latest UNCTAD World Investment Report said.
The report entitled "International tax reforms and sustainable investment" said that to cope with an environment of uncertainty and
risk aversion, developing countries must get significant help from the international community.
"The need for investment in productive capacity, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in climate change mitigation
and adaptation is enormous. Current investment trends in these areas are not unanimously positive," said Rebeca Grynspan,
Secretary-General of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
"It is important that we act now. Even though countries face very alarming immediate problems stemming from the cost-of-living
crisis, it is important we are able to invest in the long term."
Coming off a low base in 2020, global FDI flows rose 64 percent to $1.58 trillion last year with momentum from booming
merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and rapid growth in international project finance due to loose financing and major
infrastructure stimulus packages.
Explore UNCTAD’s interactive data visualization on FDI inflows and outflows in countries and regions over the last 30
years.
While the recovery benefitted all regions, almost three-quarters of the growth was concentrated in developed economies as FDI
flows rose 134% and multinational companies posted record profits.
Flows to developing economies rose 30% to $837 billion – the highest level ever recorded – largely due to strength in Asia, a
partial recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean and an upswing in Africa. The share of developing countries in global flows
remained just above 50%.
The reinvested earnings component of FDI – profits retained in foreign affiliates by multinational companies – accounted for the
bulk of the global growth, reflecting the record rise in corporate profits, especially in developed economies.
The top 10 economies for FDI inflows in 2021 were the United States, China, Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Canada, Brazil,
India, South Africa, Russia and Mexico.
2022 prospects
This year, the business and investment climate has changed dramatically as the war in Ukraine results in a triple crisis of high
food and fuel prices and tighter financing. Other factors clouding the FDI horizon include renewed pandemic impacts, the
likelihood of more interest rate rises in major economies, negative sentiment in financial markets and a potential recession.
Despite high profits, investment by multinational companies in new projects overseas were still one-fifth below pre-pandemic
levels last year. For developing countries, the value of greenfield announcements stayed flat.
Signs of weakness are already emerging this year. Preliminary data for the first quarter shows greenfield project announcements
down 21% globally, cross-border M&A activity down 13% and international project finance deals down 4%.
"UNCTAD foresees that the growth momentum of 2021 cannot be sustained and that global FDI flows in 2022 will likely move
on a downward trajectory, at best remaining flat," the report underline. "However, even if flows should remain relatively stable
in value terms, new project activity is likely to suffer more from investor uncertainty."
Variations among regions: overview of Africa, Latin America and industrialized economies
FDI in Africa hit a record $83 billion last year but this was significantly affected by a single intrafirm financial transaction in
South Africa in the second half of 2021. Flows rose in Southern Africa, East Africa and West Africa while Central Africa stayed
flat and North Africa fell.
Developing Asia, which receives 40% of global FDI, saw flows rise in 2021 for the third straight year to an all-time high of $619
billion. FDI in China grew 21% and in Southeast Asia by 44% but South Asia went the other way, falling 26% as flows to India
shrank to $45 billion.
In 2021, FDI in Latin America and the Caribbean rose 56% – with South America’s growth of 74% sustained by higher demand
for commodities and green minerals.

11
For structurally weak, vulnerable and small economies rose by 15% to 39 trillion, however influx to the least developed countries,
landlocked and small island developing states combined accounted only for 2.5 percent of the world total in 2021, down from
3.5 percent in 2020. The impact of the pandemic intensified fragility and investment in sectors relevant for the SDGs – especially
food, agriculture, health and education – continued to fall.
"In 2022, FDI flows to developing economies are expected to be strongly affected by the war in Ukraine and its wider
ramifications, and by macroeconomic factors including rising interest rates," the report said. "Fiscal space in many countries will
be significantly reduced, especially in oil- and food-importing developing economies."
Investing in Sustainable Development Goals
After taking a significant hit in the first year of the pandemic, international SDG investment jumped 70% last year. But most of
the recovery growth came in renewable energy and energy efficiency, where project values reached more than three times the
pre-pandemic level.
"While the 2021 recovery in value terms is positive, investment activity in most SDG-related sectors in developing economies, as
measured by project numbers, remained below pre-pandemic levels," the report said.
"Across developing Asia, investment in sectors relevant for the SDGs rose significantly," the report said. "International project
finance values in these sectors increased by 74% to $121 billion, primarily because of strong interest in renewable energy."
International project finance is increasingly important for Sustainable Development Goals and climate change investment. Some
positive steps in these areas in 2021 could be tested this year.
Announced international project finance deals hit a record of 1,262 projects last year and more than doubled in value to $656
billion.
The introduction of a global minimum tax on foreign direct investment will have important implications for the international
investment climate but both developed and developing countries are expected to benefit from an increased revenue collection.

1. What are the conclusion of the World Investment Report 2022?

2. What is the recommendation for developing countries?
3. What does the document say about global warming?
4. Which parts of the world have recovered the best? Can you guess why?
5. Why is developing Asia so important for FDI?
6. What is the impact of the pandemic on the least developed countries?
7. Explain what “SDGs” are and why they are so important according to the text
8. What is the global minimum tax rate?

The complete report: https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/wir2022_en.pdf

KEY TAKEAWAYS OF THE GLOBAL MINIMUM TAX RATE

• A global corporate minimum tax would apply a standard tax rate to a defined corporate
income base worldwide.
• The OECD developed a proposal featuring a corporate minimum tax of 15% on foreign
profits of large multinationals, which would give countries new annual tax revenues of $150
billion.1
• The framework aims to discourage nations from tax competition through lower tax rates that
result in corporate profit shifting and tax base erosion.
• The framework received the support of 136 countries and jurisdictions, each of which signed
on to the OECD proposal.
• The global corporate minimum tax was approved at the G20 Leaders Summit in Rome in
October 2021. Investopedia,2022

12
 DOCUMENT 5. Measuring how globally integrated a country is

➢ The KOF INDEX

1. Write down what you think are the top 3 most globally integrated countries in the world and explain
why you believe so.
2. Use the information above as a starting point to summarize what the KOF index is. What is the method
used to measure globalization?.
3. Check which countries are the most globally integrated? Are you surprised by the results?
https://kof.ethz.ch/en/forecasts-and-indicators/indicators/kof-globalisation-index.html
4. Why is the most globally integrated country the most integrated? Use the press release to explain.
https://kof.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/media/press-releases/2021/12/kof-globalisation-index-
2021.html

➢ DHL Connectedness Index

1. Watch the video and explain the method used by the DCI. You can browse the website for more information.
DHL, What is the DHL Connectedness Index, Youtube, Decembre 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjAX1zOJ2ZY
2. Write down what you think are the top 3 connected countries and explain why you believe so.
Check your answers with the online tool: https://www.dhl.com/global-en/delivered/globalization/global-
connectedness-index.html (In the middle of the page)
3. What were the conclusions from the DHL report for 2021?
https://www.dhl.com/content/dam/dhl/global/dhl-spotlight/documents/pdf/2021-gci-key-take-
aways.pdf

13
DOCUMENT 6: The global impact of the Covid crisis

➔ Choose one of the following topics and present the findings from the site.

- Countries’s debt caused by the Covid crisis

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-debt-to-gdp-ratio/
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
- Global employment during the Covid crisis:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/one-year-in-how-the-pandemic-impacted-employment-
around-the-world/
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

- Air travel during the Covid crisis:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/air-travel-plummeted-during-covid-19-pandemic/
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

- The main problems and opportunities caused by the Covid crisis

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/economic-impact-covid-19/
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

GO FURTHER:

Watch and present the document. Give your opinion.

Al Jazeera English. How has the covid19 impacted global

economy. Youtube. December 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hnEKDfbNTk

14
DOCUMENT 7: Global Economics. “What makes a K-Shaped recovery scary?” Youtube,
September 2020.

1. Was everybody impacted the same by the pandemic?

2. When was the last time we saw a K-shaped recovery?

3. How did the largest companies fare during the pandemic?

4. What was the uneven impact of the pandemic on people?

5. Which industries struggled?

6. Which businesses struggled the most?

7. Which workers were hit the hardest?

8. What happened with unemployment?

9. What is the issue with remote work?

10. How did governments try to solve the problem and at what risk?

11. What does the author of the video say about individual solutions? Is that argument biased?

12. What happened every time there is a crisis?

GO FURTHER:
➔ McKinsey. “Asia’s post pandemic recovery at multiple speed”,
Youtube, October 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcE4tav_c2I
➔ France24 English. Why developing economies are being left behind
in Covid 19 recovery. Youtube. January 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gJjtkX3HLICOVID

15
DOCUMENT 8: Visual capitalist. The State of democracy around the world, 2022

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-the-state-of-global-democracy-2022/

16
DOCUMENT 9: World Economic Forum, Global Risks Survey, 2022.

GROUP WORK
1. Choose one of the risks at the bottom and explain how they are aggravated by the most damaging risks.
2. Use the Global risk report to present one of the main chapters to the class in 5 minutes: Disorderly Climate Transition/
Barriers to Migration/ Crowding and Competition in Space/ Refreshing Resilience-
https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2022.pdf

17
DOCUMENT 10: Mike Ives and Zixu Wang. “Mostly Bluster: Why China Went Easy on Taiwan’s
Economy”. NYT, August 2022

In retaliation for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week, China conducted large-scale military
exercises around the self-governing island democracy and suspended some trade between the sides.
The exercises led to a few shipping disruptions, but they did not affect traffic at Taiwanese or Chinese ports, analysts
say. And the trade bans were notable mainly for what they did not target: Taiwan’s increasingly powerful
semiconductor industry, a crucial supplier to Chinese manufacturers.
The bans that Beijing did impose — on exports of its natural sand to Taiwan, and on imports of all Taiwanese citrus
fruits and two types of fish — were hardly an existential threat to the island off its southern coast that it claims as
Chinese territory.
“China’s ban on citrus didn’t really affect us,” said Syu Man, a manager for a fruit exporter in southern Taiwan that
ships a type of pomelo across East Asia, primarily to Japan. “We don’t depend on the Chinese market.”
China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, yet Beijing’s options for punishing the island’s economy are somewhat
limited. That’s because the most extreme measures it could take — like a semiconductor ban, or a full blockade of
Taiwanese ports — would surely backfire on the Chinese economy. For all of Beijing’s “venting” over Ms. Pelosi’s
visit, China’s relations with Taiwan may well return to normal within two or three months, said William Choong, a
political scientist at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
“For China to effect punitive economic measures and sanctions on Taiwan would be akin to cutting off your nose to
spite your face,” he said.
Understand the China-Taiwan Tensions:
What does China mean to Taiwan? China claims Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy of 23 million people, as its territory
and has long vowed to take it back, by force if necessary. The island, to which Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese forces retreated after
the Communist Revolution of 1949, has never been part of the People’s Republic of China.
What does Xi Jinping want? China’s leader has made it clearer than any of his predecessors that he sees unifying Taiwan with
China to be a primary goal of his rule — and a key to what he calls China’s “national rejuvenation.” Mr. Xi is also keen to
project an image of strength ahead of his expected confirmation to an unprecedented third term this fall.
How is the U.S. involved? In an intentionally ambiguous diplomatic arrangement adopted in 1979, the United States maintains a
“one China” policy that acknowledges, but does not endorse, Beijing’s claim over Taiwan. U.S. leaders have remained vague
about how they would help Taiwan if China attacked, but President Biden has pledged to defend the island.
Why are tensions rising now? Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to Taiwan — the highest level visit to the island by an American
official since 1997 — has ignited regional tensions, prompting China to conduct its largest-ever military exercises near Taiwan.
A chorus of official Chinese bodies portrayed her trip as part of an American effort to sabotage China’s efforts at unificati on
with Taiwan.
The trade bans announced last week were a reminder to Taiwanese exporters that doing business with China during
periods of high geopolitical tension carries risks. Recent bans have targeted Taiwanese pineapples, wax apples
and grouper fish, among other products. Still, the latest measures are unlikely to be especially painful for an
economy that is roughly the size of Switzerland’s and features a sophisticated manufacturing base.
“The political message is greater than the economic hit,” said Chiao Chun, a former trade negotiator for the
Taiwanese government.
Even though about 90 percent of Taiwan’s imported gravel and sand comes from China, most of that is manufactured.
China accounted for only about 11 percent of Taiwan’s natural sand imports in the first half of this year, according
to the Bureau of Mines.
The two types of Taiwanese fish exports that China restricted last week — chilled white striped hairtail and frozen
horse mackerel — are collectively worth about $22 million, less than half the value of the Taiwanese grouper trade
that was banned earlier this year. They are also less dependent on the Chinese market.
As for Taiwan’s half-a-billion-dollar citrus industry, its shipments to China account for only 1.1 percent of the island’s
total agricultural exports, according to Taiwan’s Agriculture Council. A popular theory is that Beijing singled out citrus
farmers because most orchards are in southern Taiwan, a stronghold for the governing political party, the Democratic
Progressive Party, a longtime target of Beijing’s anger.
Future bans may become more targeted to punish industries in counties that are D.P.P. strongholds, said Thomas J.
Shattuck, an expert on Taiwan at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. There may also be less
retaliation against counties run by the Kuomintang opposition party “in an attempt to put a finger on the scale for
Taiwan’s local, and even national, elections,” he added. The citrus and fish bans are part of a Chinese clampdown
on Taiwanese food products that has accelerated this year. As of last week, the Chinese authorities had suspended
the export licenses of about two-thirds of the 3,000-plus Taiwanese food producers that had been allowed to export

18
to China, according to a review of official customs data. Several exporters said in interviews that many of the
suspensions came in late June.
But not all of those businesses are terribly worried.
One company that was affected by China’s export restrictions, ChiaTe Pastry in Taipei, said it had never sent any
products to that market in the first place. Another business, Huang Yuan Sing Pastry in New Taipei City, said its
license to export products — including its signature five nuts cake — was among those suspended recently. But China
accounted for only a small fraction of its profits anyway, an employee said, and the share has been declining during
the pandemic.
In the seafood sector, the export licenses of half the 84 companies in the Taiwan Frozen Seafood Industries
Association have also been suspended since July, said Tzu-zung Wu, the group’s general secretary. But many of
them had registered in the mainland only because they wanted the option of expanding their business there at some
point in the future, she added. “It does not mean that they are dependent on the Chinese market,” Ms. Wu said.
China’s decision not to ban Taiwanese manufacturing exports, particularly semiconductors, is consistent with a “highly
selective” strategy of economic retaliation, said Christina Lai, a research fellow at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top
research academy. “As of now, China’s coercive measures seem symbolic in nature,” Ms. Lai said.
The island’s semiconductor industry is an increasingly indispensable node in the global supply chains for smartphones,
cars and other keystones of modern life. One producer, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, makes
roughly 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, and sells them to both China and the West.
Mr. Shattuck, the University of Pennsylvania analyst, said Beijing would consider that industry “off limits” during
future crises or bouts of economic retaliation for a simple reason: China needs Taiwanese semiconductors as much as
other countries do.
“If Beijing truly believes that it can squeeze Taiwan into reunification via military pressure and short of an invasion,
then a strong and healthy Taiwanese semiconductor industry would boost China’s economy in an eventual ‘unified’
P.R.C.,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
The limits of China’s economic pressure campaign were on display last week as its military conducted four days of
drills that simulated a blockade of Taiwan.
Even though some of the exercises took place in the Taiwan Strait, a key artery for international shipping, they did
not disrupt access to ports in Taiwan or southern China, said Tan Hua Joo, an analyst at Linerlytica, a company in
Singapore that tracks data on the container shipping industry. He added that port congestion would build only if
the strait was completely blocked, port access was restricted or port operations were hampered by a labor or
equipment shortage.
“None of these are happening at the moment,” he said.
Vessels that chose to avoid the Taiwan Strait last week because of the Chinese military’s “chest beating” activities
would have faced a 12- to 18-hour delay, an inconvenience that would generally be considered manageable, said
Niels Rasmussen, the chief shipping analyst at Bimco, an international shipping association.
If Beijing were to escalate tensions in the future, it would indicate that it was willing to put at risk China’s own
economy as well as its trade and relations with Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, Mr. Rasmussen
said by phone from his office near Copenhagen.
“That’s just difficult to accept that they would take that decision,” he added. “But then again, I didn’t expect Russia
to invade Ukraine.”

1. Did Chinese military exercise have an impact on shipping distribution from and to Taiwan?
2. What is the most important industry in Taiwan? And why is it important for China?
3. Which bans were imposed on Taiwan?
4. What are Taiwanese companies’ strategies not to be affected by the trade barriers on fruits?
5. What would happen if China imposed a ban on semiconductors?
6. What kind of message was the reaction of the Chinese government to the visit of US representative Pelosi?
7. What is China’s strategies for restricting the Taiwanese economy in the future?
8. What is China’ s political endgame in Taiwanese elections?
9. Why is the Chinese economic strategy “symbolic”?
10. What would happen to Chinese trade if Beijing were to escalade tensions in the region?

GO FURTHER:
Vox, How China uses fruits to punish Taiwan, Youtube, April 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFdMUPTM_9Y

19
DOCUMENT 11: Wall Street Journal. “Why Big Companies Love Inflation”. Youtube.
February 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3i7TqzW42g

1. What are companies saying to complain about inflation?

2. How do companies frame their discourse on inflation?

3. What do companies tell investors about inflation?

4. What are firms around the world facing?

5. What are net margins?

6. How have they evolved in recent years?

7. What are companies planning to do even when inflation will stabilize?

8. What generally happens when companies raise their prices too much?

9. In the US, what have antitrust laws done and what does it mean for companies?

10. How has the pandemic helped companies financially?

11. What was the impact for small businesses?

12. What was the consequences for big companies in the US?

13. Name some of the largest companies guilty of raising prices knowing the customers have no option but

to buy the products?

CHAPTER 1- KEY QUESTIONS :

- What is Globalization and how has it evolved?

- What are the issues the global economy is facing?
- What do experts think about the future of globalization?
- How can companies benefit from globalization?
- What are some of the geopolitical tensions which can affect a company’s operations?
- How can companies mitigate the effects of political and economic crises?
- What is the role of inflation on international business?

20
 CHAPTER 2: THE NEW CHALLENGES OF
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
DOCUMENT 1: Financial Times. “Climate change explained : how much will it cost?”
December 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDklzmG0f4

1. In 2018, how much did the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say the crisis would cost
the global economy?

2. What are the objectives in terms of temperature?

3. What are the other consequences which are not monetary?

4. What would changes in ocean temperature would lead to?

5. Would agriculture be possible?

6. What would happen to people living near the coasts?

7. What would it mean on governments and geopolitics?

8. What is the goal by 2030? By 2050?

9. Look at the graphs and tables on the Powerpoint.

Can you give your reading on who/what is responsabible the majority of greenhouse gaz
emissions?
https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions

21
DOCUMENT 2: A complex issue and impossible solutions?

Work in groups of 2-3.

Choose one of the topics. Make a summary which answers the questions. Present it to the class.

➔ Global inequalities, climate change responsabilities?

- How will climate change impact developing nations?
- What are organizations doing to help??
DW Planet”this is how unfair climate change is” Youtube, May 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHF4HHeOtkc
UNCTAD. “A world in crisis need both trade and aid”, July 2022.
https://unctad.org/news/blog-world-crisis-needs-both-trade-and-aid
Vestergren, Finnerty, Gulsum, “Here is why we need climate protests”, The conversation,
December 2021.https://theconversation.com/heres-why-we-need-climate-protests-even-
if-some-think-theyre-annoying-172191
- Give your opinion on the matter

➔ China and The USA, working together against climate change?

- Which steps have China and the USA aken to limit their impact on the
environment?
- Is it a real move and why? Use examples.
DW. “US and China announce joint efforts to cut carbon emissions”, Youtube,
November 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba-kW2_eo2s (Is the
agreement still on?)
UNCTAD. “A world in crisis need both trade and aid”, July 2022.
https://unctad.org/news/blog-world-crisis-needs-both-trade-and-aid
Regan and Dotto, “US vsChina,how the world’s two biggest emitters stack up on
climate” November 2021. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/28/world/china-
us-climate-cop26-intl-hnk/index.html
- Give your opinion on the matter

➔ Global companies, a major player to fight climate change?

- Which steps are companies taking to limit climate change?

- Is it a real move and why?
WSJ “The cost to reduce global warming?” Youtube October 2021”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQfXtYDs1YY
UNCTAD. “A world in crisis need both trade and aid”, July 2022.
https://unctad.org/news/blog-world-crisis-needs-both-trade-and-aid
- Give your opinion on the matter

22
DOCUMENT 3: MNC Stakeholders

Every company has stakeholders. Some are Internal and others are external:

Boundless.com, 2017

In an international management context, defining the stakeholders of a company becomes

much more difficult:

Home Country Host

Economy
Owners
Customers
Employees
MNC Employees
Community
Host
Unions
Government
Suppliers
Consumers
Distributors
Strategic Allies
Strategic Allies
Suppliers
Community
Distributors
Economy Society in General
Government

Global interdependence/standard of
living
Global environment and ecology
Sustainable resources
Population’s standard of living

International CSR is more complex than domestic CSR because there are additional stakeholders
in the firm’s activities. Managers must weigh the rights of domestic stakeholders versus those of
host country stakeholders. Most decisions will involve a trade-off between the rights of various
stakeholders—at least in the short-term.
Deresky, 2017.

23
 DOCUMENT 4: STEWART, E. “Corporations aren’t going to save America” Vox, July
26, 2021. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22585831/starbucks-bathroom-
privatization-government
1. Make a list of what you know about US politics and the US economic system
2. Read part 1-summarize OR Read part 2 summarize.
3. Discuss : What is CSR in the USA ? Why is CSR so important in the USA ? What does it mean about the role of the US
government ? What do you know about CSR in France ?

PART 1.

Starbucks is sort of America’s bathroom. In cities like New York, where public restrooms are hard to come by, it’s the de
facto spot to stop and pee. Mike Bloomberg, who tried to set up a network of public toilets when he was mayor, once
reportedly shrugged that perhaps “there’s enough Starbucks” to address the city’s bathroom needs anyway.

But Starbucks is an imperfect public toilet because providing a public toilet is not the point of Starbucks. It has tried in the
past to limit its facilities to employees, or, at the very least, to require people using those facilities to buy something
first. That proved to be a problematic system after employees at a Philadelphia Starbucks in 2018 called the police on
two Black men who asked to use the bathroom while waiting for a business associate. And so, the coffee giant has
begrudgingly accepted its fate as many passersby’s emergency loo.

The solution is far from ideal. But in many places in the US, there aren’t many immediate alternatives. The government
has failed to meet a very basic biological need, and so a private company fills part of the gap.

Across various segments of American life, the private sector has begun to take on tasks big and small that one might think
should be tackled by the public sector. Domino’s filled in potholes. Dawn’s dish soap saved ducks. American
Express pitched in on historic preservation. Walmart started selling low-priced insulin. A slew of companies help
workers pay for school. Much of America’s health care system is still handled through private insurers and your job. As
people lose faith in government to act on sweeping issues such as climate change and guns, they’re increasingly looking
to corporate America and asking whether there’s something they can do about it. If Congress won’t tackle gun
violence, maybe Dick’s Sporting Goods can try. It’s not a bad thing for brands and companies to try to make the world
better. Starting a business often involves identifying a problem to solve, and it’s much better for companies to help than
to do harm. Corporate social responsibility is fine. There are, however, limits.

“Of course we want businesses to be responsible,” said Suzanne Kahn, managing director of research and policy at the
Roosevelt Institute. But she emphasized that this does not constitute a plan for how to organize society. “Private companies
don’t, can’t, or won’t plan with the same values that we demand and expect the government to.”

Companies have a profit motive and are ultimately accountable to shareholders. Doing what’s lucrative often doesn’t
align with what’s best for most people, and when they do nice things, it’s often because they know it will play well with
consumers and workers. Domino’s helped fill some potholes because it was good advertising for pizza pickup customers,
not because it’s overly concerned about the future of America’s bridges and roads. The issue is, the entity that should be
driving the bus on America’s bridges is kind of asleep at the wheel.

The private sector is increasingly encroaching on the government’s space because the government is leaving so much space
to begin with. Corporations are swooping in with solutions because the solutions coming from public officials and entities
aren’t working or are nonexistent.“I don’t think it’s bad for a company to say we’re going to do the Paris climate accord,”
Kahn said. “It’s bad when we as a country say we’re going to let companies do what should be a public responsibility.”

At the start of the pandemic, the airwaves were filled with commercials from brands promising solidarity and support.
Corporate America was eager to reassure us “we’re all in this together” and highlight the myriad ways they were
supporting their customers and workers. Insurers paused policy cancellations. Telecom companies gave away extra data.
Retailers started calling their workers “heroes” and, in some cases, giving them hazard pay.But many companies were
here for us on Covid-19 until about the summer of 2020, after which many of those pandemic-related perks and benefits
expired. Stores halted hazard pay for workers even though the hazard was far from over. Creditors wound down debt
deferrals. We were all in this together for a limited time only. Ultimately, it was big government programs, such as stimulus
checks, unemployment insurance, and eviction moratoriums, that would make the biggest difference in people’s pandemic
lives.

“IT’S BAD WHEN WE AS A COUNTRY SAY WE’RE GOING TO LET COMPANIES DO WHAT SHOULD BE A PUBLIC
RESPONSIBILITY”

24
It’s illustrative of the greater landscape: The private sector can and should play a role in addressing society’s issues, but
it will only do so to a point. Kroger just isn’t going to pay its workers an extra couple of dollars an hour forever if it
doesn’t have to. The airlines started laying off workers the minute government funding dried up. Operation Warp
Speed for the vaccines wasn’t going to be undertaken by pharmaceutical companies on their own.

Companies are under increasing pressure from their workers and consumers to do the right thing. According to
a report from Kantar Monitor, more than two-thirds of consumers expect brands to be clear about their values, and nearly
half of millennials and Gen Z expect brands to be brave and speak out. Research suggests that when companies do a
good deed, their products are perceived as safer and consumers are drawn in. Employees also have high expectations
of their workplaces — being on the “right side” of issues such as climate and race can be a useful recruiting tool. But what
matters more than companies talking a big game on helping their communities is whether they’re backing that up, or
what else they’re doing in the background.

Companies have money and power, and major multinational corporations are often the only entities besides government
with the clout to influence societal forces, said Jerry Davis, a professor of management at the University of Michigan’s
Ross School of Business. “It’s very clear that some of the problems that we want to have solved are going to take scale,
and that’s the kind of scale that only a government or a really big business can pull off. And if we don’t trust the
government to do it, that just leaves Walmart and Amazon,” Davis said.

Alice Korngold, a corporate governance consultant, echoed the idea that companies are often the ones with the weight
to tackle major global issues — though sometimes, once you dig deeper, the situation becomes much more muddled. “I’d
never say, ‘This company is doing a particular thing, then this company is great!’ And it’s really industries that are often
culpable for creating situations that need to be addressed,” she said. She explains that, far from alleviating collective
problems, some industries are complicit in creating them, pointing to the fossil fuel industry, a notorious driver of pollution
and waste.

If Walmart were to decide to stop selling factory-farmed meat or were to commit to selling only LED lighting, it could
have a real impact on the environment. But companies can’t always, or even often, be trusted to wield all of their powers
for good.

“We need big to do some good things, and yet big can be really bad,” Davis said. “Big in the hands of Mark Zuckerberg
is a nightmare.”

If the government’s in the back seat, who do you expect to drive?

The cynical view of companies acting as a benevolent force in the world is that they’ll only do so to the extent that it
somehow benefits their bottom line or is good marketing. That cynical view is sometimes borne out in reality.

Take the example of the internet. The government has given private companies billions of dollars to try to expand
broadband internet access across the United States and often relied on going through telecom companies to
expand urban and rural broadband alike. But some companies have taken the public cash without fulfilling their end
of the bargain, or used public financial support to further their private financial interests. Still, millions of Americans
don’t have fast, reliable internet because it’s just not lucrative for telecommunications companies to get it to them.
Americans who live in remote or low-income areas won’t generate a return on investment.

And yet, we keep looking to private companies to help fix America’s broadband problem because the government isn’t
there to do it. The government doesn’t think about the internet the way it does, say, electricity — as in something everyone
should have. It’s hardly the only example of the public sector ceding territory or leaving to the private sector tasks
reasonable minds might think it should take on.

“WE HAVE TO RECOGNIZE THAT SOMETIMES PRIVATIZATION ARISES BECAUSE OTHER SYSTEMS DON’T WORK”

PART 2

The 1980s and ’90s saw a shift in political rhetoric to shrinking the reach of the government. Ronald Reagan told us,
“Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” George H.W. Bush declared, “Read my lips,
no new taxes.” Bill Clinton announced, “The era of big government is over.” The neoliberal idea took hold that the
government should set the rules of the road and take on some challenges, but the private sector and marketplace are
equipped to do much of the driving. Lower the taxes paid by the rich and by corporations, the thinking goes, and hopefully
their money will trickle down and they’ll put it to good use.

25
“The premise of a kind of market-leaning libertarian is that the pursuit of private self-interest in the marketplace,
aggregated across many actors, will turn out to be socially beneficial,” said Rob Reich, a professor of political science
and philosophy at Stanford.

That’s not, in practice, how the market often works. The US has left health care up to private insurers in the Affordable
Care Act, ultimately leaving a public option by the wayside. The result: a health care system that is still exorbitantly
expensive. There are countless stories of GoFundMe drives that are supposed to be heartwarming, where people raise
billions of dollars through a private internet platform to cover expenses for health costs or other financial setbacks in
their personal lives. As to how heartwarming these stories actually are, well, your mileage may vary — it’s not ideal that
a crowdfunding platform has taken the place of a more robust public system to cover health costs.

“Privatization, I think, is a very bad solution to certain problems. But I do think we have to recognize that sometimes
privatization arises because other systems don’t work,” said Chiara Cordelli, a political philosopher at the University of
Chicago and author of The Privatized State, which makes the case that privatization and government outsourcing weaken
the legitimacy of the state.

Americans are also losing faith in the ability of government to act. According to Gallup, just 18 percent of Americans say
they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in big business. Their faith in Congress, however, is somehow even
lower, at just 13 percent. It’s understandable, given so much of the gridlock in Washington, DC. In the current balance of
power, Democrats hold the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate — and they’re still struggling to
get major legislation passed. Republicans won’t go along with much of what Democrats want to accomplish, and Democrats
are unwilling to make the changes (as in, abolishing the filibuster) necessary to push their agenda through. Capitol Hill
has failed over and over to make real reforms on issues such as guns and immigration and climate. Many companies —
which are subject to the pressures of their consumers and their employees — have at least tried. But, again, that trying
has limits.

“We have these big, public, global and national problems that we need to address, and that’s not the length of time at
which they think, it’s not the scale at which they think,” Kahn said. “And if they’re choosing to put some of these values
front and center, we certainly cannot count on them to be thinking about how equitably their moves are affecting different
communities.”

There’s a space for the private sector to fill public needs. But maybe not like this. With threats as big and imminent as the
Covid-19 outbreak or climate change, it’s important to have an all-hands-on-deck approach that draws in various players:
the government, private companies, nonprofits, and philanthropy. And there are plenty of smart people who argue that
while private entities are not the answer to the world’s problems, they need to play a role.

“You can look at almost every major issue of today ... and it requires, to solve it, going across all these sectors and
aligning interests, whether it’s homelessness, whether it’s climate action, whether it’s racial equity, what have you. None of
this is going to be solved by government alone or by the private sector,” said William Eggers, the executive director of
Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights.

“The role of government absolutely should be to protect our public interest,” Korngold said. “The problem is that so many
problems are global, and the governments are national.” Still, finding a balance is tricky. Take the example of billionaire
philanthropy, which is often an outgrowth of extraordinary success in the corporate world. It’s nice that rich guys are
trying to have a positive influence on the world. It’s also hard not to wonder whether said rich guys shouldn’t just be taxed
more, or why the US and the world are in a spot where private entities, whether it be Bill Gates’s charity or his company,
are filling in such obvious public spaces.

The government is by no means a perfect actor. But it is leaving problems to the private sector to address what it feels
like should be directly in its purview, whether it be providing citizens basic health care or filling in a pothole in the
street.Even decent outcomes, like Starbucks as a forced public bathroom, can feel pretty uneasy. The pandemic gave it a
good reason to shut those restrooms down, meaning suddenly a solution many people had adopted was no longer
available. And even in normal times, it’s a little awkward to sneak by the barista without buying a coffee or muffin or
water first. That’s because it is, and a private coffee company shouldn’t be standing in as a public restroom in the first
place.

GO FURTHER: Ropes & Gray LLP. An Overview of French Corporate Social

Responsibility Legislation for U.S.-Based Multinationals, lexicology. January 2021
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e36c987d-227b-416e-
b3c3-
44949b1cdb57#:~:text=The%20law%20aims%20to%20prevent,France%2
0with%20important%20French%20subsidiaries.

26
DOCUMENT 5: International codes of conduct for MNEs

A. The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact (2000)

Corporate sustainability starts with a company’s value system and a principled approach to
doing business. This means operating in ways that, at a minimum, meet fundamental
responsibilities in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Responsible businesses enact the same values and principles wherever they have a presence,
and know that good practices in one area do not offset harm in another. By incorporating the
Global Compact principles into strategies, policies and procedures, and establishing a culture
of integrity, companies are not only upholding their basic responsibilities to people and planet,
but also setting the stage for long-term success.
The UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles are derived from: the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the United Nations
Convention Against Corruption.
Human Rights
Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed
human rights; and
Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labour
Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of
the right to collective bargaining;
Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and
Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Environment
Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and
Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
Anti-Corruption
Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and
bribery.

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles

27
 B. Guidelines by the Council on Economic Priorities, or the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, the International Labor Organization, the United Nation
commission and the International Chamber of Commerce.

(DERESKY, Helen, International Management, Harlow: Pearson, 2017.)

28
 DOCUMENT 6: THE RETAIL INDUSTRY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

1. At which stage of production are human rights violations more likely to happen. Why?

Principles for Responsible Investment, “Potential human rights issues RISK TYPES OF RISKS/ EXAMPLES
when making a t-shirt”, UN Global Compact, 2017. 1-5

2. Choose one of the two documents.

- Rapoza, K. “From Unpaid India Workers, To China’s Uyghur Crisis, Fashion Retail Has A Huge
Problem”, Forbes, April 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2021/04/02/from-
unpaid-india-workers-to-chinas-uyghur-crisis-fashion-retail-has-a-huge-
problem/?sh=357b3f126473
- DWNews, “Nike, H&M face backlash in China over Uighur stance | DW News”, Youtube, March
2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC_qOoBFsMc

a. What is the problem?

b. What is the international community’s reaction?
c. What was India/ China’s reaction?
d. What was the retail industry’s reaction?
3. What could/should companies do?
4. What could/should governments and international organizations do?
5. Summarize and give you opinion to the group.

29
DOCUMENT 7: Bloomberg Law. Will the Global Minimum Tax End the Race to the
Bottom? “Youtube, March 2022.

1. What is the tax in question?

2. How much is it estimated to bring back in revenue?

3. How many countries need to enact the deal?

4. What is the issue at the moment according to Hamza Ali?

5. Explain why countries decided to decrease corporate tax rates? How id it called?

6. How long has this practice been used for?

7. How much is the rate?

8. How does it work for countries and for companies?

9. What is the difference between a parent country and a subsidiary country?

10. What is “top up”?

11. What happens in the opposite scenario where the parent country has lower tax rate than the subsidiary

country?

12. Which companies willl be impacted?

13. Why is the new law difficult to implement?

14. What is the condition for the plan to work?

15. What is your opinion on the matter? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of such

a decision? What are the arguments given against the plan?

30
DOCUMENT 8: Transparency International. “Corruption Perception Index.” 2021.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The
results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The CPI aggregates data from a number of
different sources that provide perceptions among business people and country experts of the level of corruption in
the public sector.

31
GO FURTHER:
- Choose one of the two videos and summarize it.
VOX, “The biggest corruption scandal in Latin America’ history”,
Youtuben 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMXumMJZYYI
VOX, “The collapse of Venezual, explained”, Youtuben 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1gUR8wM5vA

32
 DOCUMENT 9: BUSINESS ETHICS AND CULTURE
1. Find out more about business traditions in China with document A.
2. Watch document B, answer the questions.
3. Read document C and take notes on the problem face by the Herbalife company.
4. How can “guanxi” be confusing? How can you make the difference between a gift and a bribe?

DOCUMENT A: AsialinkBusiness, “What is guanxi?”, Asialinkbuiness, 2021

Relationships are everything in China. While you are building and nurturing your business relationships, you may be
asked to share stories and information of a surprisingly personal nature. Don’t be concerned when a Chinese person
you are meeting for the first time asks, for example, "how much money do you make?", "what is your partner’s
Eastern astrology symbol?" or "what are your religious beliefs" – it is all about building a relationship, an essential
part of doing business in China. The Chinese call this guanxi (关系). Guanxi refers to having personal trust and a
strong relationship with someone, and can involve moral obligations and exchanging favours. Sometimes incorrectly
perceived in Western business as bordering on unethical behaviour associated with corruption (i.e. awarding projects
to a friend’s company rather than the most qualified firm), it is a core part of doing business in China.
“We open our Suzhou doors whenever an Australian official visits, which helps demonstrate
to Chinese government officials that we are well connected and respected at home. The
guanxi we display from Australia is often as important as our local guanxi.” – Peter Michell,
Executive Director, Michell Wool
Guanxi is often translated as “connections”, “relationships” or “networks”. However, none of these terms do justice
to the fundamental and complex concept of guanxi and its central role in Chinese culture. Guanxi can also be used
to describe a network of contacts, which an individual can call upon when something needs to be done, and through
which they can exert influence on behalf of another. These networks can have a direct impact on conducting business
in China, including market expansion and sales growth. Maintaining open 'bureaucratic relationships' can also help
businesses set up with minimum delays. But it can also bring challenges. Australian businesses might understandably
struggle to integrate guanxi into their business practices. The key is to remain diligent and be aware that the
reciprocal nature of guanxi also dictates an informal obligation to 'return the favour'.
How to build guanxi
Building guanxi involves a long-term approach. It can be done in several ways:
General knowledge of China - Relationships can be aided and built by some general knowledge of China and its
culture. This can assist to establish an immediate connection to a new Chinese contact.
Formal introduction - Because Chinese people prefer to do business with people they have a personal connection
with, it can help if you are introduced to a prospective business associate through an intermediary. The higher the
social status that your connection has, the more successful you are likely to be at being introduced to the right people
and key decision-makers.
Conscious effort - Relationships in China are more trust-oriented and personal than relationships elsewhere, therefore
a conscious and continued effort is required to develop and maintain them. It will require frequent visits, almost daily
communication (preferably CEO/company director to CEO) and plenty of socialising.
Gifts - Giving gifts is an important aspect of doing business and building relationships in China. Australians should
provide at least some overly ‘Australian’ gifts, such as toy koalas. Gifts that have your company emblem will also
be well received.
Dining and entertainment - Once you have established relationships in China, you are likely to be invited to dinners
and other forms of entertainment including golf, nightclubbing or karaoke. If you are invited for dinner at a business
contact’s house (which is generally a reserved honour) – arrive on time, remove shoes before entering and take a
gift. Dining is commonly used to gently probe positions without any formal commitment.

33
DOCUMENT B: Now This World. How corrupt is China? Youtube, November 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98rhzyXcGw

1. What has Xi Jinping declared about corruption?

2. How has this been put into action?

3. What are the main types of corruption practices in China and with what goal?

4. What is the practice of “Guanxi” and why is it confusing?

5. What happened when the country opened to the world in the 70s?

6. What happened at the 1989 protest?

7. What does Transparency International concluded about China?

8. What is the main issue with local courts?

9. Why is it difficult to enforce anti-corruption practices in China?

10. What is in essence Xi Jining’s strategy?

DOCUMENT C. Alexandra WrageBribery, “Guanxi And Direct Marketing In The Herbalife China Settlement” Forbes,
2020.

In May, Los Angeles-based direct sales and multilevel marketing company Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. declared that it
had come to terms with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
regarding allegations of corrupt payments by its Chinese subsidiary. The settlements were announced last month:
a deferred prosecution agreement imposing a fine of more than $55 million, and a stipulated cease and desist
order mandating over $67 million in disgorgement and interest. Two individuals—both Chinese nationals—were
indicted last November for their role in the scheme, though neither has been apprehended.
China has prohibited multilevel marketing—arrangements in which an individual’s compensation is based on the
number of “downstream” salespeople they recruit— since 2005, and has required licenses for other forms of direct
sales. According to case documents, Herbalife China circumvented these regulations by paying bribes to secure
licenses, to shut down investigations into its improper business practices and to remove unfavorable coverage of its
practices from state-run media. The payments weren’t disguised well. In one instance, the company purportedly spent
$150,000 to deliver gift produce to public officials, but for that amount, each official would have received more
than 135 pounds of fruits and vegetables. This isn’t the first time a direct sales company in China has been penalized
for violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—see, for example, the 2016 settlement between the SEC and
Utah-based Nu Skin Enterprises. And this aligns with other regulatory issues Herbalife has faced regarding its
business practices, including its agreement with the Federal Trade Commission in 2016 to pay $200 million to
consumer-distributors it misled and to restructure its compensation model to prioritize actual sales over downstream
recruiting, or its $20 million payment to the SEC in 2019 for investor misrepresentation.
But there’s a particular irony in the company’s activities in China. Bribery in China is often confused with the concept
of guanxi, or networks of connection and obligation that provide a foundation for societal trust. In the translated
and quoted words of one of the individual Herbalife defendants, “we need to build the connection” with an official
if the bribery is to be effective.
In a similar manner, direct sales marketing is based on the exploitation of friendship and non-commercial social
networks. The widespread distaste for multilevel marketing comes not only from disappointing financial outcomes
for many downstream sales recruits, but also from the unwelcome awkwardness of receiving a sales pitch under the
pretext of “reconnecting.” Understanding when and whether to regulate this abuse of trust will be important as
multilevel marketing evolves into a viral economy of “influencers” and as electronic networks become increasingly
entrenched in society, commerce and politics.

GO FURTHER.
White and Mallet, “How Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crusade whent global”,
Financial Times, 2022.https://www.ft.com/content/ae4d37bd-0440-491b-
a4b7-25ab6158e6ad

34
DOCUMENT 10: BUSINESS OR POLITICS- DEBATE

SHOULD BUSINESS TAKE A POLITICAL STANCE?

You are invited to a round table to discuss the role of companies in politics.

The show lasts 20 minutes. Preparation is 30. All the discussion is in English.

You work in groups of 5/6. 2 students believe companies need to express political views. 2 students
believe companies should stay out of politics. 1 or 2 students moderate the debate.

You need to ask yourselves the following questions:

Should businesses take a political stance?

When companies do so, can they take sides on any political issue?
When they do not take sides, is it taking sides?
How should companies express their political views? Is it ethical?
Is it CSR?
Should corporations be allowed to fund political campaigns? Why,
and why not? Is it bad for democracy?

Each student reads or listens to one of the documents below, take notes and use this to build their
arguments. You can also use your own arguments.

➢ DUARTE. “Black Lives Matter: Do companies really support the cause?”, BBC, June
2020. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200612-black-lives-matter-do-
companies-really-support-the-cause
➢ Klepper, “6 months after Capitol assault, corporate pledges fall flat”, PBS.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/6-months-after-capitol-assault-
corporate-pledges-fall-flat
➢ Abas-Santos. How Disney found itself in the middle of a culture war. Vox,
April 2022. https://www.vox.com/23036009/disney-culture-war-desantis-
florida-dont-say-gay
➢ Korschun and Craig Smith. Companies Can’t Avoid Politics — and Shouldn’t
Try To” Harvard Business Review. March 2018.
https://hbr.org/2018/03/companies-cant-avoid-politics-and-shouldnt-try-
to
➢ Bill of Rights Institute. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5Zx5YotBU&t=152s
➢ Fast Company. Brand Activism: Woke or Wack? Youtube, May 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVZcyXhSvs
➢ CNBC “Companies push back on CEO’s with ‘woke capitalism’ campaign.
Youtube, May 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwmS23dSd-Q

GO FURTHER:

The Economist. “Business: go woke or go broke?” Youtube, October 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhnrfzqC3v8

35
DOCUMENT 11: BUILDING NEW SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS

DELOITTE, UN Global Compact Management Model, 2010. Source : HBR, 2021..

CHAPTER 2- KEY QUESTIONS :

- What is CSR?
- What are the challenges climate change will bring to companies?
- What are corporate solutions to combat climate change?
- What are the rules for human rights in international business?
- What is the issue of global taxation?
- How can “corruption” be defined and what can prevent it from happening?
- What are the ways corporations can become truly responsible?

36
 CHAPTER 3:
NAVIGATING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN BUSINESS
DOCUMENT 1: Cultural Intelligence Test

Examples from your experience

Examples from your experience

Examples from your experience

37
 DOCUMENT 2: MANAGEMENT STYLES ACROSS COUNTRIES-Commisceo Global,2017.
Use: http://www.commisceo-global.com/management-guides

- Look for information on : CHINA / The USA / FRANCE/A COUNTRY OF YOUR CHOOSING. Compare;
and negociating
Boss or team player? Communication

styles
Approach to change Decision making
Role
Being a manager

A COUNTRY OF YOUR
CHOOSING
COUNTRY

THE USA

FRANCE
CHINA

38
DOCUMENT 3: Meyer, Erin. The Culture Map. New York: Public Affairs, 2014.

39
40
 DOCUMENT 4: Hostede’s cultural dimensions

1. Work in groups of 2. Compare the USA and China

2. Find elements that could lead to tensions in a work environment with both cultures involved

THE USA
If we explore the US culture through the lens of the 6-D Model©, we can get a good overview of the deep driving factors
of American culture relative to other cultures in our world. By supplying you with this information please realise that culture
describes a central tendency in society. Everybody is unique, yet social control ensures that most people will not deviate
too much from the norm. Moreover, within every country regional cultural differences exist, also in the States. Americans,
however, don’t need to go to a cultural briefing before moving to another state successfully.
POWER DISTANCE
The fact that everybody is unique implies that we are all unequal. One of the most salient aspects of inequality is the
degree of power each person exerts or can exert over other persons; power being defined as the degree to which a
person is able to influence other people’s ideas and behavior.

This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal, and it expresses the attitude of the culture
toward these power inequalities amongst us. Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members
of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. It has to do with
the fact that a society’s inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders.
INDIVIDUALISM
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members.
It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In Individualist societies people are only
supposed to look after themselves and their direct family. In Collectivist societies people belong to “in groups” that take
care of them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

The fairly low score on Power Distance(40) in combination with one of the the most Individualist (91) cultures in the world
reflects itself in the following:
41
The American premise of “liberty and justice for all.” This is evidenced by an explicit emphasis on equal rights in all
aspects of American society and government. Within American organisations, hierarchy is established for convenience,
superiors are accessible and managers rely on individual employees and teams for their expertise. Both managers and
employees expect to be consulted and information is shared frequently. At the same time, communication is informal,
direct and participative to a degree. The society is loosely-knit in which the expectation is that people look after
themselves and their immediate families only and should not rely (too much) on authorities for support. There is also a high
degree of geographical mobility in the United States. Americans are the best joiners in the world; however it is often
difficult, especially among men, to develop deep friendships. Americans are accustomed to doing business or interacting
with people they don’t know well. Consequently, Americans are not shy about approaching their prospective counterparts
in order to obtain or seek information. In the business world, employees are expected to be self-reliant and display
initiative. Also, within the exchange-based world of work we see that hiring, promotion and decisions are based on merit
or evidence of what one has done or can do.
MASCULINITY
A high score (Masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success,
with success being defined by the “winner” or “best-in-the-field”. This value system starts in childhood and continues
throughout one’s life – both in work and leisure pursuits.

A low score (Feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of
life. A Feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not
admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do
(Feminine).

The score of the US on Masculinity is high at 62, and this can be seen in the typical American behavioral patterns. This
can be explained by the the combination of a high Masculinity drive together with the most Individualist drive in the world.
In other words, Americans, so to speak, all show their Masculine drive individually. The British, however, have the same
culture in this respect. The question, therefore, should be: is the same drive not normally to be seen on the surface? This
difference is a reflection of the higher score of the US on Uncertainty Avoidance than of the UK. In other words, in both
societies we find the same drive, but Americans show it up-front whereas the British will take you by surprise.

This American combination reflects itself in the following:

Behavior in school, work, and play are based on the shared values that people should “strive to be the best they can be”
and that “the winner takes all”. As a result, Americans will tend to display and talk freely about their “successes” and
achievements in life. Being successful per se is not the great motivator in American society, but being able to show one’s
success Many American assessment systems are based on precise target setting, by which American employees can show
how well a job they did. There exists a “can-do” mentality which creates a lot of dynamism in the society, as it is believed
that there is always the possibility to do things in a better way Typically, Americans “live to work” so that they can obtain
monetary rewards and as a consequence attain higher status based on how good one can be. Many white collar workers
will move to a more fancy neighborhood after each and every substantial promotion. It is believed that a certain degree
of conflict will bring out the best of people, as it is the goal to be “the winner”. As a consequence, we see a lot of
polarisation and court cases. This mentality nowadays undermines the American premise of “liberty and justice for all.”
Rising inequality is endangering democracy, because a widening gap among the classes may slowly push Power Distance
up and Individualism down.
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be
known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures
have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by
ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score
on Uncertainty Avoidance.

The US scores below average, with a low score of 46, on the Uncertainty Avoidance dimension. . As a consequence, the
perceived context in which Americans find themselves will impact their behaviour more than if the culture would have
either scored higher or lower. Thus, this cultural pattern reflects itself as follows:

There is a fair degree of acceptance for new ideas, innovative products and a willingness to try something new or
different, whether it pertains to technology, business practices or food. Americans tend to be more tolerant of ideas or
opinions from anyone and allow the freedom of expression. At the same time, Americans do not require a lot of rules and
are less emotionally expressive than higher-scoring cultures. At the same time, 9/11 has created a lot of fear in the
American society culminating in the efforts of government to monitor everybody through the NSA and other security
organisations
42
LONG TERM ORIENTATION
This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of
the present and future, and societies prioritise these two existential goals differently. Normative societies. which score low
on this dimension, for example, prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with
suspicion. Those with a culture which scores high, on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach: they encourage
thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future.

The United States scores normative on the fifth dimension with a low score of 26. This is reflected by the following:

Americans are prone to analyse new information to check whether it is true. Thus, the culture doesn’t make most Americans
pragmatic, but this should not be confused with the fact that Americans are very practical, being reflected by the “can-
do” mentallity mentioned above. The polarisation mentioned above is, so to speak, strengthened by the fact that many
Americans have very strong ideas about what is “good” and “evil”. This may concern issues such as abortion, use of drugs,
euthanasia, weapons or the size and rights of the government versus the States and versus citizens. The US is the one of
the only “Caucasian” countries in the world where, since the beginning of the 20th century, visiting church has increased.
This increase is also evident in some post-Soviet republics such as Russia. American businesses measure their performance
on a short-term basis, with profit and loss statements being issued on a quarterly basis. This also drives individuals to
strive for quick results within the work place.
INDULGENCE
One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children are socialised. Without
socialisation we do not become “human”. This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires
and impulses, based on the way they were raised. A tendency toward a relatively weak control over their impulses is
called “Indulgence”, whereas a relatively strong control over their urges is called “Restraint”. Cultures can be described
as Indulgent or Restrained.

The United States scores as an Indulgent (68) society on the sixth dimension. This, in combination with a normative score,
is reflected by the following contradictory attitudes and behaviour:

Work hard and play hard. The States has waged a war against drugs and is still very busy in doing so, yet drug addiction
in the States is higher than in many other wealthy countries. It is a prudish society yet even some well-known televangelists
appear to be immoral.

CHINA
If we explore the Chinese culture through the lens of the 6-D Model©, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers
of Chinese culture relative to other world cultures.
POWER DISTANCE
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture
towards these inequalities amongst us. Power Distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of
institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of PDI – i.e. a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable.
The subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defense against power abuse by superiors.
Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for
leadership and initiative. People should not have aspirations beyond their rank.
INDIVIDUALISM
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its
members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. In Individualist societies people
are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’
that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.

At a score of 20 China is a highly collectivist culture where people act in the interests of the group and not necessarily of
themselves. In-group considerations affect hiring and promotions with closer in-groups (such as family) are getting
preferential treatment. Employee commitment to the organization (but not necessarily to the people in the organization)
is low. Whereas relationships with colleagues are cooperative for in-groups they are cold or even hostile to out-groups.
Personal relationships prevail over task and company.
MASCULINITY

43
A high score (Masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success,
with success being defined by the winner / best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout
organisational life.

A low score (Feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of
life. A Feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not
admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do
(Feminine).

At 66 China is a Masculine society –success oriented and driven. The need to ensure success can be exemplified by the
fact that many Chinese will sacrifice family and leisure priorities to work. Service people (such as hairdressers) will provide
services until very late at night. Leisure time is not so important. The migrated farmer workers will leave their families
behind in faraway places in order to obtain better work and pay in the cities. Another example is that Chinese students
care very much about their exam scores and ranking as this is the main criteria to achieve success or not.
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never
be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different
cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened
by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the score
on Uncertainty Avoidance.

At 30 China has a low score on Uncertainty Avoidance. Truth may be relative though in the immediate social circles there
is concern for Truth with a capital T and rules (but not necessarily laws) abound. None the less, adherence to laws and
rules may be flexible to suit the actual situation and pragmatism is a fact of life. The Chinese are comfortable with
ambiguity; the Chinese language is full of ambiguous meanings that can be difficult for Western people to follow. Chinese
are adaptable and entrepreneurial. At the time of writing the majority (70% -80%) of Chinese businesses tend to be
small to medium sized and family owned.
LONG TERM ORIENTATION
This dimension describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of
the present and future, and societies prioritise these two existential goals differently. Normative societies. which score low
on this dimension, for example, prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with
suspicion. Those with a culture which scores high, on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach: they encourage
thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future.

China scores 87 in this dimension, which means that it is a very pragmatic culture. In societies with a pragmatic orientation,
people believe that truth depends very much on situation, context and time. They show an ability to adapt traditions
easily to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results.
INDULGENCE
One challenge that confronts humanity, now and in the past, is the degree to which small children are socialized. Without
socialization we do not become “human”. This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires
and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called “Indulgence” and relatively strong
control is called “Restraint”. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained.

China is a Restrained society as can be seen in its low score of 24 in this dimension. Societies with a low score in this
dimension have a tendency to cynicism and pessimism. Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies, Restrained societies do not
put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires. People with this orientation have the
perception that their actions are Restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is somewhat wrong.

GO FURTHER:
Read the text and present how culture mattered indealing with the
pandemic. Give specific examples from the text.
GO Alistair Windsor, Robert Ostergard, Susan
Gina Yannitell Reinhardt,
Allen, Courtney Burns, Jarod Giger and Reed Wood, “Culture matters
a lot in successfully managing a pandemic - and many countries that
did well had one thing in common” The Conversation, March 2021
44
DOCUMENT 5: Shad Morris, “Cross-Cultural Management” Youtube, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ4IbhXrqnc&t=150s

1. What do you build through an open and non-judgmental interaction?

2. What are the 3 stages ?

3. What questions must you ask yourself?

4. Give the example of Amazon and Havaianas.

5. How can you be more respectful of other cultures?

6. Give the example of Samsung.

7. What do you bring together?

8. How does it work with processes inside an organization?

45
DOCUMENT 6: Diversity training examples

Choose to work on one diversity training exercise in groups of

4.

Or if you feel uncomfortable with the exercise

Watch and present: TED. Why corporate doversity programs

fail and what to do instead/ Joan.c. Williams., Youtube,
January 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8UyOE10Y1s

1. What I want you to know about me…

This activity asks participants to write down on a sheet of paper an answer to the following prompts:
What I think about me
What others think about me
What might be misunderstood about me
What I need from you
It’s important that participants are encouraged to answer these questions only as much as they are comfortable.
It should not be obligatory for them to share deeply personal things if they are not willingly doing so.
Once the questions have been answered, the team should go around and address each person’s answer, and then a debriefing session
should be completed.
The debrief should prompt participants to think about what they have learned about their peers, how it felt to complete the activity,
and how they might be more inclusive in their actions going forward.

2. I am, but I am not…

For this activity, participants are given two sheets of paper. On one sheet, they will write an aspect of their identity.
An example of this could be Black, Asian, disabled, blind, gay or any other aspect of their identity that they wish to share.
On the other sheet, they will write what they are not, which will usually focus on a common stereotype about that identity.
For example, ‘I am Asian, but I am not good at math.’ Participants should fill out three to five of these sheets.
The purpose of this is to highlight the various stereotypes that the participants have had to face throughout their lives and to dispel
them.
After everyone has shared their responses, the group should have a debriefing session where they can share what they learned, how
they felt about hearing their peers’ responses, and how they felt sharing their own experiences.

3. Perspective taking

In this activity, participants are asked to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
Participants are paired with peers of different backgrounds and are asked to write about the challenges that might have been faced
by their partner based on their specific background.
The group should be given time for each person to talk about what they have written, and why, and for their peers to respond, giving
more context to how their background has affected them.
For example, two engineers, a white, gay man, Michael, and a Black woman, Mary, are paired together. They would think about the
other’s background and how it might have been different from theirs.
Michael writes, ‘Mary might have been discouraged from pursuing a technically difficult engineering degree because she is a woman.’
Mary writes, ‘Michael might have been left out of team building activities by colleagues because of his sexuality.’
Both people will walk away from the exercise understanding more about how life experience might differ based on a wide variety
of factors.

4. Goal setting

In this activity, participants are asked to set measurable, attainable goals within their workplace.
These goals should be based around increasing inclusion, for example, challenging sexist jokes, increasing the inclusivity of language,
or giving underrepresented people a platform.
When a clear path is laid out, with actionable steps that participants can focus on, diversity and inclusion training is much more
effective.

46
 HOW TO REFERENCE SOURCES IN YOUR ESSAYS

➢ Pour un livre : NOM (en majuscule) Prénom, Titre de l’ouvrage (en italiques), Éditeur, Ville où se trouve l'éditeur,
année de publication, numéros des pages « utiles » ou citées si nécessaire.

A. Exemple: WHELAN Glen, 2021, Megacorporation. The Infinite Times of Alphabet, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.

➢ Pour une contribution à un ouvrage collectif : NOM Prénom, « Titre de l’article » (entre guillemets), Nom de
l’ouvrage collectif (en italiques), Éditeur, Lieu et année de publication, pages de début et fin de l’article, ou
numéro(s) de la (les) page(s) citée(s).

B. Exemple : COHEN Daniel, 2005, « Les effets du commerce international sur l’emploi dans les pays
riches » in : P. Auer, G. Besse & D. Méda (eds) Délocalisations, normes du travail et politiques
d’emploi : vers une mondialisation plus juste ?, Paris, La Découverte, p. 29-53.

➢ un article de périodique : NOM Prénom, « Titre de l’article » (entre guillemets), Nom du périodique (en italiques),
date précise, numéro du volume, Éditeur, pages de début et de fin d’article ou bien numéro(s) de la (les) page(s)
citée(s).

C. Exemple : SERVANTIE Vinciane, 2007, « Les entreprises à internationalisation rapide et précoce :

revue de littérature », Revue de l’Entrepreneuriat 6(1), p. 1-28.

➢ un document consulté ou tiré d’un site Internet: l’étudiant précise impérativement la date de la consultation et
l’intitulé exact du site, ainsi que l’identité de l’auteur et le titre du document qui doit être joint aux annexes. L’adresse
du site est entourée de guillemets simples.

D. ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DU TRAVAIL, 2020, Les jeunes et le Covid 19 : impact sur les
emplois, l’éducation, les droits et le bien-être mental, Genève, OIT [consulté le 15 mars 2021].
« https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/youth-employment/publications/WCMS_753058/lang--
fr/index.htm »

➢ un document interne de l’entreprise :

E. Exemple : AUTEUR (NOM Prénom, s’il s’agit d’une personne ; ou bien SERVICE / ORGANISME l’ayant rédigé), Titre,
année, nombre de pages.

Les références des sources doivent apparaître également sous tout schéma, tout tableau, tout document, tout chiffre
reproduit.

47
 CASE STUDY “SMART” INSTRUCTIONS

USE THE SMART METHODOLOGY TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE CASE

START WITH A SUMMARY- it helps you focus on the main elements

- Who are the main players in the case?

- What is the environment of the case: countries, regions, regional trade areas?
- What is the industry in question?
- What are the issues?

MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE- il helps you detail the problem

- What are the issues presented in the documnent?

- What are the origins and consequences of the issues?
- What are the risks or opportunities associated with the issue?

ANALYSE THE CONTEXT – it helps you understand the tensions around the issue

- What are the environments where the company operates (social, economic, political
environment if relevant to understand the issue)?
- What are the links between the company and the international, national or
international context? New laws? Conflicts?
- Are there international organisations at play or of interest regarding the problem
and what is their opinion on the matter?
- What is the situation economically in the region? Impact of covid?

REVIEW THE COMPANY’S STRATEGY, OBJECTIVES, MISTAKES OR SUCCESSES- it helps you

understand how the company dealt with the issue

- What is the company facing a problem?

- What is its business model? What is its strategy?
- What is its international strategy?
- What is the company’s mission statement?
- What are the company’s objectives in the case? Has it worked?
- What has the company done to fix the problem?

TURN INTO MANAGERS-You give your opinion

- Explain what you think the mistakes/opportunities are

- Explain what you think was successful or not
- Explain the impact on shareholders and stakeholders
- Give your opinion on what the company should do

Remember to ask for advice if you are stuck.

48