Filip Kowalski, a senior manager at the pharmaceutical company Healthgen, leads sales for the firm's Polish division. While pitching Healthgen's products, he develops a relationship with a director of a regional health fund who also runs a private foundation. After a natural disaster, Healthgen- at the request of the director- donated products to help during the crises. After Healthgen wins an important contract, the media alleges that the donation was made to secure support of the regional health director. Were the efforts to boost company sales and support public health a donation or a bribe?

This case examines the influence of political pressure on corporate decision-making. It questions whether fidelity to domestic operations ought to be a corporate social responsibility, and thus it challenges the limits of "social responsibility" as a corporate ideal. Specifically, the case focuses on Donald Trump's effort to encourage U.S. companies' domestic operations, through a study of one company's decision to backtrack on a factory relocation plan. In February 2016, the Carrier Corporation (a maker of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment and a division of United Technologies Corporation) announced a plan to relocate operations of a furnace factory from the United States to Mexico. The case notes that Carrier began to outsource and offshore operations, in an effort to reduce costs, around 1921. While Carrier's previous United States factory closures had garnered major press coverage, the 2016 announcement ramified differently. Days later, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump referenced the relocation in a Facebook post. Soon, Carrier's plan became a touchtone to Trump's anti-globalization and anti-free trade campaign messaging. The case documents that he was not the only candidate or politician to reference Carrier during the 2016 campaign. Still his declaration to "call up the head of Carrier" upon winning the presidency became a stump-speech refrain popular with his audiences, and contrasted with other political figures' more measured language. Ultimately, the case outlines the events set in motion after Trump kept his campaign promise and called Carrier's parent company's CEO one week after his surprise presidential election victory.