個案總覽

When Jay Cohen started his online casino business in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda (hereafter referred to as Antigua), he was excited by the prospects for his new entrepreneurial venture. At the time, Cohen, a U.S. citizen, did not plan to set in motion forces that would ultimately lead to a decades-long trade war between the U.S. and Antigua, resulting in the first e-commerce trade dispute ever to come before the World Trade Organization (WTO). And even seasoned observers were surprised by the scope of the WTO's ruling against the U.S. in 2013. In this ruling, the WTO, seeking to compel the U.S. to comply with its previous rulings in favor of Antigua, authorized the Caribbean nation to revoke intellectual property rights (IPR) for U.S. firms in important sectors, including software, music, and Hollywood movies. If Antigua implemented such a retaliatory measure, this action would establish a precedent that, if followed widely by other nations, could jeopardize the entire U.S. economy.

In an effort to help Microsoft Brazil achieve financial return and reap strategic benefits, and to help contribute to the Brazilian startup ecosystem, Frankiln Luzes, the chief operating officer, founded Microsoft Participações. Through Microsoft Participações, Luzes established the very first multi-corporate seed capital fund in the world - BR Startup Fund. BR Startup was owned by multinational corporations including Microsoft, government agencies, and financial institutions. It was established to connect innovative startups, especially those in the information technology sector, to financial investors.

Faced with uncompetitive regulation, the founder of 3P Turbo, Jason Starks, was contemplating setting up a facility to manufacture automobile turbochargers in Brazil. At that time, Brazil was experiencing huge political turmoil, resulting from the Petrobras scandal that involved prominent business and political leaders, and the impeachment of the country's president, Dilma Rousseff. It was also hit with the worst recession in two decades, exacerbated by low commodity prices and the slow-down of the Chinese economy. Jason had engaged with a consultant to gather some revenue and cost projections for this cross border investment to see if it would create value and make financial sense. More importantly, he needed to access the economic and political risks of Brazil and its automobile industry, and determine if the timing was right to enter the Brazilian market.

In 2010, China's rapid development of wind energy, and specifically, its policies to promote wind turbine manufacturing, had resulted in significant loss of market share in the wind turbine market in China for U.S. and other foreign manufacturers. Although China was clearly violating WTO rules with its trade policies, U.S. and other firms were reluctant to bring a dispute to the WTO for fear of retaliation on the part of the Chinese government in the form of loss of access to the Chinese market. As a result, the United Steel Workers of America trade union brought the dispute the WTO. Because the trade violations were so clear, China backed down even before the dispute could get out of the first, "consultations" phase of the WTO dispute settlement process.

Ireland has experienced rapid economic growth in the last 15 years, in part because of its successful effort to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). The government agency responsible for this effort, originally called the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), has been restructured and is now divided into three organizations: Forfás (charged with coordinating Ireland's economic development strategy); IDA Ireland (responsible for investment promotion); and Enterprise Ireland (charged with promoting the development of indigenous industry). Now that Ireland has reached full employment and salaries and other operating costs have risen, the country is no longer competitive as a low-cost investment location in Europe for manufacturing and service industries. As a result, Forfás must decide how to deal with this situation.

Delta Air Lines has decided to consolidate its reservations centers in Latin America into one regional office. This new consolidated office will be Delta's Latin America Contact Center, handling reservations for the entire Latin American region. The executives on Delta's site selection team have narrowed down the company's choices of a location for this Center to three options: Mexico City, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile. Mary Smith will be helping to make the recommendation as to the country where Delta should choose.

Dell has recently concluded a site selection process in Brazil to determine where it will locate its manufacturing plant in that country, which will be its first manufacturing plant in Latin America. After a lengthy site selection process in the first half of 1998 involving five states in Brazil - São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul - Dell has decided to locate the plant in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Although a number of factors influence Dell's decision, one of them is the generous incentives that Governor Antonio Britto of the relatively centrist Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (PMDB) has offered Dell. However, after Dell makes this decision, a new governor, Olivio Dutra of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, or Workers' Party) is elected in October 1998 and takes office in January 1999. The PT is a socialist party. Having made an issue of what he considered to be overly generous incentives offered to transnational corporations during his campaign, Governor Dutra seems likely to rescind the incentives that the Britto government had offered. Given this situation, Keith Maxwell, Dell's Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations, must make a recommendation to Michael Dell. The case presents three possible options for Dell: (1) leave Brazil entirely; (2) move the plant to another state within Brazil; (3) try to renegotiate with Governor Dutra.

Intel has decided to locate its next assembly and testing plant in Latin America. Four countries have made the short list: Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Costa Rica. The Telford, International Site Selection Analyst for Intel, needs to recommend a final site. There are two key issues that must be resolved first: 1) what kind of business environment is most suitable to Intel's needs; and 2) how can Intel leverage its bargaining advantages most effectively. The case illustrates the advantages for a high-technology company such as Intel, with its strong need to operate in a country with stable, predictable rules of business, and to invest in a fully consolidated democracy.