個案總覽

YPF, a recently privatized and restructured Argentine-based oil company now turns its attention to international expansion and faces an opportunity to acquire Maxus, a troubled U.S. oil company. The case discusses whether the company should go ahead with the proposed acquisition.

Supplements the (B) case.

Supplements the (B) case.

Examines the process of privatization and transformation the company underwent and identifies challenges facing the company as it seeks to become a global oil company.

The lingering belief that environmental regulations erode competitiveness has resulted in a stalemate. One side pushes for tougher standards, the other tries to roll standards back. The authors' research shows that tougher environmental standards actually can enhance competitiveness by pushing companies to use resources more productively. Managers must start to recognize environmental improvement as an economic and competitive opportunity, not as an annoying cost or an inevitable threat. Environmental progress demands that companies innovate to raise resource productivity--precisely the new challenge of global competition. It is time to build on the underlying economic logic that links the environment, resource productivity, innovation, and competitiveness.

Private investment in infrastructure is again the rage among foreign investors and governments in the developing countries of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Managers should not get carried away, however: A look at a few recent experiences shows that the pitfalls of the past are still present today. The authors review ill-fated foreign investment projects and conclude that foreign investment in infrastructure is dangerous because the hosting nations view it as an obsolescing bargain. In the face of this discouraging evaluation, the authors have some suggestions for minimizing risks. These range from the general, such as taking care to choose the right businesses to invest in, to more specific advice on setting rates and buying insurance. Nevertheless, investors should not expect security in infrastructure investment. Indeed, the paradox of infrastructure projects may be that higher returns cause higher risk, rather than the converse.

Describes the aftermath of the explosion at Bhopal.

Examines an Indian joint venture between a large U.S. telecommunications company and a small Indian software company, including a business and legal analysis of a joint-venture term sheet. Issues include extraterritorial application of U.S. antitrust and civil rights laws, protection for computer software afforded by Indian intellectual property and employment law, application of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and circumstances under which a buyer of goods can stop payment on a letter of credit issued in favor of a seller that shipped nonconforming goods.

In the latter half of the 1980s, the collapse of the Soviet empire created an unprecedented opportunity for Western businesses. Among those most attracted were the oil firms, who rushed to investigate Russia's vast petroleum reserves. But, as they soon discovered, investing in Russia still entailed tremendous risks--commercial, legal, and political. The case examines how three companies (Phibro, Mobil, and Conoco) have evaluated the risks of Russia and formulated a strategy for investment.

Provides an update to the (A) case.

In December 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, sprung a leak, releasing thousands of gallons of highly toxic gas into the atmosphere. By the time the leak was sealed, over 2,000 people had died. In a series of three excerpts from published accounts, the case covers the events that led up to the tragedy and the aftermath--financial, legal, and emotional--for Union Carbide's management. The case is designed to allow students to explore the complex set of responsibilities that surround foreign direct investment. It enables them to discuss the extent to which Union Carbide's U.S.-based management was responsible for actions undertaken by Indians in India, and then to think of this responsibility in terms of its various components--financial, commercial, and moral.

Discusses Wal-Mart's entry strategy in East Asia, specifically Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and China.

No industrialized nation can be an economic island, yet Japan continues to behave like one. When foreign goods and services--such as food, airline tickets, and postal service--are priced much lower than those provided in Japan, the government's response is to tighten regulations or make it illegal for Japanese companies and consumers to buy those goods. Consumers have paid for such protections through higher-priced goods, smaller living spaces, and longer commutes. The results are clear when one looks at the decreasing affluence of each successive generation--from those who rebuilt the country after World War II and reaped the promise of a good life to the Nintendo kids who have replaced family and country with on-line relationships. With the youngest generation, the frayed thread of culture and values that has bound the generations has finally snapped. Interactive games have given Nintendo kids the opportunity, not readily available in Japanese culture, to experiment with different roles and outcomes and to believe that they can control their own fate. As they grow up, their economic and political decisions will force their government to participate in the global economy.

The economic distress of America's inner cities may be the most pressing issue facing the nation. The lack of businesses and jobs in disadvantaged urban areas fuels not only a crushing cycle of poverty but also crippling social problems such as drug abuse and crime. And, as inner cities continue to deteriorate, the debate on how to aid them grows increasingly divisive. The efforts of the past several decades to revitalize inner cities have failed. The time has come to recognize that revitalizing the inner cities will require a radically new approach. While social programs will continue to play a critical role in meeting human needs and improving education, they must support--and not undermine--a coherent economic strategy. The question we should be asking is how inner-city-based businesses and nearby employment opportunities for inner city residents can proliferate and grow. A sustainable economic base can be created in the inner city, but only as it has been created elsewhere: through private, for-profit initiatives and investment based on economic self-interest and genuine competitive advantage.

The news media and the government are entwined in a vicious circle of mutual manipulation, mythmaking, and self-interest. Journalists need crises to dramatize the news, and government officials need to appear to be responding to crises. Together, they have woven a web of lies and have misled an increasingly skeptical public. Three books--News and the Culture of Lying: How Journalism Really Works, by Paul H. Weaver; Who Stole the News?: Why We Can't Keep Up with What Happens in the World, by Mort Rosenblum; and Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Facts in America, by Cynthia Crossen--all deal with the corruption of the press. The news media's focus on facades rather than issues reflects a culture obsessed with personalities and a public plagued with a short attention span. What passes as business news is often corporate propaganda taken from press releases. While many of the reforms offered by the books' authors--such as breaking up media monopolies and reverting to drab reports of events and issues rather than stories of people and crises--are sensible, they are unlikely ever to come about. For years to come, businesses are likely to need more corporate propagandists, not fewer.

Explores the problem of French unemployment on the eve of the presidential elections of 1995. Traces the development of social and economic policies under President Mitterrand and surveys leading explanations for the nation's mounting unemployment crisis. One major theme concerns possible contradictions between France's commitment to European integration and its commitment to expansive social protection for French citizens. Another important theme relates to the apparent tradeoff between jobs and wages, which has characterized most of the developed economies since the mid-1970s.

Designed to supplement Reconstruction of Zambia.

In January 1995, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) evolved into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which faced the task of implementing the recently approved Uruguay Round of international trade agreements. This case describes the development of GATT, and the principal issues negotiated during the Uruguay Round, including agriculture, textiles, and services. Also describes the controversy surrounding the creation of the WTO.

In January 1990, with inflation at 50%, the newly democratic Polish government introduced a draconian plan for a market economy. Most observers expected the Balcerowicz Plan, sometimes referred to as shock therapy, to spur reform through the restructuring of large state enterprises. When it failed to do so, they criticized it. But the plan succeeded in encouraging entrepreneurship, which now appears to be the main force driving economic reform in Poland. It was as if the Polish economy started over in January 1990. The central mechanism for the reallocation of labor and capital from state to private activity has enabled the growth of hundreds of thousands of private businesses. The authors argue that, although state enterprises have proved too unwieldy for rapid change, the Balcerowicz Plan has not failed. If anything, it could have gone further to stabilize inflation and help private enterprise.

Enrique Felgueres, Jr., general manager of Rosenbluth International's (RI) Mexican operations, had recently been given the task of transforming Bancomer Travel Services, a small Mexican-owned agency, into a branch office of RI. The Rosenbluth service concept has contributed to RI's success in the U.S. and Canadian business travel industry, but the U.S./Canadian success does not imply that the Rosenbluth service concept can be taken carte blanche into Mexico. This case challenges students to consider if and how to adapt the service concept for the Mexican market, the Mexican business traveler, and for travel in Mexico.