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Examines the experience of Polaroid of Shanghai Ltd. (PSL), a joint venture between the U.S.-based Polaroid Corp. and the Shanghai Motion Picture Industry Co., within the framework of China's foreign investment climate. Discusses the evolution of foreign investment in China, from the so-called treaty ports in the mid-nineteenth century to the creation of Special Economic Zones in the latter part of the twentieth century. A major section on the current investment regime details the negotiation and approval process, management and labor relations, the foreign exchange system, and the macroeconomic environment.

Ocean Spray Cranberries, one of the nation's most successful agricultural cooperatives, faces some difficult environmental management problems associated with water usage and wetlands development. Because of federal and state wetlands laws, new bogs for expansion had become virtually impossible to develop. Moreover, to protect its valuable brand, Ocean Spray needs to make reasonably certain that its 800 grower-owners utilize the best possible environmental practices in water management and the use of agricultural chemicals. A single incident could cause the company significant harm. The case describes some of the innovative programs undertaken to facilitate best practices among the loose knit community of growers.

In 1990, Xerox undertook an "Environmental Leadership Program" designed to make Xerox an industry leader in non-polluting operations, recycling, and products actually designed for the environment. This effort flowed naturally out of the system of total quality management developed at Xerox in the 1980s. Under the new program, Xerox planned to design its products for complete reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. This effort entailed a complete redesign of the company's product-delivery system, from initial designs, to materials acquisition, to manufacturing, marketing, and after-sales service.

Under the leadership of CEO Lorenzo Zambrano, Cementos Mexicanos, S.A. (Cemex) has become the largest cement producer in North America and the fourth largest in the world. As a component of its globalization strategy Cemex expanded into the United States by building terminals and exporting cement from Mexico. U.S. producers countered with an antidumping petition under Section 731 of U.S. trade law, complaining that they were injured by the imported cement. The case presents the situation in the cement market and the administrative process that resulted in a 58% duty on Cemex imports. Focuses on Cemex's strategy for addressing the antidumping petition and its aftermath.

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes how the dispute was settled. Designed as a class hand-out.

It has been four years since Jeff Furman had first travelled to Russia to find a partner so that Ben & Jerry's "finest quality, socially conscious, and economically feasible" super-premium ice cream could be produced in Russia. Now, just a few months in operation, the joint venture was up and running and already profitable. The partners wanted to expand and opportunities were readily available but Jeff questioned the feasibility of such a move. This case presents a common dilemma faced by international companies--how to manage divergent partner goals and perspectives.

Although modern urban recycling programs have successfully created a tremendous supply of recycled newspapers, glass bottles, and office paper, when it comes to consumer and business demand for products made from these materials, the economics of recycling falls apart. The present cost of collecting and processing recyclable materials far outweighs their value as a commodity that can be sold back to industry. Yet precisely because of this market uncertainty, companies can seize the competitive high ground. Rubbermaid, Moore Business Forms, and others have dramatically increased market share with appropriate offerings. In addition, top managers of companies like Bell Atlantic and Coca-Cola have made buying recycled products and investing in green R&D part of their business strategies. Through such efforts, business leaders help to challenge current recycling myths, including the supposed high price and low quality of recycled products.

Conventional thinking about Third-World development rejects the idea of state-of-the-art technology for villages that lack adequate water, power, food, and literacy. But the author argues that modern telecommunications and electronic information systems are completely appropriate technologies even for the poorest regions of the world. Why? First, telecom is indispensable in mobilizing the resources necessary to meet basic human needs. Second, information technology is the greatest democratizer the world has ever seen.

In an economy marked by severe inflation, a balance of payments problem, and large investment needs for modernization, the Minister of Finance has been asked to design a remedial program that cannot include borrowing abroad. He does so, and the case describes the outcome of the policies in the early 1880's. Discussion is expected to focus mainly on the long-term institutional spin-offs from these policies, and on the appropriateness of these institutions to the needs of a developing country.

Introduces students to the arithmetic of the accounting for national productivity growth. It defines labor productivity, capital productivity, and total factor productivity, describes the relationships among them, and discusses the phenomena that cause them to change over time. Exhibits include data for the United States and other industrial countries, which both show the relationships among the various measures and allow comparison across time and space. The end of the note discusses the 1992 controversy over productivity growth in Singapore. Productivity is an important phenomenon, widely discussed in the newspapers, but rarely even defined. Business students, especially those engaged in country analysis, need to understand the various ways in which it is measured and why those various quantities have changed over time in different nations. Intended for an introductory MBA course.

As the third largest economy after the United States and Japan, China's startling economic growth has spurred increasing interest in the economic, social, and political factors that catapulted the country to sudden prominence. This case starts with an overview of the country's ancient and modern history, and then focuses on the dramatic transition in the mid-twentieth century under Communist rule. The case analysis divides recent economic reforms into three distinct phases: reform in the countryside (1978-84), financial and enterprise reform (1984-88), and current efforts at monetary and fiscal reform following the Tiananmen crisis of 1989.

During the 1990s, environmental activists became interested in trade issues for the first time. Whereas GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, had previously been the province of trade specialists, a new poster popular among environmentalists depicted the monster "GATTzilla," devouring the earth, dolphins, and democratic institutions. This case describes the conflict between environmental and trade values as it is manifested in various multilateral institutions and treaties: GATT, especially after its controversial ruling on a United States dolphin protection law; NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement, for which environmental matters have become an unexpected stumbling block; the European Community, as it tries to harmonize member regulations; and multilateral treaties such as CITES (the convention on trade in endangered species), the Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances, and attempts to protect tropical timber.

Surveys a number of essential issues related to pricing and public policy in market economies. Begins with a brief review of the price-determination process in competitive markets, then examines a range of topics involving pricing and public policy in monopoly and oligopoly markets. Includes a number of graphs that illustrate the relationship between costs, demand, price, efficiency, and profitability under various market conditions.

Government intervention in markets may have significant effects--both positive and negative--on a firm's strategic options and its performance outcomes. Thus the ability to analyze the origins, implications, and dynamics of public policy is a critical managerial skill in today's market economies. This note provides managers with a framework for analyzing relationships between public policy, business strategy, and performance. Designed in particular for use in the Harvard MBA course Capitalism Constrained. The conceptual framework is applied to managerial settings in the environmental, energy, transportation, media and communications, financial services, and health and safety sectors.

Companies searching for a way to navigate the changes in Mexico would do well to study Vitro, Sociedad Anonima, an 84-year-old Mexican company with roughly $3 billion in sales and 44,000 employees. CEO Ernesto Martens-Rebolledo is transforming Vitro from a Mexican company to an international company, and from a complacent competitor to an aggressive one. As part of this transformation, Martens has made some controversial decisions. In 1989, he led the only hostile takeover of a U.S. company by a Mexican company when Vitro took over the Anchor Glass Container Corp. And in 1992, he laid off 3,000 workers - a first for a company that used to claim that it wasn't giving workers a job but a way of life. Through its proximity to the largest market in the world and its joint ventures with Ford, Corning, Samsonite, and Whirlpool, Vitro is well positioned to take advantage of the emerging North American market. But Vitro faces many challenges. For Martens, the most important and most difficult challenge is to convince people that they can no longer be complacent in the face of world competition.

Provides an update.

Prochnik was a large state-owned clothing manufacturer located in the textile-production-intensive region of Lodz, Poland. In the early months of economic reform, Prochnik was one of the first five state enterprises to be privatized through initial public offerings and traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The case describes the array of changes necessary to transform Prochnik into an internationally competitive private enterprise.

The authors warn that any company considering a move to Mexico must manage both the old risks of a developing country and the new uncertainties of an open market. Since the 1960s, U.S. companies have operated "maquiladoras," factories near the border that use Mexican labor to assemble products for export. As trade barriers come down, these factories will compete for the first time with the most successful Mexican companies, and other fierce competitors. Hiring local managers and finding local partners have helped some companies manage the inevitable risks. But depending on a company's size and core business, the risks of doing business in Mexico may outweigh the benefits.

In the wake of NAFTA, U.S. retail firms begin to see Mexico as an attractive market for international expansion. This case examines the structure of Mexico's volume retail (grocery, discount, warehouse club, hypermarket) industry, the joint ventures between U.S. and Mexican firms, and the prospects for the future.