BUS 401 Module 2 Case & SLP

Module 2 - Case

Marketing and Strategy

Assignment Overview

For this assignment you will looking at two completely different companies that sell completely different types of products. However, both companies have strong international potential. As you saw in the background materials, different types of products lead to different types of strategies regarding standardization or adaptation and whether you decide to become a global, multi-domestic, or transnational corporation. 

The first business you will look at is Yogurtland, a California-based frozen yogurt franchise with 300 locations. Most of the company’s locations are in the United States and Australia, but it has also opened up a small number of locations in Mexico, Venezuela, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates. The company has been successful in part because of customer satisfaction with the flavors, and in part because its self-serve model allows for local franchise owners to open up a new location at a relatively low cost.

The second business to look at is Micromax, an Indian smartphone company that is starting to expand internationally. The smartphone business is a notoriously tough market with dominant competitors such as Apple and Samsung. Micromax is the largest local smartphone company in India and is second only to Samsung in the Indian smartphone market. Micromax has recently started to expand to Russia and is hoping to expand to other countries as well. Given the high price of smartphones from Apple and Samsung, there may be room for a lower priced competitor in the global smartphone market. 

Do a careful review of the concept of standardization and adaption in Chapter 18.3 of Carpenter and Dunung (2012) and the concepts of multi-domestic, global, and transnational strategies in Chapter 14.3 of Carpenter and Dunung (2012) and Chapter 12 of Jeyarathmm (2008). Then do some research on Yogurtland and Micromax in the Trident library or other sources. Here are some articles to get you started:

Yogurtland and Sanrio launch co-brand partnership. (2011, July 26). China Weekly News, p. 282.[ProQuest]

Leung, L. (2014, July 17). Yogurtland founder returns, trims staff: Fifteen are cut as Phillip Chang looks to reinvigorate Irvine chain. Orange County Register. [ProQuest]

Micromax: Cheap and best. (2014, December 23). Financial Express. [ProQuest]

Anwer, J. (2014, January 10). Micromax to foray into Russia, sell phones, tablets (hardware). The Times of India (Online) [ProQuest]

Case Assignment

Once you have finished your research, write a 4- to 5-page paper answering the following questions:

1. What kind of strategy do you recommend if Yogurtland continues its international expansion? Would you recommend product standardization or localization? Which overall strategy would you recommend—transnational, multi-domestic, or global? Explain your reasoning and apply the concepts from Carpenter and Dunung (2012) and Jeyarathmm (2008). Make sure to cite some articles on Yogurtland as well.
2. What kind of strategy would you recommend for Micromax’s international expansion? Would you recommend product standardization or localization? Which overall strategy would you recommend—transnational, multi-domestic, or global? Explain your reasoning and apply the concepts from Carpenter and Dunung (2012) and Jeyarathmm (2008). Make sure to cite some articles on Micromax as well.

Module 2 - SLP

Marketing and Strategy

In the previous two modules you looked at the cultural and financial situation of your reference country. Now will be looking at the legal and political environment of your country and how these factors impact doing business.

As part of your research, keep in mind that several organizations publish various rankings and indices of political and legal factors in the major countries in the world. One example of rankings is the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators page (http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#home). This webpage includes rankings on factors relating the legal and political system such as rule of law, regulatory quality, and political stability. Rankings are given from 0 to 100 on each of these aspects.

The World Bank also does some rankings of the ease of doing business in countries across the world. Their doingbusiness.org has detailed reports on most countries on different aspects of doing business. While they look at many different factors, some of these relate to the legal system such as ease of enforcing contracts or getting a business license. It is worth looking up your country on this webpage to get an idea of how friendly your country’s legal system is to doing business. In addition to the Doing Business report, Transparency International does an annual report on corruption around the world and their rankings can be found at transparency.org.

But don’t just look at quantitative rankings of your country. Do additional research to get an overall picture of the legal and political system beyond just a numerical score. Once you are finished doing your research on the country of your choice, write a 2- to 3-page paper covering the following issues:

1. The type of government and level of political stability in your country, and whether or not the political system is conducive to doing business
2. The legal/regulatory system in this country and whether or not it is conducive to doing business
3. The level of corruption in your country, and the impact of corruption on doing business in this country

SLP Assignment Expectations

• Answer the assignment questions directly.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions. Don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
• Make sure to use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are preferred. If you find articles on the internet, make sure they are from credible sources.
• Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.

Module 2 - Background

Marketing and Strategy

Required Reading

The following interactive tutorial will introduce you to some of the key concepts in international marketing and strategy. Pay special attention to the concepts of standardization and adaptation:

The global marketplace. (2014). Pearson Learning Solutions. New York, NY.

For a more detailed discussion of standardization versus adaptation in international marketing see the following book chapter. This is the same book by Dr. Mason Carpenter that you used as part of Module 1:

Carpenter, M., & Dunung, S. (2012). Chapter 14.3: Standardized or customized products. In Challenges and opportunities in international business. Flatworld Knowledge. Retrieved from https://saylordotorg. github.io/text_international-business/s18-03-standardized-or-customized-pro.html

A closely related issue to standardization versus adaptation is the choice of overall international strategy. The strategy choices include multi-domestic (high degree of adaptation), global (high degree of standardization), and transnational (a hybrid strategy). Carefully read the following two chapters for more on this important topic:

Jeyarathmm, M. (2008). Chapter 12: Strategy in a global environment. In Strategic management (pp. 155-165). Mumbai, India: Himalaya Publishing House. [Ebrary. Note: You don’t have to read the whole chapter—just up to page 165. The rest of the chapter will be covered in Module 4.]Carpenter, M., & Dunung, S. (2012). Chapter 10.3: International strategy. In Challenges and opportunities in international business. Flatworld Knowledge. Retrieved from https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_international-business/s14-03-international-strategy.html

Case Assignment

Yogurtland and Sanrio launch co-brand partnership. (2011, July 26). China Weekly News, p. 282.[ProQuest]

Leung, L. (2014, July 17). Yogurtland founder returns, trims staff: Fifteen are cut as Phillip Chang looks to reinvigorate Irvine chain. Orange County Register. [ProQuest]

Micromax: Cheap and best. (2014, December 23). Financial Express. [ProQuest]

Anwer, J. (2014, January 10). Micromax to foray into Russia, sell phones, tablets (hardware). The Times of India (Online) [ProQuest]