“Culture is our collective experience as a society, and its impact on our reaction and decision-making relative to every-day facts and circumstances” (Hummel 2012). The success of Fastenal’s expansion depends on accepting Spain’s cultural beliefs, communication boundaries, and time-orientation. For example, Spain’s culture does not believe in gift-giving, so Fastenal is not required to present one during the first meeting. However, successful negoitiations may result in giving a small gift. Failure to meet this cultural belief results in the business relationship’s dismissal. Since Fastenal is meeting with a government official, the FCPA prohibits them from giving gifts to obtain a favor regardless of cultural beliefs. Spanish citizens …show more content…
Once Fastenal has obtained approval from Spain’s government to expand its operations into the country, the company has to develop a strategy to make the expansion happen. Global expansion strategy is developed utiling strategic alliance, exporting goods, and licensing. Since Fastenal’s hubs are in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the company is already exporting their goods and licensing their products to stores in Europe, Asia, and Africa. If Fastenal builds a hub in Spain, they can take advantage of the country’s incentive of lower transportation costs. Fastenal could form a strategic alliance with Spain utilizing a mutually beneficial joint venure. “International partnerships can leverage local brand equity as a way to introduce foreign goods with built-in credibility (Ingram 2018). The closest Fastenal stores to Spain are located in France, therefore, starting a strategic alliance with Spain would allow the company to expand its market and increase brand awareness. On the other hand, allowing Fastenal to expand into Spain will bring jobs to the country, which will help reduce the unemployment rate (Maclachlan 2010) (Ledger 2017) (Fastenal Company 10K Annual Filing 2018) (Ingram 2018) (Ingram
Both 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale are dystopian novels, however, these books are a lot more complex than mere portrayals of dystopia, it can be argued that they are explorations of dystopia rather than mere portrayals. In order to explore dystopia, many themes must be considered, such as; feminism, love and repression. Nonetheless, it is apparent that human characteristics are the driving point of the two novels, predominantly, the depiction of human resilience. In an imperfect world, it is important to have certain qualities which, if plentiful, it can mean success, whereas if it lacks, it can mean failure, this characteristic is resilience. The protagonists in each novel, Winston in 1984 and Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale face situations which leave them both in disarray, and both even consider suicide. The authors tentatively highlight human resilience, its limits and most importantly its strengths into the two novels.
“‘They score! Henderson has scored for Canada!’” Foster Hewitt wordlessly described” (Pelletier) when Paul Henderson scored the series-winning goal. This allowed Canada to win the 1972 Summit Series, a moment that no one would ever forget since it all happened during the climax of the Cold War. Prior to this, the Soviets had won the previous three Olympic gold metals since Canada could not use its NHL players. Thus, this provided Canada with the chance to play hockey against the USSR using its best players. This raised the question: if Canada were able to send its best players, would it still be enough to beat the Soviets? Everyone in Canada was certain that the Soviets would not win a single game, but little did they know they underestimated the extent of the Soviets abilities. Tied in the last few minutes of game eight, Canada had to score or they would lose the series. However, when Paul Henderson scored the game-winning goal, never before had a single sporting event meant so much to Canadians. Therefore, Paul Henderson’s goal is a defining moment for Canada in the twentieth century becauseit provided Canada with the opportunity to evolve hockey, proved that Canada and our democratic society were superior to the USSR and their communist society, and brought citizens together to unify Canada as a nation.
The Hunger Games was a critically acclaimed movie when it came out; however, some critics would argue that the movie can be sometimes too violent for its intended audience. In this essay I would dissert Brian Bethune’s essay “Dystopia Now” in order to find its weaknesses and compare the movie Battle Royale with his essay.
Scott Hightower’s poem “Father” could be very confusing to interpret. Throughout almost the entirety of the poem the speaker tries to define who his father is by comparing him to various things. As the poem begins the reader is provided with the information that the father “was” all of these things this things that he is being compared to. The constant use of the word “was” gets the reader to think ‘how come the speaker’s father is no longer comparable to these things?’ After the speaker reveals that his father is no longer around, he describes how his father impacted him. Details about the father as well as descriptions of the impacts the father has distraught on the speaker are all presented in metaphors. The repetitive pattern concerning the speaker’s father and the constant use of metaphors gives the reader a sense that the speaker possesses an obsessive trait. As the reader tries to interpret the seemingly endless amount of metaphors, sets of connotative image banks begin to develop in the reader’s mind. Major concepts that are expressed throughout the poem are ideas about what the speaker’s father was like, what he meant to the speaker, and how he influenced the speaker.
North America has a monochromic culture, where time is treated as a valuable resource and business tasks are needed to be completed as quickly as possible. Mexicans follow a polychronic culture, which emphasizes relationship. Thus, Alan, US sales representative in Mexico, experiences difficulties with doing business because people with whom he works get used to be late on the meetings. Moreover, his hosts want to talk about sightseeing and his family in order to establish a relationship. Mexico is also characterized by high-context culture, where communication is conveyed implicitly and considered as a means to establish relationships. Alan’s low-context culture leads to employees’ miscommunication because he counts long not job-related conversations irrelevant. In addition, family is the first priority for Mexicans, so Alan’s meetings are frequently interrupted by customers’ children who come into the office.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl opens up with an introduction with a protagonist Linda (Harriet Jacobs) a slave girl which was born as a slave and states her reasons why she kept her autobiography private for so long. As Linda goes on and talk about her lifestyle as women slave, on the other hand I will be comparing the life style of another slave Olaudah Equiano who is a male slave which has a different point perspective of how he uses strategies to gain freedom from his master. How does gender complicate Linda’s (Harriet Jacobs) situation in comparison to Olaudah Equaino’s to gain freedom from their masters? Or does her gender complicate her situation? In a comparison of gender such as female and male there were always big difference which is also stated in the bible, from the Apostle Paul women were created second, sinner first and should always be kept silent. So what makes Linda’s gender so complicated to gain freedom from her master? The answer as stated in the book she was owned by Dr.Flint’s daughter which she couldn’t gain her freedom as long as the daughter did not gave her freedom, such on the other Equiano was owned by a master who gave him freedom. What was the reason why Linda could not get her freedom? Gender , Christianity, Strategies.
Each country has its own culture, with subcultures inside the dominant culture (Schaefer, 2009, p.69). “Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted custom, knowledge, material objects, and behavior” (Schaefer, 2009, p.57). Values, artifacts, and ideas are also part of culture (p57). With globalization there is the integration of these cultural aspects, as well as language, social movements, and ideas throughout the world (Schaefer, 2009, p.20). Internationalization helps with this integration. Internationalization is the process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can easily be adapted to specific local languages and cultures (Linfo, 2006). Numerous American retail firms have expanded to other countries. Many have been quite successful due to their internationalization. However, failure to study the culture, retail practices, and consumer market of the country they intend to expand to can be quite costly. Although Home Depot is one of the world’s largest home improvement stores, their expansion to Chile cost them enormous financial loss, resulting in their divestment (Bianchi & Ostale, 2006, section 1, para3). This paper will look at successful international expansion of Home Depot stores, analyze what mistakes were made in Chile, and make suggestions of what could have been done differently.
The authors identify that there are three main factors that effect how people act, think, and make decisions. The first is religion, in some countries faith plays an important role in all areas of life in the culture of the country and can influence many of their customs and behavior. The second factor is that of fact. In many countries their greatest desire is to find the best deal and the best product or services. The final factor is feeling, if a culture is based on feelings the people will conduct business accordingly. For example it would be essential to make a personal connection with this type of individual.
Firms exist with the purpose of create and deliver economic value (Bensaco et al 2010, p. 365); therefore, business that create better economic value than its competitors will attain an advantage position in market place. Companies might try to improve its sales (profit) through domestic expansion, product diversification or by internationalisation; this report will focus on the reasons of espressamente Illy to expand internationally; additionally, its sources of competitive advantage and, the analysis of three markets in which company want to participate.
The importance of culture in International business today cannot be underestimated and it is imperative that attention is paid at strategic, organizational and the individual levels. The “Blue Ridge Spain” case elucidates these at all three levels. My analysis of this case is from the perspective of the Spanish corporation, Terralumen S.A. National culture is the shared implicit beliefs and tacit values that truly differentiate one cultural group from another. I will be using Geert Hofstede’s frame work to deconstruct this case into its separate dimensions.
Investing or venturing into the international market involves critical analysis of the internal and external environment in which the company operates. Usually, a company will decide to venture internationally due to a saturated market or fierce competition in the current country of operation. The demand for a company’s products may have diminished as a result of an economic crisis thus the company will target a foreign market to sustain its sales. In other words, the firms expand internationally to seek new customers for its products. For example, the current Euro zone crisis led to low demand in Europe and many companies extended their businesses to emerging markets where demand was high. A company may also venture in the international market to enhance the cost-effectiveness of its operations especially for manufacturing companies that will benefit from low costs of production in developing world. Global expansion is a long term project as it involves demanding logistics to be successful. Thorough research must be undertaken to ensure that the expansion will create value for share...
Culture is “a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organisation and guides the behaviour of its members” (Schermerhorn et al. 2011). It plays an important role in any organisation. For instance, in Woolworths we can se...
jeswald w. salacuse (2) 005 ‘The Top Ten ways that Culture can Affect International Negotiations ‘. Available from < http://iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/global-business/the-top-ten-ways-that-culture-can-affect-international-negotiations#.Uzwdh6iSySp > [ 3 April 2014]
The differences in other cultures vary from beliefs to ways of life, or norms, of the different societies. The importance of understanding and sensitivity to other countries’ differences is crucial to a business’ success. “Lack of familiarity with the business practices, social customs, and etiquette of a country can weaken a co...
Globalization can not only affect a company opening an office in another country but it can affect a small local business as well. As the internet brings the world closer together it becomes far more likely that a business that opened with no intention of selling internationally will have customers form different parts of the world asking for their product. For instance a steel company located in Pennsylvania may suddenly find orders coming in from South American factories. How the steel plant chooses to handle this new international customer could mean ...