CTQ#2
Question 1. Why might a government-owned firm have an unfair advantage over privately
owned companies?
- Government-owned firms could have unfair advantage over privately owned companies
by having reduced tax, subsidiaries, government funding, which leads the government
owned companies to lower their operation/production cost significantly and financial
support to dominate a market. Also, when the firm is owned by stable government, it
significantly lowers their risk of being bankrupt because the government protects the
firms, for example if an international competition is posing a risk to their business, they
can pass a national law that protects their business etc.
Question 3. When they accept foreign assignments, how can expatriates prepare for such
assignment’s risk?
- Upon accepting foreign assignments, expats should prepare for the assignment’s risk.
First of all, they should research about the country they are going to, not only from the
business aspect, from cultural aspect as well. If an expat does not research about the
customs and culture of that country, their normal actions back home could be seen as
rude in a foreign country. After obtaining information either through their company or
own research, they should now consider the health risk as well as the security threat that
they could face such as kidnapping, extortion, and ransom. Of course, there is an
insurance for such incidents which offers ransom fees, special negotiators, money for
hostage situation as well counseling for the victims and their family. Consider the nature
of your business, duration of your assignments then decide whether you need the
insurance or not.
CTQ#2
Question 4. If you were responsible for developing your company’s international strategy, what
role would country risk assessment play?
- If I were responsible for developing my company’s international strategy, Country Risk
Assessment (CRA) would play important role because by analyzing the risks, we can
proactively plant to prevent such risks from occurring. However, depending on which
country we are expanding to, I would focus on different things. For example, if my (U.S
based) company is expanding into Mongolia, in that case I wouldn’t consider much about
the piracy and terrorism since Mongolia is considered to be “No impact of terrorism” in
the terrorism index and Mongolia also does not have any sea. Although, with the
advancement of technology I would definitely monitor the cybercrime since international
businesses do utilize technology and internet a lot.