Deck 4: International Management and Cross-Cultural Competence

Question 1

Buying a foreign company is the only way to do international business.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Foreign direct investment is always the first stage in the internationalization process.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A joint venture occurs when companies in foreign countries are authorized to produce or market a given product within a specified territory in return for a fee.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Transnational companies rely on a blend of global and local strategies, as circumstances dictate.

Question 5

There are only three ways to conduct business internationally, through imports, exports, and direct foreign investment.

Question 6

Experts suggest that patience is important for successful international joint ventures.

Question 7

A transnational company, by definition, is a multinational venture centrally managed from a specific country.

Question 8

If an organization is competing successfully in a dynamic global economy, its managers do not need cross-cultural awareness.

Question 9

Joint ventures are also known as cross-border mergers.

Question 10

In the Chinese business culture today, they are very unlikely to engage in entrepreneurship or risk taking.

Question 11

Darden Restaurants, owners of Red Lobster offer evidence that global commerce goes beyond clothing and oil, as they purchase fish in 30 countries.

Question 12

The three-way alliance formed in 2010 between France's Renault, Japan's Nissan, and Germany's Daimler is a good example of international joint ventures/strategic alliance.

Question 13

Cross-border mergers are an infrequently used form of direct foreign investment because of differing languages and cultures.

Question 14

Ideally, managers of transnational organizations "think locally, but act globally."

Question 15

Abstract foreign investment is the first stage of internationalization.

Question 16

Chinese managers and business people have become very comfortable working in a multifaceted, fast-changing culture with more emphasis on individualism and less collectivism.

Question 17

A multinational venture centrally managed from a specific country is called a global company.

Question 18

Licensing agreements in foreign countries provide companies with the necessary authorization to produce and/or market a given product within a specified territory in return for a fee.

Question 19

Global corporations are included in the direct foreign investment stage of internationalization.

Question 20

There is a growing concern about the prospect of immense "stateless" transnational companies because of unresolved political, economic, and tax implications.

Question 21

A company's global advertising program is greatly enhanced by ethnocentric attitudes.

Question 22

International experts argue that a true global company must have subsidiaries in at least a dozen nations.

Question 23

Culture involves actual behavior, not taken-for-granted assumptions about behavior.

Question 24

People from high-context countries, such as Japan, rely heavily on nonverbal cues when communicating.

Question 25

Societal culture acts as a social glue which is made up of norms, values, attitudes, role expectations, taboos, symbols, heroes, beliefs, morals, customs, and rituals.

Question 26

A typical characteristic of polycentric organizations is vigorous communication between foreign subsidiaries.

Question 27

Among the different attitudes toward international operations, only a polycentric attitude will help managers become effective global competitors.

Question 28

Managers who are world-oriented are said to have polycentric attitudes.

Question 29

Spoken and written words convey comparatively little meaning in low-context countries.

Question 30

People are expected to communicate their precise intended meaning through written and spoken words in low-context cultures, such as Great Britain and Germany.

Question 31

Cultural intelligence partly involves impression management.

Question 32

Howard Perlmutter said what really counts is management's attitude toward its foreign operations.

Question 33

The ritual of exchanging business cards is a social necessity in high-context Japan, and failing to read a card you have been given can be a grave insult.

Question 34

The ethnocentric orientation is based on the assumption that, because cultures are so different, local managers know what is best for their operations.

Question 35

Geocentric companies staff all positions with the best available talent in the world.

Question 36

Asians tend to view Westerners as quiet and hard to figure out.

Question 37

By definition, "travelers" take foreign assignments lasting from two to five years or more.

Question 38

Researchers from the University of Michigan concluded that the world is indeed moving towards a uniform "McWorld," where American culture prevails.

Question 39

An ethnocentric German CEO would insist that German be spoken in all the firm's worldwide offices.

Question 40

According to the geocentric orientation, skill rather than nationality determines who gets promoted or transferred to key positions around the globe.

Question 41

In one study, Russian workers responded very favorably to Western-style participative leadership, primarily because of their nation's recent move toward democracy.

Question 42

Research tells us that culture shock tends to last twelve weeks or more.

Question 43

Awareness of a business colleague's religious traditions is essential for building a lasting relationship.

Question 44

People from around the world have identical work goals, given the universality of management principles.

Question 45

An excellent substitute for knowing a foreign language is using an electronic translator, particularly in countries like Japan where the language is very complex.

Question 46

In polychronic cultures, time is treated as flexible or elastic.

Question 47

"Lack of motivation to work in another country" is the number one reason why Americans fail in foreign assignments.

Question 48

In polychronic cultures, everyone is assumed to be on the same clock and time is treated as money.

Question 49

Humane-oriented leadership was found to be the most widely applicable style by the GLOBE project researchers.

Question 50

International managers who are in doubt about which leadership style to use in a foreign country are advised to use an authoritarian style.

Question 51

Geocentric management is the study of how organizational behavior and management practices differ across cultures.

Question 52

Geert Hofstede found American management theories to be universally applicable around the world.

Question 53

Japanese is a situational language and the way something is said differs with the relationship between speaker, listener, or the person about whom they are speaking.

Question 54

The appropriate interpersonal distance is about 18 inches when transacting face-to-face business anywhere in the world.

Question 55

In the international work goals study, job security was equally important in Israel and America.

Question 56

People from individualistic cultures, such as the United States and Canada, put loyalty to family, friends, and organizations before self-interests.

Question 57

Assertiveness is one of the nine cultural dimensions from the GLOBE project.

Question 58

The nine cultural dimensions form the GLOBE project include two types of collectivism.

Question 59

According to the GLOBE leadership matrix, the participative and team-oriented leadership styles have the greatest cross-cultural applicability.

Question 60

A self-protective leadership style will not work well, regardless of the culture, according to the GLOBE project.

Question 61

World trade in goods and services totaled ____ in 2009.

A) $15.5 trillion
B) $8 trillion
C) $600 billion
D) $250 million
E) $20 million

Question 62

A foreign assignment should be viewed as a temporary and separate detour in one's career path.

Question 63

China now makes up _________ percent of the world's population and is responsible for _______percent of the world's exports.

A) 10; 10
B) 20; 20
C) 10; 20
D) 20; 10
E) 15; 15

Question 64

____ is typically, but not always, the final stage of the internationalization process.

A) Direct foreign investment
B) Exporting
C) Licensing
D) Local assembly and packaging
E) A joint venture

Question 65

International joint ventures have had a ____________________percent success rate.

A) 30
B) 40
C) 50
D) 60
E) 70

Question 66

The first stage in the internationalization process is often

A) local assembling and packaging.
B) licensing.
C) direct foreign investment.
D) exporting.
E) joint ventures.

Question 67

North American women have enjoyed above-average success on foreign assignments.

Question 68

____ is not one of the stages of the internationalization process.

A) A joint venture
B) Bilateral cooperation
C) Local assembly and packaging
D) Exporting
E) Direct foreign investment

Question 69

Culture is a bigger hurdle than gender. This means that North American women on foreign assignments are seen as North Americans first and women second.

Question 70

In the changing global workplace there are several myths that persist about the Chinese business culture. Which of the following statements is most accurate about Chinese managers and businesspeople today?

A) They are very reluctant to take on any risk or get involved with entrepreneurship.
B) They will only give individual opinions or brainstorm openly when senior management is present.
C) They are long-term deliberators
D) They are more comfortable stepping out of the box, engaging in entrepreneurship and increased risk taking.
E) They thrive on offering individual opinions regardless of who is present and they no longer work in groups or teams.

Question 71

The pursuit of organizational objectives in international and cross-cultural settings refers to

A) uncertainty avoidance.
B) ethnocentrism.
C) exporting.
D) polychronic leadership.
E) international management.

Question 72

When selecting someone for a foreign assignment, it is a good idea to put the person's entire family through predeparture training and orientation.

Question 73

When goods produced in one country are sold to customers in foreign countries, it is called

A) joint venture.
B) exporting.
C) domestic expansion.
D) direct foreign investment.
E) licensing.

Question 74

In cross-cultural training, "field experience" promotes cultural familiarity through exposure to a series of simulated intercultural incidents.

Question 75

When Echo Sounds, a German piano manufacturer, pools resources with America's top piano maker to produce and market pianos and share any profits, it is referred to as

A) direct foreign investment.
B) licensing.
C) exporting.
D) a merger.
E) a joint venture.

Question 76

Repatriation should be an afterthought rather than forethought in foreign assignments.

Question 77

Under ____ agreements, goods produced in one country are shipped to the parent company's storage and marketing facilities located in one or more foreign countries.

A) exporting
B) local warehousing and selling
C) local assembly and packaging
D) licensing
E) foreign direct investment

Question 78

Evergreen Industries and BigTime Technologies have teamed up to produce a more environmentally-friendly automotive engine. This is an example of

A) licensing.
B) foreign direct investment.
C) a joint venture.
D) exporting.
E) local warehousing and selling.

Question 79

South Korea's Samsung Electronics entered into a ten year agreement giving them the rights to use Texas Instruments' patented semiconductor technology for royalty payments exceeding $1 billion. What type of agreement is this?

A) Licensing
B) Exporting
C) Local warehousing and selling
D) Joint venture
E) Foreign direct investment

Question 80

According to experts, global managers should _______ in order to have successful joint venture/strategic alliances?

A) learn fast
B) don't ask, don't tell
C) trade managers
D) don't compete
E) teach everyone English