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International Business
Q:
A polycentric staffing approach is effective for firms pursuing a(n) _____ strategy.
A. international
B. localization
C. global
D. transnational
E. regional
Q:
The major drawback with a(n) _____ staffing policy is the gap that can form between host-country managers and parent-country managers.
A. global
B. geocentric
C. polycentric
D. ethnocentric
E. transnational
Q:
Which of the following is a drawback of adopting a polycentric staffing approach?
A. It is expensive to implement.
B. It leads host-country managers to make mistakes due to cultural misunderstandings.
C. It limits advancement opportunities for host-country nationals.
D. It invariably makes a firm suffer from cultural myopia.
E. It bridges the gap between the headquarters of a firm and its foreign subsidiaries.
Q:
Which of the following is an advantage of adopting a polycentric staffing approach?
A. It is less expensive to implement as compared to other staffing approaches.
B. It gives host-country nationals unlimited opportunities to gain experience outside their own country.
C. It increases career mobility.
D. It increases interaction between the headquarters of a firm and its foreign subsidiaries.
E. It bridges the gap between host-country managers and parent-country managers.
Q:
Which of the following is true of a polycentric staffing policy?
A. It is expensive to implement.
B. It leads to cultural myopia.
C. It prevents mistakes arising from cultural misunderstandings.
D. It bridges the gap between the headquarters and its foreign subsidiaries.
E. It gives unlimited advancement opportunities for host-country nationals.
Q:
A firm that adopts a polycentric staffing policy is less likely to:
A. isolate foreign subsidiaries from corporate headquarters.
B. implement an expensive staffing policy.
C. be controlled by corporate headquarters.
D. suffer from cultural myopia.
E. provide growth opportunities.
Q:
A(n) _____ staffing policy requires host-country nationals to be recruited to manage subsidiaries, while parent-country nationals occupy key positions at corporate headquarters.
A. geocentric
B. polycentric
C. ethnocentric
D. global
E. transnational
Q:
A firm's failure to understand host-country cultural differences that require different approaches to marketing and management is referred to as _____.
A. cultural parity
B. cultural myopia
C. power distance
D. cultural toughness
E. cultural polarization
Q:
A(n) _____ staffing policy limits advancement opportunities for host-country nationals.
A. transnational
B. polycentric
C. geocentric
D. ethical
E. ethnocentric
Q:
Which of the following is a disadvantage of an ethnocentric staffing policy?
A. It leads to resentment in the host country.
B. It isolates the headquarters from foreign subsidiaries.
C. It does not allow transfer of core competencies.
D. It leads to a dearth of qualified managers in the host nation.
E. It diversifies corporate culture.
Q:
If a firm tries to create value by transferring core competencies to a foreign operation and, therefore, transfers parent-country nationals who have knowledge of that competency to the foreign operation, it pursues a(n) _____ staffing policy.
A. ethnocentric
B. polycentric
C. geocentric
D. eurocentric
E. transnational
Q:
Firms that use an ethnocentric staffing policy consider it to be:
A. a way to reduce the costs of value creation.
B. inappropriate for a localization strategy.
C. the best way to maintain a unified corporate culture.
D. the most inexpensive staffing approach.
E. the only approach to reduce cultural myopia.
Q:
A firm pursues an ethnocentric staffing policy because it:
A. believes in providing growth opportunities to host-country nationals.
B. wants to avoid cultural myopia.
C. believes the host country lacks qualified individuals for senior management positions.
D. wants to keep all core competencies within the home country.
E. wants to build strong cultural and informal management networks in all its subsidiaries.
Q:
Which of the following is an advantage of an ethnocentric staffing policy?
A. It alleviates cultural myopia.
B. It is inexpensive to implement.
C. It helps build strong informal management networks.
D. It helps transfer core competencies to a foreign operation.
E. It uses human resources efficiently.
Q:
Which of the following is a characteristic feature of an ethnocentric staffing policy?
A. It requires host-country nationals to be recruited to manage subsidiaries.
B. It is used when a firm places a low value on its corporate culture.
C. It increases advancement opportunities for host-country nationals.
D. It seeks the best people for key jobs throughout the organization, regardless of nationality.
E. It places parent-country nationals in key management positions.
Q:
In the Swiss firm Terabithia Systems AG, all the important positions in its international operations are held by Swiss nationals. Terabithia follows a(n) _____ staffing policy.
A. eurocentric
B. ethnocentric
C. polycentric
D. geocentric
E. transnational
Q:
A(n) _____ staffing policy is one in which all key management positions are filled by parent-country nationals.
A. ethnocentric
B. global
C. polycentric
D. geocentric
E. transnational
Q:
The norms and value systems of an organization constitute its _____.
A. corporate social responsibility
B. cultural toughness
C. cultural sensitivity
D. corporate culture
E. perceptual ability
Q:
_____ refers to a strategy that is concerned with the selection of employees for particular jobs.
A. Compensation policy
B. Staffing policy
C. Performance appraisal policy
D. Training policy
E. Management development policy
Q:
Firms that emphasize global standardization try to create value by:
A. retaining products and competencies within the parent country.
B. realizing experience curve and location economies.
C. focusing on local responsiveness.
D. emphasizing localization.
E. adopting an ethnocentric staffing approach.
Q:
International firms try to create value by:
A. transferring products and competencies overseas.
B. following a local staffing policy.
C. focusing on local responsiveness.
D. emphasizing a localization strategy.
E. adopting an ethnocentric staffing approach.
Q:
Firms that pursue a localization strategy try to create value by:
A. emphasizing local responsiveness.
B. encouraging a global staffing approach.
C. emphasizing transnational strategies.
D. building an informal management network.
E. transferring products and competencies overseas.
Q:
Megan, a U.S. citizen, is the operations manager at the Middle East office of HS Constructions Inc., an American firm. In this situation, she is an example of a(n) _____ manager.
A. immigrant
B. host-country
C. inpatriate
D. expatriate
E. virtual
Q:
A(n) expatriate manager refers to:
A. a citizen of one country who is working abroad in one of the firm's subsidiaries.
B. a parent-country national who works in the parent country.
C. a host-country national who works in the host country.
D. any person who lives in a foreign country.
E. a person willing to work in different departments of a foreign firm.
Q:
Historically, most international businesses have centralized international labor relations activities.
Q:
An impediment to cooperation between national unions is the wide variation in union structure.
Q:
A concern of organized labor is that an international business keeps highly skilled tasks in its home country and farm out low-skilled tasks to foreign plants.
Q:
Unless a host country has a reciprocal tax treaty with the expatriate's home country, an expatriate must pay income tax to both the home- and host-country governments.
Q:
An expatriate's base salary is normally lower than the base salary for a similar position in the home country.
Q:
In terms of expatriate pay, the income statement approach equalizes purchasing power across countries so employees can enjoy the same living standard in their foreign posting that they enjoyed at home.
Q:
From a strategic perspective, a compensation system must reward managers for taking actions that are consistent with the strategy of the enterprise.
Q:
Home-office managers are unbiased while evaluating the performance of expatriate managers.
Q:
Unintentional bias makes it easy to evaluate the performance of expatriate managers objectively.
Q:
Bringing managers together in one location for extended periods and rotating them through different jobs in several countries help the firm build an informal management network.
Q:
Transnational firm managers need not be able to detect pressures for local responsiveness because it is not part of their skill set.
Q:
It is important that the spouse of an expatriate manager, and perhaps the whole family, be included in cultural training programs.
Q:
Historically, most international businesses have been more concerned with management development than with training.
Q:
According to Mendenhall and Oddou, expatriates with perceptual ability tend to be judgmental and evaluative in interpreting the behavior of host-country nationals.
Q:
Expatriate managers who lack others-orientation tend to treat foreign nationals as if they were home-country nationals.
Q:
According to Mendenhall and Oddou, human resource managers must equate domestic performance with overseas performance potential.
Q:
According to a study by R.L. Tung, the most important reason for expatriate failure among U.S. multinationals is difficulty coping with a new environment.
Q:
Expatriate failure represents the failure of a firm's selection policies to identify individuals who will not thrive abroad.
Q:
Citizens of a foreign country working in the home country of their multinational employer are known as repatriates.
Q:
International firms that have a broad geographic scope are the most likely to have a geocentric mind-set.
Q:
For international firms, an ethnocentric staffing approach is compatible with a localization strategy.
Q:
The fact that many countries want foreign subsidiaries to employ their citizens limits a firm's ability to pursue a geocentric policy.
Q:
A polycentric staffing approach is effective only for international firms pursuing a transnational strategy and inappropriate for other strategies.
Q:
The major drawback with a polycentric staffing policy is the gap that can form between host-country managers and parent-country managers due to language barriers.
Q:
International firms pursuing an ethnocentric staffing policy may be better able to create value from the pursuit of experience curve and location economies than firms pursuing other staffing policies.
Q:
In international businesses, a polycentric staffing policy increases the costs of value creation.
Q:
An international firm that adopts a polycentric staffing policy is more likely to suffer from cultural myopia.
Q:
In international businesses, a disadvantage of an ethnocentric staffing policy is that it produces resentment in host-country nationals.
Q:
In international businesses, firms pursue a polycentric staffing policy because they see it as the best way to maintain a unified corporate culture.
Q:
In international businesses, a geocentric staffing policy is one in which all key management positions are filled by parent-country nationals.
Q:
It is believed that a firm attains higher performance when its employees are predisposed toward its value systems by their personality type.
Q:
Organizational architecture refers to an organization's norms and value systems.
Q:
For a firm to outperform its rivals in the global marketplace, the performance appraisal systems it uses must measure the perceptions that it wants to encourage.
Q:
An expatriate manager is a citizen of one country who is working abroad in one of the firms subsidiaries.
Q:
The human resource management function can help a firm achieve its primary strategic goals of reducing the costs of value creation and adding value by better serving customer needs.
Q:
Which of the following is a factor that determines the optimal distribution strategy?
A. Communication strategy
B. Country of origin effects
C. Channel quality
D. Noise levels
E. Source effects
Q:
Which of the following is true about channel quality?
A. The quality of retailers is variable in developed nations.
B. The quality of retailers is variable in emerging markets and less developed nations.
C. Chanel quality refers to a measure of the number of intermediaries between the manufacturer and the consumer.
D. An international business cannot establish its own distribution channel when the existing channel quality is poor.
E. The lack of a high-quality channel does not impede market entry.
Q:
_____ refers to the expertise, competencies, and skills of established retailers in a nation, and their ability to sell and support the products of international businesses.
A. Channel exclusivity
B. Channel quality
C. Channel length
D. Channel dominance
E. Channel concentration
Q:
Which of the following is true of distribution channel exclusivity?
A. In Japan, relationships among manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers often go back decade.
B. Japan's distribution system is often held up as one of the least exclusive systems.
C. An exclusive distribution channel refers to a channel that outsiders find convenient to access.
D. Retailers tend to prefer to carry the products of emerging firms rather than established firms.
E. The exclusivity of a distribution system is similar across most countries of the world.
Q:
A(n) _____ distribution channel is one that is difficult for outsiders to access.
A. exclusive
B. intensive
C. selective
D. concentrated
E. fragmented
Q:
Which of the following factors helps a firm shorten channel length?
A. The entry of large discount superstores
B. A firm's insistence on dealing with wholesalers instead of retailers
C. Fragmentation of a retail system
D. A small sales force
E. Smaller sales orders generated from sales calls
Q:
When the retail sector is very concentrated:
A. it is more expensive for the firm to make contact with each individual retailer.
B. it makes sense for a firm to deal with wholesalers instead of retailers.
C. a relatively large sales force is required to deal with the retail sector.
D. there are long channels of distribution.
E. the orders generated from each sales call can be large.
Q:
When the retail sector is very concentrated:
A. it is more expensive for a firm to make contact with each individual retailer.
B. it makes sense for a firm to deal directly with retailers, cutting out wholesalers.
C. a relatively large sales force is required to deal with the retail sector.
D. the channels of distribution tend to be long.
E. the growth of wholesalers is promoted.
Q:
Which of the following is a characteristic of fragmented retail systems?
A. Long channels of distribution
B. Single-layer distribution systems
C. Lower sales call to sales order ratio
D. Relatively smaller sales force compared to concentrated retail systems
E. Promotion of direct interaction between retailers and firms
Q:
Which of the following is true about fragmented retail systems?
A. The more fragmented the retail system, the more economical it is for a firm to make contact with each individual retailer.
B. Countries with fragmented retail systems tend to have short channels of distribution.
C. A relatively small sales force is required to deal with a fragmented retail sector.
D. It makes economic sense for the firm to sell to the wholesalers and the wholesalers to deal with the retailers.
E. The sales orders generated from each sales call is more than that in a concentrated retail system.
Q:
_____ retail systems tend to promote the growth of wholesalers to serve retailers, which lengthens distribution channels.
A. Centralized
B. Focused
C. Concentrated
D. Fragmented
E. Exclusive
Q:
Which of the following is the most important determinant of channel length?
A. The degree to which the retail system is fragmented
B. An increase in car ownership and two-income households
C. The level of consolidation in the global retail industry
D. The amount of difference between product or technical standards
E. The level of economic development of a country
Q:
The number of intermediaries between the product (or manufacturer) and the consumer is referred to as _____.
A. channel length
B. channel quality
C. channel exclusivity
D. channel fragmentation
E. channel concentration
Q:
Which of the following is a factor that contributes to greater retail concentration in developed countries?
A. Number of households owning televisions
B. Number of families with two or more children
C. Increase in the value of the currency of the country
D. Number of households with refrigerators and freezers
E. Decrease in per capita income
Q:
Which of the following is a factor that has contributed to greater retail concentration in developed countries?
A. A tradition of established local neighborhood stores
B. An increase in car ownership
C. A decrease in the number of freezers and refrigerators
D. An increase in the number of single-income households
E. An increase in the population density
Q:
Which of the following is a basis for the differences in retail concentration in various countries?
A. Tradition
B. Idiosyncracies
C. Prejudices
D. Demographics
E. Geography
Q:
A(n) _____ retail system is one in which there are many retailers, no one of which has a major share of the market.
A. concentrated
B. fragmented
C. focused
D. consolidated
E. exclusive
Q:
In a(n) _____ retail system, a few retailers supply most of the market.
A. fragmented
B. dispersed
C. isolated
D. concentrated
E. exclusive
Q:
A _____ refers to the means that a firm chooses for delivering a product to its consumer.
A. pull strategy
B. distribution strategy
C. push strategy
D. communication strategy
E. pricing strategy
Q:
Which of the following factors constrains the globalization of markets?
A. Difference in technical standards
B. Uniform standard of living
C. Cosmopolitan tastes and preferences
D. Market segments that transcend national borders
E. Convergence of cultures
Q:
Which of the following is true of the influence of economic development on consumer preferences?
A. The level of economic development does not impact consumer preferences as much as cultural difference does.
B. Firms based in highly developed countries do not build extra performance attributes into their products.
C. Consumers in less developed nations demand to have extra attributes built into products.
D. Consumers in developed countries are often willing to sacrifice their preferred attributes for lower prices.
E. Consumers in developed nations are willing to pay more for products that have additional features customized to their tastes.