International Business: Pricing Considerations

When selling the same product in more than one country, there are two basic strategies when it comes to price: charge the same price everywhere or charge different prices based on supply and demand issues. Choosing which of these is appropriate relies on a wide range of factors.

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International Business: Hedging

Managers generally dislike uncertainty because it reduces the value of planning and can lead to surprises – and surprises in business are rarely welcomed. It is over that bad news will not be welcomed but good news is also problematic, since a manager who announces anything unexpected appears not to be on top of her job. Reduction of uncertainty is, on the whole therefore, considered to be a good thing.

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International Business: Exchange Rate Issues

All other things being equal, people will buy the product which is cheaper. Of course, things are never equal and it is almost impossible to find two different types of products which are really identical or at least equivalent but let us assume that the principle applies, then when the two products come from different countries, then the prices involved will depend on the relative levels of exchange rates

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International Business: Non-Tariff Barriers

Given that trade barriers are necessary, as explained in other articles, it is important to determine the nature and extent of what those barriers might be. In addition to tariffs, there is a wide range of other measures that can be used and these are collectively known, not very imaginatively but perfectly accurately, as non-tariff barriers (NTBs).

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International Business: Governments and Trade Barriers

Free trade can be beneficial but only to countries which have strong and sustainable competitive advantages. No country has ever achieved economic development without careful, sustained and targeted protection of their home economies from stronger overseas competition – there is no argument about this, the facts speak very clearly for themselves.

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International Business: The Supply Chain Relationship

One of the most common issues in international business concerns the nature of relationships to be established in the supply chain. Finding a partner overseas and then making an agreement with them tends to be a bit of a lottery or, perhaps, a lucky dip.

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International Business: Supply Chain Considerations

There was a time, not that long ago in fact, when the countries in which sweat shop labour was concentrated seemed so far away from the markets of the western world that companies could quite cheerfully turn a blind eye to what took place there. The jargon is that an ‘arm’s length relationship’ was in place – in other words, the western company had a contract with a local factory but the agreement placed so much distance between them that they could not be expected to know what was happening and so could not be blamed for it.

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International Business: Understanding Culture

Culture is a set of values, beliefs and norms that unite one set of people and makes them different from other sets of people. In other words, culture is both inclusive and exclusive.

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International Business: Cross-Cultural Marketing

Cross-cultural marketing is generally not a big problem in international business because the majority of products are uncontroversial in this respect: most cross-border business involves fairly tedious business-to-business transactions of components, supplies, chemicals and that whole range of products referred to in business and economic classes as ‘widgets.’

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International Business: Licensing

Licensing a foreign product can be an excellent and comparatively low risk entry into an entrepreneurial career. It involves signing an agreement with a company to provide the relevant goods and services in the local market in return for an upfront fee and some schedule of royalties. The licensor provides the reputation, the goods, the brand image and so forth, while the licensee provides the local distribution outlet, the sales effort and in general the gumption and elbow grease.

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