Management Focus
Chapter 2: Reread the Management Focus feature: Did Walmart Violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? What is your opinion? If you think it did, what do you think the consequences will be for Walmart?
Chapter 3: What is the relationship between property rights, corruption, and economic progress? How important are anticorruption efforts in the effort to improve a country’s level of economic development?
Chapter 4: Do you think business practices in an Islamic country are likely to differ from business practices in a Christian country? If so, how?
Chapter 5: Milton Friedman stated in his famous article in The New York Times in 1970 that “the social responsibility of business is to increase profits.” Do you agree? If not, do you prefer that multinational corporations adopt a focus on corporate social responsibility or sustainability practices?
Chapter 6: Is free trade fair? Discuss.
Sample Solution
Free trade is an economic system in which goods and services are exchanged between countries without the imposition of tariffs or other forms of restrictions. Proponents of free trade argue that it has numerous benefits, including greater efficiency and reduced costs to consumers, improved access to foreign markets, increased global competition and innovation, as well as more efficient allocation of resources.
However, critics point out that free trade can also be unfair due to the potential for exploitation of developing nations by larger corporations from developed countries. The lack of regulation in many cases allows companies from industrialized nations to engage in practices such as dumping their products on poorer countries at below-market prices or relocating operations to low-wage areas with few labor protections. This can lead to an increase in income inequality between rich and poor nations while also allowing large corporations to take advantage of lax environmental regulations and avoid taxes through clever accounting schemes. Additionally, the effects of free trade agreements have often been unevenly distributed throughout a country’s population with some segments gaining significantly more than others which further complicates matters.
Overall, whether free trade is fair is ultimately subjective depending upon one’s opinions regarding globalization and economic development issues as well as whom they feel should bear responsibility for addressing these challenges—corporations or governments? But regardless with regards to fairness it is important that all sides are aware not only of the potential benefits but also any negative consequences so that steps can be taken where necessary to ensure everyone involved reaps appropriate rewards from international commerce.