Week 14 Flashcards
international business faces four unique types of risk
- country risk
- currency risk
- cross-cultural risk
- commercial risk
Trends in Global Society
2023 Geostrategic Outlook
Satbilzed Votality / Policy trade-offs
Risk management
- Avoid
- Transfer
- Mitigate
- Accept
Classification of Risks
Types of risk
Operational
* Technological / Process risks
* Staff related Risks
* Organizational risks
* External risks
Legal
* Regulatory Compliance
* Litigation
* Corruption
* Anti-Trust & Bribery
Financial
* Interest rate risk
* Currency risk
Types of risk
- diversifiable
- undiversifiable
Analytical Tools and Statistics in Risk Management
Structuring decisions allows us to:
- Calculate the expected value of decisions
- Understand and combine the implicit
assumptions of experts
- Calculate the value of perfect and
imperfect information
- Update our state of knowledge as
additional information becomes available
Dealing with Risks
Risk Transfer to Insurance Companies
Available Insurance Covers
Risk Management in Practice
The Politics of Trade Liberalization
Why Tariffs Matter
Example: The Global Automotive Industry & Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)
Regulate Tariffs?
The World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva
Tariff Profiles
Advanced vs. Developing economies
Non-tariff Barriers (NTBs) / Non-tariff Measures (NTMs)
High standards or protectionist measures?
Preferential Trade
An attractive alternative to the WTO? Political or Economic benefits/motivations?
The New Mega Regionals
When bilateral deals grow across a region or even across the world
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Ethics
legal: not bad
moral: right / wrong
ethical: the least harmful bad
-> both options are bad -> which one is less bad
The point of ethics is to improve your decision-making & critical reflection skills.
And that’s something you need to practice every day
critical self-reflection
We always view the world from our own individual perspective, which is biased.
-> The goal: critical self reflection
What is CSR according to the European Commission
CSR is the responsibility of enterprises for their impact on society. CSR should be company led. Public authorities can play a supporting role through smart mix of volunatry policy measure and, where necessary, complementary regulation..
Companies can become socially responisble by:
- following the law
- integrating social, enviromental, ethical, consumer rights concerns into their business strategy / operations
Compliance – Introduction
Six sort of rules
Law: in a given jurisdiction, they apply to everybody.
Regulations: laws which only affect specific situations and industries, i.e. they do not apply to everybody.
Contracts: rules on which a company agrees with another party with a view to making and implementing a transaction.
Self-regulations (formal, voluntary rules / Codes): certain industries, such as banks, lay down self-regulations between their players.
Governance rules (informal, voluntary rules): rules which every company puts in place to organize and govern its own affairs. Examples are policies, guidelines, norms.
Soft laws and ancillary rules (informal, voluntary rules): they emanate from moral and ethical considerations, industry standards, and best practices.
Corruption in the Swiss Criminal Code (SCC)
Compliance responsibility: the board of directors
The board of directors is appointed to act on behalf of the shareholders to run the dayto-day affairs of the business. The board members are directly accountable to the
shareholders and, each year, the company holds an annual general meeting at which the directors must provide a report to the shareholders.
To the extent that the powers and responsibilities are not reserved to the board of directors by art. 716a Swiss Code of obligations, they may be delegated to one or several managers or a management board. For medium- and large-sized companies, it is customary to delegate management to such a management board.
The board of directors is responsible for the overall management of the stock corporation, and for the ultimate supervision of the persons entrusted with its management
Compliance Management System
Gross vs. net risks
Code of conduct
What is a code of conduct in the workplace?
A code of conduct is a policy that outlines principles and standards that all employees and third parties acting on behalf of the company must follow.
Why is it important to have a code of conduct?
A code of conduct serves as a reference point for employees to make better choices on a day-to-day basis. It should lay out the guiding principles by which employees should act and help them make the right decision.
What are the advantages of a code of conduct?
It gives employees a structure and rules to follow from the moment they join the company. It reduces the chances of problems occurring, and makes the process of dealing with issues a lot easier.
Concepts of Culture
- Cultural norms depend on the environment; Rules of engagement can change; Be ready to adjust and adapt
- Social Behavior is based on three layers: Universal, Cultural, and Personal
- Culture unfolds on two levels: the Psychological Level (internalized norms,
attitudes, behaviors, etc.) and the Institutional Level (national, societal, or
group culture in government, economic institutions, and business
organizations) - Stereotypes can be helpful in making generalizations but beware that they
don’t interfere with communication and understanding - Cultural dimension models help us to identify, measure, and reconcile
cultural differences
Trompenaars-Hampden-Turner’s (THT) Cultural Dimensions
Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner’s Cultural Dimensions Framework
Fons Trompenaars & Charles Hampden-Turner’s cultural dimensions provide a framework for comparing culture on 7 dimensions with 14 value orientations.
The first 5 dimensions deal with how people, in societies relate with others. The 6th dimension deals with how people in a society relate to nature or their environment,
and the 7th dimension addresses how people in a society relate to time.
A Framework for Cross-cultural Competence Development
GLOBE Leadership Styles from Around the World
- Charismatic/Value-Based Leadership: reflects the ability to inspire, motivate, and expect high performance from others on the basis of firmly held core values
- Team-Oriented Leadership: emphasizes effective team building and implementation of a common goal among team members
- Participative Leadership: reflects the degree to which managers involve others in making and implementing decisions
- Humane Oriented Leadership: reflects supportive and considerate leadership and also includes compassion and generosity
- Autonomous Leadership: refers to independent and individualistic leadership without group input
- Self-Protective Leadership: focuses on ensuring the safety and security of a leader and group through status enhancement and face saving
Three Dimensions of Global Mindset
Psychological Capital
- Passion for Diversity
- Quest for Adventure
- Self-assurance
Social Capital
- Intercultural Empathy
- Interpersonal Impact
- Diplomacy
Intellectual Capital
- Global Business Savvy
- Cognitive Complexity
- Cosmopolitan Outlook
Negotiation
Negotiation
Transfer-pricing methods
Different transfer-pricing methods produce different operating profits for individual subunits.
- In determining transfer prices, management may choose to use the price of a similar product or service publicly listed (market-based transfer price).
- Management may choose a transfer price based on the costs of producing the product (cost-based transfer price).
- In some cases, the subunits of a company are free to negotiate the transfer price between themselves and then to decide whether to buy and sell internally or deal with outside parties (negotiated transfer prices).
The chosen transfer-pricing method should ideally lead each subunit manager to make optimal decisions for the organisation as a whole.
Key criteria of transfer prices
- Promote goal congruence, so that division managers acting in their own interest will take actions that are aligned with the objectives of top management.
- Help top managers evaluate the performance of individual subunits.
- Induce managers to exert a high level of effort. Subunits selling a product or service should be motivated to hold down their costs; subunits buying the product or service should be motivated to acquire and use inputs efficiently.
- Preserve autonomy of subunits if top managers favour a high degree of decentralisation. A subunit manager seeking to maximize the operating income of the subunit should have the freedom to transact with other subunits of the company (based on transfer prices) or to transact with external parties.
Minimum transfer price = Incremental costs per unit incurred up to the point of transfer + Opportunity costs per unit to the selling division
Multinational transfer pricing
Transfer prices often have tax implications.
* Tax factors include not only profit taxes, but also payroll taxes, customs duties, tariffs, sales taxes and other levies on organisations.
* Transfer prices can reduce profit tax payments by recognising more profit in low tax rate countries and less profit in high tax rate countries.
* Tax regulations of different countries restrict the transfer prices that companies can choose.
Internationally Integrated Capital Markets
By the Law of One Price, this value must be equal to what the U.S. investor paid for the security:
Internationally Integrated Capital Markets:
- When any investor can exchange currencies in any amount at the spot or forward rates and is free to purchase or sell any security in any amount in any
country at its current market prices
- With internationally integrated capital markets, the value of an investment does not depend on the currency used.
Valuation of Foreign Currency Cash Flows
In an internationally integrated capital market, two equivalent methods are available for calculating the NPV of a foreign project.
1. Calculate the NPV in the foreign country and convert it to the local
currency at the spot rate.
2. Convert the cash flows of the foreign project into the local currency
and then calculate the NPV of these cash flows
Internationally Segmented Capital Markets
Firms may face differential access to markets if there is any kind of asymmetry concerning information about them.
Differential access to national capital markets is common enough that it provides the best explanation for the existence of currency swaps.
* Currency Swaps: currency swaps allow firms to mitigate their exchange rate risk exposure while still making investments and raising funds in the most attractive
locales. Important macroeconomic reasons for segmented capital markets include capital controls and foreign exchange controls that create barriers to international capital flows and thus segment national markets.
* Political, legal, social, and cultural characteristics that differ across countries may require compensation in the form of a country risk premium.
Firms may be able to benefit from a segmented international financial market if one country or currency has a higher rate of return than another country or currency when the two rates are compared in the same currency
Capital Budgeting with Exchange Risk
The final issue that arises when a firm is considering a foreign project is that the cash flows of the project may be affected by exchange rate risk.
* The working assumption made thus far is that the project’s free cash flows are uncorrelated with the spot exchange rates
