You are the CEO of a major US apparel company that contracts work to garment manufacturrs abroad. Employees of one contractor report 20-hour workdays, pay below the minimum wage, overcrowded living conditions, physically abusive supervisors, and confiscation of their passports so they cannot quit. Local officials say labor laws are adhered to and enforced, though abuses appear widespread. You send inspectors to the offending factory abroad, but they uncover no labor violations. A labor-advocacy group claims that supervisors coached workers to lie to your inspectors about conditions and threatened workers with time in make- shift jails without food if they talked. 1-5. Should you implement a monitoring system to learn the truth about what is happening? 1-6. Do you help the factory improve conditions, withdraw your business from the country, or simply do nothing? 1-7. How might your actions affect relations with the factory owner and your ability to do business in the country? You are vice president of operations for a US-based software firm that is exploring building a software-design operation in India. Typically when international firms enter the Indian mar ket, they quickly learn how a caste system can affect business activities. Although officially banned, the caste system still dictates everyday life for many people in India. You are confi- dent regarding the likelihood of business success there, but you have strong misgivings about the caste system. 2-4. Do you think it will be possible to import and uphold a US management style in India despite lingering effects of the caste system? 2-5. How do you think your company's stakeholders would feel about your company simply adjusting to local management practices? O TALK ABOUT IT 2 In the past, national governments influenced the pace of globalization through agree- ments to lower barriers to international trade and investment. 1-3. Is rapid change now outpacing the capability of governments to manage the global economy? 1-4. Will national governments grow more or less important to international business in the future? O TALK ABOUT IT 2 Under a totalitarian government, the Indonesian economy grew strongly for 30 years. Meanwhile, the economy of the largest functioning democracy, India, performed poorly for decades until recently. 3-3. Do you think the Indonesian economy grew despite or because of a totalitarian regime? 3-4. What might explain India's relatively poor performance under a democratic political system? Ethical Challenge You are the proprietor of a fledging computer graphics company in Shanghai, China. The sophisticated business application software you need for your business normally sells for 2,900 renminbi (around $350) at computer stores in Shanghai and online. But with an income of just a little more than $5,000 a year, you cannot afford to buy the original graphics soft- ware for your business. An associate has told you she can get you all the software you need, and more, for only $30. Yet, you have financially strapped friends who code software for the global software companies that make the very programs you need. 3-5. Do your personal circumstances make it ethical for you to purchase the pirated software? 3-6. What would you do if you were told about a new government effort to actively punish users of pirated software? 3-7. Does a software company bear any responsibility for subcontracting work to low-wage markets where its finished product is unaffordable for the same coders who worked on it?