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Learning Outcomes

TopThe core course goal is to build understanding of strategies aligned to the peculiarities of country-specific business environments in Asia—a set of environments as diverse as exists in the world. The first part of the course focuses on major components of any business environment, e.g. government policies and institutions, macroeconomic factors such as foreign exchange rates and resource endowments, and the influence of local communities and culture. The course considers both country and firm perspectives. The second part then explores business responses to such contextual features, which themselves form part of the environment for doing business in Asia. In keeping with shifting realities, specific business response topics examined will vary across semesters (and may be changed within semester).

Schedule

Top Module Syllabus for BMA5112

ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS: MBA COURSE OUTLINE
Semester I, Academic Year 2014/15
Thursday, 6-9pm
MRB, Room 3-3

Instructor                    Phone              E-mail                         Office
Markus Taussig        6516-3175       markus@nus.edu.sg           BIZ1-06-34

Short Bio of the Instructor
Dr. Markus Taussig is an Assistant Professor in Strategy and Policy at NUS Business School. His research focuses on strategies firms use to cope with less business friendly environments. Private equity and labor-intensive industry value chains in emerging markets are settings of particular focus for this research. Prior to doctoral studies in Strategy at Harvard Business School, Markus worked for a decade as a consultant in Vietnam, designing and conducting enterprise surveys, performing operational audits on local firms, advising government on business policy, and engaging in entrepreneurial efforts of his own. He has published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Journal of East Asian Studies, and Business Horizons, and won research grants from NUS, the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, the World Bank, and the Fulbright Foundation. He teaches at NUS at the undergrad, MBA, and Executive Education levels.

Overview
The core course goal is to build understanding of strategies aligned to the peculiarities of country-specific business environments in Asia—a set of environments as diverse as exists in the world. The first part of the course focuses on major components of any business environment, e.g. government policies and institutions, macroeconomic factors such as foreign exchange rates and resource endowments, and the influence of local communities and culture. The course considers both country and firm perspectives. The second part then explores business responses to such contextual features, which themselves form part of the environment for doing business in Asia. In keeping with shifting realities, specific business response topics examined will vary across semesters (and may be changed within semester).
Course Structure and Pedagogy
The course will be taught with a mix of case studies, lectures, class discussions, and interactions with real world guests. Case studies, in particular, demand careful advance preparation. To facilitate this preparation, students should review posted study questions ahead of each class and think about what they consider to be the most important takeaways from each case. Students will also be required each week to complete a brief survey through IVLE by the night before class (DUE: 9am, Thursday, before class). Students also need to choose one week between Week 2 and Week 11 to write a two-page analysis in advance of the case to be discussed in class (DUE: 9am, Thursday, before the appropriate class for the selected case). The other major component involves working in small groups to create an original case study to be submitted as a max five-page paper (DUE: 9am, Thursday, November 20) November and presented in-class during the last class. NOTE: By far, the best versions of the group project over the years have been those that seize upon the minimal time and cost involved in traveling to other countries in Asia to do original field research.
Students will not have open laptops or tablets during class and phones should be turned off. This is not a rejection of the modern era of constant connectedness or of the value of using the Internet for research. Instead, it is about agreeing to show respect for the class and all of its participants by being fully present. For the same reason, movement in and out of the room during class time should also be minimal. This is simply the culture of our class and it is expected that NUS MBA students are capable of adjusting their behavior to the cultural norms of the different environments in which they operate. These rules carry extra weight when we have guests in class, as all of these behaviors can be seen as disrespectful and hurt the broader reputation of the course lecturer and NUS Business School. As a result, violating these norms will have an influence on students’ grades. This point will be reiterated at the start of the semester, but — after that — the instructor will have the power to penalize the class participation grade of offenders without informing them.
Outside the classroom, the primary center for class communications is IVLE, so students must make sure to regularly check it. Questions of clarification about the class should be entered into IVLE, so that all fellow students can both help with providing answers and can benefit from them as well. Students can email the instructor regarding questions that are too sensitive to be put on IVLE or to arrange meetings to talk in person.

Required Text
IVLE will be used to provide links to cases and additional required readings. Students who wish to get hardcopies of cases should contact and politely ask for assistance from Ms. Fatimah Rasheeka Bte Kamaldeen, whose email is bspfrbk@nus.edu.sg. There are also a couple of important Harvard Business Review articles for which, unfortunately, NUS provides only “read only” access. Some students have found other ways to access such materials, but the instructor cannot be part of facilitating any such un-copyrighted access. Further suggested readings will also be included in the syllabus for those who wish to read more and students are encouraged to use IVLE to post relevant readings, questions and comments as well.
Assessment
The course grade will be calculated in the following way:
Class Participation                                                                                                                      30%
Weekly Pre-Class Assessments (each Thursday, by 9am)                                                  20%
Two-Page Case Analysis                 (one Thursday, by 9am)                                                                        20%
Group Final Presentation (Thursday, Nov. 13)                                                          15%
Five-Page Group Project Final Paper (Thursday, Nov. 20, by 9am)                                15%

Class Participation
Your active participation in class discussions is integral to the design of this course. As already noted, prior preparation of the assigned cases and other readings by everyone is essential for the class to work well. In some cases, particular students may get contacted by the instructor ahead of particular classes to encourage them to speak on specific topics.
Attendance is the mere minimum of participation. Schedule other activities at times other than when this class meets. In the event you absolutely must miss a class during the semester, inform the lecturer at least 24 hours in advance of that class. An excused absence still means missing out on the opportunity to participate in class and there is no special means of making up for this, other than perhaps to be extra motivated to participate constructively in future classes. An unexcused absence (absence not reported to the instructor at least 24 hours in advance) is more serious and each instance will lead to a 10 percent reduction in a student’s class participation grade for the whole semester. Students absent for more than 3 times without letting the lecturer know before class will fail the entire module.
There will be “cold calling”. The purpose of cold calling, i.e. the lecturer asking unsolicited questions of a particular student, is not to create anxiety, but to ensure participation is as equitable as possible. Students should also see cold calls as an opportunity to show their preparedness and to work on their ability to make oral arguments and to think on their feet. These are fundamental skills of operating in a global marketplace. However, if you have not done your reading for a class, it is best to let the lecturer know before class to minimize risk of embarrassment. Students who feel they are still struggling to get involved in class should come talk with the instructor about possible solutions. Please also reach out to the instructor ahead of the relevant class if you feel your background gives you special insight into any specific cases.
Quality and relevance of participation are more important than quantity, though quantity does matter as well. Effective class participation is based on relevant, insightful and appropriately timed comments. Facts in the case are tools: don’t just restate them, but try to use them in analytical ways that explore relevant ideas. Every student is a co-producer of class discussion, so please listen carefully to one another and attempt to build on or constructively critique prior comments.
In grading participation, I will consider the following questions:

Is the student considerate of other class members and a careful listener?
Do comments reflect careful analysis?
Do comments move discussion forward and add to understanding of the issue at hand?
Do comments display a willingness to try new ideas (beyond repeating case facts)?

Weekly Pre-Class Assessment
An online assessment quiz will be posted on IVLE before each class (from Week 2 and going through Week 12). The online quiz will be posted each week by Tuesday morning, at latest, and DUE the morning of class each Thursday at 9am). It will be based on the assigned readings. While there will be some right/wrong questions, most of this grade is about participation. It is each student’s obligation to remember this weekly assignment, so students should not contact the lecturer for special consideration when they forget it. Special consideration will also not be given for technical difficulties, so students are wise to not save doing the assessment until the last second. Students should also not expect responses to requests regarding the weekly assessment sent after 5pm of the Wednesday it is due.

Two-Page Case Analysis
You are required to write one two-page (double-spaced) case analysis in advance of the class session of one cases done between Weeks 2 and 11. Basic guidelines include:
·      Word document (NOT a PDF)
·      maximum 2 pages
·      double-spaced
·      1-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides
·      12-point Times New Roman or equivalent font (don’t squeeze in more via font choice)
You may choose a case for any week from week 2 through week 11 of the semester for this writeup. Submissions are due no later than 9am the day the case is to be done in class (Thursday) and all submissions should be made through IVLE. Files you submit to IVLE must be named as yourname_casename AND must include your name at the top of the written text in the file, so that the lecturer does not need to waste any time deciphering who wrote what when printing out the file.
Violating any one of these guidelines will result in a penalty of one full point on a 20-point scale.
The following instructions are meant to help students avoid common pitfalls in a case write-up:
·      These are NOT summary papers. Avoid being descriptive; instead, be analytical and make your own unique imprint.
·      These are NOT research papers. Given that each paper will be graded on its analysis, there is no extra credit for simply regurgitating facts—whether they come from the case or from outside sources. As in class, you are encouraged to use case facts to back up your arguments.
·      The best write-ups are those that exhibit the most careful and original analysis. They take a clear position advocating a particular strategy, while recognizing that important strategic decisions involve difficult tradeoffs, noting the downsides of the position they advocate.
·      This is a short essay. Make sure the paper and any subsections flow logically and smoothly. Take extra care to be concise (more is not necessarily better, which is why we have the very specific guidelines listed above) and to review your work in order to avoid grammar and spelling mistakes.
·      Study questions are meant as help for organizing your thoughts in preparation for class, not as an outline or requirements for your writeup.
The lecturer will aim to get written feedback to students about their write-up within two weeks of submission. Grades, however, will not be reported back until the Recess Week, to allow for appropriate benchmarking. Students who wish to improve their grade can submit a second write-up to replace the first.

Final Group Project
For the final group project, students will form groups of 3-4 people. Extra credit will be given for groups with no more than 2 students of the same nationality. Feel free to use the Discussion Forum on IVLE to search for others with common interests for the group project. Maximum ONE-page (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins) Group Project Proposals are DUE: Thursday, Sept. 25, at 9am. Students are welcome to come speak with the instructor about ideas ahead of this due date. There is also likely to be brief in class discussion about group projects before the mid-term deadline.
Papers should fit into one of the following two categories:
1.)   Identify and discuss a specific company with an interesting, nonobvious business problem or business decision that relates to a particular characteristic of its environment (e.g. government policy, institutions, local community, culture). The environment should, of course, be within Asia (very broadly defined). How should the company solve this challenge?
2.)   Identify and discuss a specific recent or upcoming contextual change (e.g. a policy change or other political action, introduction of a new product) or current trend (e.g. adoption of a new technology, cultural phenomena) in an Asian country that you believe importantly affects business strategy and/or performance. Analyze this effect on businesses and how firms can/should respond.
Read these two options carefully and map your ideas to one of them before going to the instructor with questions. This is an assignment for an MBA class at a business school, so it should clearly involve thinking about company strategy and how it is affected by environmental factors. A particularly well-done assignment is one that could potentially be used as a teaching case in a future iteration of the class.
The group paper should be no longer than 5 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins), not including exhibits. In the typical case, approximately the first half of the paper sets up the challenge, while the rest then grapples with solutions. The more specifically you define the business problem and contextual issues, the better the project is likely to be. Students will be rewarded for focusing on substance and clarity over jargon. Being concise involves thinking carefully about what information is directly relevant to understanding the chosen business problem; and what information is not. Students making effective use of primary sources of data, especially direct interviews of relevant actors, will be further rewarded. NOTE: For full-time students, at least, there is a terrific opportunity to capitalize on the Recess Week and do a trip in the region that allows for direct, in-person field research for this project. Smart phones make it easy to capitalize on such project-oriented travel to incorporate entertaining and substantive material into final presentations.
Individual grades on the group project will also be influenced by a weighted peer review of effort by your team colleagues. You will be asked to rate the contribution of each of the team members by assigning a percentage score to each member. Consider issues such as: i.) share of workload taken on; ii.) quality of work; and iii.) efforts to work within the team and facilitate the work of others in the team. A peer evaluation form from each student is due by the same deadline as the group report and a grade penalty will be assigned for those who neglect to do this. But please only one submission of the group report itself.

TEAM MEMBER EVALUATION FORM
Team Name:
Your Name:
Team Member’s Name	% of Effect (Sum = 100)



DO NOT RATE YOURSELF

NOTE: This syllabus and its contents are subject to revision and students are responsible for any changes or modifications distributed in class or posted on IVLE.

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is claiming other people’s words and ideas as your own. It’s incredibly easy to do in today’s Internet world and we’ve already seen too much of it at NUS. It’s a terrible waste of the lecturer’s time and especially a waste of all that you, the student, are investing into your MBA. And it’s a practice that is increasingly being exposed in the professional world, leading to serious consequences for those who engage in it. DON’T DO IT! Be absolutely clear to use citations in all cases where you are drawing on the work of others and use quotation marks if you are using the exact same words. It’s still plagiarism even if you “only” copy one or two sentences from someone else.
Beyond the ethics, students should understand that, just as it’s become incredibly easy to use new technology to plagiarize, it’s also become very simple to identify cheating, including even identifying the exact sources from which students are cheating. Assignments for which there is clear evidence of plagiarism will get zero credit, with no opportunity for resubmission.

DETAILED COURSE SCHEDULE

SECTION 1: THE COUNTRY LEVEL PERSPECTIVE ON ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

CLASS 1: INTRODUCTION AND CULTURE IN ASIA
(Thursday, August 14, 2014)

Required Readings:
Friedman, Thomas (2005). “It’s a Flat World, After All.” New York Times Magazine, April 3.
Ghemawat, Pankaj (2007). “Why the World Isn’t Flat.” Foreign Policy, March/April, pp. 54-60.
Hofstede, Geert (1993). “Cultural Constraints in Management Theories.” The Executive Vol. 7, No. 1 (February), pp. 81-94. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/4165110

Case: “Globalization of East Asian Pop Music” (2010), HBS 9-708-479
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889214/1c14ed2f2f0a09f76d73681b449d15f8

Study Questions:
1.     What factors best explain why the music market has strongly recovered in East Asia, whereas the rest of the world’s music industry is crumbling and the largest music companies around the world have been laying off thousands of employees? What is unique about the region, and what is unique about the particular markets in Japan, South Korea, or China that explains this renewed growth and profitability?
2.     What best explains why some Asian singers and bands succeeded in expanding across their national borders while many others failed?
3.     In the present, would you advise that the Asian music companies profiled in the case turn to other Asian markets or to wealthier markets in the West? Why? And how would you advise them to accomplish this?

Suggested Reading:
Siegel, Jordan (2007), "Contingent political capital and international alliances: Evidence from South Korea." Administrative Science Quarterly 52.4: 621-666. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20109946?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103267889467

CLASS 2: NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS, MIRACLES, AND CRISES IN ASIA
(Thursday, August 21)

Required Readings:
Porter, Michael (1990). “The Competitive Advantage of Nations.” Harvard Business Review, March/April, pp. 73-91.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=d6b58ea4-5576-415b-9927-bf8244f37b19%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(The+AND+competitive+AND+advantage+AND+%22of%22+AND+nations)+AND+(AU+(Porter%2c+AND+Michael+AND+E.))+AND+(SU+(International+AND+business+AND+enterprises))&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZjbGkwPUZUJmNsdjA9WSZjbGkxPURUMSZjbHYxPTE5OTAwMS0xOTkxMTImdHlwZT0xJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d
Krugman, Paul (1994). “Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession.” Foreign Affairs, March/April.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=9f9724ea-46a2-434f-9b90-2cc49470717d%40sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(competitiveness+AND+a+AND+dangerous+AND+obsession)+AND+(AN+9404111589)&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl
Hout, Thomas and Pankaj Ghemawat (2010). “China vs. the World: Whose Technology Is It?” Harvard Business Review, Dec.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=68ddcfdd-f40e-4025-9498-706992048894%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(china+AND+%22vs%22+AND+the+AND+world)+AND+(AN+55461905)&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

CLASS 3: INSTITUTIONS, RESOURCES, AND BUSINESS STRATEGY IN ASIA
(Thursday, August 28, 2014)

Required Readings:
Rodrik, Dani and Arvind Subamanian (2003). “The Primacy of Institutions.” Finance and Development, June, 40(2). http://search.proquest.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/docview/209412386
Sachs, Jeffrey (2003). “Institutions Matter, But Not For Everything.” Finance and Development, June, 40(2). http://search.proquest.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/docview/209428358

Case: “Special Economic Zones in India: Public Purpose and Private Property (A)” (2009), HBS 9-709-027.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889217/63c2441aa730853188ce86caaf8e2493

Study Questions
1.     Should the Indian government change the law on eminent domain, so that they can acquire land for Special Economic Zones?
2.     Is setting up Special Economic Zones the right development strategy for India?
3.     What could Tata Motors have done in their Singur project to mitigate the protests from farmers?
4.     Under what circumstances and to what extent should the government intervene in market transactions?

Suggested Readings:
Banerjee, Abhijit and Lakshmi Iyer (2005). "History, Institutions, and Economic Performance: The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India." The American Economic Review 95: 4.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4132711?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103267889467
Bloom, Nick et al. (2013). “Does Management Matter? Evidence from India,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128:1, February, pp. 1-51. http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/128/1/1.short

SECTION 2: THE FIRM LEVEL PERSPECTIVE ON ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

CLASS 4: NATIONAL CHALLENGES AT THE ASIAN FRONTIER
(Thursday, September 4, 2014)

Required Readings:
Krugman, Paul (1994). “The Myth of Asia’s Miracle.” Foreign Affairs, November/December, 73(6), pp. 62. http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=43dd6efd-ff3a-4b9c-8117-4662ac31fbb9%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(the+AND+myth+AND+of+AND+asia%27s+AND+miracle)+AND+(AN+9411180052)&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

Case: “Singapore’s ‘Mid-Life Crisis’” (2014), N9-714-039.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889221/387dba9a3945d1453543737017e43165

Study Questions:
1.     What is the economic role of savings and investment?
2.     How has Singapore done in terms of Total Factor Productivity?
3.     Do you approve of Singapore’s economic development strategy? Why?
4.     Why has the political opposition’s popularity at the polls increased? Is the opposition’s growing strength good or bad for Singapore?

Suggested Readings:
“A Sustainable Population for a Dynamic Singapore: Population White Paper”, January 2013.
http://www.nptd.gov.sg/content/NPTD/news/_jcr_content/par_content/download_98/file.res/population-white-paper.pdf

CLASS 5: COUNTRY VS. (FOREIGN) COMPANY?
(Thursday, September 11, 2014)

Required Readings:
Eric Li (2013), “The Life of the Party”, Foreign Affairs.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138476/eric-x-li/the-life-of-the-party

Yasheng Huang (2013). “Why democracy still wins: A critique of Eric X. Li’s ‘A tale of two political systems’”
http://blog.ted.com/2013/07/01/why-democracy-still-wins-a-critique-of-eric-x-lis-a-tale-of-two-political-systems/

Case: “Google in China (A)” (2010), HBS 9-510-071.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889242/b206b00744ad8a927b8b95d777946545

Study Questions:
1.     Why did Google issue the statement of January 12?
2.     Who were the major stakeholders in the Google vs. China case? How did their actions/ inactions influence Google and Chinese government’s calculation?
3.     If you were directing Google’s action in China, would you have done anything differently?
4.     If you were a cofounder of Google and you wanted to promote transparency and other public good in China, would you consider letting Google stay in the country?
5.     The social networking website Facebook is considering entering China. Given Google’s experience, what would you recommend Mark Zuckerberg to do / not to do?

Suggested Reading:
Zhu, Xiaodong (2012). “Understanding China’s Growth: Past, Present, and Future” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26:4, Fall, pp. 103-124.
http://www.aeaweb.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.26.4.103

CLASS 6: ENTRY STRATEGY IN AN EMERGING ASIAN MARKET
(Thursday, September 18, 2014)

Required Reading:
Ghemawat, Pankaj (2007). “Differences Across Countries: The CAGE Distance Framework.”
http://linc.nus.edu.sg/search~S16?/i9781591398660/i9781591398660/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=i9781591398660&1%2C1%2C/indexsort=-

Case: “American Rice, Inc. in Vietnam” (1994), HBS 9-595-020.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889244/d59b94f683d62c77736f33ed0b15146b

Study Questions:
1.     What are Vietnam’s reasons for pushing foreign firms in the rice industry into joint ventures with local firms? How is this likely to affect national economic development?
2.     Was ARI wise to enter Vietnam through a joint venture? What did each side bring to the table? What does each side get out of the collaboration?
3.     As American Rice, would you build a parboil facility in Vietnam? Yes or no, and why?

Suggested Reading:
Malesky, Edmund (Forthcoming in 2014). “Vietnam in 2013: Single Party Politics in the Internet Age,” Asian Survey.
Malesky, Edmund, Regina Abrami, and Yu Zheng (2011). “Institutions and Inequality in Single Party Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam and China.” Comparative Politics.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1669708

RECESS WEEK: ENJOY!
(BUT ALSO TURN IN YOUR GROUP PROJECT PLAN BY 9AM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25)

CLASS 7: STAKEHOLDERS IN ASIA (1)
(Thursday, October 2, 2014)

Required Reading:
Porter, Michael and Mark Kramer (2006). “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility.” Harvard Business Review.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=2ada23be-eab0-4c11-87f0-ac106e48160c%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(strategy+AND+society+AND+the+AND+link+AND+between+AND+competitive+AND+advantage+AND+corporate+AND+social+AND+responsibility)+AND+(AU+(Porter))&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZjbGkwPURUMSZjbHYwPTIwMDYwMS0yMDA2MTImdHlwZT0xJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d

Case: “Rana Plaza: Workplace Safety in Bangladesh (A)” (2014), HBS 9-514-034.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889248/b1c9d86333af9152f6b78361f4531fd3

Study Questions:

Suggested Reading:

CLASS 8: STAKEHOLDERS IN ASIA (2)
(Thursday, October 9, 2014)

Required Reading:
TBD

Case: “Freeport Indonesia” (2000), HBS 796-124.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889263/5aae49e770304d9e489a144b950083c4

Study Questions:
1.     What is your evaluation of Freeport Indonesia’s environmental management?
2.     What is your evaluation of Freeport’s treatment of social and cultural affairs?
3.     Is this project, or could this project be, “sustainable?” How should economic rents be distributed?
4.     Should Freeport expand? Should Indonesia allow it?

Suggested Reading:
Fisman, Ray (2001). "Estimating the value of political connections." The American Economic Review 91.4 (2001): 1095-1102. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/2677829

CLASS 9: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ASIA
(Thursday, October 16, 2014)

Cases: “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A)”, (2006) HBS 9-906-414.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889265/1964d1dbaaa8610927f8e98402c018f1

Study Questions:
1.     How should Marianne Barner respond to the invitation for IKEA to have a representative appear on the upcoming broadcast of the German video program?
2.     What actions should she take regarding the IKEA supply contract with Rangan Exports?
3.     What long-term strategy would you suggest she take regarding IKEA’s continued operation in India? Should the company stay or should it exit? (Be prepared to describe the impact of such a decision and how you would manage it)
For those recommending IKEA continue to source carpets in India, would you suggest that she: a.) continue IKEA’s own monitoring and control processes or sign up for Rugmark? and b.) continue to focus only on eliminating the use of child labor in IKEA’s supply chain or engage in broader action to address the root causes of child labor as Save the Children is urging?

Suggested Reading:
Gereffi, Gary (1999),"International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain." Journal of international economics 48.1: 37-70. http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0022199698000750

SECTION 3: SELECT FEATURES OF ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

CLASS 10: FAMILY BUSINESSES AND BUSINESS GROUPS IN ASIA
(Thursday, October 23, 2014)

Required Readings:
Khanna, Tarun and Krishna Palepu (1997). “Why Focused Strategies May Be Wrong for Emerging Markets,” Harvard Business Review, 75:4, pp. 41-51.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=65a6b36b-0e77-40ab-a031-ea2ec736e88a%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(TI+(why+AND+focused+AND+strategies+AND+may+AND+%22be%22+AND+wrong+AND+for+AND+emerging+AND+markets))+AND+(AU+(Khanna%2c+AND+Tarun))&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

Case: “Ayala Corporation and the Philippines: Asset Allocation in a Growing Economy” (2014), HBS 9-713-093
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889267/2e6171b76a46602f7bc73d54c4747116

Study Questions:
1.     Is the Philippine economy moving in the right direction?
2.     Why is the return on capital so high in some industries in the Philippines?
3.     What should Ayala Corporation do?

Suggested Reading:
Brownlee, Jason (2008), “Bound to Rule: Party Institutions and Regime Trajectories in Malaysia and the Philippines,” Journal of East Asian Studies 8(1). 89-118. [repeat from Malaysia week]
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/docview/198692028
Khanna, Tarun and Yishay Yafer (2007), “Business Groups in Emerging Markets: Paragons or Parasites?”, Journal of Economic Literature. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/27646796

CLASS 11: PRIVATE EQUITY IN ASIA
(Thursday, October 30, 2014)

Required Readings:

Case: “Abraaj Capital and the Karachi Electric Supply Company” (2012), HBS 9-812-019.
https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/27889212/27889269/e212ca5c0f7d243035df2ccb04e09329

Study Questions:
1.     Compared to private equity investing opportunities in other countries, what factors would you cite to support investing in Pakistan? Given the country’s political, social and economic realities, are some sectors more attractive than others in terms of opportunity and effective risk mitigation?
2.     What characteristics are most important for a private equity fund to succeed in an investment like this one?
3.     Does Abraaj Capital have the right personnel for this investment? What skills do you think are missing for maximizing value in this investment?
4.     Although the link between ESG activities and financial value creation may be valid in some circumstances, is it a realistic proposition in the case of KESC? Why/why not?
5.     What are the most realistic exit scenarios for Abraaj, and what are the pros and cons of each one?

Suggested Reading:
Taussig, Markus and Andrew Delios (2014). “Unbundling the Effects of Institutions on Firm Resources: The Contingent Value of Being Local in Emerging Economy Private Equity.” Strategic Management Journal. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2312/abstract

CLASS 12: INNOVATION AND THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID IN ASIA
(Thursday, November 6, 2014)

Readings:
Karnani, Aneel K (2009). “The Bottom of the Pyramid Strategy for Reducing Poverty: A Failed Promise.” United Nations DESA Working Paper No. 80.
http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2009/wp80_2009.pdf
“Easier Said than Done: Emerging Market Consumers are Hard to Reach”, April 2010, The Economist. http://www.economist.com/node/15879299

Suggested Reading:
Mahmood, Ishtiaq P., and Jasjit Singh (2003). "Technological dynamism in Asia." Research Policy 32.6: 1031-1054. http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0048733302001099
George, Gerard, Anita McGahan, and Jaideep Prabhu (2012). "Innovation for inclusive growth: towards a theoretical framework and a research agenda." Journal of management studies 49.4: 661-683.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01048.x/abstract;jsessionid=1CC1120D68BF9CBD589FB0CADA978C3F.f03t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

CLASS 13: FINAL PRESENTATIONS!
(Thursday, November 13, 2014)

Syllabus

Top Module Syllabus for BMA5112

ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS: MBA COURSE OUTLINE
Semester I, Academic Year 2014/15
Thursday, 6-9pm

Instructor                    Phone              E-mail                         Office
Markus Taussig        6516-3175       markus@nus.edu.sg           BIZ1-06-34

Short Bio of the Instructor
Dr. Markus Taussig is an Assistant Professor in Strategy and Policy at NUS Business School. His research focuses on strategies firms use to cope with less business friendly environments. Private equity and labor-intensive industry value chains in emerging markets are settings of particular focus for this research. Prior to doctoral studies in Strategy at Harvard Business School, Markus worked for a decade as a consultant in Vietnam, designing and conducting enterprise surveys, performing operational audits on local firms, advising government on business policy, and engaging in entrepreneurial efforts of his own. He has published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Journal of East Asian Studies, and Business Horizons, and won research grants from NUS, the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, the World Bank, and the Fulbright Foundation. He teaches at NUS at the undergrad, MBA, and Executive Education levels.

Overview
The core course goal is to build understanding of strategies aligned to the peculiarities of country-specific business environments in Asia—a set of environments as diverse as exists in the world. The first part of the course focuses on major components of any business environment, e.g. government policies and institutions, macroeconomic factors such as foreign exchange rates and resource endowments, and the influence of local communities and culture. The course considers both country and firm perspectives. The second part then explores business responses to such contextual features, which themselves form part of the environment for doing business in Asia. In keeping with shifting realities, specific business response topics examined will vary across semesters (and may be changed within semester).

Course Structure and Pedagogy
The course will be taught with a mix of case studies, lectures, class discussions, and interactions with real world guests. Case studies, in particular, demand careful advance preparation. To facilitate this preparation, students should review posted study questions ahead of each class and think about what they consider to be the most important takeaways from each case. Students will also be required each week to complete a brief survey through IVLE by the night before class (DUE: 9am, Thursday, before class). Students also need to choose one week between Week 2 and Week 11 to write a two-page analysis in advance of the case to be discussed in class (DUE: 9am, Thursday, before the appropriate class for the selected case). The other major component involves working in small groups to create an original case study to be submitted as a max five-page paper (DUE: 9am, Thursday, November 20) November and presented in-class during the last class. NOTE: By far, the best versions of the group project over the years have been those that seize upon the minimal time and cost involved in traveling to other countries in Asia to do original field research.

Students will not have open laptops or tablets during class and phones should be turned off. This is not a rejection of the modern era of constant connectedness or of the value of using the Internet for research. Instead, it is about agreeing to show respect for the class and all of its participants by being fully present. For the same reason, movement in and out of the room during class time should also be minimal. This is simply the culture of our class and it is expected that NUS MBA students are capable of adjusting their behavior to the cultural norms of the different environments in which they operate. These rules carry extra weight when we have guests in class, as all of these behaviors can be seen as disrespectful and hurt the broader reputation of the course lecturer and NUS Business School. As a result, violating these norms will have an influence on students’ grades. This point will be reiterated at the start of the semester, but — after that — the instructor will have the power to penalize the class participation grade of offenders without informing them.

Outside the classroom, the primary center for class communications is IVLE, so students must make sure to regularly check it. Questions of clarification about the class should be entered into IVLE, so that all fellow students can both help with providing answers and can benefit from them as well. Students can email the instructor regarding questions that are too sensitive to be put on IVLE or to arrange meetings to talk in person.

Required Text
IVLE will be used to provide links to cases and additional required readings. Students who wish to get hardcopies of cases should contact and politely ask for assistance from Ms. Fatimah Rasheeka Bte Kamaldeen, whose email is bspfrbk@nus.edu.sg. There are also a couple of important Harvard Business Review articles for which, unfortunately, NUS provides only “read only” access. Some students have found other ways to access such materials, but the instructor cannot be part of facilitating any such un-copyrighted access. Further suggested readings will also be included in the syllabus for those who wish to read more and students are encouraged to use IVLE to post relevant readings, questions and comments as well.

Assessment
The course grade will be calculated in the following way:
Class Participation 30%
Weekly Pre-Class Assessments (each Thursday, by 9am)                                                  20%
Two-Page Case Analysis (one Thursday, by 9am) 20%
Group Final Presentation (Thursday, Nov. 13) 15%
Five-Page Group Project Final Paper (Thursday, Nov. 20, by 9am) 15%

Class Participation
Your active participation in class discussions is integral to the design of this course. As already noted, prior preparation of the assigned cases and other readings by everyone is essential for the class to work well. In some cases, particular students may get contacted by the instructor ahead of particular classes to encourage them to speak on specific topics.

Attendance is the mere minimum of participation. Schedule other activities at times other than when this class meets. In the event you absolutely must miss a class during the semester, inform the lecturer at least 24 hours in advance of that class. An excused absence still means missing out on the opportunity to participate in class and there is no special means of making up for this, other than perhaps to be extra motivated to participate constructively in future classes. An unexcused absence (absence not reported to the instructor at least 24 hours in advance) is more serious and each instance will lead to a 10 percent reduction in a student’s class participation grade for the whole semester. Students absent for more than 3 times without letting the lecturer know before class will fail the entire module.

There will be “cold calling”. The purpose of cold calling, i.e. the lecturer asking unsolicited questions of a particular student, is not to create anxiety, but to ensure participation is as equitable as possible. Students should also see cold calls as an opportunity to show their preparedness and to work on their ability to make oral arguments and to think on their feet. These are fundamental skills of operating in a global marketplace. However, if you have not done your reading for a class, it is best to let the lecturer know before class to minimize risk of embarrassment. Students who feel they are still struggling to get involved in class should come talk with the instructor about possible solutions. Please also reach out to the instructor ahead of the relevant class if you feel your background gives you special insight into any specific cases.

Quality and relevance of participation are more important than quantity, though quantity does matter as well. Effective class participation is based on relevant, insightful and appropriately timed comments. Facts in the case are tools: don’t just restate them, but try to use them in analytical ways that explore relevant ideas. Every student is a co-producer of class discussion, so please listen carefully to one another and attempt to build on or constructively critique prior comments.
In grading participation, I will consider the following questions:

Is the student considerate of other class members and a careful listener?
Do comments reflect careful analysis?
Do comments move discussion forward and add to understanding of the issue at hand?
Do comments display a willingness to try new ideas (beyond repeating case facts)?

Weekly Pre-Class Assessment
An online assessment quiz will be posted on IVLE before each class (including Week 1 and going through Week 12). The online quiz will be posted each week by Tuesday morning, at latest, and DUE the morning of class each Thursday at 9am). It will be based on the assigned readings. While there will be some right/wrong questions, most of this grade is about participation. It is each student’s obligation to remember this weekly assignment, so students should not contact the lecturer for special consideration when they forget it. Special consideration will also not be given for technical difficulties, so students are wise to not save doing the assessment until the last second. Students should also not expect responses to requests regarding the weekly assessment sent after 5pm of the Wednesday it is due.

Two-Page Case Analysis
You are required to write one two-page (double-spaced) case analysis in advance of the class session of one cases done between Weeks 2 and 11. Basic guidelines include:
·      Word document (NOT a PDF)
·      maximum 2 pages
·      double-spaced
·      1-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides
·      12-point Times New Roman or equivalent font (don’t squeeze in more via font choice)
You may choose a case for any week from week 2 through week 11 of the semester for this writeup. Submissions are due no later than 9am the day the case is to be done in class (Thursday) and all submissions should be made through IVLE. Files you submit to IVLE must be named as yourname_casename AND must include your name at the top of the written text in the file, so that the lecturer does not need to waste any time deciphering who wrote what when printing out the file.

Violating any one of these guidelines will result in a penalty of one full point on a 20-point scale.
The following instructions are meant to help students avoid common pitfalls in a case write-up:
·      These are NOT summary papers. Avoid being descriptive; instead, be analytical and make your own unique imprint.
·      These are NOT research papers. Given that each paper will be graded on its analysis, there is no extra credit for simply regurgitating facts—whether they come from the case or from outside sources. As in class, you are encouraged to use case facts to back up your arguments.
·      The best write-ups are those that exhibit the most careful and original analysis. They take a clear position advocating a particular strategy, while recognizing that important strategic decisions involve difficult tradeoffs, noting the downsides of the position they advocate.
·      This is a short essay. Make sure the paper and any subsections flow logically and smoothly. Take extra care to be concise (more is not necessarily better, which is why we have the very specific guidelines listed above) and to review your work in order to avoid grammar and spelling mistakes.
·      Study questions are meant as help for organizing your thoughts in preparation for class, not as an outline or requirements for your writeup.

The lecturer will aim to get written feedback to students about their write-up within two weeks of submission. Grades, however, will not be reported back until the Recess Week, to allow for appropriate benchmarking. Students who wish to improve their grade can submit a second write-up to replace the first.

Final Group Project
For the final group project, students will form groups of 3-4 people. Extra credit will be given for groups with no more than 2 students of the same nationality. Feel free to use the Discussion Forum on IVLE to search for others with common interests for the group project. Maximum ONE-page (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins) Group Project Proposals are DUE: Thursday, Sept. 25, at 9am. Students are welcome to come speak with the instructor about ideas ahead of this due date. There is also likely to be brief in class discussion about group projects before the mid-term deadline.
Papers should fit into one of the following two categories:

1.)   Identify and discuss a specific company with an interesting, nonobvious business problem or business decision that relates to a particular characteristic of its environment (e.g. government policy, institutions, local community, culture). The environment should, of course, be within Asia (very broadly defined). How should the company solve this challenge?
2.)   Identify and discuss a specific recent or upcoming contextual change (e.g. a policy change or other political action, introduction of a new product) or current trend (e.g. adoption of a new technology, cultural phenomena) in an Asian country that you believe importantly affects business strategy and/or performance. Analyze this effect on businesses and how firms can/should respond.

Read these two options carefully and map your ideas to one of them before going to the instructor with questions. This is an assignment for an MBA class at a business school, so it should clearly involve thinking about company strategy and how it is affected by environmental factors. A particularly well-done assignment is one that could potentially be used as a teaching case in a future iteration of the class.

The group paper should be no longer than 5 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins), not including exhibits. In the typical case, approximately the first half of the paper sets up the challenge, while the rest then grapples with solutions. The more specifically you define the business problem and contextual issues, the better the project is likely to be. Students will be rewarded for focusing on substance and clarity over jargon. Being concise involves thinking carefully about what information is directly relevant to understanding the chosen business problem; and what information is not. Students making effective use of primary sources of data, especially direct interviews of relevant actors, will be further rewarded. NOTE: For full-time students, at least, there is a terrific opportunity to capitalize on the Recess Week and do a trip in the region that allows for direct, in-person field research for this project. Smart phones make it easy to capitalize on such project-oriented travel to incorporate entertaining and substantive material into final presentations.

Individual grades on the group project will also be influenced by a weighted peer review of effort by your team colleagues. You will be asked to rate the contribution of each of the team members by assigning a percentage score to each member. Consider issues such as: i.) share of workload taken on; ii.) quality of work; and iii.) efforts to work within the team and facilitate the work of others in the team. A peer evaluation form from each student is due by the same deadline as the group report and a grade penalty will be assigned for those who neglect to do this. But please only one submission of the group report itself.

TEAM MEMBER EVALUATION FORM
Team Name:
Your Name:
Team Member’s Name	% of Effect (Sum = 100)



DO NOT RATE YOURSELF

SECTION 1: THE COUNTRY LEVEL PERSPECTIVE ON ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

CLASS 1: INTRODUCTION AND CULTURE IN ASIA
(Thursday, August 14, 2014)

Required Readings:
Friedman, Thomas (2005). “It’s a Flat World, After All.” New York Times Magazine, April 3.
Ghemawat, Pankaj (2007). “Why the World Isn’t Flat.” Foreign Policy, March/April, pp. 54-60.
Hofstede, Geert (1993). “Cultural Constraints in Management Theories.” The Executive Vol. 7, No. 1 (February), pp. 81-94. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/4165110

Case: “Globalization of East Asian Pop Music” (2010), HBS 9-708-479

Study Questions:
1.     What factors best explain why the music market has strongly recovered in East Asia, whereas the rest of the world’s music industry is crumbling and the largest music companies around the world have been laying off thousands of employees? What is unique about the region, and what is unique about the particular markets in Japan, South Korea, or China that explains this renewed growth and profitability?
2.     What best explains why some Asian singers and bands succeeded in expanding across their national borders while many others failed?
3.     In the present, would you advise that the Asian music companies profiled in the case turn to other Asian markets or to wealthier markets in the West? Why? And how would you advise them to accomplish this?

Suggested Reading:
Siegel, Jordan (2007), "Contingent political capital and international alliances: Evidence from South Korea." Administrative Science Quarterly 52.4: 621-666. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20109946?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103267889467

CLASS 2: INSTITUTIONS, RESOURCES, AND THE EAST ASIAN MIRACLE
(Thursday, August 21, 2014)

Required Readings:
Rodrik, Dani and Arvind Subamanian (2003). “The Primacy of Institutions.” Finance and Development, June, 40(2). http://search.proquest.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/docview/209412386
Sachs, Jeffrey (2003). “Institutions Matter, But Not For Everything.” Finance and Development, June, 40(2). http://search.proquest.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/docview/209428358
Krugman, Paul (1994). “The Myth of Asia’s Miracle.” Foreign Affairs, November/December, 73(6), pp. 62. http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=43dd6efd-ff3a-4b9c-8117-4662ac31fbb9%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(the+AND+myth+AND+of+AND+asia%27s+AND+miracle)+AND+(AN+9411180052)&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

Case: “Special Economic Zones in India: Public Purpose and Private Property (A)” (2009), HBS 9-709-027.

Study Questions
1.     Should the Indian government change the law on eminent domain, so that they can acquire land for Special Economic Zones?
2.     Is setting up Special Economic Zones the right development strategy for India?
3.     What could Tata Motors have done in their Singur project to mitigate the protests from farmers?
4.     Under what circumstances and to what extent should the government intervene in market transactions?

Suggested Readings:
Banerjee, Abhijit and Lakshmi Iyer (2005). "History, Institutions, and Economic Performance: The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India." The American Economic Review 95: 4.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4132711?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103267889467
Bloom, Nick et al. (2013). “Does Management Matter? Evidence from India,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128:1, February, pp. 1-51. http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/128/1/1.short

CLASS 3: NATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN ASIA
(Thursday, August 28)

Required Readings:
Porter, Michael (1990). “The Competitive Advantage of Nations.” Harvard Business Review, March/April, pp. 73-91.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=d6b58ea4-5576-415b-9927-bf8244f37b19%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(The+AND+competitive+AND+advantage+AND+%22of%22+AND+nations)+AND+(AU+(Porter%2c+AND+Michael+AND+E.))+AND+(SU+(International+AND+business+AND+enterprises))&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZjbGkwPUZUJmNsdjA9WSZjbGkxPURUMSZjbHYxPTE5OTAwMS0xOTkxMTImdHlwZT0xJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d
Krugman, Paul (1994). “Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession.” Foreign Affairs, March/April.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=9f9724ea-46a2-434f-9b90-2cc49470717d%40sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(competitiveness+AND+a+AND+dangerous+AND+obsession)+AND+(AN+9404111589)&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl
Hout, Thomas and Pankaj Ghemawat (2010). “China vs. the World: Whose Technology Is It?” Harvard Business Review, Dec.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=68ddcfdd-f40e-4025-9498-706992048894%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(china+AND+%22vs%22+AND+the+AND+world)+AND+(AN+55461905)&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

SECTION 2: THE FIRM LEVEL PERSPECTIVE ON ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

CLASS 4: NATIONAL CHALLENGES AT THE ASIAN FRONTIER
(Thursday, September 4, 2014)

Required Readings:

Case: “Singapore’s ‘Mid-Life Crisis’” (2014), N9-714-039.

Study Questions:

Suggested Readings:

CLASS 5: COUNTRY VS. (FOREIGN) COMPANY?
(Thursday, September 11, 2014)

Required Readings:
Eric Li (2013), “The Life of the Party”, Foreign Affairs.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138476/eric-x-li/the-life-of-the-party

Yasheng Huang (2013). “Why democracy still wins: A critique of Eric X. Li’s ‘A tale of two political systems’”
http://blog.ted.com/2013/07/01/why-democracy-still-wins-a-critique-of-eric-x-lis-a-tale-of-two-political-systems/

Case: “Google in China (A)” (2010), HBS 9-510-071.

Study Questions:
1.     Why did Google issue the statement of January 12?
2.     Who were the major stakeholders in the Google vs. China case? How did their actions/ inactions influence Google and Chinese government’s calculation?
3.     If you were directing Google’s action in China, would you have done anything differently?
4.     If you were a cofounder of Google and you wanted to promote transparency and other public good in China, would you consider letting Google stay in the country?
5.     The social networking website Facebook is considering entering China. Given Google’s experience, what would you recommend Mark Zuckerberg to do / not to do?

Suggested Reading:
Zhu, Xiaodong (2012). “Understanding China’s Growth: Past, Present, and Future” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26:4, Fall, pp. 103-124.
http://www.aeaweb.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.26.4.103

CLASS 6: ENTRY STRATEGY IN AN EMERGING ASIAN MARKET
(Thursday, September 18, 2014)

Required Reading:
Ghemawat, Pankaj (2007). “Differences Across Countries: The CAGE Distance Framework.”
http://linc.nus.edu.sg/search~S16?/i9781591398660/i9781591398660/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=i9781591398660&1%2C1%2C/indexsort=-

Case: “American Rice, Inc. in Vietnam” (1994), HBS 9-595-020.

Study Questions:
1.     What are Vietnam’s reasons for pushing foreign firms in the rice industry into joint ventures with local firms? How is this likely to affect national economic development?
2.     Was ARI wise to enter Vietnam through a joint venture? What did each side bring to the table? What does each side get out of the collaboration?
3.     As American Rice, would you build a parboil facility in Vietnam? Yes or no, and why?

Suggested Reading:
Malesky, Edmund (Forthcoming in 2014). “Vietnam in 2013: Single Party Politics in the Internet Age,” Asian Survey.
Malesky, Edmund, Regina Abrami, and Yu Zheng (2011). “Institutions and Inequality in Single Party Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Vietnam and China.” Comparative Politics.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1669708

RECESS WEEK: ENJOY!
(BUT ALSO TURN IN YOUR GROUP PROJECT PLAN BY 9AM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25)

CLASS 8: STAKEHOLDERS IN ASIA (2)
(Thursday, October 9, 2014)

Required Reading:

Case: “Freeport Indonesia” (2000), HBS 796-124.

Study Questions:
1.     What is your evaluation of Freeport Indonesia’s environmental management?
2.     What is your evaluation of Freeport’s treatment of social and cultural affairs?
3.     Is this project, or could this project be, “sustainable?” How should economic rents be distributed?
4.     Should Freeport expand? Should Indonesia allow it?

Suggested Reading:
Fisman, Ray (2001). "Estimating the value of political connections." The American Economic Review 91.4 (2001): 1095-1102. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/2677829

CLASS 9: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ASIA
(Thursday, October 16, 2014)

Cases: “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A)”, (2006) HBS 9-906-414.

Study Questions:
1.     How should Marianne Barner respond to the invitation for IKEA to have a representative appear on the upcoming broadcast of the German video program?
2.     What actions should she take regarding the IKEA supply contract with Rangan Exports?
3.     What long-term strategy would you suggest she take regarding IKEA’s continued operation in India? Should the company stay or should it exit? (Be prepared to describe the impact of such a decision and how you would manage it)
For those recommending IKEA continue to source carpets in India, would you suggest that she: a.) continue IKEA’s own monitoring and control processes or sign up for Rugmark? and b.) continue to focus only on eliminating the use of child labor in IKEA’s supply chain or engage in broader action to address the root causes of child labor as Save the Children is urging?

Suggested Reading:
Gereffi, Gary (1999),"International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain." Journal of international economics 48.1: 37-70. http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0022199698000750

SECTION 3: SELECT FEATURES OF ASIAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

CLASS 10: FAMILY BUSINESSES AND BUSINESS GROUPS IN ASIA
(Thursday, October 23, 2014)

Required Readings:
Khanna, Tarun and Krishna Palepu (1997). “Why Focused Strategies May Be Wrong for Emerging Markets,” Harvard Business Review, 75:4, pp. 41-51.
http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/ehost/results?sid=65a6b36b-0e77-40ab-a031-ea2ec736e88a%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=103&bquery=(TI+(why+AND+focused+AND+strategies+AND+may+AND+%22be%22+AND+wrong+AND+for+AND+emerging+AND+markets))+AND+(AU+(Khanna%2c+AND+Tarun))&bdata=JmRiPWJ1aCZ0eXBlPTEmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl

Case: “Ayala Corporation and the Philippines: Asset Allocation in a Growing Economy” (2014), HBS 9-713-093

Study Questions:
1.     Is the Philippine economy moving in the right direction?
2.     Why is the return on capital so high in some industries in the Philippines?
3.     What should Ayala Corporation do?

Suggested Reading:
Brownlee, Jason (2008), “Bound to Rule: Party Institutions and Regime Trajectories in Malaysia and the Philippines,” Journal of East Asian Studies 8(1). 89-118. [repeat from Malaysia week]
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/docview/198692028
Khanna, Tarun and Yishay Yafer (2007), “Business Groups in Emerging Markets: Paragons or Parasites?”, Journal of Economic Literature. http://www.jstor.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/stable/27646796

CLASS 11: PRIVATE EQUITY IN ASIA
(Thursday, October 30, 2014)

Required Readings:

Case: “Abraaj Capital and the Karachi Electric Supply Company” (2012), HBS 9-812-019.

Study Questions:
1.     Compared to private equity investing opportunities in other countries, what factors would you cite to support investing in Pakistan? Given the country’s political, social and economic realities, are some sectors more attractive than others in terms of opportunity and effective risk mitigation?
2.     What characteristics are most important for a private equity fund to succeed in an investment like this one?
3.     Does Abraaj Capital have the right personnel for this investment? What skills do you think are missing for maximizing value in this investment?
4.     Although the link between ESG activities and financial value creation may be valid in some circumstances, is it a realistic proposition in the case of KESC? Why/why not?
5.     What are the most realistic exit scenarios for Abraaj, and what are the pros and cons of each one?

Suggested Reading:
Taussig, Markus and Andrew Delios (2014). “Unbundling the Effects of Institutions on Firm Resources: The Contingent Value of Being Local in Emerging Economy Private Equity.” Strategic Management Journal. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2312/abstract

CLASS 13: FINAL PRESENTATIONS!
(Thursday, November 13, 2014)

Workload

Top3-0-0-0-7

Workload Components : A-B-C-D-E
A: no. of lecture hours per week
B: no. of tutorial hours per week
C: no. of lab hours per week
D: no. of hours for projects, assignments, fieldwork etc per week
E: no. of hours for preparatory work by a student per week