Product Description
From the Inside Flap
This is a marketing book about Asia, a compilation of case studies that demonstrates the diversity of marketing problems faced by organizations operating in Asia. The book does not pretend to be exhaustive, but certainly is illustrative of the challenges faced by both domestic Asian and foreign corporations operating in Asian markets.
In preparing the material for this book, we have attempted to cover a broad span of marketing problems set in Asia, represented in the 60 cases. The cases are based in 16 countries (plus countries in the Middle East); they focus on industrial and consumer marketing issues, they are concerned with products and with services, they deal with intra-country as well as inter-country problems; some focus on broad scale marketing strategy development, others concern specific implementation issues such as distribution, promotion or pricing; some focus on new and emerging markets, others are concerned with more mature markets; most concern private sector organizations, but some public and non-profit marketing situations are also included; some cases concern European or American companies doing business in Asia, others focus on local firms.
Several motivations underlay the development of this book. First, many business students and institutions around the world tend to exhibit at least some degree of ethnocentrism, ranging to xenophobia in some cases. In a world in which globalization is an increasing trend, such a view is not only excessively narrow, in the long run (and maybe in the short and medium run also) it will certainly lead to business failure. Taking the position that knowledge about different countries and dealing with issues in those countries are ways to open minds, this casebook can hopefully lead to increased global thinking. Second, the focus of this book is Asia, a region of the world that for those outside, and many inside, is much less well-known than the countries of Europe and North America. Third, day-by-day, Asia is becoming an increasingly important part of the world economy and marketing students the world over .should be provided with some experience of doing business in Asia. Fourth, the late 1997 Asian financial crisis and its continuing impact exemplifies Asia's global importance. Fifth, Asia provides a group of especially interesting countries to study inasmuch as organizations may face many different environments, from extremely rich to extremely poor, and from democratic to authoritarian societies. Sixth, the preparation of this book marks the first major collaborative effort among the major schools of business and management in Asia, and between two western schools that have major global reputations, Columbia Business School in New York and INSEAD in France.
Finally, the set of readily available contemporary marketing cases written on Asian organizations from which teachers may draw is rather limited. Of course, Harvard Business School has for many years been the major source of marketing case studies but, although it has moved to develop more European and Asian cases in recent years, its major focus is North America. In addition, although some Asian cases are finding their way into the European case clearing house (ECCHo) at Cranfield University in the U.K. and Babson College in the U.S., and into international marketing books, the numbers are limited and the cases are frequently not contemporary.
When this case writing project started, the goal was limited, just to write a few cases for use in courses at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Columbia Business School. As work commenced, however, it became clear that the supply of Asian cases was greater than we had thought. Several leading business and management schools in Asia had ongoing case-writing projects but these cases were typically used for internal purposes and were not generally available. When it was suggested to these institutions that they cooperate with a project that would lead to the development of a book of Asian cases they were quite enthusiastic.
Thus, the cases in this book come from a variety of sources. The largest group are those written especially for this book at HKUST and Columbia but others were provided by: Asian Institute of Management (AIM), the Philippines; Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India; INSEAD, France; Korea University, South Korea; Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland; Lahore University of Management Studies (LUMS), Pakistan; Stanford Business School; National University of Singapore, Singapore; and University of Western Ontario.
The choice of countries did not proceed in any scientific manner. Basically, we selected those countries where extant cases were available or where we thought we would identify interesting issues. In two instances we selected "typical" countries that we thought might face issues similar to their neighbors: Vietnam for Laos and Cambodia, and Kazakstan as an exemplar of the Central Asian Republics; we omitted Myanmar (Burma).
Although the focus of this book is a set of Asian marketing cases, for each of the countries in which the cases are based we provide a map of each country and brief overview to a standard template. This template focuses on the country's background, its political, social, economic and financial environments and its infrastructure. A set of basic statistics is also provided. These descriptions are not meant to be exhaustive but they do form a valuable background for those unfamiliar with specific countries and should be read in conjunction with the cases themselves. Finally, to provide a background for the casebook as a whole, the introductory section provides an overview of Asia.
