Assigfnment

You will need to read three articles for this case: Mini-Case GM in China, Bloomberg's report on GM's electric car Bolt, and Reuters' report on electric vehicles in China. Please answer the following questions (not those listed after the mini case or in the Case&PaperGuideline). You can write one short paragraph for each question or organize your answer as an essay.

Discussion questions for Case GM and Chapter 8 International Strategy:

1. What are GM's motivations/incentives to expand to overseas market? How can GM benefit from the expansion?

2. What international corporate-level strategy/strategies is GM using? Multidomestic/localization, Global, or transnational? Is this strategy suitable for GM's core competency? Is this strategy suitable for the target overseas market, China? Think of the two needs/pressures in the target market (needs to localize and needs to lower cost or integrate globally).

3. Which stakeholder groups are affected by GM's expansion into China? How? You can think about capital market stakeholders (shareholders), organizational stakeholders (GM workers in US and in China), and product market stakeholders (consumers, suppliers, environment).

4. What are the potential negative impact of GM's expansion in China? You can think along those stakeholder groups in Q3. What can GM do to alleviate the impact? What are the caveats of these approaches?

Required reading for Case GM in China:

1. Mini case GM in China

2. Bloomberg, Nov 2016, GM's Electric Car Bolt

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-30/gm-s-ready-to-lose-9-000-a-pop-and-chase-the-electric-car-boom

3. Reuters, Jan 2016, In coal-powered China, electric car surge fuels fear of worsening smog

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-pollution-autos-idUSKCN0V51BH

The main takeaway from these articles are:

1. GM views China as next big business opportunity; but the expanding auto industry in the country has worsened air pollution;

2. GM launched its full electric car model Bolt in US in 2016, partly as a response to California and other states' regulation on emission; the performance of Bolt rivals Tesla's mass market EV Model 3;

3. Electric car might not solve the problem of air pollution in China due to its coal-powered power plants.