Chp3&4

Have you ever knowingly purchased a counterfeit product – perhaps a purse or a wallet or maybe a watch for example. 

What are some of the implications for your purchase decision for the real company as well as for the entrepreneur selling the counterfeit product. 

Topics to consider include:

1. Why is there a market for counterfeit goods? 

2. How does this market benefit sellers? 

3. What does it mean for the company producing the real product? 

4. Where was the counterfeit product likely to have been made? 

5. How do counterfeit products help an economy?  How do they hurt it?

6.  How do decisions to buy counterfeit items influence new product development policies at companies? 

7. Would a legal system that protects property rights changes any of your answers?

Chp 5

Working Conditions in a Chinese Factory

The closing case describes the deplorable working conditions at the Metai factory in China that supplies computer parts directly to U.S. computer maker Dell, and indirectly to Hewlett Packard and Microsoft. Workers at the factory work long hours doing monotonous tasks and have just two days per month off.  Wages are very low, and employees are forbidden to converse, listen to music, or even take bathroom breaks while on the job.  When alerted to the conditions at the factory in early 2009, all three companies expressed dismay and promised prompt investigations and appropriate action, however, by 2011, no efforts to improve the situation for workers at the factory had been made.

1.  What enables the owners of the Metai factory profiled in this case to get away with such awful working conditions?

2.  Should U.S. companies like Microsoft, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard be held responsible for working conditions in foreign factories that they do not own, but where subcontractors make products for them?

3.  What labor standards regarding safety, working conditions, overtime, and the like should U.S. companies hold foreign factories to: those prevailing in that country or those prevailing in the United States? 

4.  Do you think the U.S. companies mentioned in this case need to make changes to their current policies?  If so, what?  Should they make changes even if they hinder their ability compete in the marketplace?