Kenneth C. Laudon,Jane P. Laudon Management Information System 12th Edition pdf

1. What major factors are driving the internationalization of business?

The growth of inexpensive international communication and transportation has created a world

culture with stable expectations or norms. Political stability and a growing global knowledge base that

is widely shared also contribute to the world culture. These general factors create the conditions for

global markets, global production, coordination, distribution, and global economies of scale.

2. What are the alternative strategies for developing global businesses?

There are four basic international strategies: domestic exporter, multinational, franchiser, and

transnational. In a transnational strategy, all factors of production are coordinated on a global scale.

However, the choice of strategy is a function of the type of business and product.

3. How can information systems support different global business strategies?

There is a connection between firm strategy and information systems design. Transnational firms

must develop networked system configurations and permit considerable decentralization of develop-

ment and operations. Franchisers almost always duplicate systems across many countries and use

centralized financial controls. Multinationals typically rely on decentralized independence among

foreign units with some movement toward development of networks. Domestic exporters typically

are centralized in domestic headquarters with some decentralized operations permitted.

4. What are the challenges posed by global information systems and management solutions for

these challenges?

Global information systems pose challenges because cultural, political, and language diversity

magnifies differences in organizational culture and business processes and encourages proliferation of

disparate local information systems that are difficult to integrate. Typically, international systems have

evolved without a conscious plan. The remedy is to define a small subset of core business processes

and focus on building systems to support these processes. Tactically, managers will have to coopt

widely dispersed foreign units to participate in the development and operation of these systems, being

careful to maintain overall control.

5. What are the issues and technical alternatives to be considered when developing international

information systems?

Implementing a global system requires an implementation strategy that considers both business

design and technology platforms. The main hardware and telecommunications issues are systems

integration and connectivity. The choices for integration are to go either with a proprietary architec-

ture or with open systems technology. Global networks are extremely difficult to build and operate.

Firms can build their own global networks or they can create global networks based on the Internet

(intranets or virtual private networks). The main software issues concern building interfaces to

existing systems and selecting applications that can work with multiple cultural, language, and

organizational frameworks.

Key Terms

Business driver, 562

Cooptation, 574

Core systems, 572

Domestic exporter, 567

Franchisers, 567

Global culture, 563

International information systems architecture, 562

Legitimacy, 574

Multinational, 567