China - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

Innovation’s Reward and the Hoverboard

February 1, 2016

For many inventors, creating a machine that’s functional as well as popular can feel like striking gold, even if the actual material reward for their work isn’t exactly golden. That’s the situation Shane Chen found himself in since inventing the “hoverboard,” a two-wheeled, Segway-like vehicle that doesn’t quite float but has nevertheless been flying off the shelves. Unfortunately for Chen, many consumers are buying hoverboards from companies that have not paid him for his patented design. Instead, consumers are taking Continue reading →

Entrepreneurship, Product Development, Manufacturing, Pricing, Innovation, China, Hoverboard, Global, Ethics

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

China Cracks Down on Knockoffs

February 7, 2015

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As the world’s manufacturing superpower, China is home to thousands of factories producing millions of items each day. Keeping track of all that industrial output is far from easy, though. With little oversight to monitor them, some Chinese factories make knock-off or simply poor quality products, and then sell them to retailers as if they were up to standard.

While pirated items are mainly a headache for the company that gets ripped off, products made cheaply or without regard for Continue reading →

Product Development, Global, China, Ethics, Regulation, Manufacturing, Product Distribution, Knockoff products

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

The Enduring Power of the Dollar

November 30, 2014

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The stock market crash of 2008 sent shockwaves across the world’s economies, leading many to speculate about the future of American financial policy on the global stage. In the eyes of many experts at the time, the U.S. dollar was especially at risk of losing its decades-long dominance. After all, the inferno of the financial crisis spread so fast because many nations measure their own currency against the dollar. When its value plummeted, so did countless other currencies.

The debacle Continue reading →

Currency, Finance, China, Economics, Global

Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions

The Red Menace of the Apple World

October 28, 2014

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For more than 50 years, the Red Delicious has dominated the American apple market. But while no one can dispute the fruit’s famous color, many consumers have begun to take exception to the “Delicious” portion of its name. Even though the U.S. still produces 54 million bushels of Red Delicious annually, production of the fruit has dropped 40 percent since 2000 as demand for other varieties has increased.

The Red Delicious began its ascent way back in the 1870s when Continue reading →

Product Development, Branding, Distribution, China, Apples, Food

Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price

Bored Young Men Cause Big Problems for Foxconn Factories

July 11, 2014

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A few years ago, a rash of employee suicides at Foxconn Technology prompted investigations into the working conditions at the Chinese manufacturing giant. As the maker of such in-demand items as the iPad and Hewlett-Packard servers, Foxconn employs tens of thousands of people who work long shifts and live on-site. The monotonous work and the dorm-like living quarters can make for a grey life on the Foxconn campus, leading to depression and worse.

Foxconn responded to this bleak state Continue reading →

Labor Relations, Management, Global, China, Ethics, Foxconn, Manufacturing

Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Who Does the U.S. Owe Money To?

November 1, 2013

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In the fall of 2013 the U.S. came perilously close to defaulting on its debt. Already reeling from a two-week government shutdown, lawmakers were able to come together at the eleventh hour to raise the debt ceiling through February 7, 2014. If it had failed to do so, then for the first time in history the U.S. would have been unable to pay the interest on Treasury bonds. This would have sent global markets into disarray while almost certainly setting Continue reading →

China, U.S. Debt, Debt ceiling, Government shutdown, Economics, Global

Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 19: Securities Markets, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions

Chinese Tourists Spend Big Abroad

July 17, 2013

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China’s surging economy has provided its citizens with a constellation of benefits that would have been scarcely imaginable even a decade ago. But of all China’s consumer-enabled freedoms, the opportunity for worldwide travel perhaps represents the nation’s biggest leap into modernity. After all, Chinese tour groups were forbidden from traveling to the U.S. until 2007. The following year, 493,000 Chinese tourists flooded America. That number has since grown to more than a million visitors annually. But that’s nothing compared to Continue reading →

Global, Ethics, Retail, China, Tourism

Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility

How Accurate Is GDP?

July 6, 2013

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In today’s modern economy, statistics are supreme. GDP, unemployment and interest rates all play dominant roles in the allocation of the government’s budget. No spending bill can hope to pass into law without a battery of statistics and figures charting how such legislation will benefit the country. But just how accurately do those numbers reflect the world we live in?

Take GDP, for instance. The famous figure has only been reliably collected in the U.S. since the 1930s and didn’t Continue reading →

Economics, Global, GDP, Financial Data, China

Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 17: Accounting, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media