Apple Inc's International Trading and Set of Ethical Principles - Case Study Example

International Business Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Question 3 Question 2 5 Question 3 7 Reference list 9 Question Apple Inc is one of the leading multinational electronics manufacturers. The American technology firm devises, build up, and sells consumer electronics like mobile, music players and computer peripherals. Steve Jobs along with two other partners established Apple Inc during 1976. However, during the year 1985 Steve Jobs left the organisation for conflict among the management (Investor.apple.com, 2015). After Jobs left the organisation, it faced huge problem regarding the profitability and market share. Apple Inc was losing out in the competition with the Microsoft, IBM, Google, HP, Blackberry and many other consumer electronics and computer manufacturers (Reuters, 2011). Apple Inc started facing intense challenge from the Microsoft during the year 1992. Microsoft invented an operating system named MS-DOS during that year and they collaborated with the IBM PC. These operating system and computer setup got huge popularity among the global people. During that period, Microsoft was grabbing almost 80% of personal computer market share. However, Apple was holding only 20% market share (Biggs, 2014). Apple developed Macintosh application to meet the competition. Macintosh was developed by Steve Jobs during the beginning of 1980s (Ramamurti and Hashai, 2011). When Steve Jobs returned in Apple Inc during the year 1996-1997, the firm was reported with $1 billion revenue. Apple Inc was valued of only $4 billion whereas their competitors HP reported with the value of $62 billion and Dell was valued at $8 billion during that fiscal year 1996-97 (Investor.apple.com, 2015). Steve Jobs immediately took the charge to develop the position of organisation in the US and global market. During the year 2009, Apple reported with the value of nearly $184 billion and their revenues reported with $36.5 billion. Apple Inc reported with the net income of nearly $8 billion during the year 2009 (Investor.apple.com, 2015). It is reported that Hewlett Packard is having the net worth of $119 billion in the year 2009, and in the same year Dell reported with the net worth of $28 billion. Thus, it can be said that Steve Jobs developed excellent strategies to increase the efficiency of Apple Inc as it reported greater revenue and net worth than Dell and HP (Biggs, 2014). Apples Inc’s product line was developed by Steve Jobs on his return. The organisation was losing out due to the products like the Power Macintosh, Newton, the Performa, and the PowerBook. Moreover, they were producing low capacity printers and servers. Jobs invented new products to attract the global customers. He started with modifying the desktop software using the Macintosh software and they will be using the Apple’s logo in the products. Intense globalised marketing strategies of Apple Inc increased reach of customers (Dempsey, 2011). Jobs started with the product range Macbooks, iPods, iMacs, and iPhone to attract the customers. Mac Mini was invented to replace the television models. During the year 2009, Apple reported with a sale of more than 3.21 million Mac books, more than 11.2 million iPods and 8.1 million iPhones (Investor.apple.com, 2015). However, Apple Inc. also faced some affects of globalisation factors. The consumer’s electronic provider started facing the global competitor’s challenges in terms of market share and profitability (Bora, 2002). In the globalised economy, organisations like Google, Microsoft, Blackberry, Samsung, HTC, LG and many other consumer electronics, mobile phones and portable music player manufacturer are the major competitors of the Apple Inc (Kaliannan and Ponnusamy, 2014). The firm is facing the challenge of market share and profitability in Asian and African countries Apple Inc is facing the challenge of the counterfeiting products in the global economy. Globalisation is increasing the rate of the challenges technological changes and political challenges. Apple Inc is facing certain problems in the penetrating selling products in the Middle East and Chinese continent. Globalised economy also reported instable tax rate and foreign trade policies (Allen, 2014). Question 2 There are many traditional theories of global or international trading. International trading policies of the different countries are controlled by various theories. Moreover, direct foreign investments also contradict with the theoretical approaches adopted by the organisational management (Kaliannan and Ponnusamy, 2014). In the case study, outsourcing and global operational polices of Apple Inc are outlined. Different global trading theories are contrasted with the operational policies Apple Inc. Adam Smith developed the Absolute Advantage theory for the international trading aspects. Contrast of this theory with case study outlines that ability of Silicon Valley to produce software products is much more efficient than any other portion of US and international segment. According to the theory, Apple Inc is producing their software products in the USA region and exporting those to different developing countries to gain the superiority in those markets (Kim and Rasiah, 2011). Factors of Proportions Theory by Hecksher and Ohlin stated that the Apple Inc must explore the resources available in the USA segment. This theory is effective for Jobs used the absolute and comparative advantage strategies for increasing their market share and growth (Reuters, 2011). As stated in the proportion theory, Apple Inc concentrates on availability and shortage of required resources for their consumer electronics production. Steve Jobs emphasised on the productivity of the organisation (Lawrence, 2011). According to Myrick et al. (2013), international trading related theories are outlining various cultural controversies faced by the organisations. Apple Inc has faced the conflict of cultural union and variety. Mainly, the USA based organisation faced the political issues, and linguistic challenges in the Asian, African and Latin American countries. International trading policies are also outlining different type of substituting socio‐economic models like Anglo Saxon, Rinhe Model, Nordic Model, Mediterranean, East Asia and Latin American models in order to reduce the cultural gap. According to the case, Apple Inc is enjoying competitive labour and product markets in different countries. In addition, financial system, social security and education system of the countries are impacting the international trading policies (Lehman and Haslam, 2013). Apple Inc is facing the lower economic parity among the developing countries. Customers of this economy are having lower capacity of purchasing high priced electronic products. Apple Inc will be facing the challenge of job security, training expenses and counterfeiting products. In the developing countries, consumer protection rules must be maintained (Poomath, 2014). International socio cultural sustainability also requires effective CSR strategies, stakeholder’s interest orientation and development of employee’s orientation policies. International market theories are also contradicting free trade options in the countries, cost of investment or debt interest rate and the employment policies in different countries (Proctor and Bicknell, 2012). Question 3 Apple Inc is one of the leading level consumer electronic, personal computers and mobile phone producers. They are having international operational set up, and they are also collecting investment from various financial sourcing organisations. Thus, Welford (2007) suggested that ethical investment funds are collected by the firm to maintain global operations. These investment authorities are using different corporate social responsibility measures to judge the business policies of Apple Inc. Apple Inc is specialised in developing different products like computer peripheral, software, online services, mobiles and PC (Ramamurti and Hashai, 2011). Manager of an ethical investment fund will be using some corporate social responsibility measures to judge the organisation Apple Inc. The manager will be judging the CSR policies of the firm, whether they are executing the strategies or not, alternate energy use, stakeholders support policies of the firm. In addition, society orientation policy will be contrasted by the managers of the ethical investment firm. Apple Inc is maintaining different ethical dimensions to attract social investors and stakeholders. The firm is using the deontological ethical theories to increase the value addition among stakeholders. Steve Jobs used moral strategies to meet the demands of stakeholders (Reuters, 2011). He promoted accurate operational policies to meet the moral obligations or responsibilities towards the stakeholders (Steinwart and Ziegler, 2014). Universal corporate social responsibility rules are maintained in the operation process. Apple Inc is highly prioritising the human rights impartiality principles in order to promote their workplace environment. Distributive justice policy was implemented by Steve Jobs to express the benefits of the shared burden among the employees. Retributive policy used by the firm to punish the defaulters. Apple Inc is using compensatory policies in terms of maintaining equality among the same type of labours (Sterling, 2012). Social investors are also judging the personal ethics strategies adopted by the Apple Inc. Such strategies are developed on the basis of various factors like moral virtue, golden rule, pluralism and autonomy. Firstly, ethical policy of firm must maintain character and behaviour of the employees. Employees must be honest, sincere, and trustworthy. Apple Inc is having global customers and stakeholders so they are required to maintain ethical employees with moral virtues (Sternberg, 2009). Apple Inc is maintaining a set of ethical principle which provides equal treatment for each and every employee. Management of the firm are recognising that different employees are having diverse ethical principles. There can be conflict between the employees regarding viewpoints, interests and values (Turner and Kim, 2004). These factors are developed and controlled by the social and communal backgrounds. Family and friends are also controlling the traits of ethical dimensions. Apple Inc is offering highly defined personal position for the ethical issues faced by organisation and employees (TrongTuan, 2012). Thus, it can be said that Apple Inc can be added in the investment portfolio of the firm. Reference list Allen, D., 2014. Always have a plan B. Nursing Older People, 26(6), pp.41-45. Biggs, M., 2014. Has protest increased since the 1970s? How a survey question can construct a spurious trend. The British Journal of Sociology, 66(1), pp.141-162. Bora, B., 2002. Foreign Direct Investment. New York: Routledge. Dempsey, P., 2011. News analysis: Life after Steve Jobs: however will Apple manage without him?. Engineering & Technology, 6(9), pp.20-21. Investor.apple.com, 2015. Apple - Investor Relations - Financial Information. [online] Available at: , [Accessed 22 April. 2015]. Kaliannan, M. and Ponnusamy, V., 2014. Apple was sweeter when Steve Jobs held sway. Hum Res Mgt Intl Digest, 22(4), pp.25-28. Kim, P. and Rasiah, D., 2011. A Study on Ethical Investment Behaviour among Malaysian General Insurance Fund Managers. Journal of Financial Studies and Research, pp.1-9. Lawrence, S., 2011. Draconian and manifestly unjust: how the confiscation regime has developed. ac, 2008(76). Lehman, G. and Haslam, C., 2013. Accounting for the Apple Inc business model: Corporate value capture and dysfunctional economic and social consequences. Accounting Forum, 37(4), pp.245-248. Myrick, J., Willoughby, J., Noar, S. and Brown, J., 2013. Reactions of Young Adults to the Death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs: Implications for Cancer Communication. Communication Research Reports, 30(2), pp.115-126. Poomath, J., 2014. Book Review: Yukari Iwatani Kane, Haunted Empire: Apple after Steve Jobs. Paradigm, 18(2), pp.239-241. Proctor, N. and Bicknell, T., 2012. Apple After Steve Jobs, Re: Museums. Curator: The Museum Journal, 55(4), pp.479-485. Ramamurti, R. and Hashai, N., 2011. The future of foreign direct investment and the multinational enterprise. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald. Reuters, C. 2011. How the iPod Explains Globalization. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2015]. Steinwart, M. and Ziegler, J., 2014. Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a Transformational Leader. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(2), pp.52-66. Sterling, C., 2012. 1. CBQ review essay: Steve Jobs and Apple Computer. Communication Booknotes Quarterly, 43(1), pp.1-10. Sternberg, E., 2009. Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance 1. Economic Affairs, 29(4), pp.5-10. TrongTuan, L., 2012. Corporate social responsibility, ethics, and corporate governance. Social Responsibility Journal, 8(4), pp.547-560. Turner, J. and Kim, Y., 2004. Globalisation and Korean foreign investment. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. Welford, R., 2007. Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility: issues for Asia. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 14(1), pp.42-51. Read More