Article: Harvard Business Review| Scorched Earth
Author(s): Elizabeth Economy and Kenneth Lieberthal
Date of publication: June 2007
Introduction
The article entitled “Scorched Earth ” written by Elizabeth Economy (senior fellow for Asia with the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations in New York) and Kenneth Lieberthal (William Davidson Professor of Corporate Strategy and International Business, the China director of Davidson Institute, and the Arthur Thurnau Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, senior director of Stonebridge International, a Washington, D.C.–based consulting firm, and the co-author, with Geoffrey Lieberthal, of “The …show more content…
They are even encouraged to do the ‘wrong thing’ by the local governments.
Thirdly, time after time, the authors emphasize how big China’s influence is on the pollution in the world. However, this is quite logical as China is one of the biggest countries in the world. Therefore, this is really annoying and not really useful in the article.
Fourthly, referring to the challenges described, there is no clear relationship between, for instance, the spill of water by the Chinese population and MNEs. This because MNEs cannot do anything about this issue. Furthermore, it is not really the MNEs’ responsibility. Therefore we consider this challenge as superfluous. (Economy, Lieberthal, 2007)
Finally, the authors do spend enough time on the concept of using their new innovations for China (concerning environmental degradation etc.) in other key markets. This is actually the most important part of the article and therefore more attention should be paid to this concept. (Economy, Lieberthal, …show more content…
This because it crosses all borders and is not bounded to a certain location. Therefore environmental damage in China can influence business activities in other markets due to, for instance, a shortage of certain raw materials. Moreover, it can limit the possibilities of MNEs in the future. Moreover, the article discusses the opportunities of China-specific innovations that can be applied in other markets. This implies the creation of a