The case describes the impact of the US-China trade war on Apple Inc.’s operations in China. Apple’s bet on the “cheap China” sourcing model means that 90% of the assembly happens in China. In 2018, President Trump began to introduce step-by-step duties on Chinese imports ending up with tariffs of 7.5% and 25% covering about $360 billion worth of imports. Apple managed to get exemptions for iPhone imports from China so far but not for component imports. As President Trump was advancing the decoupling of the US and Chinese economies, Apple had to prepare for mounting difficulties. What are the risks of a supply chain relocation out of China? What are Apple’s options in adjusting its China-centered global supply chain?

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Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) and UNIQA are two universal insurance companies headquartered in Vienna, Austria, offering a full range of insurance products and services to individuals and businesses. Both insurers jumped at the enormous growth opportunity that the opening of the neighboring markets of Central and Eastern Europe offered to them in the early 1990s. In 2018, they occupied leading market positions in the region. While similar in their internationalization motives and "going east" strategy, they followed different brand strategies.

The VIG group bet on a multi-brand strategy by retaining most of the brands of the acquired local insurance companies. Klaus Muehleder, Head of Group Development and Strategy at VIG, emphasized the multi-brand strategy and local entrepreneurship as core management principles that connect the business firmly with the local markets. “How comes that Vienna tells the management in Serbia how to grow their insurance business? That would be presumptuous”, so Muehleder. He saw no reason to change VIG’s successful multi-brand strategy just because “single-brand strategies are in fashion now”.

By contrast, the Austrian competitor UNIQA followed a one-brand strategy. Until 1998, the UNIQA predecessors operated under different brands. In 1999, the new UNIQA “millennium” brand was introduced with the goal to transmit the image of a modern, European insurance company. Wolfgang Kindl, CEO of UNIQA International, commented this major change as follows: “It would have been irresponsible not to use UNIQA internationally from then on. After 1999, all newly acquired companies had been changed to the new brand”. Kindl could not imagine returning to a multi-brand strategy. What were the reasons for choosing the respective brand strategy? What challenges had they faced in managing their brands? How will the increasing digitalization affect the brand strategies?

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ESET, spol. s.r.o. is a global vendor of security software for companies of all sizes and households.1 Its software solutions deliver instant, comprehensive protection against evolving computer security threats. The company pioneered and continues to lead the industry in proactive threat detection. Founded by six Slovak IT engineers in the Slovakian capital Bratislava in 1992, ESET has grown into one of the top five global players in the antivirus software market. How did it accomplish such amazing growth? How did it successfully market around the world mission-critical software that was originally developed in Slovakia?

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The case focuses on the removal of women from the Saudi Arabian edition of IKEA's catalogue - a step which was held by some as standing in stark contrast to IKEA's corporate culture and core values. The dispute exposed IKEA to considerable public criticism, but pointed to the responsibilities of MNCs in addressing ethical differences across cultures and societies. Such ethical variations can therefore be viewed as important foundations for determining MNCs' responsibilities in the global context.

Miska, C., Pleskova, M., 2016. IKEA’s ethical controversies in Saudi Arabia, in: Barmeyer, C., Franklin, P. (Eds.), Intercultural Management : A Case-Based Approach to Achieving Complementarity and Synergy. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 120–133