The political environment of a country mainly includes: government and party system, government policies, nationalism and political risks. ?
1. government and political party system?
(1) government type. The government is the power organ and executive organ of the country. Governments in most countries in the world can be divided into two categories: parliamentary governments and authoritarian governments. Under the parliamentary system, the government often consults with citizens, and its policies can reflect the opinions of the majority to a certain extent. However, under the autocratic system, government policies are formulated with the will of dictators to a great extent. ?
International marketers should pay attention to the composition of the current government and its main policies towards enterprises and foreign investors. Is the government conservative, neutral or far left? Does the current business policy encourage free management system or state ownership? To answer these questions, we must also consider the views of the ruling party. ?
(2) The political party system within the political party and the government can be divided into four types: two-party system, multi-party system, one-party system and one-party dictatorship. The two-party system consists of two political parties that are evenly matched. The two parties have their own opinions, and marketers should pay attention to the main policy tendencies of the ruling party.
In multi-party countries, no political party has the ability to control the government independently, and the government is composed of all parties. Compared with the two-party system, the multi-party system changes more frequently, because the joint ruling time depends on the cooperation of all parties. ?
One-party system means that one political party is absolutely dominant and other political parties have no chance to win the election. This situation is more common in countries that have just begun to implement the parliamentary system. With further evolution, this system may become a multi-party system. Mexico is a good example of the one-party system.
One-party autocracy is different from one-party system. It suppresses or suppresses other parties, and its governance is not achieved through free competition, but through military or coup. One-party autocracy will not develop into a two-party system or a multi-party system, but may become dictatorship. ?
(3) Understanding the opinions of political parties. When understanding the ideas of political parties, international marketers should pay special attention to their attitudes towards foreign businessmen and foreign governments. Because enterprises are often regarded as a representative of a country and a symbol of a nation. We should not only study the basic ideas of representative political parties, but also study the political party system of the whole country, because the ideas of each political party will have an impact on government policies. Even in a one-party country, such as Mexico, the attitudes and views of other political parties are still very important. In short, if an enterprise wants to master the political climate of foreign governments, it must study the ideas of the current government and consider the long-term direction of its political development as much as possible.
2. The long-term nature of government policies?
The stability of government policies directly affects the long-term business strategy of enterprises. Although government policies are always in a gradual state, the primary concern of enterprises is the fundamental change of a country's foreign policy. This fundamental change can be defined as instability. The instability of political environment in international marketing can be analyzed from the following aspects. ?
(1) Frequent regime changes.
(2) The political instability of the host country is also manifested in frequent violent incidents, public security disorder and demonstrations. ?
(3) Cultural division is another factor of political instability.
(4) Religious opposition is often the root of political turmoil. ?
3.nationalism?
Although the change of political party and government may lead to the unstable change of the relationship between government and enterprises, the most critical political factor affecting international marketing in today's world should be strong economic nationalism. ?
Nationalism holds that a country's economic development should rely more on its own economic strength, especially to ensure the development of its national industry. Some people call this nationalism loyal nationalism or patriotism. ?
People should realize a basic fact: no matter which nation-state, no matter what kind of guarantee it has made, it will not tolerate the unrestricted penetration of foreign companies into its market and economy, especially when the host country thinks that the decision-making of foreign businessmen has not taken into account its social and economic development needs. Even in the United States, where there are few foreign enterprises, Congress has promulgated some provisions to restrict foreign invasion.
In developed and developing countries, the influence of nationalism on foreign enterprises is the same, but the intensity is different. However, all host countries will control domestic profits and loans; Control the influence of foreign investors on domestic companies (such as reducing imports and promoting the export of domestic products); Control the scale of foreign investment of domestic-funded enterprises. ?
4. Political risk?
Political risk comes from the uncertainty of the future political changes in the host country and the uncertainty of the damage of the host government to the future interests of foreign enterprises. Generally, it includes four categories: overall political risk, ownership/control risk, operational risk and transfer risk. ?
The overall political risk comes from the uncertainty of enterprises' understanding of the prospects of the host country's political system. For example, the Indonesian riots in May 1998 caused serious losses to many China enterprises. The instability of the overall political situation will not necessarily force enterprises to give up investment projects, but it will certainly interfere with their business decisions and profit levels. ?
The risk of ownership/control stems from the uncertainty of enterprises' understanding of the cancellation or restriction of foreign-funded enterprises by the host government. These risks include government confiscation and nationalization. ?
The enterprise risk stems from the uncertainty of the enterprise's understanding of the control punishment of the host government. Mainly in the production, sales, financial and other business functions. ?
The transfer risk mainly comes from the uncertainty of the understanding of the host government's restrictions on operating income and capital remittance. Transfer risk also includes the risk of currency depreciation.
(B) the international marketing legal environment
Law represents the written or formal political will of a country. In this sense, a country's politics and legal system are closely related. The legal environment of international marketing consists of domestic law, international law and the laws of the host country. ?
1. Domestic law?
In order to protect the domestic market, increase domestic employment opportunities and better integrate with international practices, many countries have formulated clear legal provisions. Its contents generally include export control, import control and foreign exchange control. ?
2. International economic law?
International law is the principle and system that regulates the relations between China countries and stipulates their rights and obligations. The subject of international law, that is, the undertaker of rights and obligations, is generally a country rather than an individual. Mainly based on international treaties, international practices, resolutions of international organizations and precedents of international issues. These treaties or practices may be applicable to bilateral relations between two countries or multilateral relations between many countries. Although there is no international law-making agency equivalent to the national legislature, no international executive agency to implement international law, and no actual judge to judge international law, international law still plays an important role in international business affairs. For example, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has formulated some economic practice guidelines for its member countries. Although these regulations do not directly affect every company, they provide a relatively stable international market environment, thus indirectly promoting the company's international marketing activities.
At present, the international economic law that has a great influence on international marketing activities mainly includes the following aspects: legislation to protect consumers' interests, legislation to protect producers and sellers, legislation to protect fair competition and legislation to adjust international economic and trade behavior.
3. The laws of the host country?
The most frequent and direct factor affecting international marketing activities is the legal norms of foreign enterprises in the target market country, that is, the host country. ?
(1) two legal systems. At present, the current legal system in most countries in the world can be roughly divided into two systems: the statutory law system and the customary law system. ?
Statutory law is also called continental law. French, German and other continental European countries, as well as South American countries, Japanese, Turkish and China. The legal system of most countries in the world belongs to the written law system. The most important feature of the written law system is that the code is the first legal source. Clear legal provisions are very important in countries with written laws. The judicature of a statutory country is not based on the previous court ruling, and the interpretation of the same clause may be biased. This makes international marketers face an uncertain legal environment.
The common law system is also called unwritten law or common law. The most important feature of the customary law system is that it is based on tradition and attaches importance to customs and cases. The judgment reasons of past cases are binding on future cases, which is the so-called precedent principle. In recent years, Britain, the United States and other countries have formulated a large number of written laws as a supplement to customary laws, but contract law and tort law are still customary laws. ?
Different legal systems may have different interpretations of the same thing. Therefore, international marketers must carefully and clearly analyze the legal environment of foreign markets when conducting international marketing. ?
(2) The influence of the laws of the host country on marketing. Because the legal systems of various countries are extremely complex, we only discuss their direct impact on international marketing mix here. ?
(1) products, because the physical and chemical characteristics of products are related to the safety of consumers, so all countries have detailed legal provisions on the purity and safety performance of products. The laws of different countries also have different provisions on packaging. For example, Belgium stipulates that drugs can only be contained in octagonal brown glass bottles, and drugs contained in other containers are not allowed to enter the country's market. ?
The legal requirements for labels are more stringent. Generally speaking, the items that need to be marked on the label include: product name; The name of the manufacturer or distributor; Composition or description of the product; Weight (net weight or gross weight); Country of origin
The requirements of various countries for guarantee are relatively loose. However, countries with common law system are generally stricter, while countries with common law system are relatively loose. ?
The legal requirements of brand names and trademarks are also inconsistent. Many major countries in the world are members of the Paris Union or other international trademark conventions. Therefore, the requirements in this regard are relatively uniform. However, the legal treatment of brand or trademark ownership in written law countries and common law countries is completely different. The former implements "first registration" and the latter implements "first use". So we should know where and under what circumstances the infringement will occur. ?
② Pricing and how to control pricing are common problems all over the world. Many countries have laws and regulations on maintaining resale price (RPM). However, the scope and methods of "maintaining resale prices" vary from country to country. ?
Many countries make laws and regulations through government price control departments. Some implement price control on all products, while others only implement price control on a few products. For example, the French government has frozen the prices of several products. On the other hand, Japan only controls the price of one kind of consumer goods-rice. ?
(3) Distribution, there are few provisions on distribution in national laws, so enterprises have greater freedom to choose distribution channels in the host country. Of course, some distribution channels in some host countries may not be applicable. For example, French law explicitly prohibits door-to-door sales. In fact, the most severe legal restrictions in various countries will not fundamentally affect the distribution of international enterprises in the host country, but the export enterprises that sell through distributors or agents cannot but be restricted by the relevant laws of the host country. Export enterprises must understand the legal provisions of the host country on dealer contracts in order to avoid losses. ?
4 promotion. In international marketing, there is the most controversy about advertising, and advertising is also the easiest to control. Most countries in the world have formulated laws and regulations on advertising, and advertising agencies in many countries also have their own binding standards. For example, New Zealand has no less than 33 laws and regulations on advertising. There are several forms of advertising rules in countries around the world:
The first is about the credibility of "advertising words". For example, in Germany, comparing advertisements with "better" or "best" advertising words is not allowed.
The second is to restrict the advertising of certain products. For example, in Britain, tobacco or alcohol advertisements are not allowed on TV.
The third is to limit the promotion skills. For example, the scale, value and type of commission are also clearly stipulated in many countries: commission can only account for a limited part of product sales, and the use of commission can only be related to the product, that is, the advertising commission of watches cannot be used for advertising soap.
4. Ways to solve international trade disputes?
In international business, disputes are inevitable. Generally, there are three kinds of legal disputes: one is between governments; The second is between the company and the government; The third is between the two companies. Intergovernmental disputes can be submitted to the International Court of Justice, and the latter two disputes must be tried or arbitrated by the national court to which one of the parties belongs. There are several important issues to consider here. ?
(1) Choose the court and the law. Domestic laws only apply to marketing within a country. When there is a commercial dispute between the parties in two different countries, the most important problem is to find out which method to adopt. If the two parties to the transaction fail to reach an agreement on the matters to be decided, in the event of a dispute, international marketers will face two choices:
① Based on the law of the place where the contract is signed;
② Based on the law of the place where the contract is performed. Generally speaking, if the contract does not clearly stipulate where the law shall prevail, the law of the place where the contract is signed shall prevail. However, in order to reduce uncertainty and avoid unnecessary contradictions, international marketers should clearly stipulate the reward method when signing contracts. ?
(2) litigation issues. There are many reasons why enterprises are unwilling to go to court. In addition to high costs, long delays and adding insult to injury, there are some reasons as follows:
(1) I am afraid that my reputation will be damaged, and even the public relations will be affected. ?
② Fear of unfair treatment by foreign courts. ?
(3) fear of leaks. ?
When international commercial disputes occur, enterprises are often willing to solve the problems through peaceful means (coordination, mediation and arbitration).
(3) arbitration. Arbitration can generally avoid the disadvantages of litigation: fast ruling and low cost. Moreover, because the arbitration process is secret and there is no hostile behavior, it has no destructive impact on goodwill. It is precisely because of the mediation nature of arbitration that about 1/3 cases in international business are resolved through direct dialogue between the parties before the award. Because the arbitrator does not appear as a judge, he is experienced and the arbitration result is fair and easy to be accepted by the parties. In the process of arbitration, both parties are allowed to continue to do business while arguing, thus avoiding greater losses. Arbitration is not based on legal provisions, but on the fair handling of facts, so both parties to the dispute do not have to resort to the courts of the other country, so they are satisfied. For this reason, arbitration plays an increasingly important role in solving international business disputes. Even, an arbitration institution was established in Stockholm to settle trade disputes between East and West. ?
The arbitration procedure is simple and direct. If an international enterprise wants to settle future disputes through arbitration, it only needs to indicate the arbitration clause in the contract. ?
The advantages and status of arbitration are becoming more and more important. It has become a popular means to solve commercial disputes. However, arbitration is not a panacea for all diseases. In some cases, arbitration takes several years and costs tens of thousands of dollars. However, in any case, arbitration is still the best choice to solve commercial disputes. According to the data of the International Chamber of Commerce, only 8% of the rulings were questioned or not implemented.