Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Tranlin, Inc. (A)

Freeman, R. Edward...

Case

Tranlin, Inc. (A)

Freeman, R. Edward; Wu, Yi; Douthit, Jill; Mead, Jenny

E-0400 | Published September 3, 2015 | 8 pages. Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

Product Details

In June 2014, China-based Tranlin, Inc., announced a historic $2 billion investment over the next five years to build and operate the company's first advanced manufacturing facility in the United States on an 850-acre campus at the James River Industrial Center in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The company's investment in this facility represented the largest foreign direct investment in the United States ever led by a China-based, privately owned company and was expected to generate more than 2,000 jobs in Virginia by 2020. Expanding to the United States would be an experiment for Tranlin, because the company hoped eventually to open operations in Europe and Japan. The B Case outlines the specific stakeholders, their needs and rights, and how Tranlin plans to address those.

1. Identify stakeholders and define the rights, responsibilities, obligations, values, and needs of each, as well as management's responsibility to them. 2. Explore the complexities (logistical, cultural, environmental) of how a multinational company can expand to another country. 3. Explore corporate social responsibility in a global context. 4. Assess the environmental impact of a multinational engaged in what traditionally is a environmentally unfriendly process, and how that multinational mitigates as much harm as possible. 5. Identify cross-cultural differences and methods of bridging them.