Christopher Rodriguez
International Management
Research Article #2
Manufacturing: When Cheap Is Not So Cheap
The article, in The Economist, talks about, “rethinking ‘low-cost’ and ‘high-cost’
manufacturing locations”. It explains that managers do worry about labor cost, but that
they are also looking at all the other factors that come to consideration when they are
choosing to locate a new factory. It explains how, “yesterday’s low-cost location may turn
out to be tomorrow’s money-pit” and talks about the increasing Chinese wages that have
had spectators speculating which Asian country will be the next to start offering low-cost
labor. The article then talks about a recent study constructed by the Boston Consulting
Group (BCG), where BCG, “looked at the world’s 25 biggest exporters and created an
