Problem 16.13 Going Abroad
If Swishing decides to open a plant and manufacture in Ireland, the following factors must be considered:
1. Corporate income tax rates in Ireland and the United States.
Assume that Great Britain charges a duty of 10% on shoes imported into the United Kingdom. Swishing Shoe
Company, in Problem 12, discovers that it can manufacture shoes in Ireland and import them into Britain free of
any import duty. What factors should Swishing consider in deciding to continue to export shoes from North
Carolina versus manufacture them in Ireland?
7. The possibility that valuable technology of a proprietary nature would be stolen. (This might seem unlikely in
the Irish British context, but for other countries it could be a significant factor.)
Such a list as above cannot possibly identify all the subjective factors that might go into a decision to invest
rather than export, but it provides a starting point for consideration of the global strategy of a firm.
terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon, it might encounter a sharp rise in air freight
rates afterward. Terrorists attacks and their aftermath can not be easily predicted, but success of a foreign
manufacturing venture versus exporting must consider the possibility of any kind of unpredictable structural
2. Present and possible future changes in shipping costs. (If Swishing had been using air freight before the
there. The cost of manufacturing shoes in Ireland will depend both on the volume for which that plant is designed
and the percent of capacity expected to be used in the near future.
3. Expected production volume in Ireland relative to the designed manufacturing capacity of the new factory
5. The existence, or nonexistence, of excess capacity in the North Carolina factory, both at present and in terms
of expected future growth.
6. The political risk of investing in Ireland for the British market, should the type of political terrorism and anti-
British feelings currently in Northern Ireland spread to the Republic of Ireland itself.
on such banker’s acceptances as it now might be incurring. Alternatively, Swishing would avoid waiting 120 days
for its cash and undertaking the associated translation risk. Note that the solution to problem 2, above, in which
Swishing found it advantageous to wait 120 days for the cash is unique to that moment in time. A week or a
month later discount rates might change and the alternative would then be preferable.