A Taiwanese plastic manufacturer exports one of its products, bathtub covers, solely to Japanese distributors. The company's president has been approached to form a partnership in a new production facility in China with its second largest customer, a Japanese distributor that also produces bathtub covers. The president must assess the company's options: turn down the proposal and expand on its own in Taiwan, form a partnership and produce bathtub covers exclusively for the other company in China or turn down the proposal and invest in its own factory in China. The president considers the company's long-term strategies, the political future of a Taiwanese company in China, status of its intellectual property under a partnership and the potential loss of its second largest customer. He also needs to address plans for the company's other products and decide whether the company should be more actively pursuing a sales strategy to expand its market share.
