Strategic Issues in Intercultural Management: Multinational Banks in Emerging Markets

This Data Challenge explores some of the issues faced by multinational subsidiaries operating in a competitive and institutionally challenging environment. Alex, a recent graduate from a French university who is now working at the Indian subsidiary of a large French multinational bank, ABEF, is tasked with exploring the reasons underlying the weak performance of the French banking subsidiary. Through the analysis of a set of secondary data from reputable sources, Alex attempts to gain a better understanding of the competitive landscape of foreign banks in India and identify who ABEF’s direct competitors are and how they perform. This task ends with Alex creating a chart that maps the competitive positioning of various foreign banking subsidiaries. Still unable to unravel the causes of ABEF’s underperformance, Alex decides to conduct a series of interviews with various banking actors, which reveal insights into the French bank’s reputation in India, including aspects related to the prevailing organizational culture inside the subsidiary. To conclude the Data Challenge, students are invited to formulate recommendations about the market positioning of ABEF’s Indian subsidiary.