France Business Environment: An In-depth Case Study Analysis

This case study solution provides an analysis of the business environment in France, highlighting its strong economy, membership in G7, and significant trade surplus. It examines the impact of French bureaucracy on business operations, including regulations on job cuts and weekend closures. The solution also discusses the importance of product quality and effective pricing strategies in the French market, considering the high purchasing power of French families. Furthermore, it addresses the negative effects of bureaucracy on business growth and the role of the World Customs Organization in facilitating international trade within France and the EU. Desklib offers a range of similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

Running head: BUSINESS IN FRANCE
Business in France
Name of the Student
Name of University
Author's note

1BUSINESS IN FRANCE
Table of Contents
Answer to question 1..................................................................................................................2
Answer to question 2..................................................................................................................2
Answer to question 3..................................................................................................................4
Answer to question 4..................................................................................................................4
Reference List............................................................................................................................6

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Answer to question 1
France has the largest market in the Western Europe as it has more than 60 million
inhabitants and close connection with the entire western European market. Moreover, it is
also found that France is an economical powerful nation in the Europe. On the other hand,
France is member of G7 having the power of taking decision of economic governance,
energy policy and international security. Moreover, the GDP of the nation is also show a
growth of 0,2% in the first quarter of 2018 and the figure was was $717,409 million (Trading
Economics 2018). The data given in the case study also shows that France had over $11
billion trade surplus which shows that the businesspeople are always in a profitable position.
Another reason that is highlighted in the given case study is that due to the steady economic
growth in the France, multinational enterprises (MNEs). Germany is major trading partner of
France and both the nation has interrelated economy and thus German businesspeople intends
to target France as a second market. Thus, it can be said that all these economic aspects and
the growing economy for business entry attracts the MNEs to do business in Frances and
contribute in enhancing the GDP of the nation.
Answer to question 2
Goetsch and Davis (2014) stated that the term total quality commitment refers to the
quality and features that an organization provides to their users. This aspect is important in
order to gain an effective customer base and establish a brand image. However, Oakland
(2014) argued that in order to establish brand’s reputation it is also important for the
company to abide by the government rule. In France, government applies beaureaucratic rule
in which they set regulations, which the businessperson have to incorporate in doing the
business in the nation. The case study also illustrates that the French government is not in
favor of job cuts even if the companies are doing that for effective productivity. Moreover,

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Goetsch and Davis (2014) highlight that the government of France also passed the regulation
to close the organization in the weekends. Thus, in order to setup an organization in France,
the business people not only should focus on the productivity but also have to emphasize on
the betterment of the working personnel.
In addition to that, the case study also illustrates that in France the purchasing power
of French family is high. Gregson (2012) stated that in such cases, the organization in the
French market has to focus more on the quality of the products and services along with
effective pricing strategy. Storey (2016) furthermore depicted that the pricing strategy is
important for an organization in order to attain profit margin, enhanced sales volume and
gaining effective competitive advantage in the organization. Thus, if an organization hopes to
get success in the France market, company needs to provide quality material in effective cost.
Cusumano, Kahl and Suarez (2015) stated that in the initial phase, company need to offer
products based on competitive pricing strategy if there are many organization that sell similar
prices. On the other hand, Gregson (2012) portrays that if a company offer unique products
which fulfills the user’s criteria, price skimming strategy should be implemented. Thus, it can
be said that the product quality should be focused primarily as the company need to adjust in
steady economic growth of the French Market.

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Answer to question 3
Bureaucracy affects the business in the most negative ways as at time the business
leaders need to the unimportant bureaucratic goals which hinder the growth of the
organization. Bureaucracy often overpower the reason of the leaders and cause the employees
to pursue meaningless endeavors (Ongolo, 2015). The employees who desire for glory and
recognition from the organizations blindly follow the path of their supervisors despite their
reason some smoothing else. The leaders can drive their subordinates to suit their own
personal agendas and make the organization better without thinking much about the effects of
their methods affecting the behavior of their subordinates. From the governmental aspect,
bureaucracy is the dominance of the government of a country or market on the companies
operating in that particular market. Through various method, the government maintains
control through acts and regulations which are mandatory of the organizations to abide by.
The governments bring reformation through legislation for promoting business in their
countries but these often turn to be harmful for the companies both domestic and
international. This tendency of controlling the companies in the market by the government
negatively affect the performance of the companies as they do not make policies in support of
their growth (Rasul & Rogger, 2018). They cannot even make changes in the organizations
for ensuring efficiency due to these governmental regulations and pressure. Due to these
reasons, the countries where there is a dominate government, are avoided by the companies
as they do not desire to entangle themselves into the governmental red tapism and
interference in the trade operations.
Answer to question 4
The world Customs Organization is intergovernmental organization which aims to
work in the areas for the development of the international conventions, tools and instruments

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like commodity classification, rules of origin and collection of the customs
revenue, valuation, supply chain securities, international business facilitation, customs
implementation activities, combating and counterfeiting the operations in support of IPR
(Intellectual Property Rights), drugs enforcement, weapon trading, integrity promotions,
development of sustainable capacity buildings to assist the customs reformation as well as
modernization (Turner, 2014). This organization if successfully work in France, can also
perform good in the big picture like EU (Smith, Keukeleire & Vanhoonacker, 2015). As this
organization is an intergovernmental institution hence can operate more successfully with the
multigovernmental organization like European Union. It will encourage the establishment of
cooperative arrangements between the customs and various governmental agencies. This will
ensure global supply chain security and safety, avoid duplication of the efforts as well as
costs of the economic operations in the countries and cooperate and exchange the information
among the other WCO members for efficient functioning. However, the functionality of this
organization may be hampered if the member organizations leave EU like Britain then the
acts of the nations will create problem for WCO to perform effectively.

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Reference List
Cusumano, M. A., Kahl, S. J., & Suarez, F. F. (2015). Services, industry evolution, and the
competitive strategies of product firms. Strategic management journal, 36(4), 559-
575.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Gregson, A. (2012). Pricing strategies for small business. Self-Counsel Press.
Oakland, J. S. (2014). Total quality management and operational excellence: text with cases.
Routledge.
Ongolo, S. (2015). On the banality of forest governance fragmentation: Exploring ‘‘gecko
politics’’as a bureaucratic behaviour in limited statehood. Forest Policy and
Economics, 53, 12-20.
Rasul, I., & Rogger, D. (2018). Management of bureaucrats and public service delivery:
Evidence from the nigerian civil service. The Economic Journal, 128(608), 413-446.
Smith, M., Keukeleire, S., & Vanhoonacker, S. (Eds.). (2015). The diplomatic system of the
European Union: evolution, change and challenges (Vol. 116). Routledge.
Storey, D. J. (2016). Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.
Trading Economics., 2018. France GDP. [online] Available at:
https://tradingeconomics.com/france/gdp [Accessed 21 Jun 2018].
Turner, B. (2014). World Customs Organization. In The Statesman’s Yearbook (pp. 58-58).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.