Abstract

This case deals with the company Renault Samsung Motors, a premium car manufacturer operating on the South Korean market and being used as a window-shop for exporting worldwide the medium-large and large segment vehicles of the mother company Renault, of which headquarters are based in France. The South Korean market involves five players, among which Hyundai Motors, KIA, Ssangyong and Chevrolet (formerly General Motors Daewoo rebranded). RSM, as a French-Korean company, involves a multicultural background in which operate both Korean and French employees, after Samsung Motors running bankruptcy in the late 1990s was purchased by Renault. The case focuses on how this background, which formerly allowed the company to recover from an internal crisis, is now being pushed to the limit, by highlighting the difficulties between French and Korean to communicate, to agree on a suitable strategy, and to have a proper management style which respond the problematic of the cultural differences.

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