Starbucks in Forbidden City

1. What role does culture play in this case? Please be specific.

In this case, Starbucks represents American culture offering a place outside home where people can meet, relax, and talk. As for Forbidden city, it's the largest preserved imperial palace standing for a long history for Chinese people.

It has already casued many issues because both of them are two completely different culture.

Forbidden city is a symbol of Chinese traditional culture. It's a combination of traditional chinese architecture and culture. Standing for the most imperial culture heritage in the mind of Chinese people.

For starbucks which is a cofee shop, it's a symbol of leisure and American culture which causes a culture shock when it was opened in Forbidden city.

With globalization, the incident of Starbucks store in the Forbidden City is just an epitome of friction between American business culture and national traditional culture. Such as the Forbidden City and other World Heritage cultural sites are often considered the guardian of the country where people want to protect. However, the symbol of western commerce like McDonald's, KFC, Wal-Mart have penetrated many places around the world by strong economic power. There are many sensitive issues occurred in many countries not just Starbucks in Forbidden City.

2. Should Starbucks leave Forbidden city, even though they have been invited by City officials? Justify your answer.

Yes, we think Starbucks should leave Forbidden City even though they have been invited by City officials.

China and other emerging markets represents the growth opportunities so important to Starbucks. Starbucks can announce a nice statement like because we respect the Chinese culture and the harmony in Forbidden city, we decide to shut dowm something like this.

We think leaving can reach a win-win situation. For starbucks, there are still many stores outside Forbidden city, after all, the store in forbidden city just account for very little...