Growth Strategies in Foreign-Invested Enterprises through Stabilizing Industrial Relations:A Case Study on Oriental Brewery

Abstract

This paper suggests ways to develop healthy industrial relations at foreign-invested enterprises after M&A by studying Oriental Brewery Co., Ltd (“OBC”) case. OBC has the unique feature of being a foreign private-equity-fund (KKRKohlberg Kravis Roberts) invested company with dual unions. It is the only consumer product company in Korea that has regained the number one position in 2011 after 15years of a continuous drop from the once dominant position with up to 70% of market share in the early 1990s. We have identified the contributing factors of such success from the perspective of union-management relationship before and after the M&A.