《TAIPEI TIMES》 Three firms still in Russia: US list

TAIWAN ‘F’ GRADES: Acer, Asus and MSI were listed among 42 companies ‘digging in’ their operations in Russia, Yale Management School research showed

By William Hetherington / Staff writer, with CNA

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Forty-two companies — including three Taiwanese firms — are still operating in Russia, despite the majority of international companies having left the country in protest over its invasion of Ukraine, US research showed yesterday.

On Feb. 28 — four days after the invasion began — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the senior associate dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management, and other Yale researchers published on a Web site a list of companies that had left Russia or were continuing to operate in the country.

The team divided the list into five categories: “withdrawal,” “suspension,” “scaling back,” “buying time” and “digging in” to describe their actions since the invasion.

The Web site says that firms in the “suspension” category are “temporarily curtailing operations while keeping return options open,” while those “buying time” are “postponing future planned investment, development and marketing while continuing substantive business.”

Those “digging in” are “companies defying demands for exit/reduction of activities,” it says.

As of yesterday, the Yale School of Management Web site, where an Excel spreadsheet of the firms can be downloaded, showed 174 companies in the “withdrawal” category, or an “A” grade, 195 in “suspension” （B grade）, 31 “scaling back” （C grade） and 56 “buying time” （D grade）.

Forty-two were listed as “digging in,” or given an “F” grade, including Taiwanese tech firms Acer Inc （宏碁）, Asustek Computer Inc （華碩, Asus） and Micro-Star International Co （微星科技, MSI）.

Other international companies listed as remaining in the Russian market included French supermarket chain Carrefour, French sporting goods retailer Decathlon, British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca and Swiss financial services firm Credit Suisse.

New Taipei City-based Acer yesterday said that it would “comply with all laws and regulations related to international trade.”

MSI as of press time last night had not commented publicly on its inclusion on the list.

Asus on March 14 said that it has effectively stopped shipping to Russia and would donate NT$30 million （US$1.05 million） to a disaster relief fund for Ukraine after Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Twitter that Asus should withdraw from the Russian market.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES