Assignment 1: Comparative Country Analysis
Due date: Feb. 18
Learning Goals
- To assess the influences of political, economic and legal environments on international business activities
- To assess social and cultural influences on international business activities
Purpose
The group assignment is designed to give you hands-on experience in exploring internationalization opportunities for a U.S. company known to one or more of the team members. It will help enhance your research, analytical, team-working and report-writing skills, in addition to providing you with considerable knowledge of sources of information relating to global business and strategy.
Instructions
Assume that your team is a strategy consulting firm and the U.S. company you selected has requested your services to help them identify a foreign market for them to consider entering. The company may already be in some foreign markets, or exporting to them, but now they are considering making FDI in a new foreign market which offers the best potential and the lowest risk for their business.
(1) Select two countries (one has been assigned to your group, and the other one can be any country except for the ones that we have discussed in class) which seem to offer the greatest potential for your client.
(2) Assess the two countries’ attractiveness and risk for possible market entry by the client. Your country recommendation will be based on a detailed analysis of both countries in terms of their culture and political economy. For instance, your analysis may include:
- the type of political system and recent political development in the country that could
influence the economic and business environment of the country
- trade relations between U.S. and the country
- intellectual property rights protection
- current economic development
- infrastructure
- demographic trends
- cultural analysis (e.g., language, Hofstede cultural framework, and social stratification)
(3) Submit a hard copy of your group project report (5-6 pages, 12-point font, one-inch
single-spaced with double space between paragraphs) in class on Feb. 18.
(4) Present the key messages of your report to the class for 3-5 minutes on Feb.
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