International Business
ASSIGNMENT 1 – The following business scenario that you will use is as follows:
Target, together with its subsidiaries, operates in the United States.
Target is considering global expansion into a specific country of your choice, and this global expansion will be the focus of your PowerPoint presentations from now thru week eight.
The present managers of Target have decided that it is time to plan for a Global expansion in 12 months. To help facilitate the transition over the next 12 months, the company leaders have hired YOU, a private consultant, to help them compile and analyze key business information needed for the global expansion event. Your job over the next 8 week is to help the business executives better understand the marketing, management, business ethics, global dimensions, accounting, financial, economic, legal, and strategy aspects of the country.
Note: – You are to use the same country throughout this entire project. Only provide the requested information in the instructions for each week. Wait to give your overall recommendation of whether Target should expand or not to the country of your choice until the final presentation in Week 8.
For Week 1, your assignment is to describe, discuss, and analyze the key business environment considerations for this new global expansion. Specifically, the corporate-level executives want you to choose one (1) country you think would be appropriate to expand to and give them an overview presentation. You will use this same country throughout the next 8 weeks for the presentations to management, so choose wisely.
You must develop a PowerPoint presentation for this Week 1 assignment that describes and analyzes the points below:
1. Currently, the company relies mostly upon US based sales, however, the executives would like you to recommend a market place outside the US, in order to gain international sales. Present a country that you believe would be advantageous to expand to and explain generally why. (use and incorporate concepts from chapter 1, 2, and 13).
2. What is the cultural environment, the political environment and the legal environment of the country you are considering expanding to? (use and incorporate the concepts from chapters 1,2, and 13. Hint – there is some info in regards to political and legal is chapter 4 if you wish to look ahead).
3. Incorporate at least one chart, graph or table into this presentation. (Don’t forget speaker notes explaining your graph/chart slide)
Length: 5-10 slides
· The first slide in the presentation should be the title page.
· The last slide(s) in the presentation should be the list of references you used for the assignment in APA format.
· Do not count title or reference slides towards the 5-10 slide requirement.
Speaker Notes: Have at a minimum 80-200 words for each slide in the Speaker Notes section of the PowerPoint slides. These speaker notes should thoroughly describe the details of the slide. Since we do not do formal presentations each week, the speaker notes should cover what you would say if you were presenting to a live audience.
Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style. Make sure your presentation follows good PowerPoint design principles (e.g., readable font, uses one template, one inch borders around the slides) and contains transitions, builds, and animation when appropriate.
In addition to the textbook material for this course (properly cited within the presentation), you must also use at least three (3) additional academic sources/references (these can be journals, articles, papers, books). Use the SPC on-line library to search for and obtain journal articles for this assignment. Websites and other non-academic references may be used if properly cited in APA format, but these supplemental references are not counted toward the requirement of at least three academic references.
Discussion 1
Original discussion thread post due by *Thursday (EST)*.
· Research a current event (i.e. newspaper article or other publication dated within the past 60 days, must be available publically online) that illustrates a concept from this weeks lesson. Be sure to use credible sources for this current event.
· Each original discussion post must be unique (i.e. different current events on the lesson concepts). Students should place a blank post in the discussion forum that demonstrates the lesson concept and current event in the title of the post early in the week to help reduce risk of repetition (come back to edit the body of the post before the deadline).
· Write an essay illustrating the lesson concept and explaining how it connects to your current event. This original post must contain a minimum of 300 words. Students must demonstrate critical thinking by paraphrasing the material into their own words (direct quotes should be used in a limited manner as this does not display critical thinking). All statements in the post that are not general knowledge should be cited to their source. Be sure to clearly relate the current event to the lesson concepts. Students may further synthesize this research relating to personal experiences. All citations should be in APA format with a reference listing at the bottom of the post in APA format (be sure to include a link to the website of your current event in the reference listing).
Assignment 2
Instructions
ASSIGNMENT W2A2
The management of Target looks at the selected marketplace recommendation (your selected country from Week 1) as a market potential to expand their operations. The managers believe that expansion into global markets may improve their quarterly performance in 12 months because the company would have greater market diversity. They would like specific information from you regarding any potential issues or considerations relative to expanding from an exclusive domestic market into a more global market.
For this assignment your requirement is to develop a PowerPoint presentation for management that describes, discusses, and analyzes the key business environment considerations below.
1. Discuss the economic characteristics of the selected market place you have chosen and determine if these charateristics will be either in favor or not in favor for the proposed expansion.
2. What ethical issues may Target be confronted with in the selected market place? How will we manage ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the recommended market place? What regulations will we face involving ethics and responsibility in the selected market place. (NOTE: ETHICS AND CSR ARE DIFFERENT ISSUES). Be sure you contrast the economic characteristics with any ethical issues. For example; an area might have the lowest cost but that is becasue they pay below market labor wages.
Length: 5-10 slides (with separate title and reference slide using APA format. Do not count title and reference slides towards the 5-10 slide requirement)
You are to have at least one chart, graph or table that supports your presentation.
Notes Length: Have at a minimum 80-200 words for each slide these notes should be in the Speaker Notes section of the PowerPoint slides and should cover what you would say if you were actually presenting to a live audience.
Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style. Make sure your presentation follows good PowerPoint design principles (e.g., readable font, uses one template, one inch borders around the slides) and contains transitions, builds, and animation when appropriate.
Assignment 3
Research the Balance of Payments (BOP) situation of the US from the period 2008 to 2018.
For this case, clearly identify the historical problem with BOP and provide potential solutions or ways to improve the BOP in the future from 2018 to 2028.
Consider influences such as US citizens, workers, businesses, investors and government as potential solutions. Focus on one area (example – investors) and provide clear solutions to how these improvements can be achieved through these influences based on research from the textbook and other recent quality academic sources.
Include who pays for the solutions you suggest in the implementation section, do not suggest some agency, identify specific groups and their demographics.
Content should be between 600 and 900 words with at least three references (the textbook should be one). You must use proper APA citations within the case for information that is not your own. Focus the scope of your response to align with concepts from chapters 3, 4 and 11 from the textbook.
It is my expectation that you use the case methodology outlined in the Case Response Expectations folder. Review information in this folder carefully. This methodology will help you to optimize your submission.
YOU MUST have all 8 sections of a case:
Introduction
Analysis
Related Assumptions
Alternatives/Solutions (must have at least 3)
Evaluation
Recommendation
Implementation
Conclusion
I highly recommend you outline each section clearly in your case. I expect you to come up with the specific problem statement and provide that in the intro. I also expect you to provide at least 3 clear and reasonable alternatives/solutions to your problem in the alternatives/solutions section.
A business case approach is required, and not a traditional academic paper. This implies short, directed paragraphs, with a strong structure. Use many headings and topic sentences for every paragraph.
APA format can be found in a number of web based help sites, including the SPC library page http://www.spcollege.edu/libraries/ or the Purdue Owl site https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ .
Discussion 2
Original discussion thread post due by *Thursday at 11:55PM (EST)*
· Research a current event (i.e. newspaper article or other publication dated within the past 60 days, must be available publically online) that illustrates a concept from this weeks lesson. Be sure to use credible sources for this current event.
· Each original discussion post must be unique (i.e. different current events on the lesson concepts). Students should place a blank post in the discussion forum that demonstrates the lesson concept and current event in the title of the post early in the week to help reduce risk of repetition (come back to edit the body of the post before the deadline).
· Write an essay illustrating the lesson concept and explaining how it connects to your current event. This original post must contain a minimum of 300 words. Students must demonstrate critical thinking by paraphrasing the material into their own words (direct quotes should be used in a limited manner as this does not display critical thinking). All statements in the post that are not general knowledge should be cited to their source. Be sure to clearly relate the current event to the lesson concepts. Students may further synthesize this research relating to personal experiences. All citations should be in APA format with a reference listing at the bottom of the post in APA format (be sure to include a link to the website of your current event in the reference listing).
Assignment 4
Instructions
W3A1
Consider the global operations of the tech giant Apple and make use of the concepts from this week in regards to International trade, Government Influence and Trade, and Cross-National Cooperation and Agreements. Write a case study report to the corporate level executives of Apple located in the US, regarding government intervention, protectionist policies and international agreements into a country of your choice that are expected in the period 2018 to 2020. What actions should Apple take in regards to these issues (hint – these actions should be your solutions in your case). Do not use the same country you pick for W3A2 assignment, pick a different country.
Content should be between 600 and 900 words with at least three references (the textbook should be one). Proper APA citations should be used throughout the case for information that is not your own. Focus the scope of your response to align with concepts from chapters 6, 7 and 8 from the textbook, as well as other outside research.
It is my expectation that you use the case methodology outlined in the Case Response Expectations folder in the Course Content. This methodology will help you to optimize your submission. YOU MUST have all 8 sections of a case:
Introduction
Analysis
Related Assumptions
Alternatives/Solutions
Evaluation
Recommendation
Implementation
Conclusion
I highly recommend you outline each section clearly in your case. I expect you to come up with the specific problem statement and provide that in the intro. I also expect you to provide at least 3 clear and reasonable alternatives/solutions to your problem in the alternatives/solutions section.
A business case approach is required, and not a traditional academic paper. Do NOT give the details and history. ONLY relate items regarding your recommendations for the future. This implies short, directed paragraphs, with a strong structure. Use many headings and topic sentences for every paragraph.
Assignment 5
Instructions
ASSIGNMENT W3A2
The management of Target realizes that they need to modernize their ideas regarding global expansion of the company. In order to make the company more competitive they need more information about the details of the global market. For this assignment your requirement is to develop a PowerPoint presentation where you describe, discuss, and analyze the aforementioned topics identified by the management.
Within the presentation you will include
1. Present the level of competitiveness in your selected country, include Land, Labor and Capital.
2. Discuss the main sectors of trade in your selected country. What trends are appearing and why?
3. Present and assess the trade and factor mobility in your selected country.
Length: 5-10 slides (The first slide in the presentation should be the title page. The last slide(s) in the presentation should be the list of references you used for the assignment in APA format. Do not count title/reference slides toward 5-10 requirement).
You are to have at least one chart, graph or table.
Notes Length: Have at a minimum 80-200 words for each slide these notes should be in the Speaker Notes section of the PowerPoint slides.
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