MPM735 – International Business Management
Trimester 1, 2023
Assessment 1: 3000-word Individual Country Report
DUE DATE: Week 5 – Thursday 7th April 2023 at 8pm
PERCENTAGE OF FINAL GRADE: 35%
HURDLE DETAILS: None
ASSIGNMENT TYPE: Individual
Learning Outcome Details
|
Unit Learning Outcome (ULO) |
Graduate Learning Outcome (GLO) |
|
ULO 1: Undertake a systematic and critical evaluation of the external global business environment |
GLO 1 – Discipline Specific Knowledge GLO 4 – Critical Thinking GLO 8 – Global Citizenship |
Individual Country Report 3000-words (35%)
You will work on a real case study on Victorian wines and extending the market to Southeast Asia. More information and resources about the real case study will be provided in the unit site and discussed in class.
Your task will be to pick one country in Southeast Asia and do an extensive research and a write up on how to tap that market for our locally produced wines in Victoria. You should NOT be a citizen or resident of that country (otherwise you’ll be very familiar with that country and defeats the purpose of this activity for you to learn more about a new Southeast Asian country). Southeast Asia should include one of the countries in the list:
Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Vietnam
You will need to investigate relevant business environmental factors that may include the following (read Appendix 1 to see what to include). Below is a general list:
Economic factors
Political factors
Legal issues
The trade and investment environment
Foreign exchange issues
Financial factors
Cultural factors and challenges that it might pose
Once you consider the key factors, you will need to make a recommendation based on your findings as to whether the country is an attractive place to internationalise the product under consideration (i.e., wine produce from Victoria). You also need to discuss how you arrive at this conclusion.
So, what makes an excellent quality assignment:
It is based on high quality research and your ability to present a vast amount of information succinctly and in a convincing way.
You have reliable and trustworthy sources of information (business information sources such as government reports, World Bank, International Trade Organisation, EIU, Datamonitor etc, business databases such as Proquest, Business Source Premier, academic journal articles, textbooks, please don’t use Wikipedia or ChatGPT or dubious references, or no name references from strange websites).
How well you use these resources to support your arguments. In particular, the quality and reliability of your statistical data to support your arguments are very important.
Your information is realistic, relevant, and timely.
The information is specific to the product chosen.
You have adequately referenced, and you have used the Harvard referencing system to acknowledge your sources of information (both in-text and as a reference list at the end).
Your final report doesn’t exceed 3000 words in total (but this can exclude – title page, references, within text tables and appendices).
It should be in a professionally written report format. Your report should be typed, double spaced, 12-point font, and has headings (further information on report format is provided below).
Your individual country report (3000 words) must follow the following format:
Title page – succinct title not exceeding 15 words; Name and student ID; Trimester and year.
Executive summary- 1 page (no less no more): The executive summary must address:
What is the country examined?
What are the main findings? You can summarise the factors considered
What is/are the main recommendation/s?
Introduction: (300 words approx)
In this section you need to briefly introduce the product and explain why you are considering your specific country for internationalising this product. You need to draw on your information from credible sources for the country and product.
Research, Data analysis and Results (2400 words approx)
You will need to undertake original research; collect data on various indicators of the factors that you have identified as being critical for your country and product, for say, the last 5 years. Your literature and readings will inform you on the relevant data and where you can get these from. In this section you need to describe your data carefully, how it is analysed and what you found. This is a substantial task. Data sources include secondary statistics from a number of credible sources including the websites of governments, industry bodies and international organisations such as World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank, World Economic Forum (WEF), International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations, World Governance Indicators and so on. DFAT, country, EIU Economic Intelligence Unit, KPMG, EY, Deloitte prepare country reports.
You are required to analyse recent trends and developments from your data and draw conclusions as to whether the different factors constitute a threat for your product. For example, you might find that corruption is rampant in your country of choice, but recent trends indicate a major improvement, or that regulations on trade have deteriorated in recent years.
Conclusion: (300 words approx)
In this section you summarise your main findings from your analysis and present your recommendations. Do you recommend entry into this market or not?
References: 15-20 references
Tables and Figures: Add these if they add value and can support your claims. However, only limit to up to 5 tables and figures.
Submission Instructions
You are to submit your assignment in the Assignment Dropbox in the unit site on or before the due date.
When uploading your assignment, name your document using the following syntax: <Assignment1_MPM735.doc (or ‘.docx’)
Submitting a hard copy of this assignment is not required.
You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked assignment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced, you will need to submit your backup copy.
Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.
When you submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment Dropbox folder after upload, and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.
Marking and feedback
The marking rubric for this task is available in the unit site.
It is always a useful exercise to familiarise yourself with the criteria before completing any assessment task. Criteria act as a boundary around the task and help identify what assessors are looking for specifically in your submission. The criteria are drawn from the unit’s learning outcomes ensuring they align with appropriate graduate attribute/s.
Identifying the standard you aim to achieve is also a useful strategy for success and to that end, familiarising yourself with the descriptor for that standard is highly recommended.
Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on CloudDeakin 15 working days after the submission date.
Extensions
There will be no extensions granted unless there are exceptional and most unusual circumstances outside the student’s control.
Students who require a time extension should lodge an extension request for assessment and evaluation.
Late submission
The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an assessment task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than five days after the due date will not be marked and will receive 0% for the task.
‘Day’ means working day for paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date.
Calculation of the late penalty is as follows: this is based on the assignment being due on a Thursday
1 day late: submitted after 8pm on Thursday but before 8pm Friday – 5% penalty.
2 days late: submitted after 8pm Friday but before Saturday 8pm – 10% penalty.
3 days late: submitted after 8pm Saturday on due date but before Sunday 8pm – 15% penalty.
4 days late: submitted after 8pm Sunday on due date but before Monday 8pm – 20% penalty.
5 days late: submitted after 8pm Monday on due date but before Tuesday 8pm – 25% penalty.
Support
The Division of Student Life (see link below) provides all students with editing assistance. Students who wish to take advantage of this service must be organized and plan ahead and contact the Division of Student Life in order to schedule a booking, well in advance of the due date of this assignment. http://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/administrative-divisions/student-life
Referencing
Any material used in this assignment that is not your original work must be acknowledged as such and appropriately referenced. You can find information about plagiarism and other study support resources at the following website: http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support
Academic misconduct
For information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide in the Resources area of the CloudDeakin unit site.
Appendix 1 – Country Factors you could use to base Assignment 1 on:
Economic factors
Economic policy of the Government
GDP & GDP Growth (Trend)
Per capita income (Trend)
CPI (Trend)
Inflation (Trend)
Unemployment (Trend)
Infrastructure
Political Factors
Type of Government
Government structure and how it operates
International relations with other countries
Political risk associated with the country
Level of corruption
Legal Factors
Legal system and how it works
Government rules and regulations for establishing a foreign business
Ownership of business, land and office
Labour/employment law
Trade and Investment (FDI) environment
Tariffs – relevant (if any)
Current Account (Trend)
Trading partners and key imports and exports
Trade agreements
History of FDI in the country
Inflow /outflow amounts/where it comes from
Industry access for the Company
Government rules and regulations concerning FDI
Government incentives or any special economic zones
Foreign Exchange Issues
Type of Exchange Rate System
Currency (trend data)
Finance
Banking system and types of banks there
Access to finance (refers to Foreign Company’s access to finance in country)
Interest Rates
Repatriation of profit regulations
Taxation rules
Culture
Key values/traditions
How business is done in the country
Hofstede’s dimensions on the country in comparison to Australia
Holidays
Language and communication styles
Religion
END OF DOCUMENT