Assignment 2: The International Business Environment
Introduction
Your goal in Assignment 2 is to identify two or three countries for further analysis. In Module 2, you explored economic and socioeconomic, physical and environmental, socio-cultural, political, and legal forces and their influence on business. These are important forces to consider when expanding or establishing operations in a foreign country or investigating opportunities to target new markets in the global economy.
In Assignment 2, you will refer back to the learning activities you completed in Module 2, and use the lists and information you compiled in those activities to help you conduct research on the appropriate country/countries in which to establish your new business venture.
Instructions
Part A: Assessing Environmental Forces
1. Conduct a preliminary assessment of geographic, social-cultural, political, legal, and economic factors that create international business opportunities or constraints facing the product or service that you have identified for your new international business.
2. Using the information you have collected above, identify five countries that you believe are potential targets for the location of your business venture and briefly defend your selections.
Part B: Applying the SMART Model
Apply the Simple Multiple-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) model for the five countries that you have selected as potential locations for your new international business venture. This model requires you to determine key factors that will influence your decision, assign values for each criterion for each country, and compare them in a numerical matrix to indicate the “best fit” for your product or service.
1. Read the material in Appendix D: The SMART Model for Decision Making in Business (located on the Assignments Overview tab).
2. Create a table and apply the SMART model. Select at least five important criteria that you identified in Part A of this assignment for the location of your international business venture. You should have a minimum of five
criteria to apply the SMART model for each of the five to seven countries you identified.
3. Using the results of the application of the SMART model and based on the above criteria, select two countries that you believe are good potential host countries for your international business and clearly explain why these
countries have the best potential.
Part C: Selecting Two Countries for Review
Select two countries for review. Explain your rationale.
Note
At this time, you are required to select two countries that you believe are appropriate for the location of your international business venture. For the remainder of the assignments (and in your Final Project), you will investigate these countries as part of the research and analysis for your international business venture. You may identify additional countries but will earn no extra marks for investigating more than two countries. If you feel you cannot limit your selection to two countries, you may discuss this with your Open Learning Faculty Member. Bear in mind that one of these countries will become the focus of the in-depth country profile you develop for your Final Project.
Part D: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges
Summarize the information gathered in this assignment as it relates to forces influencing global business; briefly highlight the opportunities, challenges, and constraints for the potential success of internationalizing your product or service as they relate to the environmental forces in these countries.
