Assignment: International Business Germany Country Research Paper
Details:
For this project, you need to write a comprehensive report on the business environment in a particular country. In your analysis, take the perspective of a U.S. investor or U.S.-based firm. The project objective is to develop an understanding of the business culture and the process of doing business in a foreign country. This will be a group project. Please form a group of up to three students.
This project is not designed to be a term paper in which the views of others are simply summarized. You are the analyst, and it is your job to integrate relevant information and to form your own opinions and views. And you will need to place yourself in the position of a manager responsible for expansion into a new country and business environment.
This project will require you to analyze data. Potential data sources for the project are available at the end of this assignment.
In order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the business environment in your country, each report must address the factors listed below. The analysis should cover the last five years, or as constrained by information limitations. The primary focus should be on more recent events (Present to 2 years).
1. Important Events and Country Background (General Background):
In this section your group should review general background information concerning your country (i.e., location, size, population, resources etc ...). This section should include a brief time-line of the main historical events. Basic economic and financial market issue should include such as issues as monetary policy, exchange rates, sovereign debt or defaults, or other import market background. This analysis should not exceed two pages.
Data source: CIA World Factbook.
2. Political Structure and Stability
Provide a brief description of your country's political structure and its stability. Discuss important recent political events and political risk ranking indicators. Do these recent events represent a structural change? Be sure to also carefully cover political risk ranking measures for your country. This analysis should not exceed three pages.
Data source: CIA World Factbook
3. Culture
Provide a brief description of your country's culture. Discuss important/dominant culture in that country using Hofstede' cultural dimension. Discuss how this culture influence business practice in that country.
Data source: Geert Hofstede's cultural dimension.
4. Doing Business Analysis
One of the key issues a firm has when it enters a new market is the ease of doing business in this new market. In this section provide a detailed analysis of the business environment in the country you have selected. This analysis should look at macro issues related to the legal framework, ease of entry into the market, and rules and regulations applying to foreign owned firms including ownership rules and repatriation of profits from the foreign country.
At the micro level examine the ease of starting a business, registering property, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, employing workers, and paying taxes. These factors interact for time and cost to start and run a business and help to shape the local business environment. Another set of important factors for the business environment are related to the legal and practical issue related to getting credit, protecting investors, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. As the main interest of this country analysis your group should consider the ease of trading across borders and international financial transactions.
Data source: Ease of Doing Business Indicator.
4. Part: Identify the risk of doing business in the selected country
Based on 1,2,3,4 what are expected risks when an American firm invests in the selected country.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also Include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.