Task:
This Major Assignment is in two parts and together creates a complete International Business Report.
This assessment item is Part 1 of this report.
Your task is to:
• Choose an organisation
• Select an overseas country of your choice
• Conduct a analysis of the macro environment (ie the economic, political, legal, cultural and ethical environment) that your chosen business would need to be aware of if they were going to "do business" in this country.
Most companies have websites from which you should be able to acquire sufficient information to address this assignment task. Students may choose to conduct this analysis on their current workplace organisation. However, if choosing your own organisation the country selected must not be one in which your company currently operates. If you are having trouble identifying an organisation for this report then please contact the lecturer who will be able to provide you with a choiceof companies based on case studies.
Note that you need to ensure that you refer to the theory covered in the topics 1 to 6 within your report and find additional relevant literature. This should not be a general descriptive report, but rather must be a report that explains the relevant theory relating to international business, as well as using it to analyse the environment. That is, when providing data on type of government or economic factors you should not just state the information but you should also explain how it is significant and why it is of interest/importance to your particular organisation.
Your assessment should be prepared in report style format and should include the following content:
• Executive summary of main findings of report
• Introduction to the report
• Brief company background including why it might consider overseas expansion
• Brief introduction to chosen country
• Economic Analysis
• Political & Legal Analysis
• Culture and Ethics
• Conclusions
• Reference list (in APA format)
Rationale:
This assessment has been designed in order to:
• assist you to develop and demonstrate your learning about the nature of international business and the importance of macro-environmental scanning and research;
• allow you to develop your information searching and critical thinking skills; and provide you with further experience in academic writing.
• be able to describe international business practices and discuss how they are being shaped by economic theories, financial, socio-cultural and political forces; with particular emphasis on the business practices of Australia's major trading partners;
• be able to identify general, and special problems, issues facing managers of international business operations
• be able to investigate different socio-cultural and ethical environments in the international arena and explain the implications for conducting business.