Essay Planning: A major international business enterprise. This stage of the project requires you to select a major international business enterprise and examine its experience in the light of the concepts and theories within the unit. Details: The task is to create a Essay Plan as a way of building your research skills by adopting a systematic approach to the task. This involves library and electronic database searching, description and evaluation of a range of sources, brief summaries of material, and steps that will help you clarify and define the main issues relevant to the company that you select. This exercise will allow you to use your research sources to develop a viable plan for research. (The skills learnt here should be transferable to all other units you study). You MUST NOT write an essay for this stage of the assignment; brief notes are appropriate. You need to develop your research skills so that you can construct a research plan and creates notes that explain how the material in the listed chapters can be used to understand the experience of and challenges facing your selected company. Following these steps should help you complete Assignment One. Listed here as A-F for your convenience.
A. Identify a major international business enterprise Use the library data bases to be sure that you will be able to access and understand the materials you require for the project. You will need to consider several companies before making a final choice. A crucial consideration in your choice will be the extent to which the company chosen allows you to explore its experience using the concepts of this unit. Explain why you have chosen this company? Making at least 4 points. Some factors that might influence your choice are: · A firm's role in the global pattern of trade · Comparative and competitive advantage as they apply to the firm · Does its activity represent some aspect of New Trade Theory? If so examine the implications of such theory for its pattern of international businesses. · Theories of Foreign Direct Investment and the Eclectic Paradigm · Does the firm represent an example of the Stages Models of Internationalisation? · Its organisational form · Effects of and implications of culture, legal and economic systems in the countries in which the firm operates. · And other concepts or ideas from the relevant chapters of the Hill text. Once you have settled on a company you should list the main issues that are pertinent to this company and offer examples to illustrate. The emphasis that you give to international business concepts will be depend upon the relevance of each to the company that you have chosen. You need use your judgement here and that judgement needs to be informed by careful reading of the text and selected journal articles.
B. Search Library Catalogues Consult a range of catalogues including University of Canberra and the National Library of Australia (NLA). Data bases such as those for journals and companies (e.g. Global Mint). These will contain 3 * books, 3 * journal articles and 3 * reputable business magazines relevant to your chosen company and the generic international business issues that confront that company. For each of these sources you should also their full reference and include:
1. A few lines describing the relevance of each book to your research;
2. A direct quote from each journal article with proper citation; and
3. A few lines summarising the main argument of each business article.
C. Use quality items published on the internet: Find 3 sources that meet these criteria · It is authoritative · The site is clear about its own sources and reliability · It is up to date or provide material that most likely has not been published in other formats (e.g. refereed journals)
D. Progress so far - time to pause and reflect. What are the key issues confronting your international firm and its industry? Write a research question that captures these issues to investigate.
F. Plan for the Essay Now as the final step for the this Assignment One construct a plan with section headings, sub-headings, bullet points or phrases and short paragraphs that reflect your development of the essay and your line of argument up to this point. It needs to be more than a list of points; the reader should be able to discern clearly your line of argument from your plan. Allocate words next to each heading and subheading for a total value of 2000 words. An assessment evaluation sheet will be provided on the Moodle site. Read it for guidance on the presentation of your work. Check you have covered all the points in this sheet before you hand in the assignment. Take care to use correct citation methods: use Harvard Author/Date (Check the UC library site for full information on these methods).