A comparative country fact-book involves, both country and industrial levels of application of Porter’s diamond model and relevant theories taught in this module to understand competitive advantage

A Comparative Country Fact-book: 3000 words

Assignment Brief:

A comparative country fact-book involves, both country and industrial levels of application of Porter’s diamond model and relevant theories taught in this module to understand competitive advantage for the countries in their specific industries.

Firstly, you need to choose one specific industry or sector with any two countries which has competitive advantages for this industry/ sector (e.g. automotive manufactory sector in China and India). The countries you select can be a developed, still developing or an emerging economy, however the information about the chosen countries and industry/sector should be publicly available in English. Collect required secondary data about these countries and the industry/sector operation in the world from valid sources such as Global Competitiveness Report, Economist Intelligence Unit, Human Development Report of OECD, industry databases, academic journal articles (e.g. Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of World Business) or government official reports. Use this collected data about the countries and industry to discuss:

A)   Industry cluster: analysis of the chosen industry

B)   Overview of the countries’ performance in the chosen industry

C)   Determinants of the countries’ competitiveness: analysis of national competitive advantages with their endowments; macro-economic conditions; micro-economic conditions and relevant institutional and resource factors via Porter’s diamond model

D)   Recommendations for competitiveness.

You need to enrich these factual data from the countries and industry with relevant theoretical discussions (e.g. national business system; theory of comparative advantage; corporate governance) and apply them with Porter’s diamond framework which involves 6 elements: demand conditions; related and supporting industries; factor conditions; firm strategy structure and rivalry; government and chance. For example, you should discuss what theory says about the specific situation (e.g. national business system) in your chosen two countries and how it might help the countries to gain the competitive advantages, operating this specific industry differently. Along with some potential issues or weakness of the countries, assess and suggest recommendations for this specific industry in the countries to compete in the global market.