Demonstration of an understanding of the global context in the business environment

Instructions for assessment

The coursework assignment requires students to submit a 2500 word report by the above deadline. The basis for the report involves students being allocated a country in which they need to provide an assessment of the business environment prevailing in that country. Another important feature of the report is that it should be focused around a particular business organisation. Therefore, the report should essentially provide an analysis of a specific organisation, of the student’s choice, that may be looking to expand its business activities in relation to the particular country that they have been allocated. The scenario to be considered could either be concerned with the establishment of a company in the country or an expansion of its current operations within the country i.e. it should relate to a foreign direct investment decision. In addition to the final report, students should also submit a two-page (maximum, using 12 point font) plan for their report by the start of week 7 (by 2 pm Monday 19 March 2018), on which they will receive feedback, but this will not be part of the summative assessment.

Students will be randomly allocated a country that they should focus their report on (by drawing this from a container during the first seminar). They will also be required to focus their report around a specific organisation so that they can do demonstration of an understanding of the global context in the business environment. In particular, the report should be written from the perspective of a multinational company (of their own choosing) that is contemplating expanding their business operations within the country that they have been allocated. This could be viewed as a consultancy report for the company or one produced by a manager from the company itself.  An example of a relevant scenario would be a report based around the issues that would need to be considered by Waitrose if they were considering opening new stores in the United States. Although it is not necessary to provide great detail on the current operations of the organisation that you have chosen in your allocated country, because it is essentially a hypothetical scenario, a certain amount of discussion on this is useful. Further information is available in an updated

Frequently Asked Questions document on moodle. Students should have agreed with their seminar tutor which business organisation that they will base their report around by their seminar in week 4 at the latest (and ideally this should have been

done by the end of week 3). Moreover, students are encouraged to discuss and confirm their choices of company with their seminar tutor as early as possible in the semester. No changes should be made to the specific organisation on which the report will be written after week 4, neither can changes be made to the country that was initially allocated.

It is aimed that confirmation of the country and business organisation to be used in each student’s report will be posted on moodle during week 6. As a result, each scenario under consideration should be unique to a given student given that they will have chosen a business organisation that is of interest to them, within the context of the business environment that they have been allocated.