Assessing Environmental Forces and Applying the SMART Model for International Business

Part A: Assessing Environmental Forces

Instructions

Part A: Assessing Environmental Forces

1.Conduct a preliminary assessment of geographic, social-cultural, political, legal, and economic factors that create international business opportunities or constraints facing the product or service that you have identified for your new international business.

2.Using the information you have collected above, identify five countries that you believe are potential targets for location of your business venture and briefly defend your selections.

Part B: Applying the SMART Model

Apply the Simple Multiple-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) model for the five countries that you have selected as potential locations for your new international business venture. This model requires you to determine key factors that will influence your decision, to assign values for each criteria for each country, and to compare them in a numerical matrix to indicate the “best fit” for your product or service.

1.Read the material in Appendix D: The SMART Model for Decision Making in Business.

2.Create a table and apply the SMART model. Select at least five important criteria that you identified in Part A of this assignment for the location of your international business venture. You should have a minimum of five criteria to apply the SMART model for each of the five to seven countries you identified.

3.Using the results of application of the SMART model and based on the above criteria, select two countries that you believe are good potential host countries for your international business and clearly explain why these countries have the best potential.

Part C: Selecting Two Countries for Review

Write a 1-page proposal to:

Select two countries for review. Explain your rationale.

Note

At this time, you are required to select two countries that you believe are appropriate for the location of your international business venture. For the remainder of the assignments (and in your Final Project), you will investigate these countries as part of the research and analysis for your international business venture. You may identify additional countries but will earn no extra marks for investigating more than two countries. If you feel you cannot limit your selection to two countries, you may discuss this with your Open Learning Faculty Member. Bear in mind that one of these countries will become the focus of the in-depth country profile you develop for your Final Project.

Part D: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges

Write a 2-page report to:

Summarize the information gathered in this assignment as it relates to forces influencing global business; briefly highlight the opportunities, challenges, and constraints for the potential success of internationalizing your product or service as they relate to the environmental forces in these countries.

Journal Reflection 1 (5%)

See the journal information sections on this overview tab for instructions, topics, and marking information.

Module 1 and Module 2 require your participation in the reflection topics listed in the discussion board of your course. At the end of Module 2, include a report of your reflections in assignment 2.

The journal reflection requires you to look back at your contributions and to reflect on your learning experience.
Consider the following reflective questions:

1.Did the reflection prompts/questions and the ideas and information you explored influence your understanding of or perspective on international business?
2.Did your ideas and views shift as you progressed through the course?
3.Did the contributions of other learners influence you and help enrich your knowledge of international business?
4.Did you agree with everything others posted on the discussion board?

Reviewing your journalling activity and contributions to the reflection prompts/questions of modules 1 and 2. The journal reflection requires you to look back at your contributions and to reflect on your learning experience. Document your best journal reflections. Also, you may include highlights from other activities and the course in general.

Consult the Journal Reflection Rubric file provided, and then assign yourself a mark.