Using Porter's Diamond Model to analyze the competitive advantage of an international company

Task

The assignment requires you to use Porter’s diamond model as the theoretical framework to critically assess how the home nation [or specific geographic region]/local cluster of a internationally successful company enabled it to gain competitive advantage in international markets (please see the article by Michael Porter, ‘The Competitive Advantage of Nations’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 68 no. 2, 1990, 73-93’). You should choose the home cluster on which you base your analysis by picking ONE company that operates across several national markets from the Statista list.

In marking the script, we shall pay particular attention to the following five criteria (listed in order of importance):

1.Quality of research questions, arguments, and structures: are there research questions, arguments, and sound structures?

2.Framework and case: whether it follows Porter’s theoretical framework and extent to which the questions have been answered--to include, the scope of the answer (depth and breadth) and reasoning; and whether the question is answered in sufficient details within the limits of the word count.

3.Critical analysis: critical use and manipulation of a theory and data (all being of particular importance in the assignment) to analyse the case and explore the strengths and weaknesses of that analysis - with valid evidence providing support in a logical manner and to highlight the judgement you exercise.

4.Style, to include clarity of expression, organisation and structure.

The assignment is an Academic Essay, not a business report. We expect students to apply Porter’s cluster theory to explain the origin of your chosen firm’s competitive advantage. Essays that provided purely a description of the case organisation (no analysis) OR purely provide a description of the literature will attract low marks.

5.Format, to include all aspects of referencing, citation and layout (and other aspects identified in the assessment rubric). Use the Harvard referencing format.