Internationalisation Path of L’Oréal: Key Milestones, Value Chain Activities, and Global Strategy

Defining Internationalisation as a Process

1. Critically examine:
2. L’Oréal’s international growth and its motivations (15 marks).

In this answer students are expected to define internationalisation as a process and to show critical understanding of company’s growth motivation; students are expected to support their discussion with reference to the relevant theoretical frameworks (Uppsala framework/ OLI paradigm) and up-to-date, reliable sources of evidence.

L’Oréal’s pattern of growth in term of mode of entry and geographical entrance (20 marks).

In this answer students are expected to examine key milestones of international growth and brand acquisition, critically analyse company’s geographical presence and its change over time; students are expected to support their discussion with evidence from the relevant journal articles, up-to-date, reliable sources of evidence.

’Oréal’s value chain activities. Can you observe any changes in their value chain configuration in the last decade? (15 marks).

In this answer students are expected to critically examine changes in company’s primary and secondary value chain activities over the last decade; students are expected to support their discussion with up-to-date, reliable sources of evidence.

1. Advantages of the current internationalisation strategy adopted by the company (15 marks).

In this answer students are expected to examine company’s current internationalisation strategy, the importance of global-local balance and universalisation; examine the advantages of such strategy and support your discussion with up-to-date, reliable sources of evidence.

2. Can you think of any potential threats L’Oréal may face in the future? How might they respond to such threats? (20 marks)

In this answer students are expected to examine potential threats the company might face in the future. These could be related to, but not exclusive, to supply chain disruption, competitive pressures or ongoing pandemic pressures. Students are expected to propose a potential response to identified threats and to support their discussion with up-to-date, reliable sources of evidence.

3. Evidence of the evaluation of the literature and data sources (15 marks).

This should be presented as one-paragraph reflection (before the Conclusions section) on the use of the source of evidence in the essay. Students are expected to reflect on the quality of the evidence and examples used.

The individual assignment is expected to cover the following issues:

• Identification of international business strategies adopted in the context of the examples explored in the essay;
• Clear reference to literature on theories/approaches to internationalisation;
• Identification of motivations, mode of entry and geographical presence and clear references;
• Identification of value chain activities and future risks and clear references;
• Reference to examples/illustrations (either based on reliable, reputable and relevant secondary sources information) to show the process as to how the different approaches to international strategy and practices work.

An essay (of no more than 2,000 words, plus/minus 10 per cent, excluding References) should demonstrate the knowledge and critical understanding of the literature on the key aspects of international business strategy. Students should demonstrate a critical understanding of the external/internal contexts within which international businesses operate. The essay is designed to test the conceptual, analytical and written communication skills of the students.

The essay structure should clearly outline an introduction, main argument, conclusions and well as the evidence of the evaluation of the literature and data sources.

An introduction to an essay should address itself directly to the question or topics you have been asked to discuss.

The main section of the essay should outline the argument(s) that describe your response to an essay question. It might be an idea or a notion which explores in a discursive manner. In this case the order of the topics being examined forms the structure of the essay argument. The conclusion of an essay should draw together all the previous points of your argument into one general statement, which is then directly related to the essay topic or the question you have been answering.

Students are required to show evidence of an extensive use of various well established and reputable literature sources (i.e. journal articles, books and other reliable, reputable and relevant sources of information).