Trident BUS401 full course (all case and SLPs)

Module 1 - Case

THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Assignment Overview

Walmart has recently announced plans for expansion to China. Already a retail giant in the United States, they now hope to tap into a growing and potentially lucrative new market. However, such expansion is not without risks. Doing business in China is a much different environment than doing business in the United States for a wide variety of reasons. China is not a democracy, it is a one-party state that enforces strict restrictions on the press and on the Internet. Corruption is also a big concern among businesses that invest in China.

Furthermore, the Chinese government has announced plans for a series of ambitious new reforms that add to the level of uncertainty and may change the business environment for international firms. These reforms include an increasingly high profile crackdown on corruption, reforms in regulations that impact the role of state-owned enterprises, freedom of migration to large cities, a decreasing role of state-owned enterprises, and many other reforms that may significantly change the business environment in China.

Read the following three articles and do some of your own additional research on Walmart and the new environment in China:

Best, D. (Oct. 24, 2013). China: Walmart emphasizes plan to still expand in China. Just - Food Global News. [Available in ProQuest]

Evans-Pritchard, A. (Nov. 16, 2013). China strides towards free market future. The Daily Telegraph. [Available in ProQuest]

China's Third Plenum: A Primer (Nov. 8, 2013) Voice of America News [Available in ProQuest]

China's Bolsters Corruption Crackdown (Dec 13, 2012). Voice of America News / FIND. [Available in ProQuest]

Case Assignment

After researching these issues, write a 4- to 5-page paper answering the following question:

· How will the new reforms in China impact the success of Walmart's expansion plans?

In your answer, consider the following issues:

A. The risks involved in expanding to China—include political and legal risks as part of your answer along with other risks that you think may be relevant.

B. How specific aspects of China's reform plans and political changes will impact the business environment that Walmart will face. Include proposed regulatory reforms and the recent crackdown on corruption in China as part of your answer.

C. The potential benefit of Walmart's expansion to China.

Helpful Tips:

· First read in-depth the background materials for Module 1.

· Identify key concepts in the background materials, write a list, and study them.

· Read the case in-depth and conduct additional research, if necessary.

· Develop arguments by applying the concepts of international business from the background materials to Walmart's expansion plan in China.

Assignment Expectations

· Answer the assignment questions directly.

· Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.

· List supporting references and cite sources in proper format. See this link for Trident's basic writing guidelines: Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper.

Module 1 - SLP

THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

For your SLP this session you will first need to pick a country that you are interested in. For each module, you will examine a different aspect of doing business in this country of your choice.

For SLP 1, you will be looking at the institutional environment of your country of choice. This will include various legal and regulatory requirements in this country faced by businesses, the political system in this country, and other factors such as corruption.

The World Bank has being doing an extensive study of the ease of doing business. Their “Doing Business” annual report is available on ProQuest and at the doingbusiness.org webpage. This will give you a pretty detailed picture of various aspects of the institutional environment in your country.

In addition to the Doing Business report, use at least one other source. For example, Transparency International does an annual report on corruption around the world. The World Bank also publishes a set of Worldwide Governance Indicators including indices of political stability, rule of law, and several other institutional factors that may impact doing business in a country. These are just suggestions, you may find other sources as well.

Once you are doing your research on the country of your choice, write a 2- to 3-page paper covering the following issues:

1. The overall picture of how easy it is to do business in this country.

2. Type of government and level of political stability.

3. The legal/regulatory system in this country and whether or not it is conducive to doing business.

4. The impact of corruption on doing business in this country.

Remember, this is NOT a term paper due at the end of the course. Rather, this is done module by module.

SLP Assignment Expectations

· Select a country for your SLP.

· Discuss the legal and political environment in this country and how it impacts doing business.

· Use the World Bank’s Doing Business report on your country and at least one other source as part of your research on this country.

Module 2 - Case

THE FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Assignment Overview

DirecTV is one of the largest providers of satellite television in the world. It is a U.S.-based corporation but has subsidiaries throughout Latin America in countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela.

Latin America is volatile part of the world with issues of political strife and often extreme economic fluctuations. Inflation and currency exchange rates are often especially volatile in this part of the world. DirecTV Latin America even filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003 due to its many woes from the unrest and economic hardship in this part of the world. The company is currently doing much better but still faces a lot of risks.

Using the online library, do some research on DirecTV and its operations in Latin America. Here are a some articles to get you started:

Ramachandran, S. (Feb. 14, 2013). DirecTV Profit Rises on Latin America Growth. Wall Street Journal (Online),New York, NY [Available in ProQuest]

Yao, D. (Feb 25, 2014). DIRECTV faces currency devaluation risks in Venezuela. SNL Kagan Media & Communications Report [Available in ProQuest]

Case Assignment

After researching DirecTV and reviewing the background materials on international financial management, write a 4- to 5-page paper addressing the following questions:

1. What major political events in Latin America are the biggest threat to DirecTV’s financial performance? What steps can be taken to protect against these risks?

2. What major international financial or economic risks in Latin American economies should DirecTV’s financial management team worry about the most? What can they do to hedge against these risks?

3. What major business risk from international competitors do you think DirecTV might face? What can it do to protect against these risks?

Assignment Expectations

· Answer the assignment questions directly.

· Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.

Module 2 - SLP

THE FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Do some research on the currency and banking situation in your country.

We normally think of currency and banking risks as being something confined to third-world or developing countries. But events in the past few years such as the Euro crisis or the financial crisis in the United States have shown that not even the wealthy, developed countries are without risks on the financial side. So it is important for any company doing business in your country to carefully consider the risks that they face.

After you’ve done some research about financial issues in your country, write a 2- to 3-page paper covering the following issues:

1. The currency of your country. Is it stable? Does the exchange rate fluctuate a lot?

2. The banking system in your country. How safe is this system? Any recent banking crisis in your country?

3. Overall does the financial system in your country make it easy or difficult to do business? What kind of steps would you recommend for a company doing business in your country to hedge or minimize its financial risks?

SLP Assignment Expectations

· Continue to write about the country you selected in Module 1.

· Write 2–3 pages focused on issues 1–3 above.

· Try not to rely on just one source—use multiple sources from the library if possible.

· Use appropriate writing style (organization, grammar, and spelling—see writing guidelines) and include both a bibliography and in-text citations.

odule 3 - Case

THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Assignment Overview

The number one semiconductor company in the world, Applied Materials, recently merged with the world's number three semiconductor company, Tokyo Elecktron. The stock prices of both companies went up significantly after the merger was announced, which shows that investors welcome this move that may create synergies and help both companies battle declining revenues in the semiconductor industry. However, even though there are potential benefits to this merger in terms of operational synergies, the human side of a merger can often be difficult. Furthermore, Japanese and American cultures are widely perceived as being extremely different from each other, which may add to the difficulties in managing the human side of this merger.

For this assignment, review the following two articles and do some of your own research on these two companies:

McClatchy, S. (Sep 2013) Applied Materials to merge with Tokyo Electron, Tribune News Service, Washington [Available on ProQuest]

Negishi, M. (Sep 2013) Deal-shy Tokyo Electron chief pushed for sale to Applied Materials; Tetsuro Higashi's decision was based on experience watching Japanese peers flounder, Wall Street Journal(Online), New York, N.Y [Available on ProQuest]

Case Assignment

Once you've finished researching these companies and reviewing some of the key concepts of cross-cultural management in the background materials, write a 4- to 5-page paper answering the following questions:

1. What do you think the biggest challenge in terms of cross-cultural management will be in the merger of these two companies? Remember to consider the issue of differences in national cultural values between Japan and the United States.

2. What steps do you recommend be taken to help ease cultural differences between the two companies?

Assignment Expectations

· Answer the assignment questions directly.

· Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.

Module 3 - SLP

THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

For your Module 3 SLP, find out as much as you can about the national culture of your country. A good place to start is Hofstede’s indices on national culture:

http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

No need to consider all six dimensions of national culture, but pay close attention to individualism and power distance.

Keep in mind that it is controversial to try to quantify national culture, so don’t rely only on Hofstede for this paper. Do some additional research and try to find additional information about the cultural aspects of doing business in your country.

Then write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing the following issues:

1. What do Hofstede’s measures of national culture tell you about doing business in your country?

2. What other information besides Hofstede have you been able to find about culture in your country? How does this impact doing business?

3. Overall, does the national culture of your country make it easy or difficult to do business? What cultural pitfalls might an American company investing in your country face?

SLP Assignment Expectations

· Continue to write about the country you selected in Module 1.

· Write 2–3 pages focused on issues 1–3 above.

· Try not to rely on just one source—use multiple sources from the library if possible.

· Use appropriate writing style (organization, grammar, and spelling—see writing guidelines) and include both a bibliography and in-text citations.

Module 4 - Case

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Assignment Overview

Arik Air is one Nigeria’s largest airlines and one of the largest airlines in all of Africa. Its employment situation is a bit unique in that close to 10 percent of its employees are expatriates. Recruiting and retaining expatriates to work as pilots or other positions in Nigeria can require higher salaries than are typically paid to local workers. However, disparities in wages between expatriates and local employees can lead to resentment. Overall, the human resource situation for a company that operates globally and hires globally such as Arik Air can be quite complicated.

Do some research on Arik Air and the human resource situation in Nigeria. Below are a few articles to get you started:

Arik Air customer base soars (Jan. 31, 2014). AllAfrica.com. Washington. [Available in ProQuest]

Nigeria loses N500 billion annually to expatriate pilots. (Jan. 24, 2014). AllAfrica.com [Washington] 24 Jan 2014.

Fajana, S., Owoyemi, O., Elegbede, T., & Gbajumo-Sheriff, M. (2011). Human resource management practices in Nigeria. Journal of Management and Strategy, 2(2), 57.

Now suppose that Arik Airlines has been purchased by an American company, which now has to develop a plan to address the issue of hiring and maintaining a well-qualified pilot staff and making all of Arik’s employees feel welcome under the new American parent company. Also, suppose that you have been tasked with coming up with a solid human resource plan for the new American owners of Arik Air. You need to make major decisions such as how much to rely on local staff, how much to rely on employees from the United States or other countries, and how to deal with the sensitive issue of how an American company manages local employees who may be resentful of their new owner. In order to do this, you will need to use what you’ve learned in the background materials in this module as well as what you’ve learned in the previous modules about assessing the local environment of a country.

Case Assignment

In a 4- to 5-page paper, present a strategic human resource plan considering the following issues:

1. The economic/political environment in Nigeria—how will this influence the difficulty in hiring local staff or recruiting expatriates to come work in Nigeria? How will this influence your strategy?

2. Nigeria’s national culture—what implications will cultural differences between the United States and Nigeria have on your strategic plan? What difficulties do you anticipate, and how do you propose to deal with them?

3. How much should the American company rely on local pilots and managers vs. expatriate pilots and managers? Keep the issue of potential local resentment of expatriates in mind.

Remember that your paper should reflect an integration of both what you learned in the background materials about the key general aspects of international human resource management, and what you’ve specifically learned about the unique issues involved in managing human resources in an airline in Nigeria. Your task is to apply the background materials to the specific issues that would be faced by an American company if it were to purchase Arik Air.

Assignment Expectations

· Answer the assignment questions directly.

· Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.

Module 4 - SLP

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

This SLP will focus on human resources and human resource strategies, policies, and practices that may impact on the ease of doing business in your country.

Find out as much as you can about the human resource situation in your country. For example, how well educated is the workforce? What is the unemployment rate like? Also, try to find out as much as you can about labor regulations or common human resource practices in your country. For example, some countries have greater unionization than others. Some countries also have strong restrictions against worker dismissals.

In addition to looking for articles about human resources in your country, international organizations such as the World Bank or the OECD have data on some indicators of education and/or labor market regulations. Doingbusiness.org also includes information about labor market regulations and minimum wages, and some advocacy groups such as the Fraser Institute or the Heritage Foundation publish “economic freedom” reports that include labor market regulation information on each country.

When you have finished researching the human resource situation in your country, write a 2- to 3-page paper addressing the following issues:

1. The general skill and education level of the country.

2. The types of labor market regulation that exists in your country, such as minimum wages, or ease of dismissing workers.

3. Your overall assessment of the human resource situation in your country. Feel free to include other issues besides labor market regulations or education if you find anything relevant in your research.

SLP Assignment Expectations

· Continue to write about the country you selected in Module 1.

· Write 2–3 pages focused on issues 1–3 above.

· Try not to rely on just one source—use multiple sources from the library if possible.

· Use appropriate writing style (organization, grammar, and spelling—see writing guidelines) and include both a bibliography and in-text citations.

Module 5 - Case

INTERNATIONAL MARKET SELECTION AND MARKET ENTRY

Assignment Overview

Zipcar is a highly successful new company specializing in a brand-new model for automobile rental services, allowing their customers long-term and flexible access to shared vehicles on a daily or hourly basis. Zipcar's innovative model allows those who sign up for their membership services to share cars with other members on a flexible basis, creating a cost effective alternative to car ownership. Since its founding in 2000, it has grown to become a major player in the U.S. automobile rental market and has expanded internationally to Canada, the U.K., Spain, and Austria, and offers rental services to almost 1 million customers.

Read the following two articles and do some of your own additional research on Zipcar:

Zipcar expands in Sacramento becoming 26th major metro market: Based on strong demand, Zipcar increases number of vehicles, will open office (Nov. 6, 2013) PR Newswire (available on ProQuest)

Esswein, P. M. (July, 2011). Zipcar: Robin Chase. Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 65, 1 (available on ProQuest)

Zipcar, Inc.; Zipcar acquires leading car sharing service in Austria, CarSharing.at. (July 25, 2012).Mergers & Acquisitions Week , 196. (available on ProQuest)

Case Assignment

Now suppose you have been hired by Zipcar to come up with an international strategic plan. Write a 4- to 5-page strategic plan for Zipcar that addresses the following issues:

1. What country or countries should Zipcar enter next beyond the five countries they already operate in? Explain your reasoning for this selection based on criteria from the background materials.

2. What mode of entry should Zipcar use to enter the country or countries that you chose? For example, should it use a joint venture, franchising, a greenfield strategy, something else?

Assignment Expectations

· Answer the assignment questions directly.

· Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don't go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.

Module 5 - SLP

INTERNATIONAL MARKET SELECTION AND MARKET ENTRY

For this final SLP, you will be doing research on what kind of strategies American companies have taken in investing in the country that you chose for Module 1.

Locate at least one American company that operates in the country you selected in Module 1. Find out as much as you can about this company, with special attention on the strategies they took in entering this country and the experiences that they faced.

In a 2- to 3-page paper, cover the following issues:

1. How did this company enter this country? What strategies did they use?

2. What kind of experiences did they have in this country—positive and negative?

3. What additional strategies do you recommend for this company in this country?

SLP Assignment Expectations

· Continue to write about the country you selected in Module 1.

· Write 2–3 pages focused on issues 1–3 above; no need to devote a lot of space to general background information.

· Try not to rely on just one source—use multiple sources from the library if possible.

· Use appropriate writing style (organization, grammar, and spelling—see writing guidelines) and include both a bibliography and in-text citations.