| Submission method: | All written assessments, where practical and possible, must be submitted via Turnitin unless otherwise instructed by the Lecturer. (Please DO NOT put this assessment specification into Turnitin or it will match many similarities with other students’ submissions.)
Alternative submission method (if applicable): Late submission of the assessment will result in a late penalty mark. Penalties for late submission: Up to one week late, maximum mark of 50%. Over one week late, 0%. Only the Extenuating Circumstances Panel may approve a change to submission dates. |
| Academic honesty / referencing: | Academic honesty is required. In the main body of your submission you must give credit to authors on whose research and ideas your work is based. Append to your submission a reference list that indicates the books, articles, etc. that you have used, cited or quoted in order to complete this assessment. |
The assignment requires students to analyze critically, through the application of relevant international business tools and frameworks, the process that companies go through in analyzing; entering and engaging with foreign markets together with any potential risks or opportunities involved. The research topic is expanding Starbucks brand in Ukraine.
| Module Learning Outcomes
(from module syllabus) |
|
| TASK DESCRIPTION |
| BACKGROUND /INTRODUCTION |
The assignment requires students to analyze critically, through the application of relevant international business tools and frameworks, the process that companies go through in analyzing; entering and engaging with foreign markets together with any potential risks or opportunities involved.
| TASKS |
You are required to;
- Select a business organization of your choice that is already involved in a foreign market or is contemplating on entering a foreign market.
- The selected business organization must be agreed with your lecturer
- Critically evaluate through the use of relevant business tools and frameworks the suitability of the foreign market selected.
- Analyze any actual or potential risks in the foreign market selected.
- Critically analyze the mode of entry utilized/or to be utilized by the chosen company to suitably realize the opportunities available and overcome the risks in the foreign market selected.
- Critically analyze relevant management responses that have been undertaken by the selected company to realize the opportunities offered in the market selected (including the management of its human resources; operational function; marketing and cross-cultural issues).
- Please suggest practical and justified recommendations about how the company selected can achieve/or could achieve competitive advantage in the market selected.
- Prepare an academic report using the structure below;
| · Title Page |
| · Table of Contents |
| · Executive summary-Not more than 200 words (does not count towards the overall word count) |
| · Introduction |
| · Literature review |
| · Discussion and analysis |
| · Conclusions |
| · Recommendations |
| · References |
| · Bibliography |
| · Appendix-use sparingly |
| GUIDANCE FOR Students IN THE COMPLETION OF TASKS |
NOTE: The guidance offered below is linked to the five generic assessment criteria overleaf.
- Engagement with Literature Skills
Your work must be informed and supported by scholarly material that is relevant to and focused on the task(s) set; you should make use of scholarly reviews and primary sources, as appropriate (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline). You should provide evidence that you have accessed a wide range of sources, which may be academic, governmental and industrial; these sources may include academic journal articles, textbooks, current news articles, organizational documents, and websites. You should consider the credibility of your sources; academic journals are normally highly credible sources while websites require careful consideration/selection and should be used sparingly. Any sources you use should be current and up-to-date, mostly published within the last five years or so, though seminal/important works in the field may be older. You must provide evidence of your research/own reading throughout your work, using correctly a suitable referencing system, including in-text citations in the main body of your work and a reference list at the end of your work.
Guidance specific to this assessment: A critical review of contemporary academic literature on the concepts and frameworks related to foreign market analysis; choice of the mode of entry and related management interventions from a range of academic sources. All sources consulted should be fully referenced.
- Knowledge and Understanding Skills
At level 7, you should be able to demonstrate systematic understanding of knowledge, and a critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights, much of which is at, or informed by, the forefront of your academic discipline, field of study or area of professional practice, with a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to your own research or advanced scholarship. Your work must demonstrate your growing mastery of these concepts, principles, current challenges, innovation and insights associated with the subject area. Knowledge relates to the facts, information and skills you have acquired through your learning. You demonstrate your understanding by interpreting the meaning of the facts and information (knowledge). This means that you need to select and include in your work the contemporary concepts, techniques, models, theories, etc. appropriate to the task(s) set. You should be able to explain the theories, concepts, etc. meaningfully to show your understanding. Your mark/grade will also depend upon the extent to which you demonstrate your knowledge and understanding; ideally each should be complete and detailed, with comprehensive coverage.
Guidance specific to this assessment: The level of demonstration of knowledge in the explanation; the grasp of the concepts/theories or models discussed and their application in relation to the case study selected;
- Cognitive and Intellectual Skills
You should be able to: evaluate critically current research and advanced scholarship in the discipline; evaluate methodologies and develop critiques of them and, where appropriate, to propose new hypotheses; deal with complex issues both systematically and creatively to make sound judgements in the absence of complete data. Your work must contain evidence of logical, analytical thinking, evaluation and synthesis. For example, to examine and break information down into parts, make inferences, compile, compare and contrast information. This means not just describing what! But also justifying: Why? How? When? Who? Where? At what cost? At all times, you must provide justification for your arguments and judgements. Evidence that you have reflected upon the ideas of experts within the subject area is crucial to you providing a reasoned and informed debate within your work. Your choice of methodologies to gather data and information must be rigorously defended. Furthermore, you should provide evidence that you are able to make sound judgements and convincing arguments using data and concepts. Sound, valid, persuasive conclusions are necessary and must be derived from the content of your work. Where relevant, alternative solutions and recommendations may be proposed.
Guidance specific to this assessment: A critical analysis; evaluation and synthesis of the relevant concepts/frameworks of internationalization/globalization in relation to the case study selected must be demonstrated.
- Practical Skills
At level 7, you should be able to demonstrate originality in the application of knowledge, together with a practical understanding of how established techniques of research and enquiry are used to create and interpret knowledge in the discipline. This includes acting autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level, originality in tackling and solving problems, and decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts or situations.
You should be able to demonstrate mastery of the leading edge subject-related concepts and ideas as they relate to real world situations and/or particular contexts. How do they work in practice? You will deploy models, methods, techniques, and/or theories, in those contexts or circumstances, to assess current situations, perhaps to formulate plans or plausible, justifiable recommendations to solve problems, or to propose new models, or to create artifacts, which may be innovative and creative, thereby demonstrating your understanding of how the boundaries of knowledge are advanced through research and/or application. This is likely to involve, for instance, the use of real world artifacts, examples and cases, the application of a model within an organization and/or bench marking one theory or organization against others.
Guidance specific to this assessment: A critical application of the relevant tools; frameworks and international business strategies to provide solutions to the potential challenges or take advantage of available opportunities for the case study selected.
- Transferable Skills for Life and Professional Practice
Your work must provide evidence of the qualities and transferable skills necessary for postgraduate-level employment in circumstances requiring sound judgement, personal responsibility and initiative in complex and unpredictable professional environments. This includes demonstrating: the independent learning ability for continuing professional development to advance existing skills and acquire new competences of a professional nature that will enable you to assume significant responsibility within organizations; that you can initiate and complete tasks, projects and procedures, whether individually and/or collaboratively, to a professional level; that you can use appropriate media to effectively communicate information, arguments and analysis in a variety of forms for a variety of audiences; fluency of expression; clarity and effectiveness in presentation and organization. Work should be coherent and well-structured in presentation and organization.
Guidance specific to this assessment: Presentation and coherent structure of the assignment including referencing of sources consulted as per the Harvard style of referencing.
