Graded Homework

INT 113 Final
Project Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation
of a country analysis PowerPoint presentation that will answer the following
prompt: What country-specific information is important in the consideration of
market entry? How do cultural differences impact business communication and
decisions?

Your assessment for this course will require you
to place yourself in the role of an international business professional.
Imagine you work for an organization that has decided it wants to enter a
foreign market, but has not settled on the region or country. Your boss has
received the directive to research some countries for market entry and, in
turn, has asked you to select a country and perform a country analysis for
market entry. Your boss expects you to present your research and general
recommendations for market entry.

Keeping this scenario in mind, select a country
other than the United States for your research. When selecting a country,
consider the following:

·
What
countries have you visited?

·
What
countries would you like to visit?

·
Does your
company maintain a presence in another country?

·
What is
your heritage?

Once you have
selected your country, you will begin your research on the relevant forces—including
cultural, political, and economic—that could impact business operations and
decisions. You will then determine your final recommendations, communicating
all in a PowerPoint presentation. The research will be communicated in
presentation format, giving you the opportunity to practice business
communication skills.

Checkpoint submissions will be posted within Modules
Three and Six, which will allow the opportunity for you to upload your
project-in-progress for a participation score. You should follow the Final
Project Guide and use research incorporated into the weekly discussions to
complete the checkpoints. Project elements will be covered in the weekly
discussions to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. Your
comprehensive final PowerPoint presentation will be submitted in Module
Seven.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your
mastery of the following course outcomes:

·
Apply
macroenvironment business research to an analysis of international market
conditions

·
Analyze the
dimensions of culture as they apply to and inform market analyses and business
communication

·
Examine
market entry strategies and multinational business practices applicable to
global organizations in preparation for market entry

·
Articulate
the impact of forces of global trade for informing international business
opportunities and determining risks

Prompt

Your country analysis should answer the following
prompt: What country-specific information is important in the consideration of
market entry? How do cultural differences impact business communication and
decisions?

Specifically, the following critical elements
must be addressed in consideration of your country of choice:

I.
Introduction
and Country Choice

A. Rationale:Select your country and share why you chose your specific country for
further analysis.

B. Location:In what region is your country located? Is the country landlocked or
does it have water access? Describe the geography of the regionand
include a map for visual impact.

II.
Macroenvironment:
Address the following with respect to
your chosen country.

A. Sociocultural Environment

i.
Country
Composition:What are elements
of country composition that impact business decisions? Consider literacy rates,
urbanizationrates, heavily populated cities, age structure, major
religions, and educational data.

ii.
Values and
Communication:How do cultural
values shape communication and behaviors? Highlight cultural norms that align
withHofstede’s and/or Trompenaars’s cultural dimension models. Outline
major languages and nonverbal communication. For example, you could include
nonverbal cues, physical contact, and body language.

iii.
Business
Etiquette:What are some
behaviors in business that are driven by culture? Highlight five rules of
business etiquette that arepertinent in the region. For example,
consider gift giving and greetings.

iv.
Observation
Deck:In what ways do
sociocultural elements apply to business practices and market entry? For
example, highlight culturalissues that impact marketing or consider the
following areas: employment, consumer demand, managerial approach, and business
etiquette.

B. Political–Legal Environment

i.
Government
and Ideologies:Who is the ruling
political party and leader? Has there been a recent change in ruling parties?
Does a largeopposition group exist?

ii.
Corruption:
How do unethical practices impact
business? Explain how data regarding bribe index, corruption perception index,
and othertransparency ratings show risks in the market.

iii.
Trade
Regulations and Legal Considerations:What are four measures of government influence on trade and
employment? Considersanctions, tariffs, labeling requirements,
restricted items, or other barriers to trade, minimum wage rates,
employment-discrimination laws, or environmental regulations.

iv.
Observation
Deck:How would a company
apply political and legal information to market-entry decisions and business
practices? Makean observation regarding political and legal risks or
opportunities. For example, consider safety risks, additional costs, industry
barriers, high corruption rates, risky ideologies, and so on.

C. Economic-Infrastructural Environment

i.
Economic
Measures:What are some economic
measures and development data that impact business? Include data on interest
rates,unemployment, inflation, GDP growth rate, exchange rates against
the USD, exchange rate regime, GDP, labor force, major industries, and FDI
rates.

ii.
Trade:Describe the important aspects of trade in your
country of choice. Specifically, answer the following questions:

a. Trade partners: Who are the most significant
trading partners? What percentage of trade do they fulfill?

b. Imports: What are major imports to the region?

c. Exports: What are major exports to the region?

d. Trade agreements: What are some important
regional trade agreements (RTA) impacting the country? Who are the members of
the agreement?

iii.
Transportation
and Telecommunication:How does
infrastructure impact trade? Identify major airports, seaports, railway
stations,internet users, mobile providers, and the Logistics
Performance Index rating.

iv.
Observation
Deck:What economic and
infrastructural elements apply to multinational business practices and market
entry? Forexample, consider ease of distribution, economic growth, and
telecommunication barriers.

III.
Final
Recommendations

A.
Market
Entry Strategies:Based on
the research findings and your knowledge of market entry strategies gained in
this course, which marketentry strategy is most attractive? Considering
the risks, should the company enter this market?

B. Cultural Awareness:What specific cultural considerations should be addressed if the
company were to enter this market?

Checkpoints

Checkpoint Submission One

In Module Three, you will submit your
project-in-progress. Use the work completed in Modules One through Three
discussions and transfer your work into the Presentation Template document.
This will cover the following critical elements of the final project:
Rationale, Location, Country Composition, Values and Communication, Business
Etiquette, Sociocultural Environment Observation Deck, Government Ideologies,
and Corruption. This checkpoint submission is for participation
credit only.

Checkpoint Submission Two

In Module Six,
you will submit your project-in-progress. Use the work completed in Modules
Four and Five discussions and transfer your work into the Presentation Template
document. This will cover the following critical elements of the final project:
Trade Regulations and Legal Considerations, Political-Legal Environment
Observation Deck, Economic Measures, Transportation, and Telecommunication. This
checkpoint submission is for participation credit only.

Final Submission: Country Analysis Presentation

In Module Seven,
you will submit your country analysis PowerPoint presentation. It will include
cultural, political, and economic research that may impact business operations
and decisions. You will determine your final recommendations, communicating all
in your PowerPoint presentation. The research will be

communicated in
presentation format, giving you the opportunity to practice business
communication skills. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all
of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the
incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. Your final
submission will be graded using the Final Project Rubric.

Final Project Rubric

Guidelines for Submission:Your PowerPoint presentation should be
approximately 11 to 15 slides—not including the title slide and reference
slide—with allreferences in the most recently published APA format.

Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in Blackboard. Students can
view instructor feedback in the Grade Center. For more information,review
these instructions.

Critical Elements	Exemplary (100%)	Proficient (85%)	Needs Improvement (55%)	Not Evident (0%)	Value
Introduction:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Provides detailed rationale for	Rationale is present but is unclear	Does not provide rationale for	3.04
Rationale	rationale is exceptionally well	country choice	and/or includes few details	country choice
	detailed or includes examples to
	emphasize rationale
Introduction:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and is	Accurately illustrates the location	Illustrates the location and	Does not illustrate the location	4.6
Location	exceptionally detailed or	and geography of the chosen	geography of the selected	and geography of the selected
	informative	country with a map for visual	country with a map but with gaps	country with a map
		impact	in accuracy
Sociocultural	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Accurately identifies elements of	Identifies elements of country	Does not identify elements of	4.6
Environment:	includes substantive details to	country composition, including	composition but information is	country composition
Country	illustrate country composition	literacy rates, urbanization rates,	limited or inaccurate
Composition		heavily populated cities, age
		structure, major religions, and
		educational data
Sociocultural	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Analyzes cultural norms of the	Analyzes cultural norms of the	Does not analyze cultural norms	7.66
Environment:	includes examples to support the	country that correspond to	country that correspond to	and values of the country
Values and	analysis	Hofstede’s and/or Trompenaars’s	Hofstede’s and/or Trompenaars’s
Communication		models and describes the cultural	models and describes the cultural
		values that shape	values that shape communication
		communication, including major	but analysis includes gaps in
		languages and non-verbal	details
		communication
Sociocultural	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes five rules of business	Describes five rules of business	Does not describe five rules of	7.66
Environment:	description is supported by	etiquette pertinent to the region	etiquette pertinent to the region	business etiquette pertinent to
Business Etiquette	examples		but with gaps in accuracy or key	the region
			information

Sociocultural	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Applies sociocultural research to	Applies sociocultural research to	Does not apply sociocultural	5.75
Environment:	shows keen insight into applying	business practices in the chosen	business practices in the chosen	research to business practices in
Observation Deck	sociocultural elements to	country	country but with gaps in	the chosen country
	business practices of the chosen		appropriateness or detail
	country
Political-Legal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Explains governing parties and	Explains governing parties and	Does not explain governing	7.66
Environment:	explanation is supported as	political ideologies in the country,	political ideologies in the country	parties and political ideologies
Government and	necessary with sources or	including research on political	but misses key information or is
Ideologies	examples	leaders, opposition groups, and	inaccurate
		any recent changes to leadership
Political-Legal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Accurately explains corruption	Explains corruption indicators,	Does not explain corruption	4.6
Environment:	provides examples to	indicators, including bribe index,	but with gaps in detail or	indicators
Corruption	contextualize explanation	corruption perception index, and	accuracy
		other transparency ratings
Political-Legal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Explains four elements of	Explains four elements of	Does not explain four elements of	7.66
Environment: Trade	including examples to highlight	government influence on trade	government influence on trade	government influence on trade
and Legal	accuracy of explanations	and employment	and employment, but with gaps	and employment
			in detail
Political-Legal	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Applies political and legal	Applies political and legal	Does not apply political and legal	5.75
Environment:	shows keen insight in identifying	research to business practices,	research to business practices,	research to business practices
Observation Deck	risk and opportunity, based on	identifying risks and	identifying risks and
	political and legal research	opportunities	opportunities, but with gaps in
			details or accuracy
Economic:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes economic measures of	Describes economic measures of	Does not describe economic	4.6
Economic Measures	description shows insight into	the country, including interest	the country but with gaps in	measures of the country
	economic measures	rates, unemployment, inflation,	detail
		GDP growth rate, exchange rates,
		exchange rate regime, GDP, labor
		force, major industries, and FDI
		rates
Economic: Trade	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes aspects of trade in the	Describes aspects of trade in the	Does not describe aspects of	7.66
	provides examples to support the	country, including major trading	country but with gaps in details	trade in the country
	description	partners, list of imports/exports,
		and details of RTAs and member
		countries

Economic:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes infrastructural	Describes infrastructural	Does not describe infrastructural	4.6
Transportation and	supports description with	elements that impact trade,	elements that impact trade but	elements that impact trade
Telecommunication	examples or illustrations	including major	with gaps in detail or relevancy
		airports/seaports/train stations,
		internet users, mobile providers,
		and a Logistics Performance
		Index rating
Economic:	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Applies economic and	Applies economic and	Does not apply economic and	5.75
Observation Deck	provides examples to support the	infrastructural research elements	infrastructural research elements	infrastructural research elements
	accuracy of application	to business practices and market	to business practices and market	to business practices and market
		entry	entry, but with gaps in detail	entry
Final	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Provides logical, applicable	Provides market entry	Does not provide market entry	5.75
Recommendations:	recommendation is substantiated	market entry recommendation	recommendation but lacks logic	recommendation based on
Market Entry	with research, examples, or	based on previous research	or applicability based on previous	previous research
Strategies	substantive detail to show keen		research
	insight into market entry
Final	Meets “Proficient” criteria and	Describes reasonable and	Describes elements of culture	Does not describe elements of	7.66
Recommendations:	elements described demonstrate	relevant elements of culture that	that should be addressed during	culture that should be addressed
Cultural Awareness	keen cultural awareness	should be addressed during	market entry but with gaps in	during market entry
	regarding market entry in the	market entry	reason or relevancy
	country of choice
Articulation of	Submission is free of errors	Submission has no major errors	Submission has major errors	Submission has critical errors	5
Response	related to citations, grammar,	related to citations, grammar,	related to citations, grammar,	related to citations, grammar,
	spelling, syntax, and organization	spelling, syntax, or organization	spelling, syntax, or organization	spelling, syntax, or organization
	and is presented in a professional		that negatively impact readability	that prevent understanding of
	and easy-to-read format		and articulation of main ideas	ideas
				Total	100%