Detailed Assignment Information: Global Business

Assignment 1:
Administrative Details
Submission Date: 8th January 2016 (midnight): online submission
Work will be marked out of 100
Absolute value of work 50%
Submission Details
The assignment should be word processed and/or in an electronic format which can be accessed through the technology available on campus. Make sure that you enter your student enrolment number at the top of the document.

By submitting your work in this fashion you are agreeing to abide by the University’s regulations on plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as presenting the work of someone else as your own. This includes statistical data, graphs, charts and any other graphically represented material. It also includes copying of another student’s work for submission as your own. For more information on this, read the University’s Student Regulations.

Outline Description
You should submit a management report analysing the issues affecting the global business environment from the point of view of the case study SME (Elecdyne). The report must also utilise information from a range of sources, including on-line sources such as newspapers, websites etc. which should be located in appendices.

The report should be no longer than 2,500 words in length. It is important that you complete all the supplementary tasks for this module and participate in the discussion forums as they will help you complete this piece of assessment, which is based on the first two topics.
Learning Outcomes
This piece of assessed work contributes to the following learning outcome for this module:

• Demonstrate an understanding and ability to critically analyse, evaluate and appraise the key internal and external contexts in which global business operates, and the ways in global business reacts to those contexts and changes in them in terms of comparison, evaluation, and subsequent strategy integration, synthesis, formulation and validation

Detailed Instructions
1. The assignment brief indicates the themes to be covered in this assignment. Specifically this means that themes 1 and 2 are the ones to be focused upon.
2. Specifically, the topics should be related to the Elecdyne case study (Themes 1 and 2). This means that your assignment should answer the following questions from the case study :-

• From theme 1. Identify the factors that you think Elecdyne should collect information on for creation of its internationalisation strategy, and present these within an appropriate analytical framework for the 3 countries you think Elecdyne should consider internationalising to, ensuring that you are also able to compare with Japan.
• From theme 2: Using an appropriate analytical framework, undertake an appropriately weighted internal and external analysis for Elecdyne, for the external factors analysing 3 countries we should consider internationalising to comparing with Japan, concluding with decisions on which country to internationalise to, how, and why).
3. It is essential that you include (properly referenced to in the text using the Harvard system) current information from the internet, news items etc. which pertain to Global issues and the electronics industry in particular, as well as using relevant academic journal articles and books. The minimum number of SEPARATE SOURCES that should be used and referenced for this assignment is 10.
4. The reference list should be included as a Reference List at the end of the assignment (this list will not be included in the word count). Any citations may be put in appendices and will not be included in the word count.
5. The word count is 2500 words, + / – 10%, which means that assignments with word counts in the range of 2250 words to 2750 words are acceptable.
6. Diagrams and Tables which are directly relevant to the topic should be placed in the main text.
7. Depending on the task, you may wish to use SWOT, STEEP, PEST/PESTEL, etc., as frameworks for your analysis. Also see the course textbook for alternative approaches (and also for rating/ranking systems etc. that may also be of use).
8. This assignment, written in report form, should contain your own individual analysis. You do not need to include everything that your group collected/presented.
9. Any group work that is used (e.g. diagrams, text, etc.) should be clearly labelled with your group and placed in an appendix.
10. The Tutor is permitted to answer specific questions related to structure and presentation but cannot give feedback on draft assignments.
11. Use of relevant case study material is essential to successful completion of the assignment. You are able to make a start now, since the assignment is split between the distinctive themes 1 and 2
12. Make sure that you back up (i.e. save) any presentations or notes that will help you develop your individual report.

Assessment Criteria

The following criteria will be used to determine the extent to which the candidate has met the learning outcome of this assignment. The ability to:

• appraise, analyse and evaluate the global environment facing the business; and
• appraise, analyse and evaluate the business internationalisation strategies.

Marks available

The rubric to be used in marking the assignment will be as follows :-
Criteria: % of Total Marks for that criteria
Discussion-Content 10%
Discussion -depth of research 10%
Data included 10%
Literature 10%
Applied data presented 10%
Theory presented 10%
Practicality – Understanding of practical issues 10%
Structure of Assignment 10%
Originality of recommendations 10%
Presentation 10%