International business strategy

International business strategy
Use Michael Porter’s ‘Theory of the Competitive Advantage of Nations’ (Porter’s ‘Diamond Model’) to critically analyse the operations and policies of a chosen multinational firm (more details in Appendix 1).
APPENDIX 1Your task is to analyse the operations and policies of a chosen multinational firm, and relate these to Michael Porter’s ‘Theory of the Competitive Advantage of Nations’ – Porter’s ‘Diamond Model’. The essay must be a maximum of 2,500 words in length, excluding references, footnotes and appendices (longer essays will be penalised). You are not allowed to choose Nintendo, Sony, Sega or Microsoft for the assignment. The essay must be completed in groups ( the company that I have chosen is KFC)

By analysing the operations of your chosen firm, assess to what extent the historical expansion and current position of your chosen multinational organization can/cannot be explained with the assistance of Porter’s Diamond Model. In other words, to what extent have the home-based advantages of your chosen firm created and sustained competitive advantage for that firm in the global marketplace?

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

C Barely Pass => A Excellent

Students will be expected to:

Assessment Criteria (% weight) Grade
Construct a basic argument for why Porter’s ‘Diamond Model’ can/cannot be used to explain the historical expansion and current position of your chosen firm C
B
Construct a sophisticated and convincing argument for why Porter’s ‘Diamond Model’ can/cannot be used to explain the historical expansion and current position of your chosen firm
(50% of marks for this assignment) A

Assessment Criteria (% weight) Grade
Identify the basic facts about the historical expansion and current position of your chosen firm C
B
Demonstrate a high degree of understanding and unique insights into the historical expansion and current position of your chosen firm
(25% of marks for this assignment) A

Assessment Criteria (% weight) Grade
Referring to the example of your chosen organization, consider the advantages and disadvantages of Porter’s ‘Diamond Model’ C
B
Referring to the example of your chosen organization, demonstrate high level of understanding and unique insights into the advantages and disadvantages of Porter’s ‘Diamond Model’
(25% of marks for this assignment) A

Assessment – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: I am having difficulty finding information on my chosen company for this assignment.

A: Have you tried ??
? finding information on the Internet (other than the company website),
? finding articles (journals, newspapers) or books on the company in the library,
? using the library databases (e.g. Key Note, Passport/Euromonitor, Mintel),
? contacting the company itself,
? any other sources?

If you have tried all of these and failed to find enough information, you may have to choose a different company where you can find more information.

Q: If I write about a diversified company, should I try to cover all the sectors in which the firm operates?

A: We would advise you against it. We recommend that you focus on one sector. For instance, if you were to write about Nokia, you could focus on telecommunications/ mobile phones, not tyre manufacturing or wood products (which they produced in the past). By focusing on one sector, you will have a better understanding of why e.g. the Finish home conditions were more supportive to telecommunications firms than e.g. German or French home conditions. Writing about different sectors might be too confusing. In addition, a firm?s home base may help to explain its competitive advantage in one sector, however, it may not be able to explain its competitive advantage in another sector. So focusing on one sector of a large company is the best way forward.

Q: Do we divide the essay in three parts, according to the three assessment criteria?

A: Not at all! It’s entirely up to you how you construct your essay. Dividing it in three parts may cause problems in terms of the word limit. One alternative would be to look at the company at different historical periods and then analyse the company’s performance at these stages related to Porter. Another alternative would be to structure the essay according to the different parts of the diamond model (demand/customers, factor conditions etc.) and then assess whether the home diamond helped to create a competitive advantage for your firm. You can be very original about structuring your essay. Do not feel constrained here!

Q: It has been said that it is not necessary to have all four elements of the diamond for a firm or a nation to gain competitive advantage.

A: Michael Porter stressed that a self-reinforcing cycle of competitive advantage is created when all four elements are present. However, this may not be necessarily true. You could have two out of the four elements and still be very competitive. For example, consider differences between different industries: in electronics, it is important to have sophisticated demand, good related industries, high degree of competition etc. For the production of cigarette matches, sophisticated demand is less important.

Q: The assessment criteria talk about "demonstrating a high degree of understanding and unique insights into the business sector/industry, in which your chosen firm operates". Do you want me to go into detail on the industry’s international operations, international marketing and distribution strategies in that industry, product quality requirements, supplier policies, competition, management practices? Are there any factors I mentioned which you consider to be irrelevant? Which other factors are relevant?

A: You are totally wrong here! You don’t want to waste your words on describing either the industry or the company in such detail. The point of the essay is not to write all you know about the company and its industry. While the criteria asked for an "a high degree of understanding", this does not mean tons of data. Do not confuse insight with ‘facts’ or factual information. Insight relates to the level of understanding. You will not be rewarded for describing distribution strategies or franchising in general.

What you need to demonstrate is your understanding of the industry. How is competitive advantage created in that industry? For instance, when we talked about the cashew industry, we found that the key source of competitive advantage was skilled and cheap labour force. Therefore, if you were writing about a cashew company, then obviously you would need to look closely at the home factor conditions (especially labour).

For instance, if you worked on an American fast-food chain (say Burger King), you could use ‘cleanliness’ to analyse whether the home diamond helped the company in this respect. If compared with other countries, are Americans particularly clean people, are American health and safety standards particularly strict, etc.? If the answers to these questions are ‘yes’, then maybe the home diamond did help Burger King in this important way, if not, then maybe this would support Porter’s critics.

We will reward your original ideas, not the fact that you copied text from a Burger King website. Therefore, you should concentrate on relating your firm to Porter’s diamond etc., not on describing it. If you wish, in order to show that you have done all the groundwork, you could include some data or tables in an appendix. We may then choose to read it or not, but we will be able to see that you have done the research.
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT 🙂

 

© 2020 customphdthesis.com. All Rights Reserved. | Disclaimer: for assistance purposes only. These custom papers should be used with proper reference.