Business Strategy and Policy

Assignment 1

1. The task:

You have recently been hired as a Manager of Market Development for a company that is thinking of expanding internationally and wants to better understand different countries. Your assignment is to complete an external review of a country. The company is interested in any country in Central America, South America, the Caribbean or Africa.

You need to prepare a report that provides a full review of the external environment of that country for senior management. Ensure your report discusses: economic, demographic, socio-cultural, political-legal, technological, and sustainable physical environmental factors/ trends of that country. Given the recent global trends, recent research should be used (no more than 2 years old). This is an individual assignment. You are not permitted to work/ collaborate with another student on this. Note – you do not analyze a company or industry, just the country.

The marking rubric:

Element	Weighting
1. Research: There should be a very good level of relevant of research in the report. Research should be balanced, recent, consider different perspectives and use appropriate sources. (Note: Wikipedia is not a suitable source). You are not permitted to use any other student papers as part of your research. *** for a report of this scope, 15 sources would be a minimum. Research should be recent as recent as possible.	40%
2. Analysis and Evaluation:	40%

The assignment demonstrates a strong understanding and application of relevant course concepts and tools (refer to Chapter 2 from your textbook). Ensure you identify and analyze the most important trends for each section (for example, political, demographic etc.) Explain why they are important. Key points should be listed in the main body of the report, data, charts etc. can be placed in the appendix.
3. Overall report: The report is logical in flow, integrates research and course concepts to provide insightful analysis and a meaningful conclusion.	15%
4. Written communication The report is clear and concise. The use of language including sentence structure, editing, grammar and spelling are appropriate for a business report. Appropriate references are provided.	5%

Some details:

• The assignment should be written in paragraph form. APA is a suggested format.
• The main report is a max of 2500 words (not including references). There is no limit on the number of appendices.
• Style – Use 12-point font, double spaced, one inch margins.
• When submitting your assignment, you must include:
  1. A title page listing your course section and full name.
  2. Please include your name in the file name.

Sourcing:

For this report, you must source all of your references.

• As noted, you can use APA. See: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/doc uments/APA%20Poster%2010.22.12.png
• Facts and quotes must be clearly referenced using in text citations or footnotes, in addition to a bibliography at the end of the report.
• If you change a few words from the source, you still must reference it like it is a quote. This is important.
• You are not permitted to use any other student papers from any source for your report, including online sites which sell papers.

For information on the appropriate use of references and procedures, please refer to

Nipissing’s Policy of Academic Dishonesty:

http://academiccalendar.nipissingu.ca/Catalog/ViewCatalog.aspx?pageid=viewcatalog& catalogid=4&chapterid=314&topicgroupid=1403&loaduseredits=False

If you are unsure about proper sourcing, feel free to ask the instructor.

How to Submit:

Submit via Blackboard

will be penalized at 10%per day.

. Late assignments

Any questions, please feel free to post on the discussion board under Assignments. Regards,