Required Research Paper and Presentation

Objective

Working within an assigned group, you will select a company and a specific product of interest to the group, and develop a plan a plan to introduce that product into a new country. For example, you might select Hilton Hotels Corporation as your company and develop a plan to introduce a specific hotel or hotel chain operation in the Dominican Republic, a country in which Hilton currently does not have a presence. Alternatively, you might select the Kellogg Company and introduce Frosted Flakes into Thailand where Kellogg is not active. The instructor must approve the company, product, and country selected by your group.

Please note: this paper is designed to develop and refine your research skills, and to apply that research to a specific problem in international business management. The paper will develop and test your ability to conduct relevant research, analyze the results of your research and come to specific conclusions regarding the best strategies to ensure the success of your project. . Each section should contain information relevant for the Executive VP to decide whether or not to go ahead with the project. Thus, if you chose to introduce a specific baby formula into Bolivia, for example, the birth rate would be relevant data, but the percentage of the population over 60 years of age would not be relevant. Further, you must analyze the relevant data and arrive at specific conclusions that will assist the Executive VP in his/her decision-making.

Project Outline

The information in each section below is required; but how you organize the paper and presentation is up to you. However, you must submit a detailed outline to the instructor for feedback in accordance with the schedule below

Executive Summary (Required) – written last, two pages maximum length, summarizing the specific product, country considered, your recommendations and major considerations supporting your recommendation. The executive summary must be a team effort.

Characteristics of the Potential Market – target market defined, demographic profile, socioeconomic status, economic growth prospects, purchasing power of the target market.

Sociocultural factors – significant sociocultural characteristics in market environment, acceptance of product by target market, necessary product adaptation for acceptance.

Legal/Bureaucratic Environment – taxation, trade obstacles and legal restrictions confronting the proposed initiative, importation vs. local manufacture (if applicable).

Competition in Market – analysis of existing competitive forces facing your project including number and size of competitors, quality of product, pricing strategies, identification of competitive opportunities for our product.

Economic and Political Climate for Foreign Business – economic trends including projected economic growth and income distribution, local government ideology and attitudes, stability, recent privatization/nationalization and government protection initiatives, and how all of this will affect your project..

Marketing Methods – recommended strategies for product promotion, pricing and distribution in light of above analyses. Be sure to provide justification for your strategies.

Managerial and Labor Environment – availability of qualified personnel, local compensation (salaries, allowances, benefits), use of expatriates, language considerations for your project.

Financial Viability – potential profits and profit margins (or at least an estimate of project revenues for the first three years, with a statement of the assumptions used to generate the estimates), currency convertibility and fluctuations, repatriation of profits.

Bibliography (Required) - an alphabetical listing of all relevant works you have consulted – includes documents cited in footnotes and other documents which have furnished background material for your paper. Do not include references to material you may have merely glanced at and discarded. The bibliography must be a team effort. Note: footnotes or endnotes, citing your specific sources are also required.

Required Results - Written paper and oral presentation

The paper should be written for the Executive Vice President for World-Wide Development of your company. The paper should be typewritten, single spaced, in a font size of 10-12 with a recommended length of twenty pages. Each group member will write up a minimum of two sections of the paper and the author of each section will be clearly identified. Group members are encouraged to participate in the research and design of each section since group effort will enhance the overall quality of the paper. All sources of information, as well as direct quotations, must be cited in proper footnotes (see grading criteria below). A bibliography is required, as well as an executive summary at the beginning of the paper. The paper is worth at least 25% of your final grade. Your grade will primarily depend on the sections of the paper that you prepared, but it will also reflect the quality of the overall paper as well as the executive summary and the bibliography. See Grading Criteria below.

Each team will make a fifteen-minute presentation to the Executive Vice President of World-Wide Development during the last two weeks of classes. Each group member will participate in the presentation. The use of visual aids (overhead transparencies, Power Point presentations, etc.) is encouraged. We will discuss additional successful presentation strategies in class. The presentation is worth at least 5% of your final grade.

Submission Schedule

By Tuesday, February 1 – I will make group assignments – students wishing to work in the same group should notify me by Thursday, January 27. Preferences may, or may not, be considered.

By Tuesday, February 8 – Company, product and country submitted by group for approval.

By Tuesday, March 8 – Detailed tentative outline of entire paper due.

By Tuesday, March 22 – Draft Bibliography for paper due.

By Thursday, April 28 – Entire paper due at the beginning of class. For every 24 hour period (or fraction thereof) the paper is late, the grade for the paper will be reduced by one full letter grade.

By Thursday, May 5 – Oral presentations will begin.

Note: At any time before Tuesday, April 5, you may submit a draft paper or section of a paper for a brief review and helpful commentary.

Grading Criteria

Neatness (5%)

Your paper must be legible, divided into appropriate sections, paginated, and free of spelling errors and typos.

Clarity (20%)

Your sentences and paragraphs must make sense (be understandable) to the instructor, be concise and to the point. There should be no errors of standard usage or sentence structure. You must cite your sources with footnotes, using the MLA, or internal citation format, and a complete bibliography in acceptable form. Be sure to re-read the section on plagiarism in the course information sheet. Plagiarism is a serious offense and I take it seriously.

Content and organization (75%)

The research and analysis you present should be relevant to your project, accurate and complete. You must clearly document your research as to source. Material you take directly from a published source (both printed and Internet material) either in quotations (if a single phrase or sentence) or indented (if more than a sentence) must be documented with appropriate citations. Good research is only the first step in preparing your paper. You must also analyze your research findings and come to useful conclusions that apply directly to your project. Your conclusions must be supported by the facts you present and your analysis of those facts. You need to support each idea with examples or details. Make sure that the points you make are clearly related to the topic and main idea of the piece. Do not include unnecessary points and do not pad your paper. Your paper should have an underlying plan that the reader can follow. Treat your main points with greatest explanation and detail and lesser points in proportion with their importance.

Helpful Hints

There are several good guides for writing a term paper available in the bookstore. If you have difficulty in writing term papers or have questions regarding the proper citation of material, you have employed in your paper, either as footnotes or as part of your bibliography, you are urged to consult with one of the available guides. Two such guides are:

· Erlich and Murphy, Writing and Researching Term Papers and Reports, (Bantam Books, NY, 1983).

· Essays and Term Papers, (Quick Study, Boca Raton, 2001)

The Writing Center can be very helpful to many students, particularly in helping you to enhance the presentation and clarity of a term paper as well as ensuring your citations are satisfactory. Seek this assistance early in the semester.

The library staff will be delighted to assist you to get your research efforts off to the right start. I encourage all students to consult with them before beginning their research.

The library web page, http://library.delhi.edu/ has some excellent guides for citing Internet resources. The library staff or your instructor can help you get started with this resource.

You should feel free to consult with me during the process of preparing the paper and oral presentation. If you wish to consult with me about the research paper, please do so no later than April 5. I will always try to provide you with helpful feedback.

January, 05