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UCL SUMMER SCHOOL
International Business Strategy and Development
Dr. Evangelos Markopoulos
Module Leader. International Business Strategy and Development
UCL Summer School
UCL School of Management
Faculty of Engineering Science
[email protected]
Assessment 2. Individual Essay. 75%
Submission deadline: Friday August 4, 2023, 13:00 (1pm)
Wordcount: 2.000 words. Submission filetype: Microsoft Word
Assessment Description.
Development of an International Business Strategy.
International business is a term practically divided into strategy and operations.
The strategy part emphasises long-term goals while the operations part emphasizes short_xFFFE_term goals which compose and execute the strategy.
In this assessment, the student takes the role of a corporate executive that must develop an
international business strategy for the organization.
LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
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Assessment Challenge.
Assume that you are the CEO of an organization/company and decide to expand in the
specific international region(s) to offer specific products and services, or extend your full or
partial operations.
In 2.000 words develop an international strategy, well referenced, and supported by at least
six of the theories taught in the lectures.
The theories must derive from different categories of business strategy and operations
activities and must reflect the report sections requested in the assessment.
Assessment Structure.
The report needs to be written formally as a business report an executive handled to the
CEO.
Document structure and aesthetics are very important. An indicative / proposed document
structure is provided in this brief.
The report shall cover:
1. Description of the company (brief).
2. Description of the business development need and the product, service or
operations the company will move/offer internationally.
3. Identification and analysis of the Target market (at least 1 theory to be used)
4. Identification and analysis of the entry mode (at least 1 theory to be used)
5. Competitiveness analysis (at least 2 theories to be used)
6. Other considerations (at least 2 theories to be used)
7. Conclusion
8. References
Detailed instructions are provided in the indicative / proposed document structure.
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Marking Criteria.
The following rubric presents the breaking of the assessment into 11 marking criteria and 7 classes
of quality.
Criteria
weight
Marking criteria Out standing
100-85
Fist
class
84-70
Second
class
69-60
Third
class
59-50
Pass
49-40
Fail
39-1
No
work
0
C1 5 Introduction 5 4.25 3.5 3 2.5 2 0
C2 15 Company and need description: 15 12.75 10.5 9 7.5 6 0
C2.1 5 (a) Company description 5 4.25 3.5 3 2.5 2 0
C2.2 5 (b) Need description 5 4.25 3.5 3 2.5 2 0
C2.3 5 (c) Product / Service description. 5 4.25 3.5 3 2.5 2 0
C3 45
Part B. International Business
Strategy and Development 45 38.25 31.5 27 22.5 18 0
C3.1 15 (a) Target Market Analysis 15 12.75 10.5 9 7.5 6 0
C3.2 15 (b) Entry Mode Selection 15 12.75 10.5 9 7.5 6 0
15 (b) Competitiveness Analysis 15 12.75 10.5 9 7.5 6 0
C4 10
Part C. Other Strat
egy
Considerations 10 8.5 7 6 5 4 0
C5 5 Conclusions 5 4.25 3.5 3 2.5 2 0
C6 10 References 10 8.5 7 6 5 4 0
C7 10 Document structure and aesthetics 10 8.5 7 6 5 4 0
Quality index.
Outstanding: Outstanding work, like it was delivered by high-impact professionals or scholars
First-class: Excellent work. Well delivered, fully aligned with the assignment, well justified,
strong arguments and very professional
Second class: Very good work. Aligned with the assignment, good arguments, and justification
with attention to detail.
Third class: Sufficient work. Good effort. Not fully aligned with the assignment, weak
arguments needed more justification and attention the detail.
Pass: Accepted work with minimal compliance with the assessment requirements and
expected quality
Fail: Insufficient work, out of context, unjustified and incomplete.
No work: No work was submitted.
Indicative Essay Structure.
The essay shall have the following sections.
Cover Page
Table of contents
1. Introduction [what is the report about]
2. Company description [brief presentation of the company for which the international business
strategy is developed]
3. Business development needs [brief description of the company’s need to go international. This
can be the delivery of a specific operation, the introduction of a specific product or service, or other
reasons. The needs must be clear to support the strategy]
4. Identification and analysis of the target Market [at least 1 theory must be used. CAGE.
PESTLE. Emerging Market Criteria, etc]
5. Identification and Analysis of the Entry Mode [at least 2 entry modes shall be used for the
short and long-term goal. Entry mode description, justification and how the mode will be applied]
6. Competitiveness analysis on the company in the specific market [at least 2 theories must
be used such as, AAA, Yip, VRIO, P5F, the National Advantage]
7. Other strategic considerations [at least 2 theories must be used such as the Integration Responsiveness Framework. Global, Transnational, international, multidomestic, AAA, Peng, Uppsala
(sequential theory, Network theory, Organizational Culture (Hofstede) etc]
8. Conclusions [summary of your work, and major findings from the research done]
9. References [mostly scholarly]
Annexes [if any]
Writing Tips. Penalties and Reminders:
Use proper referencing citations in the text and in the reference section.
Use figures, tables, or pictures, in the text, not on the annexes (appendices).
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All figures, tables and charts must be references in the text and have a caption under
them.
Use paragraphs. Avoid long blocks of text.
Use line spaces between paragraphs. Spaces don’t count as words.
Number the report sections
Have page numbers, well-justified text, and different font sizes in the headers and
the rest of the text, make your document presentable. See it as something you sell
for a grade.
Stay within the wordcount limits. You can go 10%+- but not more or less.
Accepted files are Microsoft Word only. No PDFs. Use industry standards software
and technology.
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