Country Risk Assesment

Background: We are considering expanding our company by setting up operations in another country. I am assigning each of you to pick a foreign country and a product*. Then write a Country Risk Assessment (Term Paper) for me on that country.

*Each student should pick any country you want (except the U.S.) and make up any product you want.

There are 3 separate “components to your paper. One entails extensive research on any 1 of the 3 CULTURAL FACTOR AREAS listed below. The second component demonstrates that you have analyzed your findings sufficiently. The third requires a well- informed and knowledgeable opinion concerning the viability of doing business in your chosen country.

Note: When you begin the body of your paper, include a brief INTRODUCTION, e.g. recent history, location, etc. of about ½ pages (but no longer). The rest of the body of your paper should be specifically and solely on the 3 assigned“components.

COMPONENT 1: CULTURAL FACTOR AREAS
Choose any 1 of the following 3 cultural factor areas, as they relate to doing business in your country and with your product. Show that, through proper research, you have extensive, thorough and reasonably updated knowledge about your chosen cultural factor area.

The focus is on how each cultural factor could affect our doing business there.

Area A: The economics of the country as it relates to doing business there and business etiquette (how to be polite in that country when doing business, their customs and manners)

Area B. Legal differences (including labor/employment law), the political system of the country and the role of religion in its culture

Area C: The educational system as it relates to the workforce and consumerism, the status of technology & infrastructure and demographic considerations

COMPONENT 2. Analyze your cultural factor information and the impact the factors would have on our expanded business and this product.

COMPONENT 3. Give your final opinion as to whether you think we should or should not do business there. Support your decision.

Last Due Date: Wednesday, July 15 by 11:55 PM

Late papers are accepted but with a 5 late-point deduction for each day it is late. For example, if it is 5 days late, 25 late points will be deducted off the top. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Length: 6 pages minimum, NOT counting the title page, abstract page, reference page and appendix (the appendix is for any addition material not appropriate for the paper itself: maps, statistics, legal statutes, charts, graphs, etc.). Try to find as least one thing to go into your appendix (e.g., a good map or maps of your country showing its internal makeup and its external location.).

Citing your reference sources: you must cite your reference sources throughout your paper every time you use one of them. It doesn’t matter if you put it in your own words, you still must give credit to the person you got the information from every time you use it, e.g. every sentence, paragraph, etc. You will lose at least 20 points if you fail to properly reference your paper. See the APA guidelines.

Do not cut and paste information. This is especially important and could cost you big points.

When you type something word for word into your paper, you should put quotation marks around it, so it obvious that you are doing that. Otherwise, it should be in your own words.

Current APA formal business writing/composition guidelines and rules are to be used for everything, including margins, size of print, citing references inside the paper(when, where, what to say), abstract, spacing, appendix, title sheet, numbering, reference page, etc. etc. etc. The American Association of Psychology formal writing guidelines are used by Business, Behavioral Science and Social Science. Do not use MLA, which is for English and other humanity areas. You can buy a paperback for a small amount to use as reference and keep it or you can go to a library and check one out or use one there.

ASU librarian Dr. Susan Herring is our “embedded librarian” in this course, which means she is actually a part of this course. You can contact her at the ASU library at Susan.Herring@athens.edu or  256-233-8100. Dr. Herring can tell you how to use the ASU library from your home computer, as well as helping with APA issues such as reference sources, etc. or give feedback on anything that you are not sure about. She will be glad to help you individually. For instance, find out how long the abstract page should be and where it should be. You can also ask her appropriate questions about research at the ASU library or in general, including for this paper.

Dr. Herring usually posts APA documents or Tegrity videos on Blackboard in this course at a later date. The ASU library has extensive electronic databases and other research resources, which are very student friendly to use from home.

Reference sources rules: Please use at least 6 different references. At least 2 should be non website references. References should be no older than 2004 but the more recent they are, the better. Also, if you use website sources, we want to make sure any “ website” resource references are scholarly, objective, reasonably current and appropriate for use in a formal research paper. Many are not. It is up to you to make sure that any website reference resource is appropriate. You can ask Dr, Herring if you are not sure about one. Send this question to her by e-mail.

Note: however, if you go through the ASU library website to get to a journal article, book etc., you have used a non-website source.

Do NOT use these for reference sources: Our text book or any text book, encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, dictionaries or any other pure reference or secondary sources. Use no material or information from them in your paper. Ask Dr. Herring if you have questions about this. Again, this rule is very important in a proper, formal term paper. Many points can be lost here.

Please do NOT use your own experience or anyone else’s you know in the body of your paper or as a reference source. This is allowed by APA in very restricted circumstances but I prefer to not have it in this particular paper.