ECO561 Week 6 Signature Assignment Challenges of Expansion to a Foreign Location

Purpose of Assignment 

This week students will review and revise their Week 3 Research Analysis for Business Signature Assignment based on economic analysis and the feedback provided by their facilitator. Students will also expand their Week 3 analyses to evaluate the challenges of expanding their chosen company's production to a foreign market.

About Your Signature Assignment

This signature assignment is designed to align with specific program student learning outcome(s) in your program. Program Student Learning Outcomes are broad statements that describe what students should know and be able to do upon completion of their degree. The signature assignments might be graded with an automated rubric that allows the University to collect data that can be aggregated across a location or college/school and used for program improvements. 

Assignment Steps 

Resources: Tutorial help on Excel^® and Word functions can be found on the Microsoft^® Office website. There are also additional tutorials via the web offering support for Office products. 

Revise your Week 3 assignment, Research Analysis for Business, using the feedback provided by your facilitator. This Week 6 report should only include one conclusion, so you will need to rewrite the conclusion you included in your Week 3 assignment, Research Analysis for Business. 

Select a foreign market in which to expand your chosen product. If you wish, you may use one of the countries your team analyzed in their Week 5 Comparative and Absolute Advantage Assignment. 

Prepare a minimum1,750-word report addressing the points listed below. The use of tables and/or charts to display economic data over the time period discussed is highly encouraged, you may submit any economic data in Microsoft^® Excel^® format in a separate file. You may use the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Dept. of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the Federal Reserve of St. Louis's FRED data, the CIA World Fact Book, World Bank data, and World Trade Organization, or other appropriate sources you might find on the Internet or in the University Library. The new sections of your report should:

• Evaluate current global economic conditions and their effects on macroeconomic indicators in your selected country. Provide forecasts for population growth, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, GDP per capita growth, export growth, and sales growth.
• Evaluate any competitors' existing production in the chosen country.
• Assess sales forecasts in the selected country by using the Federal Reserve of St. Louis's FRED data, the CIA World Fact Book, World Bank data, World Trade Organization, or other appropriate sources you might find on the Internet or in the University Library.
• Categorize the type of economy that exists in your selected country as closed, mixed, or market.  What is the difference between these types of economies and how might this affect your expansion?
• Assess how your chosen country's current credit market conditions, especially interest rates and the availability of financing, affect demand for your product or service and your planning or operating decision for your production in that country.
• Analyze the role of the selected country's central bank on that country's economy.
• Compare the availability, education, and job skills of the work force in the selected country. Discuss any additional challenges of international production, such as political stability, availability of government financing or other incentives, threat of capital controls, and exchange rate risks.
• Explain any additional supply chain challenges you anticipate if attempting to make your product in your chosen country and selling the product in other countries.
• Based on the data gathered and analysis performed for this report write a conclusion in which you:
• Create business strategies, including price and non-price strategies, based on your market structure to ensure the market share and potential market expansions and explore global opportunities for your business in a dynamic business environment and provide recommendations.
• Develop a recommendation for how the firm can manage its future production by synthesizing the macroeconomic and microeconomic data presented.
• Propose how the firm's position within the market and among its competitors will allow it to take your recommended action.
• Recommend strategies for the firm to sustain its success going forward by evaluating the findings from demand trends, price elasticity, current stage of the business cycle, and government.
• Recommend any comparative advantages your company will have over competitors currently operating in that country, and defend your position, either for or against, expanding your company's production into your chosen country based on your research. 

Integrate with the Week 3 Individual Assignment, and incorporate corrections and suggestions from the instructor's feedback. The final report should be a minimum of 2,800 words. 

Cite a minimum of three peer reviewed sources not including the textbook. 

Include all peer-reviewed references and government economic data sources/references from Week 3. 

Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.