Sunderland Business School
Faculty of Business and Law
PGBM04: International Business Environment
SEGi Off-Campus Assignment
Issue Date:-
Submission Date: Tuesday 5th MAY 2020
This is an individual assignment. It will constitute 100% of your overall mark for the module.
Please choose ONE question from the following FOUR. You are asked to write an essay-style
answer of about 3000 words on the topic you have chosen. All questions are equally
weighted.
You are expected to develop your own arguments for each, based on your own critical
reflection, as well as reading and discussion in the workshops. This is not a closed-book
assessment. You are expected to use research-based academic work, such as journal
articles, books, and other sources. Remember to provide full references, using Harvard
referencing, at the end of each answer for any material that you refer to.
Students are required to submit their coursework through JIRA. Only assessments submitted
through JIRA will be marks. Any other form of submission, including submission of hard copy
to your study centre will be treated of non-submission.
A copy of your SafeAssign originality report must be submitted in conjunction with your
assignment.
This assessment covers the following learning outcomes from the module.
Knowledge:
1. Critically review and apply concepts, terminology & theoretical models associated with
international business policies and strategies.
2. Demonstrate understanding of the political, socio-cultural, economic and technological
factors that have been found to influence variations in international organisational business
structures and leadership and management styles.
3. Critically assess the relationship between national and organisational cultures.
4.Relate the conceptual theory of ‘internationalisation’, innovation and competitive
advantage to different industries and locations.
Skills:
1. As an individual apply relevant theoretical concepts to real-world business (environment)
dilemmas or issues, producing a diagnosis and suggesting possible outcomes.
Assessment Criteria:
For each question, the competent answer will be concise, accurate and clearly written in
your own words. It will put forward your individual analysis of the issues raised, rather
than merely offer a descriptive account. It will be logically organised and contain a
conclusion.
Your assignment should also consider and apply the relevant theories and your arguments
should be supported by drawing on relevant literature and examples from international
business. Where you draw on the views, words and research of others, these will be
acknowledged as references and cited clearly in your answer conforming to the Harvard
referencing system.
The Generic PG assessment criteria are attached as well as a module interpretation in the
form of a mark sheet.
The University’s Policy on Cheating, Collusion and Plagiarism will apply.
Questions
Please also note that
(i) as much as possible your answers should draw on real world examples from the activities
of international businesses and national economies.
(ii) equal weighting should be assumed for two part questions.
In answering ONE of these questions, please pay particular attention to the assessment
criteria set out on the previous page.
1. Drawing on current business practices, identify and critically debate the following
statement “Businesses exists to satisfy social competition”. Critically discuss the
impact of social competition towards economic growth, technological development,
and resource misallocation.
2. Multi-national enterprises (MNE) have been springing up rapidly in developing
economies of the world. A comprehensive definition of such firms should integrate
structural, investment and ownership elements. Critically evaluate practices of
selected MNEs operating in development economies on their integration of
structural, investment and ownership factors.
3. At an international level, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plays a central and
fundamentally important role in corporate governance of the MNEs due to the
pressures exerted by stakeholders and globalization forces. Critically appraise
parallelism of headquarters and their subsidiaries practices of corporate social
responsibility (CSR) towards their corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate
financial performance (CSP).
4. Chinese enterprises aggressive global expansion garnered professional interests into
the management and entrepreneurial styles of Chinese outward foreign direct
investment (FDI). Critically debate whether Chinese MNEs are expanding globally to
achieve firm-specific advantages (technology/ knowledge base/ managerial
derivation) or natural resource and market seeking. Draw your debate based on
Chinese MNEs global initiatives to underpin your argument.
| Assessment Criteria |
Criteria Details | Marks |
| Allocated | Actual | |
| Relevance | The relevance of the work examined to the selected question |
20% |
| Knowledge | The work should have a substantial knowledge of relevant material, showing a clear grasp of themes, questions and issues therein. |
20% |
| Analysis | The analysis should be comprehensive, clear and orderly. |
20% |
| Argument and Structure |
The argument should be well-supported, focused, clear and logically structured. |
10% |
| Critical Evaluation | The work should contain distinctive or independent thinking; and formulate an independent position in relation to theory and/or practice. |
20% |
| Presentation | The work is well-written, with standard spelling and grammar, in a readable style with acceptable format. |
5% |
| Reference to Literature |
Critically appraise of up-to-date and/or appropriate literature. Recognition of different perspectives. Very good use of a wide range of sophisticated sources materials. |
5% |
| Total Marks | 100% | |
| Comment |
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