Assignments

Individual Written Assignments

Students will compose two short papers (maximum 5 pages double-spaced with 12-point font size, plus figures and diagrams), as follows:

Individual Assignment #1: (Due After Part I: Understanding Internationalization)

  • In what ways and to what extent is your company (or another company that you know very well) international?
  • Assess the internationalization strategy of the company.
  • Assess and comment the actual advantages of internationalization to the company so far.
  • Assess and comment the potential, but yet unrealized, advantages of internationalization to the company, if any.
  • Is there any particular episode in the company's internationalization history that people in the company still talk about today? What and why?

Individual Assignment #2 (Due After Part II: Relating Strategy and Organization)

Focusing on one foreign country unit of your company (or another company that you know very well), answer the following three questions:

  • When, how and why did the company enter into that specific foreign country? Did the "why" come true as initially expected? If not, why not?
  • What role or roles does that foreign unit currently play in the overall company? How did such roles evolve in the past? Would you change the unit's current roles? Why?
  • To what extent and how are the activities of that unit integrated globally and embedded locally? Would you change any of that? How and why?

Group Case Postings

Every student is expected to participate in a self-formed group of 4 or 5. Each group will submit comments on at least four cases over the term, at least two of which should be during the first section (Part I: Understanding Internationalization) of the course. These contributions may relate to one or more of the case study guide questions or not, but are expected to add value by focusing on an interesting or unusual aspect of the case or by comparing two or more cases. We are seeking quality over quantity. Please be concise. Restatement of information available in the cases does not add value.