General Guidelines for Industry Competitiveness, and Country Report
The country report will consist of 3 parts.
A) International Trade (25 % of paper)
• Balance of payments (BOP) (last 5 years) – analyses and implications of5 components of BOP such as:
1. current account,
2. capital account,
3. financial account,
4. international reserves, and
5. error and omissions
The best source for Balance of Payments is IMF.org or go through Rutgers library system
https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/indexes/subjects/indexes_business
and click on IMF library and click on Series once you are in the IMF website. Under the seroes tab you will see the link to International Financial Statistics. You should download the latest version January 2019 book and contains the BOP of all countries
• trading relationships (membership in trading blocs)
• top exports and imports
• foreign direct investments (inflows, outflows, and stock) (best source UNCTAD.org)
• tariff policies (country average)
• non-tariff barriers
Sources recommended for this section most of them are available through Rutgers library free of charge including some that are
• CIA Factbook
• Every country publishes document highlighting their trade statistics
• World Bank
• United Nations
• The Economist Intelligence Unit is the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, the sister company to The Economist magazine. On The Economist Intelligence Unit platform, Rutgers subscribes to two series of country reports: Country Commerce and Financial Services Report.
• Country Embassies
• Chambers of commerce
• Financial Times
• Data monitor
B) Select one of the top industries in the country of choice (50 %)
This is the most important section of the report as it requires information gathering, information processing, and synthesizing it for analyzing the Porter Diamond.
Brief history and milestones. (what are major events in the industry you are analyzing)
Industry size (value, units, and number of employees), structure, and number of segments. (This part is critical as you cannot evaluate an industry if you don’t know how big it is)
Use Porter’s Diamond to investigate its international competitiveness.
• Demand Conditions (this refers to domestic demand; e.g. what are the consumption patterns and are they changing, demographics, etc.)
• Related and Supporting Industries (think about what developments in these industries that would affect development in the focal industry you are analyzing)
• Factor Conditions (basic and advanced factors – remember these are not specific to a given firm but are available to the entire industry)
• Strategy, structure and rivalry in that industry (identify major competitors in the industry and what are their individual strategies; what do individual firms do to compete in the focal industry?)
• Government policies
Sources: Industry reports from the economist, Financial Times, local Chambers of commerce, local Industry Associations, etc.
C)
D) Culture and Business Practices (25 %)
This part is purely descriptive. Topics include
• General description of country culture
• Business protocol and communications
• Cultural do’s and don’ts
• Culture specific business practices
• Negotiating style and tactics
• Compare on various dimensions to American culture using Hofstede’s work.
There are many sources where you can get any country’s culture.
D) Conclusions: Summarize what are major factors that contribute to the competitiveness of the industry of the country. After analyzing the industry, you should be able to answer the basic question – is the industry competitive and want are the major factors that make it competitive.
Please do not forget to put a list of references in alphabetical order at the end of the report.
Sources: Please put the source(s) of information used in the paper at the appropriate places in the body of the paper.
The country report will consist of 3 parts.
A) International Trade (25 % of paper)
• Balance of payments (BOP) (last 5 years) – analyses and implications of5 components of BOP such as:
1. current account,
2. capital account,
3. financial account,
4. international reserves, and
5. error and omissions
The best source for Balance of Payments is IMF.org or go through Rutgers library system
https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/indexes/subjects/indexes_business
and click on IMF library and click on Series once you are in the IMF website. Under the seroes tab you will see the link to International Financial Statistics. You should download the latest version January 2019 book and contains the BOP of all countries
• trading relationships (membership in trading blocs)
• top exports and imports
• foreign direct investments (inflows, outflows, and stock) (best source UNCTAD.org)
• tariff policies (country average)
• non-tariff barriers
Sources recommended for this section most of them are available through Rutgers library free of charge including some that are
• CIA Factbook
• Every country publishes document highlighting their trade statistics
• World Bank
• United Nations
• The Economist Intelligence Unit is the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, the sister company to The Economist magazine. On The Economist Intelligence Unit platform, Rutgers subscribes to two series of country reports: Country Commerce and Financial Services Report.
• Country Embassies
• Chambers of commerce
• Financial Times
• Data monitor
B) Select one of the top industries in the country of choice (50 %)
This is the most important section of the report as it requires information gathering, information processing, and synthesizing it for analyzing the Porter Diamond.
Brief history and milestones. (what are major events in the industry you are analyzing)
Industry size (value, units, and number of employees), structure, and number of segments. (This part is critical as you cannot evaluate an industry if you don’t know how big it is)
Use Porter’s Diamond to investigate its international competitiveness.
• Demand Conditions (this refers to domestic demand; e.g. what are the consumption patterns and are they changing, demographics, etc.)
• Related and Supporting Industries (think about what developments in these industries that would affect development in the focal industry you are analyzing)
• Factor Conditions (basic and advanced factors – remember these are not specific to a given firm but are available to the entire industry)
• Strategy, structure and rivalry in that industry (identify major competitors in the industry and what are their individual strategies; what do individual firms do to compete in the focal industry?)
• Government policies
Sources: Industry reports from the economist, Financial Times, local Chambers of commerce, local Industry Associations, etc.
C)
D) Culture and Business Practices (25 %)
This part is purely descriptive. Topics include
• General description of country culture
• Business protocol and communications
• Cultural do’s and don’ts
• Culture specific business practices
• Negotiating style and tactics
• Compare on various dimensions to American culture using Hofstede’s work.
There are many sources where you can get any country’s culture.
D) Conclusions: Summarize what are major factors that contribute to the competitiveness of the industry of the country. After analyzing the industry, you should be able to answer the basic question – is the industry competitive and want are the major factors that make it competitive.
Please do not forget to put a list of references in alphabetical order at the end of the report.
Sources: Please put the source(s) of information used in the paper at the appropriate places in the body of the paper.
