International Business Simulation
IBS 450 – TERM PAPER ARTIFACT
BACKGROUND:
The simulation course is designed to expose students to managing an integrated, multifunctional business in a highly competitive global industry. Having gone through 5 quarters of the simulation experience, you used your strategic, analytical and critical thinking skills, to run a ‘real’ business with all the complexities involved. You ‘learned by doing’ and developed expertise, creating various scenarios.
You gained experience by working in a team, in a challenging global environment, in an intense competitive environment. You had businesses successes and failures, both of which provided valuable learnings, which you incorporated into your strategies and decisions going forward.
ASSIGNMENT:
Students will individually write and submit a term paper. This paper is based on your experience over the 5 quarters of the simulation.
Use as many examples as you can to show the logic which underpinned your decisions. Be sure you analyze, discuss and detail to explain both the “Why” and the “How”. Data should be used to back up your statements wherever necessary, e.g. market share, fixed capacity, balanced scorecard, sales compensation, financial statements etc. Points will be deducted if you don’t substantiate your assertions with data.
Discuss your total experience, responding to the following questions:
1. Detail and discuss all the challenges you faced in projecting demand: meeting customer needs and wants, pricing, competitive actions and competitive response. How did your decisions impact your end performance (market share, income statement)?
2. Looking back, discuss the many opportunities that were there (looking at your virtual competitors), which you didnot make use of and could have used to your benefit. Identify at least 4 missed opportunities.
3. Did you do better, equal to or worse than your competitors? (Discuss your performance vs your virtual competitors, not your classmates.)Discuss the following 4 parameters: 1) market share, 2)product quality/brand judgment, 3) advertising quality and media placements, 4) sales productivity
4. Discuss your company’s strengths and weaknesses based on the Quarter 5 Balanced Scorecard. You may also want to evaluate the Cumulative Balanced Scorecard results for a long term perspective on your performance.
5. What are the 3 most important lessons that you learned about running a business and/or yourself from this simulation experience.
REQUIRED PARAMETERS:
? 10-12pages double spaced, typed, 12 pt. font, 1”margins.
? APA format for any sources that you cite. Should you require help in properly citing your sources in APA format, the ASC is a resource that you may want to use.
? Research materials should be high-quality sources such as those available through the library online databases.
? The paper should be well organized and address the questions above thoroughly, in detail and in depth.
? An electronic copy of the paper must be submitted via safe assignment.
ASSESSMENT:
The Term Paper will be evaluated as follows:
Assessment Criteria
Excellent Average Under-performing
Question 1 Student shows comprehension of the relationships between functional areas, competition, applying key concepts in the simulation. Uses critical thinking skills in analyzing and applying market data to decision making. Supporting data is significant and student thoroughly justifies their analysis and conclusions. Student shows some comprehension of the relationships between functional areas, competition, applying a few key concepts in the simulation. Adequate use of critical thinking skills in analyzing and applying market data to decision making.Data is insufficient to support the analysis. Student shows little or no comprehension of the relationships between functional areas, competition, or the key concepts in the simulation. Little evidence of critical thinking in analyzing and applying market data to decision making.Supporting data is negligible/none
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4
Question 5 Lessons learned are presented in a clear manner, are insightful and have ‘real world’ applicability Lessons learned are not well organized. Insights are adequate with some ‘real world’ applicability Lessons learned are poorly organized. Insights are superficial with little or no ‘real world’ applicability
Presentation and Writing Quality Paper is well-formatted and appropriately organized. Appearance inspires readership.
Cohesive business writing that is clear, concise and professional. Few, if any grammatical errors, no spelling errors. Paper is adequately organized and formatted but lacks inspiration. May have few basic presentation issues. Cohesive business writing that is clear but may lack professionalism. Some grammatical and/or spelling errors. Paper is poorly organized and lacks cohesive flow throughout. Many required component parts missing.Poorly written with unacceptable amount of grammar and spelling errors.
Points Allocation for Assessment Rubric:
Assessment Criteria Excellent Average Under-performing
Question #1 20 15 10
Question #2 20 15 10
Question #3 20 15 10
Question #4 20 15 10
Question #5 10 7 5
Presentation and Writing Quality 10 7 5
TOTAL 100 74 50