Internationalisation and Global Expansion Plan for a Small or Medium-Sized Enterprise
This assessment is an individual report that requires students to develop a plan for taking a small or medium-sized enterprise, family firm, or new start-up into a global market. Students may create their own start-up business plan or select an existing SME or family business from any country, but the chosen organisation must be a small or medium-sized firm and must be different from the business idea submitted for Assignment 1. The report focuses on developing a practical internationalisation strategy that explains how the selected firm can enter, compete and grow in a new international market. The report begins by establishing the background of the selected firm and its contextual environment. Students should identify whether the organisation is a new start-up or an existing firm, provide relevant information about its country, explain its business type and consider operational or resource challenges. Where a start-up is selected, students should identify potential resource scarcity and explain how these challenges could be overcome. The report then introduces the firm's products or services and explains the value proposition and reasons why customers should purchase them. A feasibility analysis is required to demonstrate how the business opportunity or market gap was identified. Students must use the relevant Week 6 teaching resources to explain the feasibility of the proposed product or service and its potential within the firm's home market. The report then develops an internationalisation strategy, using the specified Week 5 and Weeks 8–10 teaching resources. This includes selecting and justifying the target international market, evaluating appropriate market entry strategies, explaining the proposed innovation, developing a new product or service for the target market and applying relevant innovation models. The internationalisation chapter also requires students to consider how the firm will manage and expand in the selected market, including the use of networks, competitors and competitive strategies. Students must develop a marketing approach for the new market, identify the target customer segment and explain how innovative promotion and advertising methods will be used. Relevant theories and frameworks, including Porter’s Five Forces, PESTEL and Embeddedness, should be applied to the selected firm and its context with suitable examples. Further sections address funding and finance, intellectual property and the wider impacts of the firm. Students must explain how the international expansion will be funded, including potential sources such as angel investors, venture capital and crowdfunding, with estimated funding amounts. The report should also explain how intellectual property will be protected in the new market and evaluate potential social, economic and community impacts. The final section is a personal reflection using Gibbs' Reflective Cycle. Students should reflect on their learning throughout the module, including relevant case studies discussed during tutorials, difficulties encountered, lessons learned and steps for improving future learning and performance. The report must use reliable sources and Harvard referencing, with relevant graphs and tables encouraged to improve clarity and presentation.
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