The International Business Project module is about writing an analytical report regarding
current or possible international strategies or activities of one chosen company from any
industry in any region of the world.
 The chosen topic for the project must have an international dimension, otherwise it will
not be accepted.
 The international dimension of the project can focus on any type of international
strategy or activities such as international marketing, international human resource
management, international manufacturing, or any other corporate, business, or
functional-level strategies or activities.
 The project should be about the existing or potential international business activities of
a chosen multinational enterprise (MNE); or can focus on a company planning to
become international.
 Students can select any industry or company, so long as there is enough publicly
available information in English regarding this company or industry. The chosen
company can be active in one or more than one industry, however, focus of the report
should be only on one industry. The size and country of origin of the company does
not matter, and it can be well known or a hidden champion.
 The final output can be either a Management Consultancy report or a Market Research
report only based on secondary data. The structure is similar, but emphasis on
providing practical recommendations for improvement is greater in a Management
Consultancy report.
Recommended Structure for the Project Report
Marks are awarded for structure. The following are the sections that shape the project report:
Coversheet: Use the usual template for the assignment coversheet. This coversheet is
available in in the Assessments folder on SurreyLearn.
Table of contents: Provide the list of headings and their page number in one separate page
from the cover sheet and the executive summary.
1. Execut
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 You might use five sub-headings, one for each of the five parts of your project report.
 The recommended length for the executive summary is 300-500 words.
2. Scope, Aim and Topic of the Report
You need to talk about aim, scope and topic of your project report here.
 Scope of the report: In defining the scope of your report, you need to clarify four
interrelated issues. The scope-related matters are: A) the chosen international strategy
or business activity (what international business thematic or issue is the focus of your
project report?); B) the chosen industry (on which industry are you going to focus on?);
C) the selected company (from which will you collect data?); D) intended
country/countries/region (s) (in which geographies will you explore and analyse your
chosen company’s international business activities?) You should focus on one
industry only. If your selected company is active in more than one industry, you need
to concentrate only on one of these industries that you prefer. Any company from this
industry can be the focus of your report. Your chosen company may have activities in
many countries and on different continents. You need to mention from where precisely
your information is derived.
 Aim of the project report: Briefly state your intention for writing this project report.
What do you want to identify/assess by writing this report? The aim should be in the
form of a statement, and not a question. The aim statement starts with ‘To…’. For
example, ‘to determine suitable modes of internationalisation in the fashion industry;
the case of Zara’.
 Topic of the report: The topic of your report should be: A) in the form of a statement;
B) directly connected to the ‘aim of the report’; and C) preferably start with a word in
‘ing’ format. For instance, ‘determining suitable modes of internationalisation in the
fashion industry; the case of Zara’. You also need to justify the rationale for selecting
such a topic for your project. Why is it important for managers or other stakeholders to
know more about your chosen project topic? You may use a combination of literature
review and factual market data to support your decision to write about the topic.
3. International business selection
In one or two paragraphs, give some short information about the company you selected for
investigation in your report, and its existing or intended approach to internationalisation.
 Say what your chosen company does. If your intended company does business in
more than one industry, introduce all of these businesses briefly.
 Why did you select this company?
 You may provide some graphs or/and tables to show the company’s market share and
position among competitors in the same industry.
 Indicate in how many countries this company does business.
 If you can find them, you might write the company’s vision, mission, and objectives. Do
not worry if you cannot find these details.
 If the company is already international, what modes of foreign market entry has it
deployed?
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4. Data Collection Sources and Analytical Methods
The project report is based on secondary data, the data that are collected originally by other
people or organisations than the student. The source of secondary data should be reliable. It
means the data are expected to be generated or collected either by academics, authorised
staff in an organisation regarding the organisation, official governmental bodies, professional
data collection or market research institutes, or international and unbiased organisations.
In the analysis section these issues should be covered:
 The utilised sources of secondary data and their justification. It is crucial to rely
only on reliable sources of data in writing your report because reliability of your report,
its findings and recommendations depend on reliability of the sources used in the
report. Reliable sources for collecting secondary data are annual company reports, the
Office for National Statistics, professional databases, report by international institutions
such as UNCTAD, European Union, World Bank, World Trade Organization,
International Monetary Fund, or OECD. You can use any reliable databases to collect
data about the market or a particular company. Five recommended databases are
Mintel, Euromonitor Passport, Orbis and Capital IQ, and Statista. Mintel, Euromonitor
Passport, Orbis and Capital IQ are available via our online library. Statista is freely
available for all users. You need to justify selection of each of your sources of
secondary data. Why do you think your chosen sources of data are appropriate for
your selected project topic? You might use a table with two columns one for the utilised
sources of secondary data and the other brief rationale for using each of the secondary
sources.
 The employed analytical technique (s) and its/their justification. Your analytical
technique can be a theoretical framework such as Porter’s five forces, stakeholder
analysis, Dunning’s eclectic paradigm, the Uppsala internationalisation process model,
or the institutional approach. You are required to collect secondary data to support and
apply your chosen theoretical framework.
You may like to select an analytical technique that is a non-theoretical method,
including statistical formula (such as multiple regression analysis, correlation, chisquare,
or frequency) or qualitative data analysis methods (such as systematic
literature review, content analysis or thematic analysis). If you choose a ‘theoretical
framework’ for data analysis, you will not be required to use any statistical analysis
techniques if you do not want to do so. You should justify selection of your preferred
data analysis technique (s). Why do you think your chosen data analysis technique (s)
would be a suitable method for your report?
5. Findings
This section is dedicated to the results of the analysis and interpretations of the findings.
 Results of the analysis: When using a theoretical framework as your analytical
technique, your findings would be mainly in the form of discussions concerning each
aspect of the employed theoretical framework. For example, if you chose Porter’s Five
Forces as your analytical tool, you are expected to illustrate your findings for each of
the five parts of the model. If you relied on statistical formula for analysing your
collected data, you need to show outputs of the analysis (e.g. correlation table,
frequency, pie-chart, or time series analysis graph) in this section. If some of your
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findings are in the form of graphs or tables, you are required to give separate number
and headings for each of the demonstrated graphs or tables. You should put all
relevant graphs and tables in this section. If you put tables or graphs in your
appendices section, they will not be considered in the marking your report.
 Interpretations of the findings: Although illustrating your findings is important, it is
not enough. You must explain what each finding means and how each finding help you
to understand the phenomena/topic you were examining in your report. You should
also say what would be the implications of each of your findings for your chosen
company. If you had a hypothesis or question in your project, you should debate
whether or not your hypothesis was rejected or your findings gave you the satisfactory
answer to your question.
6. Recommendations
In this part, you need to have some evidence-based suggestions to your chosen company/
industry to make some improvements on the chosen area of strategy or activity.
 Recommendations must be based on the findings of the analysis. One of the possible
ways to show direct connectivity between your findings and your recommendations is
through using a table. It could be a table with two or more columns, where in one
column you put each of your main findings in a separate row of that column, and in the
other column for each of the mentioned findings, you recommend one or more
improvement in the company’s internal strategies, actions, processes, management or
leadership roles and decisions.
 In addition to the findings you can utilise the relevant literature to support your
suggested improvements.
 Your proposed enhancements should not be solely based on literature.
 Try to have at least three relevant recommendations. Having more evidence-based
recommendations would increase your mark.
Reference List: It is mandatory to have a full list of all sources you used directly in your work.
Please do not mention the sources that you did not use directly in your work. Referencing
should follow the Harvard Referencing system only.
Appendices: It is better not to have any appendices. All necessary information and discussion
should be provided within the main text between the executive summary and the
recommendations sections. If you really need to have an appendix, remember that the
contents in appendix do not have any assigned marks.
Formatting Issues
1. It is recommended to use one of the readable and academic fonts such as Arial, Calibri,
or Times New Roman.
2. It is suggested to use fond size 11 for the general body of the text.
3. You might use font size 13 or 14 in bold for main headings.
4. Font size 11 in bold would be suitable for sub-headings.
5. Any default page margins (e.g. 2.54 for all sides or 2 for all sides) would be acceptable.
6. Try to have headings for every tables or graphs in your assignment. Put the heading
above the table or the graph.
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7. It is recommended to number all table or graph headings.
8. Mention the source of your tables or graphs under the table or graph. If you developed
the table or graph just write ‘Source: Developed by the Author for this work’.
9. The recommended line spacing is either 1.2 or 1.5.