Competing in Emerging Markets Course Project
Case Company Invitation
The International Trade Center and the School of Business at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) are looking for a local company (hereafter “case company”) to participate in a project in an MBA course titled “Competing in Emerging Markets.” Dr. Yuping Zeng is the instructor of the course. Below are descriptions of the course and project, how the project may benefit the case company, and what is expected of the company.
About the course: This is a seven-week elective course in the online MBA program at SIUE. Students enrolled in the course typically are working adults. Emerging markets are developing countries that experience substantial economic, institutional and infrastructure development but have yet reached the status of developed countries. The most well-known emerging markets are the “BRICS” countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In the course, students learn about common characteristics of emerging markets and strategies firms may use to navigate those markets.
About this project: In this project, student teams will apply the knowledge and tools learned from the course to help the case company analyze selected emerging markets. Specifically, teams will: (1) analyze the institutional and business environments of selected emerging markets to identify business opportunities and risks; (2) analyze the competitive environment of the case company’s business in the selected countries; and (3) make recommendations regarding the prospect of those countries as potential markets for the case company to enter (recommendations can be catered to the case company’s needs).
Benefits to the case company: The case company will receive a written report from each student team that contains thorough analyses of selected emerging markets and recommendations catered to the case company’s business. The report will provide useful information about those markets, but more importantly, it will include analyses about how the institutional environments in each emerging market may affect businesses in that market.
Case company expectations: The case company is expected to: (1) meet with the instructor to discuss the project (either face-to-face or video conference); (2) provide documents (e.g., PPT slides, images, brochures) that help students understand the company’s business (no financial information is needed except for basic information such as sales, number of employees, etc. (the instructor can help integrate documents into a short case company description for students to read); (3) work with the instructor to record a video that introduces the company (via Zoom); and (4) be willing to answer questions that teams may have about the company when necessary during the semester (the instructor will collect questions and send them to the company).
Criteria to participate: We look for companies that have special interests in expanding into emerging markets and are interested in working with MBA students.
Contact us at international-trade-center@siue.edu with any questions.
