Assignment: Incentives to Globalize

Before beginning work on this week's discussion forum, please review the link Doing Discussion Questions Right, the expanded grading rubric for the forum, and any specific instructions for this week's topic.

Respond to the following questions using the lessons and vocabulary found in the readings.

Again this week, the discussion assignment has three parts. You should use brief headings to separate your post into the three sections.

For the first section of your post, evaluate whether the Fiat Auto acquisition of Chrysler represents a growth strategy. Conduct outside research and prepare a 1 to 1.5 single-spaced page (500-750 words) analysis of the following key strategic issues:

• Analyze the external environment in which Fiat competes, including identification of the critical strategic factors in each of the following areas:

o The General Environment

o The Industry Environment

o The Competitor Environment

• Based on the analysis of Fiat's external environment, what recommendations can you give Fiat's management to improve and continue the company's successful expansion of the Fiat vehicles into the United States market? Your recommendations should be an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions that will exploit the company's core competencies, sustain growth, and ensure maximum performance and value for shareholders.

For the second section of your post, you will briefly evaluate one of the basic benefits of becoming multinational corporations. Your textbook reading this week sets out the different reasons firms cite when explaining why they cross the borders of their home country and become multinational corporations. Read the three basic benefits highlighted in the text and in Figure 8-1.

Select one of the reasons (or benefits) and defend why it might be emerging as the most important one in firms' decisions to internationalize in the 21st Century. In answering this question, be sure to consider the international business conditions today and look for the motivations that underlie these current trends. In your answer, be sure to contrast the less important alternatives that you did not select. It will create a more lively discussion if participants don't all select the same reason to defend as the most important, emergent reason or benefit. This section of your post should be 1/2 to 1 single-spaced page (250-500 words) in length.

The final section or paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response.