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.
Timeline
Fall 2021
The instructor works with the case company to prepare case company description documents and record the introduction video.
January 15-March 4, 2022
Teams work on the project; questions may be sent to the case company by the instructor.
March 14-18, 2022
Team reports will be sent to the case company
Course Instructor: Dr. Yuping Zeng will be the instructor of the course. She received her PhD from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in China and did her post-doctoral research program at Ohio State University. Dr. Zeng's expertise includes mergers and acquisitions in transitional economies, organizational learning in foreign direct investment, institution transition and firm's strategic response, and internationalization of Chinese firms. She has presented papers at various annual meetings, including the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business and the Strategic Management Society. Dr. Zeng currently teaches Strategic Management and International Business courses at SIUE.
All participants in this course will be assisted by the staff from the International Trade Center. Confidentiality agreements will be signed by all students and faculty. To apply, contact us at international-trade-center@siue.edu or via phone at 618-650-3851.