Comparative Business Studies


A Comparative Country Analysis: 2,500-word limit

Introduction:
You are to prepare and submit, via SurreyLearn, a comparative country analysis of both country and industrial level research and application of taught theory, taken from this model on one of the four available subject sets below. The critical model to be applied to this analysis is Porter’s Diamond Model (1990), but you are to support your work with additional theory presented to you during the module. All theory is to act as a lens, so that you may explore, understand, and explain the competitive advantages of the two countries that you have chosen, against the single industry sector that both nations possess.

You have a choice of one specific industry i.e., automotive, financial, clothing industry etc. and then two countries that have competitive advantages in that specific sector. You are to select from ONE of possible choices below:
1. Brazil, Canada, and the Aerospace Industry

2. Japan, USA, and the (Video) Gaming Industry

3. Singapore, United Kingdom, and the Financial Services Industry

4. Switzerland, Sweden, and the Pharmaceutical Industry

The choices might be limited by the module leader, but the extent of your research is your own. Importantly, the information you gather about the chosen countries and industry sector must be publicly available and available in English, so that it can be shared with the assessor. Collect the required secondary data on the two chosen countries and the industry operations from valid sources such as Global Competitiveness Report, Economist Intelligence Unit, Human Development Report of OECD, industry specific databases, academic journal articles (e.g., Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of World Business) or government official reports. Use this collected data about the countries and industry to:

Present your analysis of the chosen industry (e.g., CAGR; industry cluster; industry report-growth, trends and forecast etc.).

Provide your overview of the two countries’ performance in the chosen industry (e.g., GDP contributions; major export industry in the nation etc.).

Explain the determinants of the countries’ competitiveness: analysis of national competitive advantages with their endowments; macro-economic conditions; micro-economic conditions and relevant institutional and resource factors via Porter’s diamond model.

Make your recommendations for greater competitiveness. You need to enrich these factual data from the countries and industry with relevant theoretical discussions e.g., culture, national business systems, Heckscher-Ohlin modelling, institutional typology etc. and apply them with Porter’s Diamond Framework which involves 6 elements: