This section discusses the general requirements for the course's written assignments.
Case Write-up Assignments
The case write-ups should be brief, no more than 3 double-spaced pages. We will assign the cases sometime after the third week of the class. The case write-ups are intended to be analytic discussions of some issue central to the case.
Please do not merely repeat case facts except to bolster your argument. Based on the information provided in the case materials, please be analytically judgmental and evaluative. You should propose alternate managerial views and action plans whenever appropriate and discuss the relevance and applicability of the frameworks proposed in the readings and lectures. In short, you should write what you think of the situation in the case and not merely what the author of the case says. Each case write-up counts for 10% of your grade. These case write-ups are individual assignments.
Group Research Report
This group project is due four days after Ses #13 and will count for 40 percent of the grade. You will need to write a 15-20 page paper focusing on a business, social, economic or political issue in either of these two countries or both countries. When your paper is heavily focused on one country, you need at least take into account the issues and the dynamics in the other country.
The paper can be simply factual, such as the following: "China is more competitive than India in home appliance industry and here are the indicators demonstrating this point." The paper can be also analytical, such as the following: "India's democracy has helped the country's IT outsourcing business because, as a number of scholars have argued, there is more trust in a democracy and trust is an essential ingredient in a outsourcing business model." (I do not necessarily stand behind these two statements. I am giving them as illustrations of the type of projects that can be done.) This is a group assignment. You can work in teams up to 3 or 4 people on the report.
More guidelines and suggestions for the group research report: (PDF)