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International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
27 Instructor’s Manual – Module 7 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
3. Current events for sources of culture controversy
A focus on current events that are relevant to the module’s topics is a good way to bring home
the concepts, review their application and build news-review habits. Five minutes at the
beginning of class is devoted to discussion of current events. Recent relevant current events
include economic crises in various developed or developing nations that can influence the
country’s level of development (e.g., Greece, the Ukraine, Venezuela, Brazil, Russia, or Sudan),
health epidemics (e.g., ebola), the graying of populations (e.g., Germany, Sweden, Japan, China),
or immigration situations that could results in significant movements of people into, or out of,
nations or regions (e.g., Syria, Central America, Afghanistan). Depending on the online interface,
this activity may be done in chat forums (Blackboard) or discussion boards, before class begins.
This activity also works well in large lecture classes. Ask everyone to come prepared with an
article for every meeting, or on a specific topic if a more focused discussion is preferred. If a
meaningful percentage of the final grade is allocated to discussion (e.g., 15% to 25%), motivation
is there. All of these opportunities to share applications of course concepts found in current
events count towards the participation grade. Call on two people at the beginning of class, with
a penalty allocated to non-performers. If there is time at the close of class, open up new
discussion for volunteers.
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
1. Students often are unaware of the broad impacts on a company from changes in
economic variables. It can be useful to pick one or two recent events – such as currency
devaluation or a nation’s high level of international debt – and then have students discuss
whether and how such events might impact an international company operating inside or
considering entry into a particular nation. To broaden participation and understanding, such
discussion might begin by having students discuss the issue within a small group and then have
the groups present and discuss their ideas within the class as a whole. Figure 7.1 can be used as
a starting point or as a way of helping to organize ideas on a white board.
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International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
2. The material on Levels of Economic Development can be a useful base for generating a
discussion. We discuss the concepts in this section as well as Figure 7.2 that shows the
countries of the world based on per capita GNI, and ask the students to discuss how relevant
these distinctions are, including how they may be valuable for international managers and what
limitations they might involve. We tie in Table 7.1 and discuss how they may provide useful
insight for international managers. We then conclude this discussion by including the material
from the GLOBAL DEBATE: How to Best Measure Development: Economy or People? and
generally have an invigorating discussion about what “development” really means or should
mean, what dimensions should be examined, and how to measure it.
3. We find it useful to conduct a discussion of how the various measures of an economy’s
size can be useful for international managers. For example, we discuss the usefulness of GNI
and GNI per capita for helping to identify or rule out markets for potential products, a
discussion that can be enhanced if several different specific products are discussed (e.g.,
toothpaste, Macbook Air laptops, Harley Davidson motorcycles, Levi’s jeans). A discussion of
the limits of these measures can also be useful, helping the students to think about what
additional or alternative measures might be used for assessing market attractiveness. This can
then evolve into either a larger discussion of the various economic analysis measures, or a
discussion that also begins to incorporate socioeconomic or other dimensions.
4. Generally students do not fully understand the Purchasing Power Parity concept. We find
it useful to put together scenarios (such as presented in the text, about Thailand versus the
U.S.), combined with the IB in Practice box on the Big Mac Index, to help them understand what
PPP is and how it may be useful for international managers when assessing markets.
5. Students often find the topic of the underground economy and informal markets to be
interesting, although often they do not seem to fully understand the extent of such activities.
We find it useful to use Figure 7.3 as a starting point and then to ask students to list the kinds of
activities that might make up such an economy. We discuss the relevance of knowing roughly
how large such a market is, such as what it means for disposable income, for products and
services demanded, etc., as well as what it might tell us about the context of the country (e.g.,
taxes, poverty, legal and other institutions).
6. We often find it useful to discuss the distribution of income in an economy, how it varies
across nations, and the implications of different distributions. Table 7.4 is a useful tool for such
discussion. We ask students to identify how having information on differences in distribution of
income might be useful for an international manager and what products or services might be
most impacted if income distribution is relatively even, or if it is highly uneven.
7. It can be interesting to have a class discussion on the impacts of different age
distributions within nations. Figure 7.6 provides a useful starting point for such a discussion.
Asking students about why an economy would have a higher or lower proportion of elderly in
its population can be a useful early discussion topic, as is the question of why the United States
has a much lower proportion of elderly than comparable developed countries such as Germany
and Japan (e.g., high rates of inward migration), or why China has such a high proportion of
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
29 Instructor’s Manual – Module 7 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
implications of a high proportion of young people (e.g., workforce, products for setting up
initial households and families) can be useful here.
8. Guest Lecturer possibilities: Some people who could contribute to the material in this
module would be:
a. Someone involved in planning or economic analysis in a multinational should prove
interesting.
b. The international trade specialist from your U. S. Department of Commerce office will
have economic data available and should be able to show how firms use it. You may want to
save this person for the chapter on exporting, however.
c. If you don’t send your class to take a guided tour with the reference librarian, you might
ask him/her to give a short presentation to the class about the resources available for
conducting economic and socioeconomic analyses. Usually they are willing since the students
will be better prepared when they go to the library.
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
30 Instructor’s Manual – Module 7 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
ASSESSEMENT O FLEARNING
Interactive Applications
Assigning Interactives
Consider assigning only 2 interactives per chapter. Interactive applications allow students to see
concepts in practice and assess higher order thinking skills. There are numerous exercises of
different types available. Click’n’drag, video cases, and case analysis are the types you will see
most frequently in this program.
Time-Saving Hints:
• Instructors may want to give students unlimited or multiple attempts on the first few
assignments so the students have a chance to learn and navigate the system before
selecting the option for one attempt only.
• The value of each question should probably be relatively low, since multiple questions
are usually assigned for each chapter. A good rule of thumb would be to make “Quiz
Questions” worth 1 point each and “Interactives” worth 5-10 points each since these
require more time and thought.
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
31 Instructor’s Manual – Module 7 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
• Feedback given to students is time flexible. Selecting feedback to be displayed after the
assignment due date helps to limit students from giving the correct answers to other
students while the interactive is still available.
Connect Content Matrix
For every chapter, please refer to the Connect Content Matrix to see what application
exercises are available, what Learning Objectives they help reinforce/assess.
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International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
International Business
Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball
Instructor Guide to Module 7
32 Instructor’s Manual – Module 7 | Geringer, McNett, Minor, Ball © 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education.
Module
Assignment
Type
Title
Topic(s)
Learning
Objective(s)
AACSB
Accreditation
Tagging
Bloom's
Taxonomy
7
Drag and Drop
Evaluating
Country
Attractiveness
Socioeconomic
Country
Attractiveness
07-03; 07-
04
Analytical/
Reflective
thinking
Apply/
Understand
7
Video Case
Japan's Economic
Malaise
Dimensions that
Describe the
Economy and
their Relevance
for International
Business
07-03; 07-
04
Analytical
Analyze
7
Drag and Drop
Three Levels of
Economic
Development
Levels of
Economic
Development
07-02
Analytical/
Reflective
thinking
Understand/
Remember
7
Drag and Drop
Understanding
Economic
Analyses
International
Economic
Analyses
07-01
Analytical/
Reflective
thinking
Understand/
Remember
