LAB 2

This Lab is designed to help you get started gathering information on your assigned country. As you work on this lab, you are free to share questions or information found with other members of you negotiation group. You all share the same country, though you do not share the same firms.

Through this assignment, you will be introduced to different critical and relevant sources of information on your assigned country. While completing the lab should not take more than an hour or so, I encourage you to go more slowly and actually read over some of the material while you complete the information scavenger hunt portion of the Lab. As you work on this assignment, consider the usefulness of the data sources you find. You many want to print, bookmark or save some of the information you find for future assignments in this course.

Points will be taken off for a failure of your submission to comply with these instructions and provide complete information for your assigned country. (NOTE: links or web addresses are NOT sufficient unless you are specifically instructed. You must copy in the material requested.) However, I do expect there may be some discrepancies in what you are able to find. Do your best to find information that matches the instructions. If there are differences, find the closest match you can. For example, if you cannot find information for each of 3 consecutive years as discussed below, but there is information at some other interval – perhaps every 3 or 5 years, copy in 3 intervals worth.

In addition, if for any of the items below you cannot find the requested information for your country, you may then, and only then, find the information requested for a country in the same region. For example, if your country is Vietnam and you cannot find the information requested for Vietnam for one item, you may substitute with the information for Thailand or China.

One last note: references are not needed for these answers unless a reference is specifically requested.

To get started, create a word document that will contain your findings from this scavenger hunt as the instructions ask you to record them. Put your name at the top of the document. Indicate the name of the country you have been assigned to study. Put all of the information requested below in the document, with indications of each number item below to match it up:

1. Go to the New York Times website. There is a link on the Helpful List of Research Links. Search using the name of your country. Then, click on the link entitled “Times Topics” for your country. Scroll part way down the page and find a section in the middle column that has in the title your country’s name and then the word “navigator.” Under that heading are various links to data sources on your country. Copy that section including everything from the title down through the bullet points, and paste the section into your response document as your response to #1. Generally, there should be between 5 and 7 links in bullet points in the section.

2. Now, click on the CIA World Factbook (country profile) link in that same section of the New York Times “Times Topic” on your country. Once on the World Factbook, click on the geography link. Then copy in the short section on “Land Use” as your answer to #2. Included in the land use section should be information about the amount of arable land.

3. Your response to #3 should be a definition for “arable land.” Provide the definition in quotes and then make sure to provide a full citation for the source of that definition which should not be from an unacceptable source (Have you read the “Additional Instructions Regarding Written Assignments”?)

4. Go to the website for Geert Hofstede regarding culture (on the Helpful List). Click on the heading “National Culture” on the right. Then click on “Countries” under that heading. You should then see a drop down box in the middle of the page that says “select a country”. Choose your country. If your country is not available or if there is no paragraph as mentioned below for your country, choose another country in your region. Then copy in the paragraph regarding the level of individualism/collectivism for your country and paste it into your response document. Make sure you do not just copy in the general description of the cultural dimension – copy in the information specific to your country. [Note: you are free to check out more on this website. You can, for example, set up the bar graph at the top to compare your country to another country such as the United States.]

5. Go to the Google Scholar website, click on “advanced search”. Then in the first line that has the instruction to find “all the words” type your country name. In the second line that has the instruction to find “the exact words” type “business culture”. Look over the summary information in the results until you find an entry that looks like it might have some useful information. Copy the description for that item into your response document.

6. Go to the Helpful List of Research Links document posted on GAView. Click on the OECD link. Then use the OECD website to help you find and provide in the response document the answers to the following: a. Is your country a member country of the OECD? b. Can you get statistical data regarding your country through the OECD website? c. If the answer to b is yes, copy in the line for the GDP. If the answer to b is no, find the GDP for a country in the same region of the world as your country and copy it into your response document. Make sure it is clear to what country the GDP information pertains.

7. Still using the Helpful List of Research Links, click on the unstats link. Obtain the GNI per capita in U.S. Dollars for your country for three consecutive years – perhaps 2007, 2008 and 2009. Copy that small table into your response document.

8. Go to the World Bank’s website at http://data.worldbank.org/ (on the Helpful List). Click on the tab for “data catalogue.” This will lead you to a location with a wealth of information. Scroll way down, almost to the bottom of the page. Click on the item “Country Profiles.” Once you get to the next location, find your country in the drop down menu and click on it. Copy the table that you get into your response document. [If your country is not on the list or nothing comes up, copy the page for another country in the same region as yours.]

9. Go to http://www.bea.gov/ (also on the Helpful List). Click on the “International” tab. Scroll about 1/2 of the way down. Look for the heading “Direct Investment and Multinational Companies.” Under that heading, click on “Statistics: Direct Investment and MNCs. Then click on “begin using data.” Click “next step” on the next 2 pages, until you get to the page at the “Classification” heading. There click on “By country and industry” then click next step. Click on next step for industry classification. At Options select years 2005 – 2009 (all 5 years) and choose your country. Then choose chemicals and food under the heading manufacturing for the industries. Submit the request. Copy the resulting table and paste it into your response document.

10. Search for the World Competitiveness Yearbook (also on the Helpful List). Find the 2011 rating for your country (you have to go through a couple of screens, but should not have to pay for this). Put the rating in the response document and also provide a brief explanation of what this ranking means (what are the criteria used to determine the rating?).

11. Go to the Helpful List of Research Links document posted on GAView. Click on the link for the WTO. In the WTO website, search for your country. On the results page, copy and paste on your response document the first item, which should be regarding membership information for your country.

12. Still using the Helpful List of Research Links, click on the IMF website link. Search your country. Copy and paste on your response document the description of the first item on the results page.

13. Conduct a Google search using the name of your country and the word “tourism.” Look over the first few items on the results list. Click on the link for the website that appears to be the most “official” or reliable. If what comes up does not look good, try another link. Once you have found a tourism website that appears like it might be a good source of information, add the following to your response document:

d. Copy and paste information from the website that indicates the sponsor or authors of the website. Often this information will be found in a link at the top or the very bottom of the page entitled “About” or “About Us” with the website name. For example, a search of the United States and tourism will provide you with a link to “discoveramerican.com”. If you go to the very bottom of the home page, you will find a link to “About Us” that provides information about the organization behind the website. If there is no “about” link, click on the link for contact us (or similar). If there is no “about” or “contact” information, try another tourism link. Remember to put the information in the response document. e. Based on the “about” or “contact” information you found, provide a short – 2 to 3 sentence – opinion regarding the reliability of the website. f. Search within the tourism website for information about the country. Copy in a short paragraph (or a data table) with information about business activity or the market conditions in the country. Do your best to find some interesting data to copy in.

14. Find the website for the government of the country you are studying. Usually searching the country name and “government” should get you there. Then copy and paste the web address for the country’s government website on your response document.

Make sure all of your cut-and-paste items are on the document under the number of the appropriate item.