An American consulting firm is planning to expand globally by opening a new office in one of four countries:

Germany, Italy, Spain, or Greece. The chief partner entrusted with the decision, L. Wayne Shell, has identified eight key success factors that he views as essential for the success of any consultancy. He used a rating system of 1 (least desirable country) to 5 (most desirable) to evaluate each factor.

KEY SUCCESS FACTOR WEIGHT CANDIDATE COUNTRY RATINGS GERMANY ITALY SPAIN GREECE Level of education Number of consultants .05 5 5 5 2 National literacy rate .05 4 2 1 1 Political aspects Stability of government 0.2 5 5 5 2 Product liability laws 0.2 5 2 3 5 Environmental regulations 0.2 1 4 1 3 Social and cultural aspects Similarity in language 0.1 4 2 1 1 Acceptability of consultants 0.1 1 4 4 3 Economic factors Incentives 0.1 2 3 1 5

a) Which country should be selected for the new office?

b) If Spain’s score were lowered in the Stability of government factor, to a 4, how would its overall score change? On this factor, at what score for Spain would the rankings change? Lop9