For sophisticated international firms, assessing global markets, opportunities and challenges is an ongoing process. Given the impacts of environmental factors such as culture, economics, political and legal environments of the firms ability to do business, the firm must navigate a variety of differences when expanding into international markets. For example, an apparel firm had to substantially adapt its approach in Islamic countries, where women are discouraged from wearing tight-fitting attire and generally do not interact with male sales personnel. A computer equipment manufacturer has to adapt on the basis of price for markets with lower per capital GDP. In consideration of the impacts of environmental factors on firms, what must firms do to understand environmental factors and adapt their global strategies?

(i) From the firms standpoint, what are the main drivers to be considered when selecting an overall approach to international expansion and how do they impact the firms decisions? How should they go about assessing the opportunities in global markets?

(ii) What are the impacts of environmental factors (e.g. the PEST factors) on firm decision-making? For example, for a technology company, language is a factor that necessitates adapting the product software to certain markets). Please give several examples of how and why the most important of these factors can lead to changes in business practices for the local market.

(iii) Identify some key global macro trends that might affect a firms international business, and how the firm could take advantage of these trends (e.g., where might they find new customers in particular world regions).What are some of the lessons learned by other companies and how could a firm take advantage of these lessons? Use examples to illustrate the points you seek to make.