You will be assigned a two-week period in which you will prepare a current event report and Discussion topics for classroom discussion. Several students will prepare current event reports during the same week. They will post individual current event topics; this is not a group project.

Approach the current event report Discussion as follows:

Refer to Course Content for the text material and concepts scheduled for the week of your current event.
Articles must not be more than six months old that directly relates to the topics for that week. Your article must come from a peer-reviewed source such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, U.S. News and World Report, Financial Times, or similar business publications.
Post a new Discussion topic in the following format:

Provocative headline for the subject line.
Name of article
Formal citation
URL link to article
Overview. A concise summary of the article.
Relevance to course concepts. Outline which course concepts are an issue in the article. You can include personal thoughts and observations.
Questions for consideration. There should be three or more questions for discussion that stimulate discussion. Questions can be directly related to the article or tangential to the course concepts.

List of topics that can be used: Overview of World Business and the Impact on Global Marketing—Domestic companies have to seek international and global markets in order to sustain growth and profitability.

Political Environment—Different political systems and volatile political environments cause firms to accept a greater degree of risk than they assume when operating only in their home country.

Economic Environment—The increasing importance of global economics fuels the growth in emerging international and global markets.

Legal and Regulatory Environment—Differing legal systems and allegiances to home countries make compliance and enforcement of local laws and regulations difficult.

Technological Environment—Rapid advances in technology may greatly reduce some companies’ ability to sustain a competitive advantage.

Cultural Environment—When introducing new products and services to international and global markets, marketers assume the responsibility of serving as change agents, essentially altering cultures and consumption behaviors.

Competitive Environment—Firms entering the international arena have to adjust to increased competition from traditional and untraditional competitors.