Trade at global level - Dissertation Example

Trade at global level Globalization has made the world interconnected and due to low levels of barriers for international trade, global trade is now a reality in the modern world. Global trade therefore has not only resulted into the transfer of knowledge and expertise but has also made the poorer nations to enjoy relatively better standards of life due to improved trade. It is also however, important to understand that global trade presents its own complexities and risks and organizations have to actually balance different elements in order to ensure that they take full advantage of the opportunities presented by global trade. It is also critical to note that the organizations have to make a decision in terms of deciding as to how to engage into the global trade and what could be some of the effective ways through which they can take advantage of the same. Thus the mode of entry in international trade is one of the most important decisions which need to be made in order to ensure that the global firms take advantage of the opportunities offered by the international trade. (Osland, Taylor and Zou) Organizations use different methods such as exporting, licensing, franchising as well as establishing their own Greenfield projects in order to trade globally. Through exporting international firms sell out their output to the firms in any international market without actually involving any other side of the business. However, in licensing and franchising international firms actually engage themselves to a greater extent because of the different nature of licensing and franchising. (Wheeler, Jones and Young) It is also important to understand that the decision to adapt a particular mode of entry into a global market is also based upon the strategic evaluation of different factors before firms can actually make a decision. Some of the factors include a critical assessment of the political environment of the country in which trade is made, the overall economic situation as well as the legal and other factors which can potentially create a risk for the firms engaged into global trade. This research study will therefore aim to explore as to explore as to how firm engaged in global trade in UK actually enter into the global trade business and what channels are being used in order to achieve the same. The aim of the Research Since global trade has became so large that its impact can be easily felt on the economy and society of any given country. Considering such an overall importance of the global trade, this research study will therefore aim to explore and understand the different dynamics of working in a global market. The focus will therefore be on understand both the macro level as well as micro level factors which are taken into consideration before firms actually make decisions to engage into global trade. The overall aim of the research is to explore and understand as to how the international firms operate into global market and some of the ways as to how global trade takes place. This research study will therefore aim to explore as to what different strategic options are exercised by UK firms to enter into global trade and how such options are exercised. Research Questions This research study aim to explore following research questions 1. What methods UK firms adapt to conduct trade at global level? This research question will focus on exploring as to what are some of the common and preferred modes of entry by the UK firms. 2. How such decisions are made? What are some of the criteria firms use in order to decide as to which mode of entry would be effective? This research question will focus on exploring as to which factors are considered as most important while making decisions to engage into the trade at the international level. Method and Sampling Methodology is considered as the systematic use of the statistical methods to explore different research questions. A consistent and effective use of statistical methods therefore also offers researchers an insight into what is achievable and what is not. Considering the overall nature of this research study, researcher is anticipating conducting a qualitative research study. Qualitative research methods such as interviews and review of the existing literature will be performed in order to gather the data. Based on the overall nature of the study, researcher aims to take out 3 to 5 international firms in UK which are engaged into the global trade business. A questionnaire will be developed to ask semi-structured questions from the managers of these firms to understand and explore as to what methods they adapt in order to successfully trade at the global level and how these decisions are made. Principal Issue The overall principal issue is to explore and understand through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research as to what are some of the ways which international firms adapt in order to engage into the global trade. Besides, this research study will also explore as to how these decisions are made i.e. what factors are taken into consideration in order to make the decision on entry mode for doing business at international level. Time Table and Work plan The first phase of the research will be based upon performing the review of existing literature in order to explore the previous research. Literature review will provide researcher an overview of some of the issues which have already been raised by the previous researchers besides offering an insight into the overall research themes. Second phase of the research will involve the development of questionnaire as well as the collection of data from the identified firms. Questionnaire design as well as the interviews will be conducted from the different managers working in the different international firms in UK. Final stage of the research will involve the data compilation as well as analysis besides formally writing the whole dissertation. It is expected that the actual writing of the research will consume most of the time of the researcher therefore higher timeslot will be allotted to this portion of the dissertation. List of Sources At this stage, researcher is not anticipating to use any external resources however internal resources such as use of online databases as well as university library will be take into consideration. Bibliography Osland, Gregory E., Charles R. Taylor and Shaoming Zou. "Selecting international modes of entry and expansion." Marketing Intelligence & Planning 9.3 (2001): 144-149. Wheeler, Colin, Marian Jones and Stephen Young. "Market entry modes and channels of distribution in the UK machine tool industry." European Journal of Marketing 30.4 (1996): 78-83. Read More