Cross-cultural Entrepreneurial Management

Assessment tips

With regard to the CCEM assignment, it could be of help to consider the following tips.

1) Identify the: industry, activity, mission, vision, structure, market and country of a
hypothetical organization they plan to establish (also drawing on the knowledge from
the International Business Environment and International Strategy term 1 modules);

Here you are expected to critically explain the first four aspects by justifying why you choose that
specific industry, that core activity, what the implications of your mission are as well as those of your
vision. When you define your core activity do not forget the fundamental variables for the analysis
and design of the organization! In particular remember to consider interdependences and
complexity. When it comes to the structure you are expected to illustrate the organization chart
emphasizing whether you opted for one of the traditional structural models or for a hybrid. Keep
into consideration the criterion that drives your choices (i.e. Efficiency? Effectiveness? Equity? To
what extent? What trade-off?). Remember that your chosen criteria have to emerge in all of your
organizational choices. When you move on to illustrate the market and country in which your
hypothetical organization will be based, do not forget to explain what makes that market ideal for
your activity as well as why that specific country would be suitable for your business.

2) Use the efficiency, effectiveness and fairness criteria to justify the organizational design
put in place;

As anticipated in the previous point, throughout your assignment efficiency/effectiveness trade-offs

have to inform your organizational decisions. Equity might be an underlying criterion together with
your specific trade-offs. You are not required to choose the same efficiency/effectiveness trade-off
for all decision but you are required to use a trade-off every time you illustrate an organizational
choice. This means that if you opt for greater efficiency in your structural choices, you could opt for
greater effectiveness in your coordination mechanisms ones. In any case you always have to show
what logic inspired your choices. Do not forget that, in the short term, you cannot be inspired by
100% efficiency and 100% effectiveness simultaneously! This is why you need to work out a trade-off
between the two.

3) Use the theory related to knowledge and preferences, decisions and motivation,
coordination mechanisms, leadership, power and politics to emphasize the
entrepreneurial intent that will drive the organization;
Your decisions related to knowledge and preferences have to consider the fact that individuals’
objectives tend to differ from organizational ones, as a consequence you need to emphasize the
nature of your motivation strategies (both keeping in mind content theories and process theories of
motivation) and the combination that is the most suitable for your organization. Emphasize the
nature of the knowledge that is relevant to your core activity as well as the one that is important for
your secondary/support activities. When emphasizing the decision making strategies, consider the
nature of the problems you need to solve (e.g. Structured problems? Unstructured problems? A
problem is structured when you know: what is part of the problem and what is not; the number of
alternative solutions to the problem; the weight of each solution; the best solution, among all the
ones you have, for solving the problem. A problem is unstructured when you are missing information
on one or more of the above aspects). Once you trace the soft ‘profile’ of your organization by
considering all the aspects indicated in point 3, then express your critical reflection on what is the
entrepreneurial intent that emerges from this particular soft-profile.

4) Critically identify and discuss the implications of culture (in all its forms) on the internal
and external context of the organization.

When you illustrate this point do not consider national culture exclusively. Refer to values, attitudes
and beliefs that inform social and business actions/interactions.