Q • Your paper should be 2–3 pages in length (not including title and reference pages). • Your paper should be double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, in-text citations, and references for all sources following proper APA formatting. Use the EC Library resources to properly cite your work: o APA Format Tip Sheet (Links to an external site.) o Citing Sources (Links to an external site.) o Plagiarism & Copyright (Links to an external site.) • Use the EC Library guide to conduct your research: o Business Research Guide (Links to an external site.) BACKGROUND INFORMATION Your company, Sustainable Goods, is a U.S.-based company that is privately owned. You are the newly appointed Chief Operating Officer of the international branch of the company. Sustainable Goods is considering which countries to expand into first. The President of the company has tasked you with selecting one developed and one developing country to expand into as a pilot project. Sustainable Goods is a big box retailer who specializes in products which are sustainable. Your company has been cited by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Links to an external site.) (UNCTAD) as the leading organization for the sales and distribution of sustainable products. Chapter 3 of your textbook discusses macropolitical and macroeconomic changes that are occurring worldwide (Hill & Hult, 2020). Democracy continues to spread throughout developing nations, yet some countries continue to rule under monarchies, communism, and other forms of government. As technology has continued to advance, the ongoing discovery of previously inaccessible minerals and other natural resources continues in developing nations, providing opportunities for significant economic changes within a country. So how does an organization that is considering expanding into the international market gain an understanding of the macropolitical and macroeconomic factors that may influence their decision on which markets to enter? PROMPT Conduct initial research on one developing and one developed country of your choice. Explore the political, cultural, and economic environments of each country. The following resources will help you with your research: Excelsior College Library Homepage (Links to an external site.) Library Overview [VIDEO]: A brief introduction to the EC Library (Links to an external site.) [Video, 3 minutes 53 seconds] Starting Your Research Guide (Links to an external site.) You must utilize at least three scholarly sources. It is highly recommended that you utilize the Excelsior College library to conduct your research. All students/researchers must be able to discern what is considered solid, source/reference material and what is not. So, what is scholarly (sometimes referred to as peer-reviewed)? Scholarly sources can generally be identified by several features: • Content (topic being discussed) • Audience (for the layperson or someone familiar with the research on the subject?) • Language (higher level language and discipline-specific terminology) • Intent (case study, report of experimental results...) • Authorship (qualifications of author to write on the topic, usually an advanced degree with years of experience and research on the topic) • Peer-review (material is evaluated by experts and only published if meets the discipline's standards) • References (other materials used in the research process are listed in a bibliography or footnotes) • Listing (check Ulrich's in the Research Databases to see if the publication is listed as refereed) Please take note of the aforementioned bullets as you select external/scholarly sources for this assignment. Tasks: Write a 2–3-page paper describing both of your country’s existing political, cultural, and economic environments. You must utilize at least three scholarly sources. It is highly recommended that you utilize the Excelsior College library to conduct your research. Your paper should be 2–3 pages long with a minimum of two references in a double-spaced document using 12 pt. Times New Roman font, utilizing APA format. REFERENCES Hill, C.W.L. & Hult, G.T.M. (2020). Global business today. (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Scott, K. (2016). Cross culture management: Global healthcare workers. Journal of Continuing Education Topics and Issues, 18(3), 68–75. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/ 1817067880?accountid=8289 Compose your work in a .doc or .docx file type using a word processor (such as Microsoft Word, etc.) and save it frequently to your computer. For those assignments that are not written essays and require uploading images or PowerPoint slides, please follow uploading guidelines provided by your instructor. Check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Upload Submission.” Enter the submission title and then click on “Select a file to upload.” Browse your computer, and select your file. Click “Open” and verify the correct file name has appeared next to Submission File. Click on “Continue.” Confirm submission is correct and then click on “Accept Submission & Save.” Turnitin® This course has Turnitin® fully integrated into the course dropbox. This means that you should only submit your assignments to the dropbox below. Please do not submit your assignment directly to Turnitin.com. Once submitted, your assignment will be evaluated by Turnitin® automatically. You will be able to view an Originality Report within minutes of your first submission that will show how much of your work has been identified as similar to other sources such as websites, textbooks, or other student papers. Use your Originality Report as a learning tool to identify areas of your assignment that you may not have cited appropriately. You may resubmit your assignment through this dropbox as many times as you need to check to see if you have made improvements, until the due date of the assignment. However, once you have made your first submission, you will need to wait 24 hours after each subsequent submission to receive a new Originality Report. Plan accordingly as you draft your assignment. Once the due date has passed, your assignment submission will be considered final. EVALUATION This assignment will be graded using the M1A1 Short Paper Rubric. Please review this rubric prior to beginning your work. You can also access the rubric on the Course Rubrics page within the Start Here module. This assignment is worth X% of your final course grade.