Business Capstone Paper
My company is AMAZON
Research the company on its own website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), in the University’s online databases, and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.
Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:
Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
Analyze the corporate-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the corporate-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
Analyze the competitive environment to determine the corporation’s most significant competitor. Compare their strategies at each level and evaluate which company you think is most likely to be successful in the long term. Justify your choice.
Determine whether your choice from Question 3 would differ in slow-cycle and fast-cycle markets.
Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
Week 8 Assignment 3 Template
Write your brief introduction here: It should not be more than 1 good paragraph (about 5 complete sentences) to introduce the reader to your topic and it should explain in detail what your paper will be discussing. Much of your introduction may be taken from the assignment itself (in your own words). Read the scenario to get a feel for what the paper is about and explain what your paper will be discussing – so be sure to review the Assignment instructions AND Rubric for understanding. Finally, please ask me any questions about this assignment.
Business-Level Strategies
Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice (Note: in this step you need to choose and write about only one (1) business-level strategy from the text book (not Google). Justify your opinion. For background, be sure to research and explain the industry in which your selected corporation operates. You could also briefly (1 – 2 sentences) define the business-level strategy (cite your sources) and briefly (1 – 2 sentences) define the strategy you are writing about using the textbook/Learn, as an introduction to your analysis. Read Chapter 4 in the course textbook. Review the Week 4 Learn video/Lecture for supporting content. In this section, you will want to research and identify the core competencies of your chosen firm. Demonstrate from your research how the firm uses its core competencies to create and sell its products in the marketplace. What actions & choices has the firm made to compete in individual product markets? Hint: “Every firm must form and use a business-level strategy.” (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2013, pp. 102). Review Chapters 4-9 for specifics on the business-level strategies.
Corporate-Level Strategies
Analyze the corporate-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the corporate-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice (Note: in this step you need to choose and write about only one (1) corporate-level strategy from the text book (not Google). Justify your opinion.
You should briefly define (1 – 2 sentences) corporate-level strategy based upon the textbook/lectures (cite your sources) as part of your analysis. Read Chapter 6 in the course textbook. Review the Week 6 Learn video/Lecture for supporting content.
Competitive Environment
Analyze the competitive environment to determine the corporation’s most significant competitor (this will require research/cite your sources). Compare their strategies at each level (market commonality, resource similarity, competitive behavior, and competitive dynamics/actions/responses) and evaluate which company you think is most likely to be successful in the long term. Justify your choice. Hint: read Chapter 5 in the course textbook as it provides a solid background and clues on this model that apply to this section. Review the Week 4 Learn video Lecture for supporting content (cite your sources).
Market Cycles
Determine whether your choice from Question 3 (Competitive Environment section above) would differ in slow-cycle and fast-cycle markets. It would be a good idea to briefly explain what the slow-cycle and fast-cycle markets are from the textbook (cite your sources) as a short introduction to your determination. Hint: read Chapter 5 in the course textbook with a special focus on the Competitive Dynamics section. Review the Week 4 Learn video Lecture for supporting content (cite your sources).
Sources
Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D.,