✅ Key features of the challenge

• Course: Doing Business In Emerging Countries
• Programme: Master Business Administration | International Management Track
• Students per team: 4-5 students.
• No. of hours spent per team: 150 hours
• Duration: November 1 – December 19, 2024
• Supervision: Student teams are jointly supervised by lecturers at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a contact person at the company.
• Deliverables: Report with recommendations and presentations.
• Company time investment: 8-12 hours
• Matching fee (only when matched to one or more teams):
  • For companies in developed countries: €750,- (ex tax)
  • For companies based in emerging countries: €250,- (ex tax)
  • For non-profit organizations and NGO's: Free of charge

📑 Challenge Examples

The student teams can work on challenges with an emerging country component. Companies providing challenges may come from emerging countries or Western countries. Examples for challenges include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Help us, as a company from a Western country, to enter an emerging country in which we have no experience yet.
• Help us, as a company from an emerging country, to enter another country in which we have no experience yet.
• For us as a company from a Western country, conduct a strategic analysis of an emerging country's potential for our product(s)/service(s).
• For us as a company from an emerging country, conduct a strategic analysis of a Western country's potential for our product(s)/service(s).
• Help us improve our marketing efforts in an emerging country we have already entered.
• Conduct an extensive stakeholder analysis of our current business in an emerging market we have already entered.
• Investigate the risks for our company in an emerging country we consider entering.

Questions? Want to discuss your challenge before submitting one? Schedule a call here.

🏢 Company requirement

• Any company/organization from any industry can apply.
• The only requirement is that you (want to or consider to) do business in an emerging country (such as, but not limited to, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania, etc.), or are based in an emerging country and want to do business in a Western country or another emerging country.

💰 Costs

To help facilitate this challenge a matching fee applies (charged by Master Challenge and NOT the university).

• For companies in developed countries: €750,- (ex tax)
• For companies based in emerging countries: €250,- (ex tax)
• For non-profit organizations and NGO's: Free of charge

❗️You will only be charged when matched to a team.

📨 How to apply

You can submit the challenge directly through the website. Provide a title that summarises the challenge. Subsequently, briefly elaborate on your challenge. See link for a template you could use: https://link.masterchallenge.me/challenge-template or use the challenge generator: https://masterchallenge.me/challenge-generator

🗓 Planning

• October 10: Deadline for submitting your challenge
• October 7 (or sooner): Receiving message if your challenge is approved by the Course Coordinator at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• October 21-25: Matching phase
• October 28: Our matching algorithm will create optimal matches
• October 31-November 5: Kick-off meeting with your team
• December 20, 9:00 – 17:30: Final presentations in time slots of 20 minutes (after you are matched to a team, we will schedule the time slots)
• Until December 20: Receive the final report