1(2)

Dear Applicant,

The advance assignment (40 points) is one part of your entrance exam. To pass the advance assignment you need to earn as minimum 10 points. Failing the advance assignment automatically means failing the whole entrance exam. Please read carefully the guidelines below.

Compulsory reading material

Read the following chaptersof this report:World Bank. 2016. Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency. Washington, DC: World Bank. DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0667-4. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC, BY 3.0 IGO.:

  • What is changing in Doing Business? (pp. 27-33)
  • Reforming the business environment in 2014/15 (pp. 34-53)
  • Trading across borders. A new approach measuring trade processes (pp. 83-90)

The report is available from:

Please note that Haaga-Helia has the right for using this report as part of IBMA’s entrance examination.

Reporting guidelines

After you have read the compulsory reading material,please prepare your own report of no more than 10 pages(excluding Cover page, Table of contents, Bibliography, Appendices). Apply the advance assignment template and guidelines available in HH’s web-page.

In your advance assignment’s Discussion chapter please discuss the following issues:

  1. Do you agree or disagree with the broadening of indicators in the ‘Doing Business 2016’ report (see table 3.1. p. 27). Why? Why not? Are the new indicators relevant to your (or to a selected) organization? Why? Why not? (write 1½-2 pages)
  2. How has the regulatory environment changed (see table 4A.1 pp. 50-53)in the country of your (or the selected) organization and/or in the countries your organization is doing business with?(write 3-4 pages)
  3. Are the indicators of trading across borders relevant to your (or to the selected) organization? Argue why and how? (write 1½-2 pages)

The required structure and volume of your report should be the following: Cover page, Table of contents,Introduction (½-1 page), Discussion (6-8 pages), Conclusions (½-1 page), Bibliography, Appendices.

You are encouraged to use relevant additional sources to support your arguments. However, please note that references to all sources should be madecorrectlyin alphabetical order (see the guidelines in the advance assignment’s template).

PLEASE DO NOT COPY sentences or paragraphs from the assigned reading because it will not be accepted! PLEASE FOCUS ON APPLYING the messages of the assigned reading to your (or to the selected) organization.

Submission

Note that your report needs to be ready and sent to February6, 2017at 15.00 at the latest. Your CV should be in Appendix 1 of your Advance assignment (see the template). Please note that not submitting the advance assignment together with your CV as requested means failing the whole entrance examination.