Reference no: EM132812044

Question 1:

Entrepreneurship is in Alyssa Stuart's blood. Alyssa has been starting businesses since she was 10 years old, and she finally has the perfect business of custom-made furniture. Customers who visit Alyssa's shop can choose from a number of different fabrics and 50 different styles of couch and chair designs to create their custom-made furniture. Once the customer decides on a fabric pattern and furniture design, the information is sent to China where the furniture is built and shipped to the customer via the West Coast. Alyssa is excited about her business; all of her hard work has finally paid off as she has more than 17,000 customers and 875 orders currently in the pipe. Alyssa's business is booming. Her high-quality products and outstanding customer service have created an excellent reputation for her business.

In order to expand the business, Alyssa Stuart has hired you as an external financial consultant. You are expected to provide her with advice on financial management issues, business strategy and future development.

Alyssa is thinking of changing the place of manufacturing the furniture. She is considering relocation in a developing country with relatively low labor costs and beneficial exchange rate of the local currency to the U.S. dollar. Important factors include taxation rates, availability of borrowing money from banks and low costs of shipping the furniture to the US. Alyssa asks you to collect information on potential countries where the manufacturing site can be relocated.

Examine carefully the following public big data sources and answer the questions:

• The World Bank https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
• UNECE https://w3.unece.org/PXWeb/en
• Trading Economics https://tradingeconomics.com/indicators

1. Should Alyssa relocate the manufacturing site from China to another country? If yes, which country is the most appropriate for relocation? Explain why you would recommend this country.

2. Prepare infographics about the chosen country (or China if your advice is not to relocate) reflecting the following information for 4-5 years:

• GDP per capita
• Gross average monthly wages
• Personal income tax rate (the latest)
• Total social security rate (the latest)
• Lending interest rate
• Exchange rate of the local currency to the US dollar