International Business: Import, Export, and Regulatory Mechanisms

This document provides an overview of international business, focusing on import and export data for the United Kingdom, mechanisms that regulate international trade, and how the environment and culture of another country affects a business operating internationally. It also discusses the monetary environment and reasons why businesses operate internationally. The case study used is Apple, a public company in the software and hardware industry.

International
Business

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
P1- Explain import and export data for the United Kingdom..................................................................3
P2 Describe the mechanisms that regulate international trade.................................................................4
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................5
P3- Describe how the environment and culture of another country affects a business operating
internationally......................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................................6
P4– Describe how the monetary environment affects businesses that operate internationally.................6
P5- Identify why businesses operate internationally................................................................................8
P6- Explain the business strategies used by a business operating internationally..................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................11
REFRENCES............................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
International business refers to procedure which is based on various activities such as
trading of goods and services, technology, capital, knowledge and many more from one place to
another. It is generally done among two countries or nations. There are numbers of benefits of
international business such as increase in customer’s base, trading of knowledge or capital,
expand business, enhance economy and many more (Dunning, 2013) Organization taken for this
assignment is Apple which is a public company and operating its business in software and
hardware industry. It is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in year 1976.
Its headquarter is situated at Park Way, Cupertino, California, United State and it offer’s variety
of products as well as services at worldwide level. Products offer by respective company are
iPod, iPhone, Home Pod and so on as well as services are App store, apple arcade etc.. Topics
covered in this report are import and export data of United Kingdom, mechanisms which
regulate international trade and environment of other country which affects business operating
internationally. Along with this it will also include monetary environment that will affects
businesses which operate internationally and reasons why an organization operates
internationally. It will also explain about business strategies which can be used by a business
while operating international level.
TASK 1
P1- Explain import and export data for the United Kingdom
 Import is when products and services are brought into the country from another part of the
world, for example the Uk importing BMW’s from Germany.
 Exporting is when products or services are taken outside the UK to another country in the
world.
 Because the UK is in the European Union, all trade deals are done through the EU.
However, when the UK leaves the European Union on March 29th the UK will have to
negotiate it’s own trade deals with countries (Shenkar, Luo and Chi, 2014).
 This will cause major problems for trade with Europe as the EU exports Billions of pounds
each year to the U.K. If we have a no deal with the EU which is at the moment very likely

than not only will the EU lose out on billions of pounds but there will also be a shortage of
EU products in the United Kingdom.
P2 Describe the mechanisms that regulate international trade.
There are various mechanisms or government which regulates international trade so that
company conducts their work in legal as well as effective manner. Through this an organization
develops their strategies and conducts it in proper manner in order to attain their objective and
target (Killing, 2013). Some of the major mechanisms which help Apple company in regulating
their business operations and functions at international market are given below:-
WTO/World trade organization:
WTO is an organization which plays as the judge & Jury when it comes to international trade. It
generally develops rules and regulations for companies which is operating or planning to operate
its business in international market. Through this an organization able to operate or conduct its
business at international level in effective manner. There are some major features and benefits of
world trade organization are given below:-
 Ensuring nations don’t break trade rules. (USA vs. Brazil)
 Organization is made up of governments.
 Trade agreements can be made between nations (Through WTO supervision)
 WTO can encourage trade (Dispute settlements, free trade encouragement)
 WTO can also punish nations with sanctions if rules not followed. (Restricting trade in some
occasions)
Apple – WTO can promote free trade between nations by acting as an enforcer of trade
agreements. (Free trade = Good for Apple)
Apple – Penalties & Sanctions can affect Apple trade with nations.
Trade Blocs
Intergovernmental agreement within close proximity to one another regarding free trade. By
adopting this agreement company able to reduce trade barriers which they may face while
operating or conducting its business in some other country (Beamish, 2013). There are several
types of Trade Blocs such as EU, NAFTA, and MERCOSUR. Some major features of Trade
Blocs are given below:-

 Trade Blocs promote free trade with neighbors and countries in close proximity.
 Allows nations to be in partnerships when it comes to trade.
 Trade Blocs may discourage trade between nations outside of trade bloc.
 Lose of sovereignty.
Apple – Trade Bloc encourages free movement of workers (Potential Apple Employees)
Easy trade between Apple (Business activities country) and other countries within a trade Bloc.
EG. Easy trade between Apple (California) and Mexico.
Elimination of transaction costs (Lower or Non Tariffs)
Apple – When apple operates in a country that is a part of trade bloc. Problems may occur if
country comes out
(Example: BREXIT)
By adopting or concerning both the mechanisms Apple Company able to operate its
business in international market in effective manner that helps them in attaining their goal and
target in successful manner (Shenkar, Luo and Chi, 2014). It will also help them in operating
business in international market in appropriate manner.
TASK 2
P3- Describe how the environment and culture of another country affects a business operating
internationally
It is necessary for a company to evaluate environment as well as culture of country when
they are planning to operate in particular country. This is so because through it they able to
understand their culture and requirement of market that will help company in developing
strategies as well as plans for conducting business effectively. Along with this it will also help
them in designing products and services according to customer’s requirement as well as demand
(Beamish, 2013). For this company may adopt various method, approaches or techniques here
Apple conduct market evaluation through PESTEL Analysis, which explanation is given below:-
Political- These factors will be weighed and analysed to help the government make a decision
that can be beneficial for their economy over time a long period of time. This means bringing
new ideas into the mix depending how they relate to the end goal and this can affect the
organisations meaning it can change their revenue schemes.

Economic- Inflation and exchange rate can have a positive and/or negative affect when it comes
to the economy due to the fact that it would affect the businesses in different ways. Economic
factors include inflation rate, interest rates and exchange rates.
Social- The social factors that can be beneficial for the social market is that companies and
businesses can investigate certain areas like cultural trends and population analytics (Meyer and
Peng, 2016). An example of is where business buy cultural things that may trend depending on
the time of year where the demand for the product would be extremely high during the holiday
seasons.
Technological- Technology can be a problem for the businesses that are trying to remain modern
because as the years goes by, there are more businesses that are operating online or using more
technological help. The factor is what the business will conduct thorough market research and
development on how this method can help them grow. This will also identify the amount of
technology the market has processed.
Legal- Legal factors can be from the two sources internal and external, but with legal factors
comes laws that may be problematic with the businesses environment in a specific country
depending the respected countries policies. It would also be problematic for them because they
would not know the laws and regulation that they would have to follow. The laws they might
have to follow are: Health and safety laws, consumer laws and labour laws there more that will
come into context depending on the business and country.
Environmental- Environmental factors are a crucial part of the industry because it holds the
most amount of coverage that can happen within the country based in such as tourism. The
factors include looking at the weather, growth, location and more.
TASK 3
P4– Describe how the monetary environment affects businesses that operate internationally
Monetary environment refers to policies and rules which are established by government
so that company follow it and operate its business in effective manner (Zander, McDougall and
Rose, 2015). It is essential for a firm to adopt these monetary environments or polices when they

are conducting business at international level. This is so because by it company operates its
business operations in legal and effective manner that leads to attainment of goal successfully.
Some of the major monetary environment that affects business is given below:-
Foreign exchange systems:
This is the procedure used when people or companies from outside the domain country would
bring their currency in and exchange it to the domain currency for an example UK and the Us
have different currency by one operating in Dollars and one operating in pounds this is where
dollars would be converted into pounds to adjust to the environment.
This is great way for countries to be aware of the exchange rates when entering nations such as
the US, UK and European regions realising the conversion rate for business that will want to
operate in another country as well any spending in the respected country (Hamilton and Webster,
2018). So, if I wanted to convert 1 pound into US dollars then the exchange rate for 1 pound
would be equivalent
Legal support:
Legal support is where the company will deal with legal issues that may occur when starting up
the business this normally is issued by the authorities. This is normally associated with trading
between nations or other companies if stated. This is associated with global success of exchange
between currencies this will prevent exchange limitations between nations.
Trade associations:
This is a group of people that are created for businesses that are normally located in a specific
region of the service industry that helps with the support between different nations. If people
work in the same association as the current company will help improve international relations as
well as organisation relationships.
Trade support:
Trade support is where the government help and set up different/various agencies to help with
the improvement of trades between and within nations (Papadopoulos and Heslop, 2014). This
can work as an inspiration for businesses, this is because they will receive the support needed to

allow them to trade internationally without any complications along the way. Overtime this is
better for a business such as Apple because this gives them time to learn and enhance from what
they have learnt they will also apply it to their current situations.
P5- Identify why businesses operate internationally
Every company wants to conduct its business at international level because through it
they gain various benefits such as increase in customer base, profitability ratio, goodwill, market
shares and many more (Maxcy, 2013). It will beneficial for country because through it economy
of country get increased as well as it also generates employment for local, national and
international peoples. In respect of Apple there are several reasons why they are operating
globally, some major of them are explain below:-
Economy scales:
This is where growth comes into play for businesses because this means that they are expanding
and gaining more money over time, the benefit that follows this type of structure is that it gives
the business an opportunity to expand into a new market/country so that they can keep increasing
and not limiting themselves. This means production will dramatically increase as well as
decreasing in some areas but more positive than negative due to the fact it makes the cost of
producing the product a lot cheaper.
Competitive advancement:
According to this factor when Apple enhance their operations and functions at international
market they able to attract more and more customer’s base which help them in increasing their
profitability ratio. This will directly and indirectly help respective company in gaining
competitive advancement at market in respect to other competitive companies at market (Stahl
and Tung, 2015). Through this company also able to attract foreign investment which help them
financially as well as conducting business in effective manner.
Social Media:
Apple promote and advertise their business through various social media accounts such as:
Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat these are ways in which Apple can reach wider audience to help
promote the product and services they want to deliver. By advertising on YouTube as well as

operating on other platforms they can gain the attention year after with the release of new
products that they want to release. By having loads of followers/subscribers they can do so
without any complications.
Tax:
This is another thing that can be taken as an advantage for wanting to operate internationally
because in certain countries they do not require tax and for a business such as apple that would
mean that is a benefit for them because they wouldn’t need to pay anything to the government
(Dunning, 2013).
The countries that are associated with tax free zones for any specific company normally have a
stable economic system and their population is also greater as well-meaning more people can get
employed by the company.
If Apple were to branch out into a new market and enter a country with a tax-free zone like
Switzerland it could be better for the company because they will not have to pay anything to the
government meaning that whatever they earn is directly collected to them and this means overall
profit over a wider range of years.
Markets:
Entering new markets can be beneficial and a negative approach for business but because Apple
is well known company expanding into a new market and country may help the business rather
than harm it. This is way for the company to increase the rate of succession on a wider scale.
This would lead to a better and broader audience which will lead to more opportunities granted
for employees and more profitable opportunities also (Shenkar, Luo and Chi, 2014). This can be
more helpful for the market that Apple currently operate in.
By doing it this way means that the business can access and gain insight on whether the market
fits them and they are able to introduce the service and product to new people leading to overall
profit increase, the things come into contact when going into a new market are trends, culture,
population and gender there are a lot more factors that come into contact when undergoing
moving into a new market.

P6- Explain the business strategies used by a business operating internationally
Business strategies refers to combinations of competitive actions as well as moves which
is adopted by a company in order to attract potential service users, strength performance, help in
achieving goal and many more (Killing, 2013). It is possible because it develop a guideline
which helps employees in conducting their work in appropriate manner in order to achieve their
objective or target. Some major business strategies which are developed by Apple in order to
operate its business at international level are given below:-
Marketing strategy:
The strategy that Apple will use when it comes to operating internationally is that they will need
to conduct thorough market research the reason for doing so is that they will need to see where
the gap is in the market, so they are able to produce and promote their product and their services.
This allows the company to thoroughly identify the Target Market and help gain any insights of
what the consumers may want such as their opinions on certain things and the interest they have
for the product as well.
This is going to be collected by Apple themselves unless they decide otherwise because if they
want to operate in Rwanda or Thailand they will necessarily conduct the research with both
methods, one being that they conduct the methods themselves and the other one is by a third
party such as getting someone outside the company to collect the data.
Technology:
The use of technology will be a key Impact for a business such as Apple and by operating
internationally they will most definitely not be limiting themselves to one singular use of
technology.
By operating in countries such as China and Japan mean that Apple will be operating
internationally and be introducing to better use of technology due to them being the leading
countries when it comes to the development of technology, China currently sit at the top of the
ranks for the development and enhancement of technology (Beamish, 2013).

Also, by operating internationally means that the business will be able to branch out and see
what trends are currently happening, how the use of social media affects the country whether it
by word of the mouth or using various social media accounts.
Human Resources:
This is a strategy that they will use to help operate internationally. By this I mean they will have
to investigate things such as time and money when wanting to operate internationally due to
currency change also how long it will take for the full amount of training needed for the staff to
be trained.
The reason being is that when Apple operate internationally, they will also be opening stores in
that country meaning that with every store they open they will need to employ staff and the staff
will need to be fully trained because if not carried out properly they are likely to cause harm to
themselves or others (Shenkar, Luo and Chi, 2014).
This Will be applied in countries such as Thailand because Apple would want to open a store and
they will need a supervisor who is fully trained also one that will be able to deliver the message
of the company and one that will be able to deliver the training to the staff. Overtime this will be
an important factor for the business and can lead to international acknowledgment.
CONCLUSION
By analyzing above discussed points it can be summaries that international business helps
a firm in conducting their business at global market in effective manner. Through it an
organization also able to gain various benefits such as expand business, increase profits and
customer’s base, trade globally, increase technology and economy and many more. There are
various import and export data of United Kingdom which describe about respective company
transaction with other countries. In this country there are several mechanisms which will regulate
international trade and ensure that trade is done in proper legal manner. Along with this when a
company operates its business internationally it will directly and indirectly impact on their
environment. There are also some monetary environments which will impact on businesses
operations and functions at international level. Moreover there are also several business
strategies which help a company in operating its business operations as well as functions at

global level. Through this an organization also able to conduct its work in effective manner as
well as it will also help in developing strategies for doing business at international level.

REFRENCES
Books and journals
Dunning, J.H., 2013. International production and the multinational Enterprise (RLE
international business). Routledge.
Shenkar, O., Luo, Y. and Chi, T., 2014. International business. Routledge.
Killing, P., 2013. Strategies for joint venture success (RLE International Business). Routledge.
Beamish, P., 2013. Multinational joint ventures in developing countries (RLE International
Business). Routledge.
Shenkar, O., Luo, Y. and Chi, T., 2014. International business. Routledge.
Beamish, P., 2013. Multinational joint ventures in developing countries (RLE International
Business). Routledge.
Meyer, K. and Peng, M.W., 2016. International business. Cengage Learning.
Zander, I., McDougall-Covin, P. and Rose, E.L., 2015. Born globals and international business:
Evolution of a field of research. Journal of International Business Studies. 46(1).
pp.27-35.
Hamilton, L. and Webster, P., 2018. The international business environment. Oxford University
Press.
Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L.A., 2014. Product-country images: Impact and role in
international marketing. Routledge.
Maxcy, G., 2013. The Multinational Motor Industry (RLE International Business). Routledge.
Stahl, G.K. and Tung, R.L., 2015. Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international
business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship. Journal of
International Business Studies. 46(4). pp.391-414.