Trends In Journal Of Intellectual Property -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Trends In Journal Of Intellectual Property? Answer: Introduction Increased number of similar business organizations in the market gives rise to tough and competitive business environment. As the business organizations have similar products and services to offer to the customers, attracting them becomes comparatively difficult. This gives rise to saturated business environment where the business organizations faces issues in terms of attracting new customers and increasing the customer base as well as earning increased revenue for the company (Beamish 2013). As a result, the business organizations aim towards global or international expansion, as this provides an opportunity for the business organizations to penetrate new markets and increase the customer base and business profit. Global expansion also helps the business organizations to gain competitive advantage and sustain in the competitive market (Cavusgil et al. 2014). However, the business organizations have to verify and validate various factors before aiming for global expansion. The busin ess environment, need of the service or product in the host country, foreign policy and international trade are some of the factors that the business organization need to analyze before international expansion. This report introduces about the country based business opportunity for Risual, a UK based IT company that aim towards expanding its business internationally in Nigeria. In order to do so, the report analyses the company, its proposed expansion strategy, general description of Nigeria including PESTLE analysis, international trading and financial status followed by opportunities, issues and suitable recommendations of expanding and conducting business in Nigeria. Overview of the company Risual is a UK based business organization that was established in the year 2005. Richard Proud and Alun Rogers founded the business organization. Risual provides IT based services in collaboration with the aligned consultancy. The sole business operating strategy of Risual is Microsoft platform. Over the past 12 years, the business has been able to achieve necessary success. This is because the business organization aimed towards discovering new technologies by understanding the new challenges. In addition to, the business organization also aimed towards finding new solutions for the identified challenges thereby, overcoming them. This highlighted the major reason for the huge success the company achieved over the past 12 years (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). Based on the existing business strategy and operations, the company has invested hugely in order to expand the business in respect to technology by taking required guidance from the available experts. Based on the current IT market scenario in the UK, the company is planning for international business expansion in Nigeria. The international business expansion provides an opportunity for Risual to gain competitive advantage by penetrating new markets and increasing the customer base. As the UK market is saturated by IT business organization, international expansion to Nigeria provides better business and market opportunities for the company (Penrose 2013). Describing the proposed expansion Risaul is planning to expand internationally to Nigeria based on the current demand IT demand of the country. The business organization is proposing its expansion in Lagos, one of the largest cities in Africa. Lagos is the business hub of the country featuring different business organizations from different business market. The business organization need to consider the cultural differences of both the countries that exists distinctively. Thus, the human resource management of the company needs to describe the product or service that they aim towards providing to the Nigerian customers along with analyzing the existing market followed by developing and implementing marketing strategy (Zander, McDougall-Covin and Rose 2015). General description of the chosen country Nigeria is a federal republic in West Africa and is officially a democratic secular country. Nigeria has 36 cities out of which the five largest cities are Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Abuja and Port Harcourt with an estimated population of 22.5 million people. The GDP per capita of the country is USD 3,000. It has been seen that the collective buying power of household earnings is USD 1,000 to USD 5,000. Compared to the rest of Africa, the most significant factor for the Nigerians is price. Around 61% of the Nigerian population is literate and English is the official language of the country (Watts 2013). PESTLE analysis of Nigeria The PESTLE analysis of Nigeria includes: PESTLE Factors Political Politically stable since 1999 Regional political leader in Africa Federalism system of the operating government Peoples Democratic Party is the largest political party of Nigeria Economic Nigerias economy has risen from $170 billion to $451 billion 74 million people comprises of Nigerias labor force Gross Domestic Product is risen to 6.1% Oil sector is the dominant sector in Nigeria Social Culture and society highly influenced by politics Most populous and well-developed country in Africa Estimated population is 200 million people Christianity and Islam are the two major religions in the country. Technological Fastest growing mobile technology Technology hub of Africa Nigeria hosts 1400 internet with an estimated 45 million internet users Foreign investors have targeted Nigeria due to its enormous growth potential Legal Company and Allied matters Act is the primary law that governs business in Nigeria The needs to have minimum 2 and maximum 50 employees Founding members needs to be above 18 Minimum share capital of the company registered in Nigeria is 50 Euros. Environmental Daunting environmental challenges Increased air pollution in Lagos Other environmental issues include deforestation, biodiversity damage and drainage blockage Oil spillage, agricultural waste and excessive mineral exploitation and mining Analysis Political: From the above table, it can be said that Nigeria is the regional political leader of Africa and has achieved political stability since 1999. The country gained independence in 1960 and in 1999 the country chose it first President democratically. The Peoples Democratic Party is the largest political party in Africa until March 2015 when All Progressive Congress came to power (Joseph 2014). Economic: Nigeria has gained the status of economic freedom and ranks 116th at global platform. The Nigerians economy has risen from $170 billion to $451 billion. The countrys gross GDP has risen to 6.1%. Among the Sub-Saharan Africa region, Nigeria has the 20th position. In 2016, the economic freedom score of Nigeria was 57.5 that shows 1.9 points increment. The country also has relatively stable exchange rate (Eze 2013). Social: Nigeria is one of most populated country in Africa with an estimated population of 200 million people. The Nigerian society is highly influenced by culture and politics. Christianity and Islam are the two major religions that the society follows. The country has highly active working class with a total dependency ratio of 87.7. Nigeria has the history of going through longest period of civilian rule and democracy in the history (Raimi et al. 2014). Technological: Nigeria is considered as the psychology hub of Africa and has the fastest growing mobile technology. Nigeria has approximately 45 million internet users. Due to such technological advancements, foreign investors from Europe, Asia and the US chose Africa for business expansion (Adebayo, Ugiomoh and AbdulMalik 2013). Legal: According to the legal structure of the country, the business organization needs to have minimum 2 and maximum 50 employees and needs to be registered under Company and Allied Matters Act. The funding members need to be above 18 years with a minimum share capital of 50 Euros (Baba et al. 2013). Environmental: Nigeria has huge environmental impacts such as oil spillage, drain blockage, deforestation, mineral exploitation and mining. The capital of Nigeria, Lagos has the highest air pollution (Iwegbue 2014). From the above PESTLE analysis, it can be said that Nigeria is a suitable country for international business expansion for foreign business organization. Thus, Nigeria is suited country for Risual to expand internationally. Status of Nigeria in the international trading and financial system Nigeria has the largest economy within Africa, as it is considered the business hub of the African subcontinent. Nigeria is the leading oil exporter and has the largest natural gas reservoir in the African continent. Industries such as trade, agriculture, telecommunications and manufacturing are the major market sectors that run the economy of Nigeria. The main international trading partners of Nigeria are European Union, China, Brazil, India, US and Japan (Adeyinka 2014). The Nigeria financial system comprises of the financial markets, that is, the money and the capital markets, financial institutions and supervisory and regulatory bodies. The different financial institutions include Urban Development Bank, Nigerian Agricultural and Rural Cooperatives Bank. Other than these financial institutions, the non-governmental financial bodies of Nigeria include Primary Mortgage Institutions, Bureau de change, pension funds and finance companies. It is evident that the Nigerian financial system has undergone drastic change ranging from the length and breadth of the regulatory and supervisory body to the structure of the ownership. The Nigerian financial system also shows relationships between individuals and the regulatory bodies that make up the economy of the country. In Nigeria, the Commercial Banks are the most relevant financial institutions that mobilize and encourage savings along with channeling the savings into productive investment units (Claessens, Ghosh and Mihet 2013). The above figure suggest that the Nigerian financial system is divided namely into formal and informal financial systems. The formal financial system consists of the non-bank and bank financial institutions whereas the informal financial systems include the loan associations, savings and the moneylenders. Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Mortgage bank of Nigeria, Federal Ministry of Finance, Securities and Exchange Commission and Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation regulate the aforementioned financial institutions. However, the informal financial sector of Nigeria lacks formal regulation and proper organization (Muritala and Fasanya 2013). As commented by Obamuyi (2013), the financial system of Nigeria plays a crucial role for the economic growth of Nigeria. This is because the financial system of Nigeria helps in improving the existing economic performance of the country. The stable financial structure of Nigeria establishes a platform for the national and international business organizations to allocate the financial resources appropriately thereby, ensuring productivity. In addition to, the financial system also strikes a balance between the parties willing to invest funds and parties who requires funds. Thus, Risual, the IT based UK business organization needs to consider the international status and financial system of Nigeria before expanding to Nigeria internationally. Opportunities and risks offered by Nigeria Nigeria is the business hub in Africa that is considered as the most preferred location for establishing and conducting business compared to the rest of the Africa. One of major opportunities in Nigeria is its large population and low labor cost. Nigeria has an estimated 22.5 million population thereby, ensuring high availability of labor force. As a result, the international business organization has the opportunity of availing huge labor force at minimal labor cost. In addition to, the growing middle class and the rate of literacy also provides an opportunity for the business organizations to establish their business in Nigeria successfully (Adeusi et al. 2014). Thus, one of the major opportunities that Nigeria will provide to Risual is maximum labor force availability at minimal cost. Availability of young, educated and entrepreneurial population are another potential opportunity that Nigeria provides for the international business organizations. Nigeria has encountered increased literacy rate that has given rise to young entrepreneurial population. The rate of increased literacy provides an opportunity for the international business organizations to recruit or get associated with young and enthusiastic talents. This provides an opportunity for the host business organizations to explore new dimension in the market sector as new and young talents are associated with them (Maduka and Onwuka 2013). However, with the potential opportunities, Nigeria imposes some challenges for the international business organizations. As commented by Abiola and Olausi (2014), security issues is one of the potential risks that is highly prevalent in Nigeria. In the Northern and Southern Nigeria, security is an issue, as there has been reports of frequent conflicts between the political parties. Business is highly hampered in Nigeria due to the political conflicts that eventually leads to security issues. In addition to, lack of political stability is also a potential risk for the international business organizations in Nigeria. Absence of help and support from the governmental bodies makes it difficult for the international business organization to do business in Nigeria. In addition to the above-mentioned risk, corruption and poor infrastructure can lead to higher operating expenses. The international business organizations has to build suitable and adequate infrastructure for carrying out the business. This leads to additional expenses for the international business organizations has they have to build required infrastructure (Bello 2014). Thus, Risual has to ensure that they identify the potential risks for doing business in Nigeria and overcome them. This will help Risual to conduct the business successfully and gain competitive advantage. Internationalization potential of the Risaul The SWOT analysis of Risual includes: Strength Financially strong Strong dominance in the domestic market Comprehensive business portfolio Impressive client base in the UK Weakness Limited off shore sites No international expansion Small business units and brand portfolio Limited depth and infrastructure management Opportunities International expansion Big data capabilities Chasing market potentials Undertaking government projects Threats Intense domestic competition Impact of Brexit Visa fees and regulations Penalty from lawsuits Analysis Strength: Risual is a UK based software company that has strong dominance in the domestic market. The company is financially strong that has helped the company to build a comprehensive business portfolio. In addition to, the company also has impressive client base in the UK market (Brooks, Heffner and Henderson 2014). Weakness: The potential weakness of Risaul is its limited off shore activities. The company has small business units and brand portfolio due to which the company lacks evident competitive advantage. In addition to, the company also has limited depth and infrastructure management thereby, restricting the progress of the business (Bohari, Hin and Fuad 2017). Opportunities: The Company has wide opportunities of going international expansion, as Risaul has big data capabilities. The company also has market chasing potentials thereby, giving them competitive advantage. In addition to, the company is also able to undertake government projects that provide suitable opportunities for generating increased revenue (Chen, Kim and Yamaguchi 2014). Threats: The potential threats of Risual include intense domestic competition in the UK market due to both small and large software companies. In addition to, the impact of Brexit has affected the business condition of the company including penalty from lawsuits and visa regulations and fees (Rachid and El Fadel 2013). From the above SWOT analysis, it can be said that Risaul, the UK based software company is suitable for international expansion in Nigeria. Issues found in doing business in Nigeria As Risual is expanding the business internationally to Nigeria, the UK based company needs to consider the issues that is encountered while doing business in Nigeria. The major issue of doing business in Nigeria is the existing corruption in the country. Reports suggest that corruption is responsible for the bottlenecks thereby, characterizing the difficulty of doing business in Nigeria. As corruption exists in Nigeria, the host business organizations have to pay huge amount to the government authorities of Nigeria to convince them and make the expansion successful (Mohammed 2013). In addition to, lack of political stability and weak government institutions are the major issues for the host business organization while doing business in Nigeria. As commented by Nageri, Umar and Abdul (2013), the majority of the Nigerian economy is dependent on the oil industry. The oil industry is the sole industry that earns the revenue for the country. Thus, the citizens and the government do not easily accept business organizations in different market sector. The Nigerian citizens and the government put in maximum effort to promote oil industry compared to the business organizations in other market sector. As a result, the host organizations belonging to different market sector is not easily accepted in the Nigerian market. The foreign exchange restriction is another potential issue that Risaul can face while doing business in Nigeria. This is because the decline in the oil price resulted in fall of the value of Naira, the Nigerian currency. Post the value depreciation of Naira, the Central bank of Nigeria imposed several foreign exchange restrictions in 2015 (Abdu 2013). This decision was undertaken by the Central Bank of Nigeria in order to restrict the outflow of dollar from the country and maintain the value of Naira. Strict foreign exchange restrictions post the depreciation has given rise to potential challenges of doing business in Nigeria. Enforcing the intellectual property rights is a major issue that the business organizations encounter while doing business in Nigeria. This is because Nigerias institutional infrastructure and official pronouncement, protection of intellectual property rights need protection and appropriate enforcement. In addition to, the absence of updated intellectual property rights in Nigeria creates issues. Violation of the intellectual property rights law is spread widely in Nigeria, as majority of the part in Nigeria has cultural inadequacy. In addition to, lower level of knowledge and awareness in Nigeria about intellectual property rights law is the major cause of ignorance in the country (Velmurugan 2013). The existing gap in the Nigerian society is prevalent making it difficult for the business organizations to conduct business. This is because increased rate of poverty results in higher illiteracy rate thereby, giving rise of youth that has inadequate education and knowledge (Anyanwu 2014). Thus, in spite of having high population the business organization has limited access to work force. In addition to, the lower exchange rate compared to the currency rate of the European countries is also an issues that international business organizations need to consider while doing business in Nigeria. Thus, Risaul needs to consider the issues while expanding their software business in Nigeria. Suitable recommendations for overcoming the issues in Nigeria Based on the above-mentioned issues, the potential recommendations include: Eligible and qualified workforce for protecting intellectual property rights: Risual needs to pay attention while recruiting their employees. As Risual is a host company, recruiting the locals will provide potential advantages for establishing the business. This is because the locals have a better understanding of the surrounding environment. As it can be seen, that implementation of intellectual property rights is difficult in Nigeria due to lack of transparency, eligible and qualified workforce needs to be recruited by the company. This will ensure that the employees recruited by Risual will have fair knowledge about the significance of implementing intellectual property rights law. This will also ensure that the employees working for Risual will keep in mind and work by implementing the intellectual property rights. This will provide an opportunity for the company to protect their patents and sustain in the competitive market (Xin and Zhang 2015). Thus, Risual will have to recruit eligible and qualified workforce for carrying on their business smoothly in Nigeria. Creating transparency and openness in government spending: Corruption is highly prevalent in Nigeria due lack of transparency in the system. Thus, the best technique to fight corruption is by creating transparency within the existing system. Being a host company, Risual needs to create transparency within their working system. This will provide an opportunity for the company to keep track of their gains and expenses. Keeping track will help the company to detect if the employees working are promoting corruption or not. Creating transparency in the government spending system will help the company to combat corruption. They will be able to detect the loopholes in the existing system along with getting hold of the people responsible for promoting corruption. Preventing corruption will help Risual succeed in the market of the host country and establish them successfully. This will also help the company to gain profit, as they will be able to save unnecessary expenses within the company b y restricting corruption. Conclusion In this report, it can be concluded that Risaul is a UK based IT company that is mainly based on Microsoft and provides consultancy services to the customers. The company was established in 2005 in the UK and have gained huge popularity over in the past 12 years. However, the UK market has become saturated with increased number of IT business organizations due to which Risual has decided to expand their business globally. Global expansion provided an opportunity for Risual to penetrate new markets and attract new customer base. Global expansion will also allow Risaul to gain competitive advantage and sustain in the competitive market. After thorough analysis, Risual has decided to expand their business globally to Nigeria. Nigeria is considered as the business hub of Africa with an estimated population of 22.5 million people. The company has conducted a thorough analysis of the macro environment of Nigeria thereby, analyzing the political, economic, social, technological and environm ental aspect and confirmed that international expansion in Nigeria is suitable. This is because of the increasing demand of the IT in Nigeria along with increased educated and entrepreneurial population that is facilitating business opportunities for international business organizations. However, Risual needs to consider the potential issues of doing business in Nigeria that includes corruption, poverty, violation of intellectual property rights law and foreign exchange restrictions. Post identification of the potential issues of carrying out business in Nigeria, Risual needs to find suitable recommendations for overcoming them effectively. References Abdu, M., 2013. Foreign direct investment and economic growth in Nigeria.International Journal of Arts Sciences,6(1), p.63. Abiola, I. and Olausi, A.S., 2014. 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