Assessment Task 3 – Individual Essay (50%) • Assignment type: Individual • Value: 50% • Link to CLOs: 1, 2, 3 • Word limit: 2,500 words (excluding the title page and the reference list, 10% more...

Table of Contents
1. Background of the company    2
1.1 Company profile    2
1.2 Core resources and capabilities    2
2. Host country of Microsoft and it’s international strategies    3
2.1 Impact of national culture in the company's operation    3
2.2 Strategy and entry mode of Microsoft    4
2.3 Additional actions taken to manage Microsoft's operation    5
3. Social responsibility and action plan    6
3.1 Role of stakeholders in managing business socially    6
3.2 Recommendations    6
References    8
1. Background of the company
1.1 Company profile
Role of technology gets maximum visibility when it comes to the IT industry. For the current essay, United States based organization ‘Microsoft’ has been chosen. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company in the year 1975, initially; the company was concerned about developing basic interpreters for a computer called ‘Altair 8800'. That particular computer was developed by a hardware development company named as ‘Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry system'. Later Microsoft started developing their own personalized operating system. While looking at the exact geographical location of the home country of the company, it is found that Microsoft was located in a state named as ‘New Mexico' in the United States (Microsoft.com, 2019). Initially, the company had only one product line that is ‘software'. The company builds its first operating system named as Disk operating system (DOS) in the mid-1980s. Later they bought graphic user interface (GUI) into their operating system. Microsoft developed the first operating system, which had a GUI named as ‘Windows 95’. Gradually, they introduced several versions of Windows operating system to their customers. Apart from developing an operating system, the company is also involved with developing operating system integrated software to enhance the experience of ‘Windows'. Some of the renowned software developed by Microsoft is ‘Microsoft internet explorer', ‘Microsoft Office', ‘Microsoft Disk Defragmenter' and others (Czerwonka et al. 2013).
Later in the year 2000, the company expanded its business by taking the first step in the hardware manufacturing industry. The first hardware or device made by Microsoft was a gaming console called ‘Xbox', the device was released in the year 2001. Later, they developed several updated versions of that Xbox over the years. In recent times. It is observed that the company is also interested in developing Xbox exclusive video games as well.
Microsoft operates nearly in 190 countries and has more than 1,34,900 employees into their account. While looking at the financial statement it is found that the company has generated a revenue of $ 110,360 million in the year 2018, and enjoyed a profit of $ 16,571 million.
1.2 Core resources and capabilities
Some of the core resource and capabilities that lead to competitive advantage are presented in the following section.
As the company has maintained a monopoly business which itself a major advantage to the company. Other organizational resources and capabilities are human resources for technological advancement, software applications, active partnership with large manufacturers and others (Jarratt and Ceric, 2015). ‘Comparative advantage theory' of internal business has been followed by the management of Microsoft in this scenario. Those capabilities reflect into several competitive advantages like ‘strong brand image', ‘high compatibility with a wide range of their party hardware', ‘maintaining large market share' and others.
2. Host country of Microsoft and it’s international strategies
2.1 Impact of national culture in company’s operation
The term home country refers to the country in which headquarter of the company is located. On the other hand, the host country refers to the foreign country in which the company is performing its business (Buckley et al. 2014). Microsoft's headquarter is located in the United States and it is currently operating its business over all the countries in all continents. As per the reports, it is found that more than 34% of employees working in Microsoft USA are Indian. Moreover, reports also have suggested that ‘Microsoft India' has more than 6,500 employees.
The company took its first step in the Indian market during the year 1990. Initially, they used to hire employees from their home country and bring them to India. Later they started hiring local people or Indian for that Indian branch. While evaluating the cultural aspect and its impact on the business of Microsoft, a number of similarities and dissimilarities has been observed. The first similarity that has been found between both countries is that people in both countries are very much concerned about their professional life. Therefore, people of India maintain a ‘never say never’ attitude towards their work. Moreover, it is also observed that they are very much target oriented (Bamel et al. 2013). In that section ‘Country Similarity Theory' has been followed by the management of Microsoft. Management of Microsoft India has hardly faced any complaint related to work pressure and job shift related issues.
While analyzing the religion of the host country, it is found that the country India has a number of religions like ‘Hindu’, ‘Muslim’, ‘Christian’, ‘Sikh’ and others. On the other hand, majority of Americans are ‘Christian'. Despite having religious differentiation, the company has not faced any difficulties in communicating with employees. As per the reports, it is found that the country India is currently maintaining more than 70% literacy rate (Rajan et al. 2013). Due to that particular reason most of the people in India can communicate in English as a result, management of Microsoft has not faced any difficulties related to communication.
Gender equality was a major issue in the...