For this assignment, you will choose two topics from the list below. One topic will be from the global economic environment list and one from the trade environment list. For each topic, find a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal article from the Ashford University Library. The article should examine the topic in relation to global marketing.

Global economic environment topics:

• Major changes of the world economy in the past twenty years (discussing one major change is enough)
• Economic systems (you may choose to discuss one or multiple systems)
• Market development stages (discussing one category is enough)
• Triad
• Merchandise trade and service trade
• Hedging

Global trade environment topics:

• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Preferential trade agreements (discussing one category is enough)
• Trade characteristics in Latin America
• Trade characteristics in the Asia-Pacific region
• Trade characteristics in the Middle East
• Marketing issues in Africa

Before you begin writing, review the following five resources to help you prepare:

In your paper,

• Write a half a page summary of the article you used for each of the topics. 
• Discuss how each of the topics that you selected can relate to one or some aspects of global marketing as you learned in Chapter 1 of your text (e.g., global marketing and opportunities or threats, marketing mix, competitive advantage, firm’s value chain, management orientations, etc.).
• Explain how one or more of those aspects are affected by the economic and the trade environments (one page).
• Summarize the contents of your paper in an executive summary. 

The work must be submitted as one paper that is five and half pages in length:

• Title page (one page)
• Executive summary page (half a page to one page)
• Summary of each article (one page) 
  • First topic (half a page)
  • Second topic (half a page)
• Analysis on the topic (two pages) 
  • First topic (one page)
  • Second topic (one page)
• Reference page (one page)

The Global Marketing and Trade Environments paper

• Must be three and a half double-spaced written pages in length for a total of five and a half pages for this assignment (one title page and one page for references). Must be formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
• Must include a separate title page with the following: 
  • Title of page
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper. 
• Must use at least two scholarly sources for each environment topic in addition to the course text. 
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.