An American consulting firm is planning to expand globally by opening a new office in one of four countries: Germany, Italy, Spain, or Greece. The chief partner entrusted with the decision, L. Wayne Shell, has identified eight key success factors that he views as essential for the success of any consultancy. He used a rating system of 1 (least desirable country) to 5 (most desirable) to evaluate each factor.
|
KEY SUCCESS FACTOR
|
WEIGHT
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CANDIDATE COUNTRY RATINGS
|
|
GERMANY
|
ITALY
|
SPAIN
|
GREECE
|
|
Level of education
Number of
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
consultants
|
.05
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
2
|
|
National literacy rate
|
.05
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
|
Political aspects
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stability of government
|
0.2
|
5
|
5
|
5
|
2
|
|
Product liability laws
|
0.2
|
5
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
|
Environmental regulations
|
0.2
|
1
|
4
|
1
|
3
|
|
Social and cultural aspects
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Similarity in language
|
0.1
|
4
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
|
Acceptability of consultants
|
0.1
|
1
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
|
Economic factors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Incentives
|
0.1
|
2
|
3
|
1
|
S
|
a) Which country should be selected for the new office?
b) If Spain's score were lowered in the Stability of government factor, to a 4, how would its overall score change? On this factor, at what score for Spain would the rankings change