WACE Business Management and Enterprise ATAR Unit 3: international business growth exam question types

What this guide covers

Unit 3 of the WACE Business Management and Enterprise ATAR course is about taking a business international: why firms go global, the risks of foreign expansion, how they market and partner overseas, and how they manage change and cultural difference. The exam tests it mainly through scenario-based short answers and extended answers, so precise terms matter less than applying them to a business. The practice quiz on this page checks the terms; this guide shows how to use them.

SCSA's 2026 examination front cover lists 10 minutes reading and 3 hours working time: Section One has 6 short-answer questions (60 marks, 60%), and Section Two offers 3 extended-answer questions of which you answer 2 (50 marks, 40%).

Question types you should expect

1. Explain why a business expands overseas

Name the driver (limited home market, foreign demand, economies of scale, diversification, technology, government support, free trade agreements) and link it to the business in the question. "Economies of scale" earns more when you say which costs are spread over more units.

Revise drivers of global business and free trade agreements.

2. Identify a risk and recommend how to manage it

Match each risk with the tool that manages it:

Revise financial risk and feasibility of foreign expansion.

3. Recommend a marketing approach or alliance

Standardisation saves costs and builds a global brand; adaptation fits local tastes, laws and culture. Most businesses do some of each, so justify which elements of the marketing mix to change. For alliances, weigh access and shared risk against loss of control: joint venture (shared ownership), licensing (royalties for intellectual property), franchising (a full business system), and equity or non-equity alliances.

Revise global marketing, strategic alliances and innovation.

4. Apply a change model and cultural considerations

Use Lewin (force field analysis, then unfreeze, change, refreeze) or Kotter (eight steps from creating urgency to anchoring change in the culture) step by step, with an action from the scenario at each step. For culture, name the dimension (communication, hierarchy, time, etiquette) and explain how it changes what the manager should do.

Revise managing change and culture in global business.

Worked example

Question (exam style, 4 marks). A Perth wine exporter will receive US dollars from a buyer in 90 days. Explain one risk this creates and recommend one way to manage it.

Answer. The exporter faces exchange rate risk: if the Australian dollar appreciates before payment, the US dollars will convert into fewer Australian dollars, reducing revenue and possibly profit. The exporter could take out a forward exchange contract with its bank, locking in today's exchange rate for the conversion in 90 days, so it knows exactly how many Australian dollars it will receive. The cost is that it gives up any gain if the Australian dollar falls instead.

Keep going

Continue with the Unit 4 global business operations practice, then work through the practice questions on each dot point page.