After extensive experience working and traveling in Latin America, Mr. and Mrs. Jones have developed a long-standing interest in international development and poverty alleviation. They have developed a desire to launch a new venture that might be able to help address economic development and job creation. The founders have based the concept for this new venture on two major assumptions including, their belief that supporting formal above-board business creation and providing ongoing support is more effective at addressing poverty the approach taken by MFIs to support the informal market and consumption lending. Moreover, they believe that there is a market within the study abroad sector for using students and study abroad programs as a resource for international development.

A literature review will be conducted comprised entirely of secondary research and will focus on the three major components or sectors relevant to the success of the new venture. These sectors are; the microfinance sector, business incubators for economic development and the study abroad sector. The literature review will be conducted to provide the evidence required to perform a thorough analysis and discussion.

The purpose of this GMP is to test the assumptions of the founders by performing a two-stage analysis and discussion and will answer the question, are economic incubators more or less effective than MFIs at addressing poverty through job creation? Stage one will be a literature review and discussion of microfinance institutions and incubators for economic development. This discussion will answer the three questions; what are they, how are they supposed to operate as well as what are the intended results and what are the actual results? It will also discuss the limitations of these methodologies and provide a broad picture of the study abroad sector. Stage two will be used to describe the organization and its structure, evaluate the external environment and the study abroad industry, and to define the company’s internal environment through the development of a targeted marketing plan. This two stage analysis will be done to effectively choose a strategic path of entry for this new venture.