Foundations of International Business


Aims

The goal of this course is to provide students with a foundational knowledge of the international business phenomena and theories Upon completion, students should be able to: (a) recognize the intellectual legacy of the field; (b) identify core and emerging topics in the field; and (c) craft a convincing argumentative structure for a conceptual or empirical article in a major IB journal.

Information

The course will cover diverse content in the field of International Business in 10 sessions.  We will consider seminal articles as well as recent contributions in the top journals to discuss a select set of key IB topics, such as internationalization, entry mode choice, international institutional environment, theories of the MNC, global strategy formulation and implementation, etc.  The sessions will be highly interactive and will be discussion-based rather than lecture-based.  The final session will be reserved for presentation of draft papers

Assessment

The course is organized as a seminar, implying that your cooperation and willingness to actively participate in the sessions will ensure that we jointly create the best possible learning environment. The grading of this course reflects this culture and pedagogy:
a) In-class participation (informed participation in discussions) – 10% b) Brief paper integration presentations per session – 30%
c) In-class presentation of a paper proposal – 10%
d) Paper proposal (based on the topics discussed; SMS format) – 40%

Materials

The literature for this course will consist of a set of articles and book chapters. The materials will include seminal IB contributions, as well as more recent exemplary articles.

Additional info

A prerequisite for this course is BERMFC003 (Management Foundations). Students who wish to participate in this course but do not meet this entry requirement are kindly invited to contact the instructor in advance.