International Business

In order to provide you with a useful and valuable international perspective on today's global business activities and to help you understand the challenges of tomorrow that will face business executives striving to compete successfully in 21st century global markets, this intermediate-level course analyses both internal business practices of international firms and external global environments in which they operate.

To this end, you will acquire essential and specialized knowledge in the many and diverse areas affecting sound and workable international business practices. Among the topics you will consider are the patterns of international trade; the structure and institutions of global finance; the competitive environment of the international marketplace; the basics of international organizational administration; the business operations of multinational firms; the cultural, political-economic and legal-labor factors affecting international business; the cross-cultural marketing and management techniques essential for dealing with foreign values, habits and expectations; and the challenges of ethical and economic constraints imposed upon both manufacturing and human resource management in international markets today.

The globalization of business will figure largely in this course. Drawing from real-life case studies and present examples here in Europe, you will analyze specific business practices related to distinct cultures in order to demonstrate how different national business cultures have adapted to, and have sometimes reinvented themselves within, the structural reality of globalization. Cultural knowledge, manners and social sensitivities may be critical for the success of specific business ventures and successfully closed deals. This is becoming ever-more true in a world no longer dominated by the American business model. Money-making is but one impulse among many motivating today's global executives. And "speaking" other languages is an often under-utilized key to international commercial success.

The primary goal for you in this course, therefore, is to build a broad-based foundation for understanding the many actors, practices, and structural forces that make up the global marketplace today. This course will enable you to pursue additional business studies within a wide range of courses in international marketing, management, and finance and it will empower you personally for the future international business ventures and challenges you seek to take on.