International Business

This module introduces learners to key aspects of international business in today's globalised world. It addresses the growing importance of global operations for companies and the likelihood that business graduates will work in international settings. Understanding tools for evaluating international markets is emphasised. The module distinguishes between domestic and international business, covering essential concepts related to risk. It aims to enhance learners’ comprehension of managing in international contexts, including ethical considerations, negotiation strategies, motivational factors, and cross-cultural management approaches.

Classical, neo-classical and modern trade theories;

• The technological and political forces that led to globalisation in the 1990s
• A comparison with the last period of globalisation between 1870 and 1914

Culture and Ethics

• Cultural analysis using the Hofstede method
• The variety of ways in which cultural factors tend to affect different industries
• How different cultures can produce differing types of corporate structure
• Cultural difference and ethical difference
• How different cultures can produce different legal systems, and how this affects corporations

Types of international organisations

• Vertically-integrated companies are compared with companies that outsource much of their activity; analysis of whether companies possess comparative advantage
• Discussion of B Corporations and their European equivalents, and analysis of whether ESG performance will become used as a competitive advantage (as Danone is attempting to do with food standards)

Global Market Opportunity Assessment              

• A discussion of the main market-entry strategies: Direct export; franchise; foreign direct investment; portfolio investment; joint venture

International Economic Environment

• Does success in international business depend largely on comparative advantage, or do the economic environment and the cost of funding have a greater bearing: in other words, can you buy success?
• Discussion of whether funding costs will change as a result of ESG performance, given that the European Central Bank no longer accepts the bonds of non-ESG-compliant companies as collateral

Human resources management in an international context

• The different approaches to human resource management across cultures; how companies in some countries take a long-term approach in a recession and hoard labour rather than firing people; Motivation across cultures