by Prof. Heather Berry

This course seeks to provide you with the skills, knowledge and sensitivity required to understand and evaluate global business opportunities and challenges by exploring the unique competitive, political and social environments in which international business takes place.  We will explore how firms respond to the strategic demands of the global business environment and how firms compete in the global business environment. We will consider when and why crossing national borders creates value for firms and where and how firms should locate their foreign activities, including differences and benefits across several foreign entry modes. The overarching goal of this course is to enable you to develop and fine-tune skills in analyzing the strategic choices of firms within both global and local pressures across different countries in the international business environment.  After taking this course, you will gain:

1. A set of conceptual and practical tools that can be used to navigate the often contradictory and ambiguous mass of information about globalization and the international business environment (including, at a minimum, the cultural, administrative, geographic and economic differences)
2. A set of analytic frameworks that can be used to critically evaluate multinational corporation strategic imperatives and organizational challenges and country differences.
3. Diagnosis, recommendation and communication skills from applying course frameworks and tools across multiple case examples, discussions and written assignments.