• Understand how firms and their strategies evolve as they become more involved in the global marketplace.
• Discuss the genesis of cultures and traditions around the world and how they affect strategic management decisions at all levels of the value chain.
• Develop an understanding of the complexity of the global economy and business environment.
• Apply concepts, theories, models and frameworks that have been developed for studying international management and marketing.
• Identify, analyze, and use secondary data sources to identify new market opportunities for entry and growth

All business is global – domestic markets are merely segments of an inter-connected global environment. With the advent of the Internet, many firms are “born global” and from their inception, they serve customers and employ workers beyond their national borders. Nonetheless, many of the world’s major global players have evolved over time from domestic to multi-domestic (multinational) to global companies. Global firms differ from others not because of their organizational charts, but rather because they adopt a strategic perspective from which they seek opportunities across the globe along all links of the value chain.  Global managers understand that the boundaries of political maps defined by countries, while convenient, do not capture the complexities of a truly integrated, global economy.
Today’s generation of college students face challenges and enjoy opportunities on a global scale like no generation before. Within their own short lifetimes, the BRIC countries (Brail, Russia, India and China) as well as other emerging economies such as South Africa and Turkey have come to prominence.  At the same time, the recent global financial crises have presented great challenges to countries within the Euro Zone.  A key objective of this course is to broaden student horizons by providing cases and examples across all of these other regions of the world.
Everything everywhere takes place against the backdrop of culture.  Too often, students and managers throw up their hands and attribute differences and misunderstanding to the mysteries of something called “culture.” One of the main goals I have in teaching this course is to demystify notions of culture.  Often, culture is presented in terms of customs and traditions that are sacred and sometimes exotic.  Indeed, I believe taking the time to understand the genesis of these traditions leads to the conclusion that, within the local context, they make practical sense.  That is, most customs and traditions have their beginnings in solving mundane problems. 
For example, while beer is an important aspect of northern European culture, one may trace its earliest origins to solving the problem of the lack of potable water centuries ago. This is product related example. The development of formalized hierarchies that underlie management structures in Confucian Asia may be understood in the context of managing extremely large populations in the face of scarce resources.  A perfect example would be the development of Japanese honorific forms of address and rigidly structured hierarchical organizations. 
By taking this course, students should become more comfortable asking questions about why cultures develop the way they do and to understand how they make sense in their local contexts. Beyond developing a better understanding of cultures, students should become comfortable using existing theoretical models for analysing comparative and competitive advantages of different countries, regions, and attractiveness for making value-chain-related strategic management and marketing decisions related to market selection, development, diversification, and growth.
In addition to the Mandatory Mid-term Assignment described above, there will be a Preliminary Assignment that requires each student to choose one of a series of uploaded articles from the LEARN learning platform and to prepare a brief written analysis of it before Class 3. The articles will be discussed in that session.

Class Schedule