• Characterize and describe the global risk environment of the firm
• Identify, measure and monitor multinational financial and economic exposures
• Analyze alternative hedging strategies to deal with financial and economic exposures
• Identify fundamental operational and strategic risk exposures and assess their potential effects in future global business scenarios
• Assess alternative ways to mitigate and deal with operational and strategic risks under uncertain and unpredictable multinational market conditions
• Consider proper governance of the strategic risk management process in a multinational corporation operating in turbulent global markets

This course provides an overview of different financial, economic, and strategic exposures faced by multinational organizations engaged in global business activities and considers how the underlying risks can be managed. The risk management topic is perceived from different functional perspectives including international finance, insurance, management accounting, operations management and multinational corporate strategy. A number of formal risk management frameworks and standards are designed to address identifiable risks. We extend these approaches to also consider the ability to deal with uncertainty and unexpected events.

Learning objectives – after completing the course students should be able to:

• Characterize and describe the global risk environment of the firm

• Identify, measure and monitor multinational financial and economic exposures

• Analyze alternative hedging strategies to deal with financial and economic exposures

• Identify fundamental operational and strategic risk exposures and assess their
  potential effects in future global business scenarios

• Assess alternative ways to mitigate and deal with operational and strategic risks under
  uncertain and unpredictable multinational market conditions

• Consider proper governance of the strategic risk management process in a multinational corporation operating in turbulent global markets

The grading of individual exams will consider the clarity, structure and supportive evidence displayed in the submitted reports with respect to the listed learning objectives. Furthermore, the responses should use tools, models, theories, and logical reasoning deduced from this and other relevant courses, based on clearly defined concepts and data-driven measures. The report should be backed by publicly available data and/or descriptive examples extracted from a variety of secondary sources including annual reports, websites, press releases, industry analyses, professional reports, etc.

Content

The course gives an overview of conventional risk management techniques conceived across different academic disciplines, e.g., finance, economics, insurance, accounting, operations management, organizational behaviour, cognitive psychology, and international business strategy. The course will integrate diverse contributions to better understand the multifaceted underpinnings of the field including standard approaches like Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) frameworks and more unconventional perspectives of High Reliability Organizations (HROs) and Strategic Risk Governance approaches. The course will introduce conventional views on risk management from articles, book chapters, reports, and selective case studies but will also extend the scope of current views towards effective management of the unpredictable nature of the turbulent global business environment. 

The course material will comprise two recent books, various course notes, academic articles, policy studies, reports, working papers and case studies made available on-line.

Andersen, T. J., Garvey, M. and Roggi, O., Managing Risk and Opportunity: The Governance of Strategic Risk-Taking, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 2014. (ISBN: 978-0-19-968785-5)

Andersen, T. J. Hallin, C. A. Global Strategic Responsiveness: Exploiting Frontline Information in the Adaptive Multinational Enterprise (Strategy Matters), Routledge, London, UK, 2017. (ISBN-10: 1138204633; ISBN-13: 978-1138204638)