MBA 2400 International Business

MBA 2400 International Business

Course code: 
MBA 2400
Department: 
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Credits: 
4
Course coordinator: 
Heidi Wiig
Course name in Norwegian: 
International Business
Product category: 
Executive
Portfolio: 
MBA China
Semester: 
2022 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

This course gives an overview of the opportunities and challenges facing firms involved in conducting cross-border business activities in an increasingly open and dynamic world. 

The course aims to provide the students with managerial knowledge and analytical skills that are important when companies carry out international business activities.

The course combines corporate strategy theories with theories of economic organization and management.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge

Students will have acquired a good overview of key economic/geographic, institutional/legal, and political/cultural conditions for international business activities.

Students will learn how to identify and analyze adequate strategies for internationalization.

Students will learn about challenges in the organization and management of multinational corporations, and they should be able to evaluate appropriate structural solutions.
 

Learning outcomes - Skills

Students should be able to critically analyze the internationalization strategies of business companies, with emphasis on international companies entering the Chinese market and investing in China, and Chinese companies entering foreign markets and investing abroad.

Students should be able to analyze international business cases and to master a range of internationalization strategies that can be applied in modern business. 

General Competence

Students should appreciate the complexity that firms operating internationally face. They should be able to identify and discuss dilemmas and trade-offs in international business, develop sensible alternatives, and propose decisions and actions to deal with them. 

Course content

Module Schedule
Day 1: The international business context
Day 2: International markets and strategies
Day 3: Becoming international: Modes and combinations
Day 4: Managing the global organization

The students are assigned into groups that are asked to prepare case analyses to be presented in in class (typically in Power Point format) and to be handed in for feedback.

The students are expected to draw actively on their own business experience and to contribute in class with internationalization cases from their own corporate experience.

Teaching and learning activities

Students are trained in analyzing real life business cases to prepare for managerial careers in international companies.

The course is conducted as a teaching module, where students have classes all day for four subsequent days, a total of 32 hours.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component will be graded using points on a scale  0 -100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam components will get a lower grade or may fail the course. Candidates may be called in for an oral hearing as a verification/control of written assignments.

Specific information regarding the points system and the mapping scale beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

The course is a part of a full MBA and examination in all courses in the MBA programme must be passed in order to obtain a certificate for the MBA degree.

In all BI Executive courses and programmes, there is a mutual requirement  
for the student and the course responsible regarding the involvement of the student's experience in the planning and implementation of courses, modules and programmes. This means that the student has the right and duty to get involved with their own knowledge and practice relevance, through the active sharing of their relevant experience and knowledge.

 

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Qualifications

Granted admission to the BI-Fudan MBA programme. Please consult our student regulations.

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Activity
Form of assessment: 
Class participation
Weight: 
20
Grouping: 
Individual
Comment: 
Class participation, counts 20% of the total grade
Exam code: 
MBA 24001
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
10
Grouping: 
Group (2 - 8)
Duration: 
2 Day(s)
Comment: 
Group work, counts 10% of the total grade
Exam code: 
MBA 24001
Grading scale: 
China
Resit: 
All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
70
Grouping: 
Individual
Duration: 
1 Month(s)
Comment: 
Individual assignment, counts 70% of the total grade
Exam code: 
MBA 24001
Grading scale: 
China
Resit: 
All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Continuous assessment
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
23 Hour(s)
Group work / Assignments
6 Hour(s)
Student's own work with learning resources
35 Hour(s)
Group work / Assignments
46 Hour(s)
Individual assignments
Sum workload: 
110

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 4 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 110 hours.