34539 - International Management

Learning outcomes

The course provides concepts and tools for the strategic analysis of business decisions in service organizations. In particular the course focuses on corporate strategy in general and international strategies of services firms - globalisation of markets and the attractiveness of foreign markets, and different entry modes in international markets. It also examines the geographical distribution of activities in multinational service firms.

Course contents

Module 1 –International management

 

Module I will cover the following topics:

 

Globalization, export, FDIs in service and manufacturing activities

International trade theory

Strategy and organization of international business

Entry modes in international markets

Global production, outsourcing and reshoring

Global marketing and R&D

International business in emerging countries

 

Readings/Bibliography

Hill C.W.L. (2009). International business, McGraw Hill. Chapters 1, 2, 5, 12-14, 16, 17.

 

Readings

Bartlett, Christopher A., and Sumantra Ghoshal. "Managing Across Borders: New Organizational Responses." MIT Sloan Management Review. October 15, 1987.

Bartlett, Christopher A., and Sumantra Ghoshal. "What is a Global Manager?" Harvard Business Review, August 2003.

Cuervo-Cazurra A. (2011). Selecting the country in which to start internationalization: The non-sequential internationalization model, Journal of World Business. 46, 426–437.

Fratocchi L. et al.(2014), When manufacturing moves back: Concepts and questions. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 20, 54-59.

Levitt, T. "The Globalization of Markets." Harvard Business Review, May–June 1983.

Mihir A. Desai, The Decentering of the Global Firm, World Economy, 32, 2009, pp. 1271-1290

Santos, J., Y. Doz, and P. Williamson. "Is Your Innovation Process Global?" MIT Sloan Management Review 45, no. 4 (2004).

Szulanski, Gabriel, and Sidney Winter. "Getting it Right the Second Time." Harvard Business Review, January 2002

 

A syllabus with case studies and additional readings will be available at the beginning course.

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars, case studies developed with the active participation of the students and presentation and discussion of case studies by the students.

Participation in teams to project works in collaboration with business companies.

Assessment methods

Assessment is by class participation, case submission and a final written exam.

Class participation: It is assessed the pro-active attendance to lectures and the participation to the discussion of assigned questions to cases and readings.

Case study presentation: A case study will be assigned to teams of 3-4 students. It will require the preparation of a short report (3-5 page maximum), the use of data supporting the case discussion and answers to assigned questions.

Final written Exam: The exam will include structured open questions on critical discussion of theories, concept, tools and applications to real or hypothetical international business questions and decisions.

The preparation to the exam requires deep knowledge of the theories, analytical concepts and applications included in the teaching materials and slides.

Teaching tools

Materials on IOL platform

Office hours

See the website of Paola Giuri