Course Description

This course provides an in-depth overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of international business with particular attention to Europe. Students will examine the major environmental forces that influence international business activity including financial, economic and socio-economic, physical, socio-cultural, political, legal, labour, competitive, and distributive forces. Special attention will be given to Europe and to the perception of multinational activities in Western and Eastern Europe.

The course will include a group project in which students conduct an analysis of an Italian company’s internal organization and its external ambitions, or plans, for conducting business internationally.  The course fee covers expenses associated with visiting the company’s headquarters.

Course Objectives

The overall objectives of this course are to foster an improved awareness of political, social, legal, and cultural differences that businesses encounter internationally; to provide the tools to analyze these differences; to employ different theories in economics and finance to problems in international business; to understand how global financial markets interact and influence international business activity; and to define and analyze international management issues and explore how management skills can address these issues.

Course Materials

Ball and McCulloch, International Business: The Challenge of Global Competition(Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001/2002), 7th or 8th editions.

There will also be many case studies, readings in the Economist, Business Week, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal throughout the course