Postgraduate Course: International Strategy (CMSE11214)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 15 |
ECTS Credits | 7.5 |
| Summary | This course will give you understanding of the challenges faced by firms intending to work internationally, and the ways in which they can address them. It employs theory and research evidence on internationalization process, which draws from economics and from organizational theories. You will employ this in a very practical way, by working with a growing business that is based in an emerging economy. You will help it to identify and then find ways to enter and to grow in a new international territory. |
| Course description |
For most firms, most of the time, international business, especially in emerging markets, is a really bad idea. It is an activity that is likely to lead to the complete demise of the business. For many firms, it has been highly successful, but these are the only ones we hear and read about. While it can be done, international business is fraught with great risks and presents the scope for major mistakes, which firms make time after time.
On this course you will learn, experience and understand the risks of international business, learn how they are best overcome, and advise a real firm how it can expand internationally. You will develop and present coherent and viable international strategies for a firm based in the dynamic and vibrant Emerging Economy city of Medellin. Having done this in Semester 1, you will be in a good position (in a separate core course in Semester 2) to advise a British firm about its international strategies for emerging markets.
By the end of the course, you will be aware of important concepts and theoretical frameworks that are relevant for managers and firms seeking to develop an international business. You will, however, be able to do much more. Having been challenged to apply these concepts to help real firms, you will have a real and deep understanding of how you can apply these theoretical ideas in practice.
You will be able to address, through studying a range of companies operating in international contexts, questions such as:
-"What motivations to do business internationally are valid?"
-"Which strategies can be adopted for growing internationally?"
-"How might a firm develop its presence geographically over time?"
-"What new resources will be needed for growing internationally?"
-"Which territories are best to consider for first international expansion?"
-"What reorganization might be needed to operate internationally?"
-"How should the management approach change for international growth?"
Syllabus
Strategy and international business; challenges and opportunities when managing internationally;
Regulatory, normative and cognitive/cultural liabilities of foreignness
The problem of ignorance: the knowledge needed to do international business successfully.
Strategies for resourcing the knowledge that's needed, and for learning
The problem of outsidership: The relationships needed to do international business successfully
Strategies for gaining and working with relationships that's needed
The problem of expansion: the organization and management that's needed to be an international firm, successfully.
Student Learning Experience
You will explore, examine and question the key concepts, ideas and theories of international business that address real international business questions and problems in lectures and in your reading. These will, over the first five weeks of the semester, give you the key concepts, models and frameworks that you need to understand.
You will then learn about international business in a practical and useful way: from the perspective of a manager who has to do it. Through the innovative assignment tasks, and with the support you receive in workshops, your learning is mainly through 'learning by doing' and 'learning by applying'.
You will apply your new knowledge with a real emerging market business, because you will be in a team tasked with advising a business from Medellin, Colombia, how it can grow into an international market. In workshops, the course organizer will guide and help your practical application of the core concepts and models. You will do the analysis for that firm, you will interact with it via skype with effective international business discussions. Finally you will prepare and deliver your professional presentation and report, on which you will be assessed.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Business School students only unless specific arrangements have been made. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2016/17, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
150
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5,
Formative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 3,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
121 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
32hrs advance of lecture, 32 hrs research/groupwork, 15hrs writing group report, 42hrs on assignment
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework 100%
Individual Essay (40%)
Group report (40%)
Group Presentation (20%) |
| Feedback |
Feedback form on individual reports.
Feedback commentary on draft presentation outlines from the course organizer.
Verbal feedback commentary on presentations from the course organizer.
Feedback sheet on team presentations from course organizer.
Feedback form on team reports. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the main liabilities of foreignness facing a business that wishes to grow into a foreign territory
- Be able to make judgements about the extent of knowledge acquisition that is required to enter a specific foreign territory, and the alternative ways in which that knowledge can be gained.
- Appreciate the role of business relationships in the internationalization process, and understand how businesses can develop and use this important resource
- Explain and critically discuss alternative organizational approaches of entering international markets, and of managing and organizing the business as it develops internationally.
- Tailor the knowledge on all the areas noted above to be able to present and argue with a management team how they might develop their firm internationally. Prepare a professional report that is of Master level standard to the management team as to how their business should develop internationally.
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Reading List
Cavusgil, S. Tamer, Knight, Gary and Riesenberger, John (2016) International Business: The New Realities, 4th Edition. Pearson [ISBN -10: 1292152834 ISBN-13: 978-1292152837].
Frynas, Jedrzej George and Mellahi, Kamel (2014) Global Strategic Management, 3rd Edition. Oxford University Press. [ISBN-10: 0198706596 ISBN-13: 978-0198706595] |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
On completion of the course students should have demonstrated ability to:
Evaluate practical international management problems and develop viable solutions.
Know how to source and collect material relevant to a senior level decision
Manage and analyse relevant information about firms and their contexts and ambitions in a clear, sound and explicit way.
Apply models of international business management to challenging and complex circumstances
Work in multicultural teams of the type normally involved in making international strategies.
Communicate analyses and conclusions clearly and persuasively for an international client strategy at a senior level
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Simon Harris
Tel: 07946 645069
Email: Simon.Harris@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Peter Newcombe
Tel: (0131 6)51 3013
Email: Peter.Newcombe@ed.ac.uk |
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