International Management 7.5 credits

Organizations across the world no longer work in an environment defined by national boundaries. Changing patterns of global competition, knowledge transfer, and transnational co-operation are redefining the rules of the international business game. International managers have to cope with the need for simultaneously achieving global effectiveness and local responsiveness. Multinational enterprises seek to transcend their cultural embeddedness and ethnocentric frameworks. <br> Therefore, the objective of this course is to understand the knowledge, perspectives, and skills that global managers need to work effectively in different cultural environments and with people from all over the world. To fulfil this aim, this course explores organizational strategies, structures and processes for cross-border activities, as well as ways to address, coordinate and exploit the diversity of values, resources and cultures when managing international activities and the challenges deriving from it. The major components of this course are as follows: - Overview of international management and the contemporary international business environment - Organizational and strategic aspects of international management; headquarter-subsidiary relationships in multinational companies; cross-border M&A; international supply chains - Cross-cultural management - International human resource management and leadership - International entrepreneurship and SME management **<br> Connection to Research and Practice** The course is focused on international management theory and connects to research in this area by the following: - Connecting students with faculty who are research focused on the area of international management through lectures and seminars where the researchers’ own research is used as teaching material. - Introducing students to the traditional and contemporary frameworks in internalization, entry modes, cross-cultural management and global resource strategies. - The practical connections brought into the course are cases as well as guest lectures by international management practitioners who discuss their experiences with challenges relating to international management problems.