MGMT- 321 International Business Spring Semester 2015 Instructor Muhammad Ayaz Room No. 4-19, 4 th Floor SDSB Building Office Hours WF: 1100 hrs-1300hrs Email muhammad.ayaz@lums.edu.pk Telephone Ext: 5314 Secretary/TA Abdul Basit (Ext: 8082) TA Office Hours TBA Course URL (if any) Suraj.lums.edu.pk COURSE BASICS Credit Hours 03 Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week 02 Duration 1 Hour 15 minutes Recitation/Lab (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration COURSE DISTRIBUTION Core - Elective Elective Open for Student Category Junior/ Senior Close for Student Category Freshman/Sophomores COURSE DESCRIPTION Managers engaged in international business should understand the economic, political and social environment of business and learn to manage in risky and often uncertain conditions. This course provides the participants an understanding of international business from a global and multinational management perspective. The course mainly focuses on two areas the environmental components of international business, and the strategy and operations of the multinationals in a changing global economy. This course has been designed to be challenging and interesting. It deals with the contemporary topics, and also the concepts that have been well established in this domain over the past couple of decades. The course also provides students an opportunity to participate in a hands-on international business project, where they will work in global virtual teams comprised of students from various foreign universities. COURSE PREREQUISITE(S) N/A COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. To familiarize students with challenges and opportunities that firms face in today s global economy To familiarize students with fundamental concepts and theories concerning formal and informal institutions, crossborder trade and investment, and global strategies To familiarize studentswith diverse country risks while doing business globally To expose students to a multicultural work environment To understand the challenges of globalization and underlying ethical issues in international business 1
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM LEARNING GOALS & OBJECTIVES General Learning Goals & Objectives Goal 1 Effective Written and Oral Communication Objective: Students will demonstrate effective writing and oral communication skills Goal 2 Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to identify and address ethical issues in an organizational context. Goal 3 Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to identify key problems and generate viable solutions. Goal 4 Application of Information Technology Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to use current technologies in business and management context. Goal 5 Teamwork in Diverse and Multicultural Environments Objective: Students will demonstrate that they are able to work effectively in diverse environments. Goal 6 Understanding Organizational Ecosystems Objective: Students will demonstrate that they have an understanding of Economic, Political, Regulatory, Legal, Technological, and Social environment of organizations. Major Specific Learning Goals & Objectives Goal 7 (a) Program Specific Knowledge and Understanding Objective: Students will demonstrate knowledge of key business disciplines and how they interact including application to real world situations. Goal 7 (b) Understanding the science behind the decision-making process (for MGS Majors) Objective: Students will demonstrate ability to analyze a business problem, design and apply appropriate decision-support tools, interpret results and make meaningful recommendations to support the decision-maker Indicate below how the course learning objectives specifically relate to any program learning goals and objectives. PROGRAM LEARNING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Goal 1 Effective Written and Oral Communication Goal 2 Ethical Understanding and Reasoning Goal 3 Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills Goal 4 Application of Information Technology Goal 5 Teamwork in Diverse and Multicultural Environments Goal 6 Understanding Organizational Ecosystems COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES Students get a number of opportunities to demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively (Course Learning Outcome #5) Last module is dedicated to ethical issues. (Course Learning Outcome #3) Analytical thinking and problem solving skills are essential for success in this course (Course Learning Outcome #3) Application of information technology in project for collaborating with teammates around the globe (Course Learning Outcome #6) Major Goal: Students work in a team of 6-7 students, each from a different university and region (Course Learning Outcome #5 & 6) Major Goal: One broader component of the course is about international business environment (Course Learning Outcome #1) COURSE ASSESSMENT ITEM Project/Exam/ CP Quiz/Exam/Project CP/Quiz/Exam/Project Project Project Class participation/quiz/exam/project 2
Goal 7 (a) Program Specific Knowledge and Understanding Goal 7 (b) Understanding the science behind the decision-making process Major Goal: Comprehensive coverage of topics in international business (Course Learning Outcome #1-6) - LEARNING OUTCOMES Upon completion of the course the students should be able to: Class participation/quiz/exam/project 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Apply fundamental concepts and theories learned to understand the complexities of international business environments Demonstrate their understanding of theories and conceptual frameworks that explain why and how firms internationalize. Develop well-reasoned arguments about current debates and dilemmas in international business, such as ethical dilemmas, CSR in international business, multinationals from and in emerging economies, among others. Demonstrate problem-solving skills by analyzing relevant managerial problems in international business strategy and operations. Apply intercultural communications skills. Collaborate in international teams and solve team-level disputes. GRADING BREAKUP AND POLICY Quizzes & Assignments :25% (n-1 policy) Class Participation:10% Project:30% Final Examination:35% EXAMINATION DETAIL Midterm Exam Yes/No: No Combine Separate: Duration: Preferred Date: Exam Specifications: Final Exam Yes/No: Y Combine Separate: Duration: Exam Specifications: TBA 3
COURSE OVERVIEW Students are responsible for having read the chapters in accordance with the schedule below. Read the material BEFORE coming to class on the day it is to be discussed. Other reading materials may be assigned in addition to those in the schedule below, but these will be mentioned at least one class period in advance. WEEK/ LECTURE/ MODULE TOPICS RECOMMENDED READINGS International Business- A Background OBJECTIVES/ APPLICATION 1 2 Course Introduction and Overview of International Business Ch. 1 (Hill) Globalization and International Business International Business Environment To provide an overview of the process of globalization and explain how it has changed the global business environment. 3 National Differences in Political Economy Ch-2 (Hill) To understand the dynamics of global business environment 4&5 National Differences in Culture Ch. 3 (Hill); Ghemawat: Distance Still Matters International Trade, Investment and Institutions spanning political, legal, and cultural arena and its implications for businesses. 6 7& 8 International Trade Theory The Political Economy of International Trade Ch- 5 (Hill) Porter: The Competitive Advantage of Nations Ch- 6 (Hill) Case: Boeing versus Airbus: Two decades of Trade Disputes 9 Regional Economic Integration Ch-8 (Hills) 10 The Foreign Exchange Market Ch-9 (Hill) 11 Documentary: The Yes Men: WTO The Strategy and Structure of International Business To understand the different perspectives on international trade and investment policies and their implications. Also, this section is set to familiarize the students with the global monitoring and regulatory structures. 12 &13 The strategy of International Business 14&15 The Organization of International Business Entry Strategy and Strategic Alliances 16 Ch-12 (Hill) Ch-13 (Hill);Case: Jollibee- Catering to Local Tastebuds the World Over Ch- 14 (Hill); Case: Organizational Structure and Incentive at Lincoln Electric To introduce students with different global business strategies and their pros and cons. Also, how international business firm can be matched to strategy to improve the performance. 17 Exporting, Importing, and Countertrade Ch-15 (Hill) 18 Competing in Emerging Economies Bell&Shelman: KFC s Radical approach to China, Khanna & Palepu: Emerging Giants. 4
19 Guest Speaker Session Building World Class Companies in developing countries International Business Operations 20 21 Global Production, Outsourcing, and Logistics Global Marketing and R&D Ch-16 (Hill) Ch-17 (Hill);Quech & Hoff: Customizing Global Marketing To understand specific issues in managingoperations on a global scale. 22 Country of Origin Issues in International Business Deshpande: Why You Aren t Buying Venezuelan Chocolate ; Kumar et al: Diaspora Marketing 23 24 Global Human Resource Management Ch-18 (Hill); Russwurm et al: Developing Your Global Know How Managing Globally Bartlett & Ghoshal: What is a Global Manager International Business and Society Ethics in International Business 25 & 26 27 Project Review 28 Project Review Ch-4 (Hill); Paine et al: A Global Leader s Guide to Managing Business Conduct To familiarize the students with ethical issues in international business. Note 1: The instructor may swap sessions, if required Note 2: Readings may be added or subtracted during the course, if required DETAILS OF GRADING SCHEME AND CLASS ROOM CONTRACT Lectures and class discussion will be the principal method of instruction supplemented by videos and case studies to illustrate and highlight particular aspects of international business. Class participation is strongly encouraged. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their performance on quizzes, project, class discipline, attendance and participation. Attendance Policy/ Discipline Classes will start at the scheduled time. Those entering the class later than five minutes, will be marked absent and hence will subsequently be marked zero for class participation also. Attendance and class contribution will be counted from Session 3 onwards. Max of 4 absences (including petitions) allowed. From 5th absence, there will be negative grading in place. Cell phones should be kept off in class. No eatables are allowed inside the class. Leaving the class early will be marked as an absence. TA s will be taking notes in this regard. CLASS CONTRIBUTION/ASSIGNMENTS Participation: It is expected that students regularly attend class, arrive punctually to class, and remain up-to-date on assigned readings. Note that you are expected to read the assigned readings before each class. This will facilitate meaningful discussion about the material in the class. You are strongly encouraged to ask questions and make comments on the material. You are also 5
required to attend all group project presentations. Your participation grade will reflect the degree to which you contribute to class, rather than simply whether you are physically present. Excellent class participation is characterized by consistently attending class, arriving on time, contributing to discussions, being well-prepared for the assignment, and demonstrating superior understanding and insight on the material. Good class participation is characterized by consistently attending class, arriving punctually, contributing to class discussions, and being reasonably prepared for the assignment, but only occasionally demonstrating superior understanding and insights on the material. Average participation is characterized by consistently attending class and being punctual, but only occasionally contributing to discussions and demonstrating superior understanding and insights on the material. Poor class participation is characterized by tardiness, inconsistently attending class and contributing to class discussion, demonstrating a lack of preparation for the assignment, and rarely demonstrating superior understanding and insights. The instructor will judge class contribution according to his discretion. QUIZZES Short announced quizzes will be taken. It will be scheduled at the beginning of the class. Late comers will not be given any extra time. The number of quizzes will also be unannounced, but is expected to be 4 to 5. The lowest quiz will be dropped. COURSE PROJECT Students have to participate in X-Culture project (http://www.x-culture.org/how_it_works_students.html). It is an important component of this course. X-Culture is an international student collaboration project with the goal to train inter-cultural management, communication and team collaboration capabilities. This is important because more and more work assignments in multinational corporations and business contacts of small firms involve employees and partners with different cultural backgrounds. The main idea of X-Culture project is to provide students in International Business / International Management courses at universities around the world with an opportunity to experience international business problem solving and learn the best practices of cross-cultural international collaboration. Working in international teams of 6-7 students for about eight weeks, students develop a business proposal for an international company and write a report that details economic feasibility of the idea and provides guidelines for its implementation. While participants are students, the international collaboration challenges they encounter are similar to those experienced by employees of multinational enterprises, and so facilitate the acquisition of crosscultural management skills that can be best built through experience and experiential exercises. Upon completion of the project, students receive X-Culture Certificates. All participants receive free high-resolution print-ready electronic certificates. Sample Achievement Certificates can be viewed www.x-culture.org/certificates.html Pre-Project Training To ensure that all students come properly prepared, all students must take a standard pre-project training. All training materials are located at www.x-culture.org/training.html. Approximately one week before the project start day, each participant receives an email with a personalized link to the Readiness Test, to be completed before the start of the project.only students who successfully pass the Readiness Test will be placed on teams and allowed to take part in the X-Culture project. The Task It is very important to keep in mind that the X-Culture project is an international interaction/collaboration exercise and not a test of knowledge. So the task is designed so that the project involves maximum cross-culture interactions and international business problem solving so that the students could gain first-hand experience in these areas. The particulars of the exercise may not always perfectly match and include every topic on your course outline, but that is not the goal. Involvement of real companies with real challenges makes the project more meaningful and more interactive for the students. The students receive a chance to interact with the company, gather more information, and develop a better business proposal, and in some cases even see their ideas implemented, and potentially even get an internship or job offer if their work impresses the company. 6
There are two basic options: 1. Solve a challenge presented by an X-Culture corporate partner; or 2. Develop a business proposal for another company of the team s choice using a generic set of Instructions It is expected that most teams will choose Option 1. However, it is likely that some students will know of companies with interesting real-life international business challenges and the students may have an easy access to those companies (work for them or have ties otherwise). So it is acceptable and even encouraged that teams develop a business proposal for a company of their choice, provided the company is interested in the input and is ready to actively collaborate with the team during the project development (Option 2). If the students select Option 1, there are detailed company-specific business challenge instructions that the team must follow. If the students select Option 2, they should start with a generic instruction set that can be downloaded off the training page: www.xculture.org/training.html Time Requirements Roughly,students have to spend two to four hours/week for eight weeks. Team Size Each team is comprised of 6-7 students from different countries. Team Assignment Typically, a team is composed of 6-7 students who are located in different countries and communicate electronically. Students are assigned to teams on a random basis. With so many people involved in the project, accommodating individual requests for team composition is close to impossible. There is an attempt to maximize cultural diversity within each team. When possible, the teams are composed so that each team member represents a different country, and the countries represented on a team are as distant as possible. However, exceptions are possible. Free-Riders The learning value of the project greatly depends on commitment and participation of each team member. Occasionally, there are students who, for various reasons, stop actively participating in the project. Although the same problems are commonly observed in corporate global virtual teams and the very existence of free-riders and under-performing students makes X-Culture more realistic and educational.therefore, student performance is carefully monitored by the means of weekly surveys. Teams are given an option to vote out free-riders and if a team member is voted out by the rest of the team two weeks in a row, the student will be excluded from the project. Communication Modes/Tools Students are free to choose the communication mode that works best for them. Experience shows that free on-line communication tools, such as email, Skype, Google Docs, Facebook Groups and Dropbox are the most popular and sufficient tools for effective collaboration. If you are not familiar with these tools, please see the X-Culture Training module for more details. Report Submission A centralized team report submission system is used on the TurnItIn platform. Please see the X-Culture Training module for more details. Students are also required to submit hard copy of the final report. Grade/Mark Specifics Project is 30% of overall grade. Project grade is distributed as following: Weekly progress reports, submitted individually by each student (completed fully and before the deadline): 25% (2.5% for each week) Peer evaluations (as evaluated by the other team members in terms of effort, intellectual contribution, help with writing the 7
report, coordinating team efforts, other comments): 25% Quality of the team report (as rated by the instructors): 50% Note: Detailed guidelines that include weekly milestones, deadlines and other important information will be uploaded on LMS. Petitions Apart from the exceptional cases, no petition will be entertained for missed exams and assignments and project. In case of exceptional reasons (such as death of an immediate family relative, severe illness or medical condition which would be verified in detail by the doctor s report etc.), students must inform the instructor (personally or through email) before the class and submit a petition within 3 days of the class. Please note that in case of exceptional cases, class contribution will NOT be compensated. In case of a missed exam, the petition should be directed via the Registrar/Student Affairs Office. TEXTBOOK(S)/SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS Textbook: Hill, Charles W. L., Wee C.H, Udayasankar, K. International Business: An Asian Perspective. New York, NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin, 2012 Course Packet also available at LUMS photocopier Reference: Daniels, John Day, Lee H. Radebaugh, and Daniel P. Sullivan. International Business: Environments and Operations. London [u.a.: Pearson Education Internat., 2009. 8