BMGT20050 Business Across Borders

Academic Year 2021/2022

“Business Across Borders” module is a second level (year 2) introductory module on international management, business, and culture. Discussion and explanation are the key learning skills. The focus is on integrating and applying the basic elements of culture and international strategic management and specialized contextualised strategies required for emerging economies and for international new ventures, including modes of entry and methods used to analyse and assess culture, economic, and political risk in developed and developing countries.
This introductory module focuses on the challenges and opportunities associated with organizational management and business strategy in the global environment. Students will gain a general overview of the process and effect of internationalization in contemporary business, along with an introduction to theories, concepts, and skills relevant to managing effectively in today’s global environment.
Discussion and explanation are the key learning skills. Students will be challenged to integrate the knowledge they have gained from other business core courses and apply their accumulated knowledge to business case studies and project assignment.
Students will engage in active research and analytical problem solving related to managing in the international environment and will frequently be called upon to brief their findings to the class.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this module, students should be able to:
1. Understand and assess the drivers and consequences of globalization; compare and contrast different political, legal, and economic systems and technological forces; understand and appreciate the need for ethics and social responsibility in international management.
2. Describe and apply the concept of “national culture” and “organizational culture” and understand the relationship between them. Integrate those concepts within the context of cross-cultural management, decision-making, negotiation, communication, motivation, and leadership, and appreciate the challenges of diversity in the modern work environment.
3. Integrate and apply the basic elements of international strategic management and the specialized strategies required for emerging economies and for international new ventures, including the modes of entry and methods used to analyze and assess political risk in developed and developing countries.

Indicative Module Content:

1. Understand and assess the drivers and consequences of globalization, its impact on specific regions, and the emerging concerns about its influences on countries around the world

2. Compare and contrast different political, legal, and economic systems and technological forces and their impact on international management

3. Understand and appreciate the need for ethics and social responsibility in international management, and the growing pressures on firms to act in an ethically and socially responsible manner in their global business operations

4. Describe and apply the concept of “national culture” and, using the typologies of Hofstede, Trompenaars, and the GLOBE Project, explain how the culture of one group of people can be distinguished from that of another, and the implications of these differences for international management

5. Explain and understand the challenges of managing across cultures

6. Understand the relationship between national culture and organizational culture, integrate those concepts within the context of international management decision-making, and appreciate the challenges of diversity in the modern work environment

7. Describe the challenges to and apply the most important elements of effective cross-cultural negotiation and communication

8. Integrate and apply the basic elements of international strategic management, including the pressures and cost/benefits of strategies that emphasize global integration versus local adaptation; describe the specialized strategies required for emerging economies and for international new ventures

9. Compare and contrast the modes of entry and the basic choices for organizing firms involved in international business and describe the conditions under which specific entry modes and organizational structure are most effective

10. Describe methods used to analyze and assess political risk and how MNCs apply those methods as they attempt to manage the level of political risk in developed and developing countries, appreciate the broader efforts firms make to manage their relations with host governments, and discuss the various options for managing alliances and joint ventures, especially those in which host governments are involved

11. Explain and apply the mechanisms for ensuring effective control and decision-making in international organizations
12. Understand the tools and techniques used to provide motivation and incentives for employees across cultures, including compensation, benefits, work teams, and other approaches

13. Understand the importance of leadership to international management, including the role of different leadership types and practices and the importance of entrepreneurial and ethical and socially responsible leadership

14. Understand and describe the practices for recruiting, selecting, training and deploying employees internationally, including the challenges of expatriate placement and repatriation

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Autonomous Student Learning

70
Lectures

24
Practical

24
Total

118
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Teaching and learning strategies for this module include a range of activities to accommodate and support different abilities, skills, learning styles that allow every student from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to participate and to achieve success.
In this module, cultural diversity is the norm rather than the exception. Culture is characterised by shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understandings, which are learned through a process of socialization. Hence my teaching and learning strategies are designed through student’s interaction and communication within and across cultural groups in the class.
Group work and collaborative learning in this module are to facilitate a deeper understanding of the issues discussed during the lecture and to develop intercultural attitudes and competence, through sharing of experiences and integration among students.
All collaborative work in this module is done through groups' assignments of international groups of three to five students. To maximise students’ opportunities to get to know more students from the same class, two/three different sets of international groups are created. International research confirms that intercultural learning has often happened as a result of mixed cohorts of students studying together.
When students had to work in mixed groups, it encouraged them to think comprehensively – appreciating the perspectives and input of students from other cultures, with different language and cultural backgrounds. It encourages them to learn how to communicate and collaborate with people from different cultures particularly when they are challenged with complex tasks or questions.
Collaborative learning in cross-cultural settings for intercultural problem-solving assignments fosters in students critical thinking and reflection on information and knowledge they possess and changes the association that students have to their own education.
This module is structured around a series of lectures across 12 weeks, class debate, and, where relevant, case studies and video materials. Class participation is an essential component of the design of this course. All students will be expected to engage in-class discussion and debate in order to facilitate the formation of their critical judgments. All activities in this module, are developed to raise awareness of different cultural perspectives, advance students’ skills of observation, interpretation, and non-judgmental thinking.

Class participation

Class participation is an essential component of the design of this course. All students will be expected to engage in-class discussion and debate in order to facilitate the formation of their critical judgments. All students will be expected to read recommended case studies and chapters from the textbook prior to the commencement of class. All students will be expected to work in groups on different group assignments during the semester.

Major Group Project Specification

Your group will prepare a report, including recommendations, for an actual company’s overall entry strategy into a foreign market. Your strategy should include attention to the social, political, and economic factors within the cultural context of the country you propose entering, the entry and organizational strategies the company should advance, including potential alliances with local firms. This analysis should integrate the readings and cases for the module in the context of the actions of a specifically chosen firm. This analysis will be summarised in an approximately 25-30 pages report, and you will present findings in a short 25-30-minute presentation during the final weeks of class.

Group Presentations

Groups will make three short presentations during the semester: a) Case Studies presentation, b) “Negotiation with …” presentation, and c) Country/Regions Business Profiles (“Doing Business in …”) presentation. These presentations will be made by groups on a weekly basis and analyzed by groups in the class.

Individual Final Exam-Essay

The evaluation will assess your knowledge of the course content. The questions will focus on the concept and tools discussed in the class and covered in the associated texts. You will be expected to support your answers with examples. This is a 3000-word essay.

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Continuous Assessment: Individual Class Participation, Homework Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

10
Group Project: Group Project and Project Presentation Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded Yes

40
Presentation: Groups will make three presentations. Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

20
Essay: Final Exam-Essay Week 12 n/a Graded Yes

30

Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Remediation Type Remediation Timing
In-Module Resit Prior to relevant Programme Exam Board
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Group/class feedback will be provided by the end of the semester.

1. F. Luthans, and J.P. Doh. International Business: Culture, Strategy, and Behavior, 10th Ed., McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2018.
2. R. Moran, and N. Abramson. Managing Cultural Differences: Global Leadership for the 21st Century, 10th Ed., Routledge, 2018
3. L. Katz, Negotiating International Business: The Negotiator's Reference Guide to 50 Countries Around the World. Book Surge Publishing; 3ed edition, 2017