In­ter­na­tion­al Busi­ness and Man­age­ment

Course content

Overall, the course aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how firms operate, compete, and evolve in a complex international environment through an introduction to the main theories and debates in international business and management. It examines why firms internationalize, where they expand, and how they govern cross-border activities, drawing on foundational internationalization theories. The course also explores how engagement in international business shapes firms' strategies, global organizational structures, human resource management practices, and approaches to diversity and inclusion. In addition, it examines the HQ–subsidiary relationship by considering the strategic role subsidiaries can play within the firm, including their initiative, embeddedness, and contribution to globally dispersed knowledge and innovation, as well as the power, control, and coordination challenges this role may create. Across the course, particular attention is paid to how institutional contexts, geopolitical dynamics, and corruption shape the international environment in which firms operate. Pedagogically, the course combines face-to-face and online teaching in a blended-learning format and incorporates group work and in-class discussion.

In relation to Nordic Nine

International Business and Management (IBM) gives the students several transformative capabilities in accordance with the Nordic nine. IBM provides students with deep business knowledge about how firms can exploit and augment their domestic sources of value creation in the international context (N1). The course helps students to recognize the ambiguous role of multinational companies in society; They are actors that create as well as solve societal challenges (N3). Moreover, students are challenged to recognize ethical dilemmas faced by companies operating in different cultures and to develop leadership values ​​​​to address them (N5). IBM offers theories and concepts which applications allow for the creation of value using globally distributed knowledge and connections to the advantage of localized problem solving (N9).