International Business and Economic Diplomacy master degree programme

This lecture deals with relevant theories and methods in international strategic management that will support the ability of developing and implementing competitive strategies in a globalized world. The course focuses on theoretical explanations and their practical implications of the strategic role of internationalization, international organizational structures and foreign operation modes, Fundamental principles of leadership, strategies of multinational enterprises.

The course will focus in particular on:

• Fundamentals of strategic international management
• Motives for internationalisation
• Cultural environment of global markets
• International coordination (formal and informal mechanisms)
• International control

Upon completion of this course, students are able to:

Dispersed workforces are very common in international business. However, digitalisation leads to changing means of collaboration. In this course students discuss the role of workstyles and leadership.

• definition and typology of dispersed workforces
• examples of global and virtual collaboration
• intra- and inter-firm collaboration
• workstyles in dispersed organisations
• workstyle analysis case study
• organisation and leadership theory
• working styles and the impact of cultural, political, social and economic issues in dispersed collaboration
• trust in virtual environments

This lecture focuses on the performance management system that ensures that organizations define and achieve short and long term goals.

• Strategic planning and information systems
• Effects of risks and uncertainty on organisational performance
• Sources of information and reporting
• Creating performance measures (financial and non-financial performance indicators)
• Performance measurement in the private, public and not for profit sector
• Corporate failure

This lecture focuses on the role of diplomacy for international business. It discusses the factors shaping economic diplomacy, the involved stakeholders as well as the economic success of international economic relations.

The course will focus in particular on:

• the concept of economic diplomacy
• Determinants and stakeholder
• economic diplomacy and international business
• economic effectiveness of diplomatic representation
• Economic diplomacy in developed vs. developing countries
• trends and challenges for economic diplomacy

This course outlines the fundamentals of international law and different legal systems, as well as addressing legal challenges (e.g. space exploitation, sea exploitation etc.).

      Legal environment of international business

• International trade law
• International competition law
• Protection and licensing of intellectual property
• International investment law

This course covers the essentials of the international institutions, which are important for international trade.  

• structures and mechanisms of international organizations
• development and funding organizations
• the WTO and the World Bank
• the United Nations, OECD, EU and their institutions
• formal and informal associations and committees for international steering (OPEC, Club of Rome, G20 etc.)
• trade policy instruments
• trade treaties and negotiations
• current developments in relations between countries, cultures and regions

In this course students focus on descriptive analytics. Also it discusses how data can be obtained for the purpose of supporting management decisions. This course investigates the types of data that are available and how this data can be managed and used for business purposes. The course will focus in particular on:

• data structures
• creating and managing databases
• data collection
• exploratory data analysis
• data visualization
• descriptive statistics
• data governance and protection

This course focuses on developing relevant negotiation skills, and on the application of negotiation techniques in different business and political settings.

• Introduction to negotiation
• Negotiation planning
• Distributive negotiations
• Integrative negotiations
• Multi-party negotiations
• Cognitive and emotional biases in negotiations
• Negotiation on the edge
• Body language in negotiations

In this course students encounter a range of social research methods and data analyses.

The course will focus in particular on:

• research process
• research design and research questions
• principles of science and theory
• research questions
• quality in research
• measurement
• descriptive and inductive analyses
• quantitative research: structured interview, surveys, structured observation, content analysis, secondary analysis and official statistics
• qualitative research: in depth interviews, ethnography, focus groups, document analysis
• experiments

This lecture focuses on understanding the challenge of disruptive technologies on several levels of an organization. The course discusses the role disruptive technologies have had on business activities and will determine opportunities and risks of disruptive innovation while also discussing how businesses can adapt successfully.

• Technology trends and emerging technologies
• Stakeholders
• Value drivers
• Disruption and digital platforms
• Strategies to deal with disruptive innovation
• Techniques to adapt business models

This lecture focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of international finance such as international capital markets, foreign exchange markets, the derivatives market.

• International Financial Environment
• Exchange Rate Behaviour
• Exchange Rate Risk Management
• Long-term asset and liability management
• Short-term liability management

This lecture focuses on understanding important aspects of international corporate taxation, including national regulations, double taxation agreements and regulations at EU level. Furthermore, the course deals with tax consequences of national and international investments for firms and their subsidiaries.  Transfer pricing as well as the tax burden of firms are also discussed.

This course focuses on historic and current developments in international political economy. It explores different ideological currents and theories as well as on different aspects of globalization.  with the essentials of the international institutions which are important for international trade.

• Theories of global political economy
• Historical perspective of global political economy
• International trade
• Global production
• Global finance
• Division of labor
• Globalization in the context of development, equality and environment

This course addresses the economic aspects of regional development when choosing the location for operations.

ustrial location

• agglomeration and clustering
• spatial structure of economic activities
• regional specialisation
• regional labour markets
• regional growth

This course focuses on current governance and ethical issues in international business.

• Concepts and theories of corporate governance
• Corporate governance structure, roles and responsibilities
• Corporate Governance in Not-for-Profit Organizations
• International differences and convergence in corporate governance
• Ethics theories
• Ethical behavior and leadership
• Current ethical problems in international busines

The development of a unique and value creating business model is a key to creating successful export opportunities. This course introduces the steps of business development, considering target markets and value proposition.

• analytics of environment, industries and competition
• innovation and modification of processes and products
• business idea generation
• creativity techniques
• strategies for growth of the idea and export integration

This course focuses on the effects of foreign policies on international relations. It includes aspects such as determinants and instruments of foreign policy

In this course students focus on predictive analysis. Several business intelligence activities, such as statistical analysis, forecasting/ extrapolation, predictive modeling (as data mining), optimization and simulation are being dicussed. The course will focus in particular on:

• Modelling relationships and trends in data
• Simple linear regression analysis
• Multiple linear regression
• Forecasting techniques (time series with linear trend, time series with seasonality)
• Data mining (data reduction, classification)

This course focuses on identifying, preventing and controlling organizational crisis as well as the role of planning for crisis.

• Introduction to crisis management
• Sources of organizational crises
• Organizational Strategy and crisis
• Crisis management and communication strategies
• Organizational learning
• Trends in crisis management and management strategies

Alongside business development, mergers and acquisitions are a means of achieving corporate growth or access to foreign markets. On this course the strategic and legal perspectives are discussed and students apply assessment tools.

• mergers and acquisitions as a means of achieving strategic growth
• assessment of company value
• aspects of due diligence
• the process of due diligence
• acquiring companies with different legal forms
• cultural and organisational challenges of mergers and acquisitions
• acquisitions and market entry