undergraduate Business

Learning objectives: Students learn to classify different institutional frameworks in which multinational companies operate economically and understand the unique qualities of individual national forms of economic organization and corporate governance. They learn to identify comparative advantages that certain economic activities have in different national contexts as well as the difficulties involved in the internationalization of certain activities. They learn to describe multinational corporations in terms of organization forms and become familiar with the different challenges associated with, on the one end, the local adaptation of their activities and, on the other, the global integration of them. They learn to apply their knowledge of these issues to questions of personnel management in an international context and question of international strategic management. They learn to critically assess the actions of multinational corporations and the implications of their activities in home and host countries. Through research-oriented teaching, students learn how to develop a social science research question on a given topic. They also learn how to debate theories and concepts as well as how to assess the significance of both theoretical, conceptual research as well as empirical studies. Content: Topics include: formal and informal institutions from an international comparative perspective; theories on comparative advantages of institutions; labor relations systems; corporate governance systems; professional/vocation training and innovation systems; the role of the state; globalization; emerging markets; foreign direct investment; organizational forms of multinational companies; global supply chains; internationalization theories; market entry and market cultivation strategies; personnel management in multinational companies. The study and analysis of the various topics will focus on specific countries in Asia (Japan, China), Europe (Germany, UK), and America (USA).