INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: A RATIONALE
The study of International Business is concerned with the challenges, opportunities and problems that corporations face when operating outside of their domestic environment. The growing interdependence of the world economics in the last 50 years has rendered an understanding of international competition, an essential element of any firm’s strategic or not, all business today is exposed to international competitive forces that can have serious consequences for their performance and, perhaps, even for their survival.
Effective management of International Business requires conceptual understandings and skill beyond that applicable within a domestic setting. The additional complexity is both one of degree as well as one of context. Of critical important are differences in context, where quantum jumps in the nature of the variable or forces acting on the enterprise are of such magnitude as to require drastically different responses.
These contextual differences can be traced to five principal areas: Institutions, culture, competition, nature of risks, and the issues of organization and control that are much more complex for the multinational company.
As such, the department focuses its core course on the definition and implementation of corporate strategy for worldwide operations and develops skill to deal with these challenges. The functional expertise in marketing, finance, and human resource management are emphasized.
Throughout the course sequence we deep our eyes on the many critical operational issues. Problems of product and marketing standardization, transfer pricing, manufacturing coordination and control, foreign exchange risk and resources, financial structure, and international human resource management are fundamental to the ability of the multinational firm to assess accurately competitive conditions in different product/market areas, design adequate responses, and implement them through the existing organization.
We welcome students with global and holistic perspectives, and those who dare face the challenges in the next milliennium.
