Course

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Academic Year 2015-2016 3rd Trimester
February-March 2016
Instructors:
Miguel Athayde Marques, Ph.D.
Luís Laginha de Sousa, MBA
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Course Description

International Business Challenges addresses the important issues that international

managers face when operating at a global scale. This course explains why managing a
multinational corporation (MNC) is so different from managing a company at a
domestic scale. The course starts by addressing the different theories and concepts of
the MNC to take then a managerial view as to the specific challenges facing
International, multinational, and global corporations in their decisions, both strategic
and operational. Areas of management such as human resources, marketing, finance
and accounting, capital markets, and business policy are covered with the international
operations in mind. In addition, the course covers important topics, such as today’s
global environment and the challenges facing companies originating from small open
economies like Portugal. It also discusses what is different in Ethics and Corporate
Responsibility when a company operates on an international scale.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION MAM+LLS
Welcome to “International Business Challenges” – a 360º view.
Getting to know each other and working as a team: Introduction of the lecturers and students.
How this course fits in the business school curricula. How it interacts with the course “Managing
in a Global Context”.
What is expected from students: the M.Sc. logic.

THE MNC - THEORIES AND CONCEPTS LLS

Theories of the Multinational Enterprise.
Entrepreneurs, Firms, Hierarchies and Networks.
Firm-specific advantages, location-specific advantages, and international production.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND POLITICAL RISK LLS

The economic environment.
The cultural, political and legal environments facing business.
Political risk – drivers, assessment, protection

Debate: tba
COMPETITIVENESS DRIVERS OF A COUNTRY MAM
The globalization challenge for a mid-sized, developed, European economy.
The EU and the euro: strategic implications to Portuguese companies.
FDI, outward direct investment, portfolio investment and shareholder control

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MAM

Reputation
Business ethics in international business
Most common ethical issues when managing in a global corporation
Corporate social responsibility / Sustainability
The triple bottom line from a world viewpoint
Social responsible investment and sustainability indices

INTERCULTURAL MANAGEMENT LLS

Where do cultural differences have a major impact on business?
Cultural characteristics – differing behaviours and the silent language
Models for analysing cultural differences

Debate: tba

THE MULTINATIONAL FINANCE FUNCTION & INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING

MAM
The Treasury and Finance functions.
Offshore financial centres.
Cash flow aspects of imports and exports.
Foreign-exchange risk management – hedging strategies.
International taxation issues.
Trends in international accounting standards.
Translation of foreign currency financial statements.
Performance evaluation and control in MNCs.

THE HUMAN AND CULTURAL FACTOR LLS

Cracking the cultural code
Expatriate skills and challenges
Compensation in a global corporation

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING LLS

Product policy and pricing in international business.
Global branding and promotion.
Developing new products for new markets.
Upstream: managing global supply chains.
Downstream: Communicating with the world consumer.

Debate: tba

LINKING THE COMPANY TO INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL MARKETS MAM

Raising capital in the international markets – IPOs, rights issues, bonds, securitization.
New trends and challenges in the capital markets.
The role of Exchanges.
Structural changes in regulation and supervision.
The increasing importance of the compliance function.
The role of the IRO in a MNC.
Debate: tba

THE GLOBAL CORPORATION – STRATEGIES AND CHALLENGES MAM

Finding global logic in industry and in the competitive environment.
Networks and the supply chain for global competitiveness
Epilogue: To manage with a global mindset and with a local focus and care.
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Course Objectives
International Business Challenges aims at giving the student a clear grasp of the
special character of managing an international company. Opportunities that emerge
from international firm expansion come with new risks, uncertainties, and a difficulty
that only specific managerial skills are able to overcome successfully. Therefore, the
course seeks to make the student aware of these challenges and to train him or her in
the skills and mind-set required for an international manager today. Specific knowledge
in certain crucial areas of international functional management is also an objective of
the course. The teaching methodology uses ”The Debate” as a formal tool, which
seeks to make students to actively participate in the discussion, and to bring to the
class the wealth of intercultural approaches that a group from many different
nationalities can actually offer.

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Bibliography

Recommended textbook:
- DANIELS, John D., Lee H. RADEBAUGH and Daniel P. SULLIVAN
“International Business - Environments and Operations”
Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, NJ
2015, 15th edition

Class notes, from each student’s responsibility, are considered a fundamental

studying material.

Lisbon, January 2016