Contemporary International Management Paradoxes

Aim

After having successfully completed this course, the student should be able to:

• identify and explain underlying causes of the societal process of globalization, historical and recent,
• engage in a discourse on cooperation, integration and exchange in the context of a globalized multipolar economy,
• identify, explain and apply firm-level strategic and managerial concepts that pertain to globalization and the globalized business environment,
• connect and contrast research findings with real life situations,
• integrate knowledge gained through reading, discussions, experiences and cases, and express this orally as well as in writing
• design a qualitative study, collect data using interviews and analyze the data using the theories presented in the course.

Content

This course places the firm in the historical evolution of the global business environment, and then moves into the highly competitive business environment of the 21st century; global and dynamic, internet-based with competition often based on intangible resources, coupled with demands for ethical firm behavior and a sustainable ecological footprint. Here, firms face a series of seemingly paradoxical demands for being global and local, standardized and diverse, responsive and integrated, innovative and efficient while considering ethical and environmental issues.