• Prospective ISUP Students
  • Courses
  • Information /FAQ
  • Application Process
  • Social Program
  • Housing
• Current ISUP Students
• Lecturers/Teachers
• Partner Universities

Faculty
Andreas Hartmann, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Course Coordinator
ISUP Secretariat

Prerequisite/progression of the course

For fully benefiting from this course, students should fulfill the following requirements:

• Some experience working with people from different cultures
• Good communication skills in English
• Basic knowledge of organization and management theory, including strategic management

Course content, structure and teaching

Course participants will acquire insights into the particular challenges of managing multinational enterprises, based on a variety of case studies of MNEs from different countries. This knowledge will enable them to effectively deal with managerial-level issues that require adapting the MNE's strategy and structure to the imperatives of the global economy.

Course topics:

• Overview: The importance of MNEs for the global economy
• Internationalization as a growth strategy
• Organizational challenges for managing an MNE
• Selected issues of international stakeholder management and corporate social responsibility
• Innovation and technology transfer in the MNE
• Strategic alliances and joint ventures
• Global supply chain management
• Human resource management in the MNE

The course's development of personal competences

• Systematic analysis of different courses of action that a multinational enterprise may take under different circumstances
• Elaboration and delivery of professional-level presentations

Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following skills:

• Identifying the different ways how multinational enterprises from different origins configure their activities
• Analyzing the special challenges of managing complex multinational organizations
• Designing organizational practices that deal with specific issues such as knowledge transfer, human resource management, alliance management, and corporate social responsibility within multinational enterprises

Teaching methods

This course emphasizes student-centered learning. The teacher will only hold a few lectures, especially concerning the theoretical topics, and guide the case discussions. Students will contribute by researching how specific issues are managed by multinational firms from different origins.

Examination

Mandatory mid-term feedback assignment: In order to be allowed to present the final assignment, each student must have given one presentation on a specific topic within one multinational enterprise, supported by at least five academic sources.

Final exam:

Project/home assignment (written individually), 15 A4 pages, where students analyze the strategic management and related issues of a specific multinational enterprise. In this assignment, students are expected to develop their rigorous application of the underlying theory into a critical evaluation of the practices used by the focal firm. Students should use different theoretical approaches to one aspect of MNE management seen in the course. The assignment cannot be on the same firm as in the student’s own classroom presentations (see below) nor on one of the cases included in the textbook or in other assigned readings. Firms presented by other students can only be used for a project if the focus of the presentation was on a different aspect of MNE management.

Re-take exam: Project/home assignment (written individually), 15 A4 pages.

Recommended literature

Textbook:

• Bartlett, C., Ghoshal, S., & Beamish, P. 2008. Transnational Management, 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. ISBN: 978-0071259156

Selected readings and cases from the following books:

• David, F. R. 2008. Strategic Management: Concepts, 12th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Deresky, H. 2006. International Management: Managing across Borders and Cultures, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Phatak, A. V., Bhagat, R. S., & Kashlak, R. J. 2005. International Management: Managing in a Diverse and Dynamic Global Environment. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
• UNCTAD World Investment Reports. Available online: http://www.unctad.org/

Journal articles:

• To be announced

Other

Classes will be held from Monday-Thursday for a total of 30 hours for the first three weeks of the program. A project/home assignment will be given for the last three weeks. The hand in deadline for the project/home assignment will be in the last week of the program.

Last updated by ISUP Secretariat 29/01/2010