international business and finance

In essence, this is an essay that you will be finishing under timed conditions. That means there are certain things you want to prepare beforehand, specifically analysis of the international business attitudes/paradigms/practices of your chosen MNE, reflected in its past behaviour.

By "international business attitudes/paradigms/practices" I mean how your MNE has in the past applied (or not applied) the curriculum we learnt during this semester, specifically

- from week 2: ethics (in the sense of seeking to maximise profits a la financialisation or instead to emphasize sustainability and corporate social responsibility)

- from week 3: horizontal/vertical ((dis)integration; nature of relationship with host country governments)

- from week 4: modes of market entry (Uppsala, commitment to internationalisation, risk-taking, partnerships, etc.). MOST BROADLY, HOW YOUR MNE DEALS WITH UNCERTAINTY AND RISK OVERSEAS

- from week 5 organisation (centralisation/decentralisation, push-pull, ethnocentric/geocentric, etc.)

- from week 6 upstream (adaptation/standardisation, types of supplier relationships, etc.)

- from week 7 funding (access to funding affecting configuration decisions)

- from week 8 foreign exchange (FX trends affecting configuration and risk management decisions)

- from week 9 ecology (rise of environmental considerations as a factor in international business decision-making)

- from week 10 changing geography (how changing conditions in Global South affect MNE decisions

Students are advised to organise their answers into three sections

a) How do you predict your company will react to the scenario (note: how you predict they will react based on their international business behaviour until now, not how you think they should react)

b) Why do you think they will react in the way you predict.

c) To what extent does your company's past and/or predicted behaviour corresponds to the international business theories/practices/paradigms that we have learnt