Services in an International ContextLaajuus (5 op)

Osaamistavoitteet

The dawn of the 21st century was marked by the rise of globalization and the struggle of the advanced economies to compete with businesses in the emerging markets. Globalization is, however, a result of blending business styles from a variety of cultures and locations. Although the culture of a service business is not necessarily determined by its geographic region, business practices often have foundations in local traditions. This course is based on recognizing a cultural dimension in modern business practices, and it focuses on a variety of successful practices and challenges experienced by globalized businesses.

The objective of the course is to gain a comprehensive overview of potential challenges and rewards of doing services business globally, and develop awareness of the cultural component in international business encounters. An additional objective is to apply the newly acquired skills in IM program international teams (by working on group assignments, presentations, discussions in international teams, and training in “Culture X-rays” workshop).

The student gains an understanding of the global business trends related to internationalization and globalization of services, and gets acquainted with the current practices of service businesses in offshoring/outsourcing, mergers/acquisitions/alliances, and venturing. The student develops a general understanding of the basic concepts of intercultural communication, and gets familiar with selected theories of organizational culture and development. The student acquires the tools to analyze his/her own communicative behavior in intercultural encounters in practice.

Sisältö

Sessions of the course include:

07. Working across cultures • Moving from regional orientation to globalized networks: modern business means day-to-day cultural encounters • Becoming a learning organization as a way to establishing successful intercultural practices • Theoretical frameworks for understanding cultures: time-context-space / Hofstede’s dimensions / groups and stereotypes • “Culture X-rays” Workshop: examining cultural self-awareness • Internal company cultures: influence of organizational culture on commitment, performance, and effectiveness.

13. Offshoring • Overview of offshoring/outsourcing practices in the 2000-2010-s distributed product economy • Favorite destinations: challenges and rewards of outsourcing to India • Outsourcing experience in Indian-style business • Favorite destinations: China • Favorite destinations: Eastern Europe • The reverse on-shoring trend: business or cultural failure? • Prospects for offshoring/outsourcing in and out of country.

17. Focus on China • Second largest economy since 2010 in place of Japan: prospects and challenges • China’s home economy and internal market: a shift from export-driven to a consumer-driven economy • Four types of Chinese companies on the international markets • Cases in Chinese-style business.

23. Mergers, acquisitions, alliances • Modern practices in international mergers and acquisitions • Challenges for change management and organizational development in international M&A • Post-M&A integration, sustainability and profitability • Trends of M&A in the emerging markets.

24. Venturing: strategic perspective • Venture capital and capitalists • Venturing cases in American-style business • Societal traditions: cases in Scandinavian-style business • Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship: international/multinational ventures.

Arviointikriteerit, tyydyttävä (1)

The following criteria are used for assessing the IM Master’s coursework (lecture involvement, discussion, written assignments and discussion leaders).

The coursework meets with many of the below criteria. The assignment meets more than three of the above criteria in a satisfactory manner.

• The student shows an understanding of the relevant course content in relation to the contents of the articles, lectures and discussion.
• The student's texts/presentations demonstrate an understanding of the article/lecture content and an ability to select, interpret and justify key messages in a grounded manner.
• The student shows interconnections between the proposed concepts and current business practice, showing abilities of reflection, evaluation and discussion.
• The student shows professional initiative, active participation and responsibility in both individual and team work.
• Student assignment is written in line with academic writing practice and instructions for Master’s Thesis, using the Harvard Referencing system, with references both in the text as well as reference list. The texts are written in coherent, fluent English.
• The student shows the ability to collect valid knowledge for his/her topic from outside the course sources by using scholarly search tools, by questioning current business practice and by practicing source critique.

Arviointikriteerit, hyvä (3)

The coursework meets with most of the above criteria. Additionally the assignment shows good quality performance in three or more of the criteria or otherwise good interpretation.

Arviointikriteerit, kiitettävä (5)

The coursework meets with all the above six criteria. Additionally the assignment shows excellence in three or more of the above criteria or otherwise deviating excellence.