BAD 499: International Business Seminar

Course Syllabus

Fall 2009

 

Al Rosenbloom

708.524.6777 (school)

312.432.1873 (home)

email:arosenbloom@dom.edu

 

Office FA 207

Office Hours: Monday/Wednesday/Friday: 9:00-10:30AM M/W/F

Also by appointment

 

 

Course Overview

International Business Seminar serves as the capstone course for every international business major. As such, the seminar integrates student learning from earlier international business classes. Global businesses operate within a dynamic, volatile environment. This is most clearly observed in business, government and other organizational responses to the current global financial crisis.  This semester, the Seminar will use the current crisis as the starting point to examine issues such as:

 

·         “Creative capitalism,” an idea first proposed by Bill Gates

·         Emerging opportunities for social entrepreneurs

 

Additionally, the seminar will help students understand further the managerial competences needed for success in transnational organizations. Central to success in any global organization is a deep understanding of culture. The International Business Seminar will consolidate previous knowledge and experiences with culture.

Finally, the International Business Seminar will provide a platform for continued, in-depth scholarly research in international business.

 

Course Connections

Capstone courses are integrative. They utilize previous knowledge learned as the platform for new, high-order thinking. Thus, this course will draw on your previous learnings in macroeconomics, international economics, management, international marketing, international finance and courses that meet Dominican area requirements (history, modern foreign language, fine arts, etc.). 

 

Our course supports the broad goals of the Brennan School of Business to:

 

1) Appreciate the ethical foundation of effective long-run business decisions and promote social responsibility in managerial decision making – this will be accomplished through discussion of social responsibility and poverty;

2) Communicate effectively in written and verbal forms – this will be achieved through class participation and your in-depth research project;

3) Utilize technology and electronic learning effectively – this will be achieved through the continuous use of Blackboard in the course; though the use of Powerpoint presentations and access to databases;

4) Become critical thinkers – this will be accomplished through class discussion and the International Business Issue: Controversy and Contention.

 

BAD 250, BAD 255, BAD 375 and Econ 376 are prerequisites for this course.

 

Course Objectives

·         To explore the changing nature and definition of capitalism

·         To understand the role of social entrepreneurs in creating wealth

·         To analyze critically current international business activities

·         To conduct research on a multidisciplinary topic in international business

 

Textbook

Lane, H., Maznevski, M., DiStefano, J. and Dietz, J. (2009).  International Management Behavior: Leading with a Global Mindset. Chichester, UK: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-71412-6

 

Course Assignments

Participation in a minimum of two C4GPTC activities

20%

Research paper

40%

International Business Issue : Controversy & Contention (Powerpoint Presentation)

15%

Class Participation

25%

                                           TOTAL

100%

 

Research Project

You will be asked to carry out a semester-long research project on an international business topic of interest to you.  Topics can be anything, but they must meet the following criteria:

 

1)     Sufficiently complex enough to justify a semester’s worth of research and writing;

2)     Innovative so that they extend rather than repeat the student’s international business knowledge

 

You will work with me to define a reasonable topic.  You will be asked to prepare a preliminary proposal, an annotated bibliography, a topic outline and a rough draft before submitting your final paper.  If you have chosen a foreign language concentration as part of your international business major, you will be asked to demonstrate language competency in your research paper as well. 

 

Course Calendar (Subject to Change)

Our class beginning on

Topic

Assignment due

September 2

Class Introductions/Overview

 

September 7

Labor Day (Monday)

 

Creative Capitalism

 

 

September 14

Social Entrepreneurship

 

 

C4GPTC – Sept. 15 (T)

Biodiesel in Haiti: Business Solutions to Poverty

 

Dr. Kathleen Robbins, Director, Clean Energy,
Green Microfinance, LLC

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Martin Recital Hall

September 21

Social Entrepreneurship

 

Blackboard Discussion

 

 

September 28

Chapter 1: Culture and Management (FB2B)

 

Material World Analysis

October 5

Chapter 2: How Do Cultural Differences Affect the Way We Work? (FB2B)

C4GPTC – Oct. 7 (W)

The Power of Commerce for Social Good

 

Breakfast keynote: Michael Strong, Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems

 

Luncheon Keynote: Alex Counts, President and CEO of Grameen Foundation

 

8:00 AM2:00 PM
University Club
76 East Monroe Street
Chicago, Illinois 60603

 

October 12

Chapter 3: But Do they Understand? Communicating Across Cultures (FB2B)

 

 

 

October 19

Chapter 4: Creating Cultural Synergy (FB2B)

 

 

October 26

Chapter 5: Succeeding in Multicultural Teams (FB2B)

 

First Draft Paper Due

November 2

Chapter 6: Global Leadership, Motivation and Decision Making (FB2B)

 

 

November 9

Chapter 7: Negotiating Successfully Across Cultures (FB2B)

 

 

November 16

Paper revisions

Blackboard Discussions

November 23

Thanksgiving Holiday (W/F)

 

 

 

November 30

Chapter 10: Global Careers (FB2B)

 

C4GPTC – Dec. 2 (W)

Global Health Issues in Africa

Lisa Bakker, Chicago Director, Riders for Health

 

6:30 PM8:00 PM
Parmer 108
Dominican University

December 7

 

Final Paper Due

 

December 14

Exam Week

 

 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using the ideas and/or writings of another and claiming them as one's own. Plagiarism is most often thought of copying, word for word, what someone else has written and passing it off as one's own. Plagiarism is also the very similar copying of someone else's words and/or ideas without attribution. Thus, it is still plagiarism if two sentences, two paragraphs, or two papers appear to be almost similar even though there are some differences. Plagiarism is best avoided by carefully acknowledging the sources of one's words and/or ideas. Student work found to be plagiarized will be given an F.