B1810 - INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SERVICES

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students gain concepts and tools for the strategic analysis of business decisions in service organizations. In particular the course focuses on corporate strategy in general and international strategies of services firms - globalisation of markets and the attractiveness of foreign markets, and different entry modes in international markets. It also examines the geographical distribution of activities in multinational service firms.

Course contents

Internationalization of services.
Globalization, export, FDIs in service and manufacturing firms

Country differences, selection and born global firms

Ethics in international business

International trade theory

Strategy of international business

Organization of international business

International market entry and expansion

Export management

Global locations, outsourcing and backshoring. Supply chain management.

Global marketing and R&D

Global HRM

Readings/Bibliography

Hill C.W.L. (2023). International business, McGraw Hill. Chapters 1-6, 13-19.

Case studies and additional readings indicated by the instructor at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

• Lectures, assignment questions to readings and cases, polls.
• Guest lectures (organized as seminars) on behalf of practitioners.
• Case studies developed with the active participation of the students and presentation and discussion of case studies by the students.
• Participation in teams to project works in collaboration with business companies.

Assessment methods

Assessment is by class participation, case submission and a final written exam:

Class participation: 20% of final grade. It is assessed the pro-active attendance to lectures and the participation to the discussion of assigned questions to cases and readings.

Case study presentation: 30% of final grade. A case study will be assigned to teams of 3-4 students. It will require the preparation of a short report (3-5 page maximum), the use of data supporting the case discussion and answers to assigned questions.

Final written Exam: 50% of final grade. The exam will include structured open questions on critical discussion of theories, concept, tools and applications to real or hypothetical international business questions and decisions.

The preparation to the exam requires deep knowledge of the theories, analytical concepts and applications included in the teaching materials and slides.

There are no differences for Erasmus students.

For the exam in presence: written exam with multiple choices.

For online exams (if indicated by the University regulations): oral exam on MS Teams.

It is possible to refuse the grade of the exam only once.

The grade will be assigned according to the following scale:

• <18 insufficient
• 18-23 sufficient
• 24-27 good
• 28-30 very good
• 30 with laude excellent

Teaching tools

We will use the following tools:

• Case studies
  
• Lecture slides
• Video
• Mentimeter
• electronic spreadsheets (xls)
• Openboard
• Materials and activities on Virtuale platform
  

In case of online lectures:

• Microsoft Teams

Office hours

See the website of Paola Giuri