INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY (ACCREDITED) - 2025/6

Module Overview

The module provides students with a theoretical and practical understanding of how business strategy can be formulated in the light of environmental and internal conditions with a particular emphasis on the international context of strategy making. The module equips students with a framework for understanding international business strategy as an interdisciplinary activity within the context of international and competitive markets, leading to corporate decision-making. The module is built on 3 key issues – who is strategy done for, how is strategy formulated and implemented, is strategy driven by organisations or environments. 

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

PARCHMENT Ann (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

The module covers three main issues: 

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  Who strategy is made for and how stakeholders can be identified and prioritized; 
  


• 
  How strategy is formulated and implemented in organisations with a consideration of a spectrum with prescriptive and emergent approaches at the extremes; 
  


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  The key drivers of strategy and the extent to which strategy is mainly influenced from within or outside the organization. 
  

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate: 

 

  Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of: 

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of international strategy and its strategizing. Thus, the summative assessment (the one that you would receive a mark) for this module consists of: 
- An individual assignment 
- A 2 hour examination 

   

Formative assessment 

Students will be given the opportunity to discuss the assignment through extensive use of online discussion fora in SurreyLearn 

 

Feedback 

This module adopts an enquiry-based approach to feedback where the emphasis is on providing resources to students which allow them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in order to develop learning strategies which will allow them to improve their performance - Prior to the assignment, lecture time will be spent discussing the assignment and feedback process; - A detailed marking scheme which provides guidance on how marks will be awarded for each element of assessment. This marking scheme has benefits for both staff and students. For staff, it allows for consistency of marking between markers and for rapid and rigorous marking. For students, it makes it absolutely clear what is expected of them. Students will receive a mark for each element of the assignment which they can refer to the marking scheme for detailed individual feedback; - Generic feedback which explains what students did well and did less well overall. This will take two forms. In the first lecture after submission, time will be spent explaining the key learning issues from the assignment and, once marking is completed, students will receive detailed generic feedback via SurreyLearn including a statistical breakdown of marks so that they can place their own performance into that of their cohort; Generic feedback will also be provided for work undertaken in the seminars. There will be a revision lecture in the end of the term to help students on examination preparation. 

Module aims

• Enable students to understand theoretical approaches to the formulation, selection, implementation, and control of an international business strategy
• Enable students to develop understanding of how to apply theoretical concepts of international business strategy to real business contexts and to appreciate the importance and contribution of business strategy to organisational success.
• Enable students to critically understand the methods, difficulties and limitations of formulating, implementing and controlling an international business strategy

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to: 

 

• 
  The teaching and learning strategy is designed to give students the opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of the relevant theory and business practices and problems which are pertinent to the topics of strategy formulation, implementation and control. 
  The teaching and learning methods are based around the delivery of lectures and seminars. Whist the lectures are mainly designed to illustrate and explain theoretical concepts and models of business strategy, the seminars illuminate the theoretical concepts and models by reference to and explanation of a range of specific case studies. Seminars are, therefore, designed to develop a practical view of business strategy. The lecture precedes the seminar. Prior to attending the seminar, students are required to undertake the essential reading of the theory and relevant case study assigned in the relevant lecture which precedes the seminar. 
   
  The learning and teaching methods include: 
  


• 
  Formal lectures 
  


• 
  Interactive lectures 
  Seminars 
  On-line discussions  
  


• 
  Enquiring Based Learning 
  

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN3204

Other information

The module primarily enables students to develop critical thinking skills especially around how theory is developed and the relationship between theory and practice. It also supports the application of disciplinary knowledge of concepts, frameworks and techniques from elsewhere in their programme of study. Participation in both lectures and seminars is crucial to developing these critical skills.

The enquiry based approach in the module will also support students in developing a range of core employability skills like resilience, resourcefulness and independent learning. 

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.