INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT - 2025/6

Module Overview

The world-wide political and economic liberalization and continuous technology improvement in the last three decades have brought unprecedented flows of goods, services, labour and capital across national boundaries. International business today comprises a larger and ever-growing portion of the world’s business and global events and competition affects almost all companies. A company operating internationally will engage in modes of business that are different from those it is accustomed to domestically. International business management is the process of applying management concepts, theories, and techniques in a multinational environment so that firms can become and remain international in scope. Moreover, a comparative view of management and organization in internationally operating firms is provided to understand these processes in detail.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

LEE Sun Hye (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

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

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

The main module content includes

1. drivers and implications of globalization; the theories of FDI;


2. country market evaluation regarding the opportunities and risks brought to MNEs;


3. institutional home and host country effects on international management;


4. host country effects of FDI;


5. managing human resources across national borders;


6. managing production and technologies in a global context.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

None

Assessment Strategy

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

The ability of understanding, applying, analyzing and evaluating key concepts and theories that are discussed in the module, and their ability in understanding and solving practical problems that relate to different stakeholders, such as multinational corporations, international institutions, and national government bodies, in the process of globalization.  An emphasis is given to evaluate students’ independent and critical thinking.

  Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Test 


• Exam

Formative Assessment and Feedback:

There are dedicated slots during seminars throughout the module to provide students with informal feedback on their progress and assessment preparations.

Generic feedback will be provided during the lectures and tutorials after the test as well as written feedback.

Module aims

• identify and understand the drivers of globalization and its implications to different agents
• describe major theories of foreign direct investment and evaluate their theoretical weaknesses and strengths in relating to historical patterns of FDI
• develop the ability to evaluate the attractiveness of foreign markets and formulate effective entry strategies for multinational enterprises

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

The teaching and learning strategy is designed to enable students to compare and discuss different concepts and theories and to discuss the issues which integrate different topics and to apply models and theories to case studies and scenarios

The teaching and learning methods include: 

• Lectures


• Groupwork


• Seminars

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: MANM009

Other information

In this module, the following four pillars are covered:

Global and cultural capabilities: As the name of this module indicates, we prepare our students to work in a multicultural global working environment. Students and staff on this module come from diverse and culturally rich backgrounds. Most assessment elements, as well as the activities embedded in the delivery of the module, require students to work together, solve problems, and creatively tackle people management challenges. As such students broaden their own world view, perspectives, and interpretations by interacting in a culturally varied environment. Our student body, guest speakers, and members of staff are global and diverse, currently representing more than 30 nationalities, which provides students with an internationally excellent educational experience.

Digital capabilities: Fortunately, our students are the generation of information and communication technology enthusiasts. During the module, students acquire and develop a range of digital capabilities. The teaching and learning strategy is a hybrid between in-person and online teaching and learning activities. In addition to the person-computer interface embedded in the module, some assessment components require students to engage with several digital platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Canvas.

Employability: One of the main intentions of this module is preparing the students to be work-ready. The students learn all necessary concepts, decision-making steps, and techniques for assessing, planning and implementing required strategies and actions in the context of international business.

Sustainability: The notion of sustainability is taught directly and indirectly in almost all modules. One of the intentions of the module is to advance students’ understanding and awareness of aspects of sustainability and ethical people management. Sustainable and ethical people management principles inform this module. The module is informed by the three pillars of sustainability – economic, social, and environment.

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.