Course 2020-2021 a.y.

Introduction

Geopolitics and international business

• Some basic concepts: video pills
• Globalization and deglobalization
• Multinational companies in the global economy: theories, impact and evolution
• Multinationals and risk
• Practicing with deglobalization (role-playing game I)
• Practicing with deglobalization (role-playing game II)
• Principles of geopolitics
• Geopolitics and international business
• Geopolitical expansionism as an opportunity for global companies: the BRI
• Dealing with geopolitical risk
• Taken by surprise...

Doing Business in...

• Doing Business in Africa
• Doing Business in America
• Doing Business in Asia
• Doing Business in Europe
• Doing Business in Oceania
   

• Know relevant global political and economic historical facts that have substantially contributed to shaping the present context.
• Contextualize the variety of entrepreneurial and corporate forms that emerged in the long run in response to changing geopolitical dynamics, institutions, and technology. 

• Identify the “macro” phenomena (globalization, economic growth and development, leadership of the advanced countries, and so on) that influence “micro” behaviors (companies’ strategies, organizational forms, and so on).

• Face-to-face lectures
• Online lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Individual assignments
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

This course is structured as a blended learning format. Times and modes of learning integrate the systematic use of face-to-face and online resources and tools. The usual course schedule is flipped by assigning lectures and online videos to be viewed at home, and by tackling engaging problems in face-to-face classroom situations.

Online resources are the main point of reference for study materials. These include synchronous video lectures and presentations of team assignments, video pills recorded by Bocconi’s professors to remind students of some basic concepts of economic and management theory; recorded guest talks and interviews to give students interesting insights from experts from the field in different parts of the world.

Two individual online assignments on the first part of the course aim to test students' knowledge especially focusing on information of value in allowing them to work effectively on their team assignments.

Two online team assignments, on the first and the second part of the course, aim to teach decision making skills in complex environments.

In-class lessons, on the other hand, are done through the discussion of case studies and role-playing games (in the first part of the course).

The final grade is the sum of the following partial grades:

a)    Exam: up to 15 points, divided as follows: 

·      2 T/F questions (with motivation) up to 4 points

·      3 multiple choice questions up to 3 points

·      1 open question up to 4 points

·      1 article/table/graph to comment on up to 4 points

b)    Individual assignments: up to 2 points (max 1 point each homework)

c)    Teamwork 1 (Doing business in…): up to 8 points

d)    Teamwork 2 (Geopolitical risk): up to 6 points

The status of attending students is preserved only in the following exam sessions: December 2020 (exchange students), January 2021 (1st session), January 2021 (2nd session), September 2021. The status will expire in the following academic year.

Students who are not included in the work teams are considered to be non-attending students.

Students who don’t attend the course must declare their status in terms of being not-attending students by sending an email to Veronica Binda (veronica.binda@unibocconi.it) and Benedetta Crivelli (benedetta.crivelli@unibocconi.it) by September 15th. It is fundamental that students who don’t aim to attend the course declare so in time, since they won’t be included in the work teams.

For non-attending students, the final grade is the sum of the following partial grades:

a) Exam: up to 15 points, divided as follows:

• 2 T/F questions (with motivation) up to 4 points
• 3 multiple choice questions up to 3 points
• 1 open question up to 4 points
• 1 article/table/graph to comment on up to 4 points

b) Individual assignment on the topic “Geopolitical risk”: up to 6 points

c) 20 page-paper on the topic “Doing business in… (a specific country): up to 6 points

d) 20 minutes PowerPoint-based presentation on one case of a multinational company which was/is successful in that country, and one case of a multinational company which was/is unsuccessful: up to 4 points.

• Cases and class material available on Blackboard, including video lectures and interviews, case studies, role-playing games, and slides.
• Cases and articles available at Course Reserve:

◦       Braz Baracuhy, “Geopolitical Risks and the International Business”, The Journal of Political Risk, posted June 2, 2016;

◦       "Has covid-19 killed globalisation?" , The Economist;

◦       Geoffrey Jones and Adrian Brown, “Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany” (HBS case, 9-807-133);

◦       Geoffrey Jones, "Globalization", in The Oxford Handbook of Business History, edited by G. Jones and J. Zeitlin (2008): 141-167;

◦       Mira Wilkins, “US Business in Europe: An American Perspective”, in Hubert Bonin and Ferry de Goey, eds., American Firms in Europe, 1880-1980: Strategy, Identity, Perception and Performance, Geneva: Librairie Droz, pp. 35-67, 2009.