Introduction to International Management
Welcome to International Management, a case-based learning program that connects international business practice with the concepts and analytical methods needed to understand it. The program is based on a two-volume textbook series: Volume 1 presents narrative case studies and the strategic dilemmas they create; Volume 2 reconstructs the same situations through systematic analysis, alternative scenarios, and decision frameworks.
How the learning journey is organized
Before the sixteen case studies, two introductory lessons establish a common foundation. The World Economic Regions examines the diversity and relative economic scale of the principal operating environments and the trade arrangements linking them. The Vienna Debate at Café Central stages a fictional exchange among major economic thinkers to introduce contrasting explanations of trade, specialization, competition, institutions, and internationalization.
The sixteen case-study lessons then explore management challenges through the decisions of companies and their executives. The opening case, Foundations of International Management, provides an overview of the disciplines that interact when a company expands internationally. The subsequent cases examine these issues more closely.
Learning through experience and analysis
The book’s teaching method places the problem before the concept. First, read the case as a business situation: identify the actors, their interests, their available information, and the consequences of their decisions. Next, work through the analysis that reveals the underlying management concepts. Theories are tools for interpreting and evaluating decisions, not substitutes for judgment.
How to work through each case study
- Read or listen to the case study. Understand the dilemma before consulting the analysis or proposed solutions.
- Complete the Readiness Check. Use it to confirm your grasp of the situation and its essential ideas.
- Work independently on the reflection and application tasks. Formulate your own decisions, alternatives, and justifications before reviewing proposed solutions.
- Participate in the debriefing. Compare interpretations and examine how context, interests, constraints, and assumptions affect decisions.
- Complete the Application Check and use the concluding material and literature to consolidate and extend your learning.
Where the learning format uses Volume 2, compare your own reasoning with its systematic analysis and solution architecture. Pay particular attention to differences: identifying why two approaches diverge is an important part of developing transferable management judgment.
What to keep in mind
International management decisions rarely belong to a single discipline. Strategy, law, finance, markets, culture, leadership, ethics, and operations interact. The purpose of the program is to learn to recognize those interdependencies, evaluate competing interpretations, and make reasoned decisions under conditions of uncertainty.
Begin with the two introductory lessons, then continue to 1. Foundations of International Management and the remaining case studies in sequence.
Textbooks underlying this course