International Business MSc (Brunel Business School)

The MSc consists of both compulsory and optional modules, a typical selection can be found below. Modules can vary from year to year, but these offer a good idea of what we teach.

Compulsory

Global Business and Investments: The module aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how globalisation has led to the intensification of international business activity pursued by the business enterprise in a changing global business environment.

International Trade: The module aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the importance of overseas trade to a country’s economy, focussing on the most commonly used barriers to trade, regional trading arrangements and the case for and against the concept of free (unrestricted) trade.

International Business Strategy: The aim of this module is to help students understand strategies and structures that multinational firms adopt and how they perform their key business operations to compete and succeed in the international business environment.

Students will develop:

• a comprehensive understanding of the strategy of international business
• understanding of the organisational architecture that international businesses use to manage and direct their global operations
• understanding of issues related to foreign expansion
• understanding of roles of specific business functions in an international business

International Management: The module has six main aims. These are to:

• examine the important trends impacting international business and the major developing players in the international economy
• explore the issues and challenges of managing in an international environment and with reference to particular countries and regions understand the nature and forms of interaction between an international organisation, managerial decisions and the external environment, especially the effects of globalisation upon MNCs in both developed and developing countries
• facilitate understanding of the theories and concepts of international management and to use them to diagnose and solve managerial problems
• equip students with the analytical tools, techniques and models of negotiations, communication, and conflict resolution in international contexts
• explore the theories and concepts relating to the management of human resources in international context.

Organisational Behaviour: This module explores the main theories and key functions of leadership and management and their application. Students will be able to critique these as well as appreciate the contemporary issues facing leaders and managers. They will also be able to critically evaluate characteristics of effective management and how this differentiates from leadership. They will discuss and assess relative strengths and limitations of key approaches to developing leaders and managers in organisations.

Understanding Business and Management Research: The module is predicated on the dominant role of both quantitative and qualitative methods in management research. It is based on the need to enable the understanding of research reports and use this information to improve the quality of work, decision-making, and the understanding of complex management problems. The latter will be instrumental in applying existing management theory and research to practical management problems as action researchers.

The specific aims of the module are:

• to provide a balanced view of social science and business research methods enabling a critical understanding of research information
• to acquire theoretical and practical knowledge for business management by covering issues and debates in management research as reflected in the literature.
• to provide knowledge of relevant research methods and techniques for master'ss level project work.

Dissertation: A research-based dissertation is an integral and particularly important element of the programme. Students are required to base their dissertation on empirical research into a management problem or issue of their choice (subject to approval).

Dissertations are supervised by full-time members of the academic staff of the school who have a wide range of research interests and expertise. The dissertation must be submitted by the end of the academic year during which a student completes all of the taught modules of the course.

Optional

International Marketing: The module addresses critical understanding and ability in assessing the effectiveness of international marketing theory and practice. It targets principles and issues that drive markets world-wide. Students will develop insight and investigative ability concerning issues facing a business that needs to research markets and develop and implement market strategies, techniques and methods across a range of international sectors.

International and Comparative HRM: The HRM practitioner is in a position to make a substantial contribution to helping the organisation and its managers understand and apply the knowledge and skills needed for success in an international context. This module examines human resources strategy and practices for organisations operating across national boundaries, including the European Union (EU) and its member states, the USA, Japan and South East Asia.

Global Diversity Management: This module aims to provide an insight into Global Diversity Management by examining how organizations plan, coordinate and implement a set of management strategies, policies and initiatives. These include training and development activities that seek to accommodate diverse sets of social and individual backgrounds, interests, beliefs, values and ways of work in organizations with international, multinational, global and transnational workforces and operations.

International Business Ethics and Corporate Governance: This module focuses on business ethics, sustainability and corporate governance in the international context. Both areas will be addressed from the perspective of the dual ‘business’ models of the shareholder and the stakeholder approaches. Further the broader societal impacts of business activities will be considered in-depth. The full range of businesses will be considered – from large corporations through to SMEs. Empirical studies will be used to apply the theoretical resources of moral philosophy, CSR, sustainability and corporate governance.

Knowledge Management, Social Networks and Innovation: This module explores the intersection between knowledge, social network technologies and innovation. It examines how organisations create, utilise and communicate knowledge in the global knowledge-based economy and the wider social and economic factors affecting knowledge transfer. The module identifies the exploitation of Web 2.0 which enables social engagement and processes for business development.

Read more about the structure of postgraduate degrees at Brunel and what you will learn on the course.