International Management and Emerging Economies MSc

What you'll study

The modules on our International Management and Emerging Economies MSc programme are designed to deliver a high quality educational experience that develops and sustains your knowledge, skills and aspirations in the further advancement of your career within the business and management sector.

• Compulsory
• Optional

Compulsory

The Collaborative Project

The Collaborative Project

With a multi-talented group of students, you will work on a brief from a real company looking to solve a real social or business problem.

Together with your student team, you will research and build solutions to a business problem, supported by our project tutors, clients and staff. Previous clients include Foster + Partners, Speedo, The London Legacy Development Corporation as well as many other companies, start-ups and charities.

The Collaborative Project provides a means for you to engage in critical enquiry and to be exposed to project-based teamwork in multicultural and interdisciplinary settings. By undertaking this module, you will strengthen your cooperative and collaborative working skills and competencies, whilst raising your awareness and appreciation of cultural and disciplinary diversity and differences.

The Collaborative Project aims to provide you with a hands-on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice-oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions. Alongside the collaborative elements of the module, you will be provided with opportunities to network with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, which will give you the experience and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and potentially develop future employment opportunities.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Work effectively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams;
• Undertake and contribute towards a project-based development process;
• Apply critical enquiry, reflection, and creative methods to identify, frame, and resolve issues and problems at hand;
• Identify user and stakeholder needs and value creation opportunities, whilst collecting and applying evidence-based information and knowledge to develop appropriate insights, practices and solutions;
• Identify, structure, reflect on key issues and propose solutions to problems in creative ways;
• Enhance your appreciation for diversity and divergent individual and disciplinary perspectives;
• Be able to provide structured, reflective and critical feedback to peers and other stakeholders;
• Plan and execute a project plan including scope, resources and timing;
• Effectively communicate ideas, methods and results to a diverse range of stakeholders;
• Use multiple, state-of-the-art date media and technologies to communicate with collaborators;
• Make informed, critical and reflective decisions in time-limited situations.

Assessment

100% Coursework consisting of:

• 20% Group project proposal
• 20% Individual reflection
• 30% Final project report
• 30% Project deliverables to the client

Management in a Diverse World

Management in a Diverse World

This topical module will enable you to make informed assessments of the idiosyncrasies of national economic systems. You will uncover the key elements of national economic systems and how they differ through an in-depth investigation of how they have evolved over time

As a group, we will assess the challenges facing companies that manage across nationally distinct systems, and will take account for the pressures towards convergence and divergence in the nature of managerial work.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, you should be able to:

• Appreciate the ways in which economic activity is embedded in particular national contexts
• Understand the nature and causes of national variations in the way that ostensibly similar processes are undertaken
• Critically evaluate a range of aspects of the behaviour of multinational companies
• Identify which features of organisations are becoming more similar across nations and which continue to differ
• Develop an approach to comparing phenomena across countries that is sensitive to the ways in which economic activity is embedded in institutional context
• Evaluate the ways in which comparative analysis is soundly carried out
• Demonstrate an effective understanding of recommendations for policy and practice underpinned by comparative analysis

Assessment

• Coursework (100%)

Global Strategy

Global Strategy

This programme will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the concepts surrounding global strategy and strategic management.

Environmental analysis and strategic positioning will also be considered, alongside strategy evaluation and implementation. We will analyse the tools required for successful global strategic leadership and assess the aspects of organisational structure and design relevant to strategy. Time will be dedicated to explore the cultural context of global strategic management and change.

Learning Objectives

On completion of this module, you should be able to:

• Explain the concept of global strategic management and global strategy;
• Develop meaningful corporate objectives in a global context;
• Understand resource, knowledge, and institutional-based factors important to the global firm in terms of the headquarters and its subsidiaries;
• Explain the relationship between the capabilities and competitive advantage of an organisation;
• Distinguish between strategic options;
• Recognise the problems and implications of implementing the strategies;
• Assess the relationship between strategy, environment, capabilities, and stakeholder expectations of an organisation;
• Evaluate an organisation’s strategies and their adequacy;
• Analyse the multiplicity of factors and inter-relationships that make up a complex scenario;
• Demonstrate self-direction and originality in analysing problems

Assessment

• Coursework (100%)

Dissertation

Dissertation

The Dissertation module will equip you with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on your own research project.

You will have the choice of three dissertation pathways:

1. A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
2. A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
3. An Internship within an organisation during which time students will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

By undertaking a dissertation at master's level, you will achieve a high level of understanding in your chosen subject area and will produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss your research in more detail.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The importance of project planning;
• The importance of a clear hypothesis or research question;
• The ethical implications of research;
• The relevant empirical data and methodologies for data collection or knowledge assimilation for the subject area;
• Methods of data analysis and their suitability for the intended data;
• The areas of expertise or publications of the major individuals or organisations in the subject or business area;
• The previous research or current knowledge in the specific subject or business area;
• Theoretical perspectives relevant to your chosen topic;
• The most effective methods of presentation for data or knowledge;
• Developing a clear, coherent and original research question, hypothesis or business problem in a suitable subject area;
• Synthesising relevant sources (e.g. research literature, primary data) to construct a coherent argument in response to your research question, hypothesis or business problem;
• Analysing primary or secondary data collected by an appropriate method;
• Critically evaluating data collected in context with previously published knowledge or information;
• Engaging in critical debate and argumentation in written work;
• Applying principles of good scholarly practice to your written work;
• Performing appropriate literature searching/business information searching using library databases or other reputable sources;
• Planning a research project and producing a realistic gantt chart demonstrating your intended timelines;
• Synthesising information from appropriate sources;
• Demonstrating rational use of research method tools;
• Selecting and using appropriate investigative and research skills;
• Demonstrating effective project planning skills;
• Finding and evaluating scholarly sources;
• Engaging in critical reasoning, debate and argumentation;
• Demonstrating effective report writing skills;
• Recognising and using resources effectively;
• Successfully managing a project from idea to completion;
• Demonstrating commercial awareness or the impact of knowledge transfer in a business or research environment

Assesement

100% Coursework consisting of:

• 20% Literature review
• 20% Research proposal
• 60% Dissertation report/essay

Corporate Governance and Financial Development

Corporate Governance and Financial Development

By the end of this module you will be able to critically discuss the main theories in the areas of law and finance as well as alternative explanations of the link between law and financial development. We will critically discuss the notion of ‘quality of law,’ the role that the Rule of Law plays in the economy, as well as different measures of legal shareholder protection.

You will familiarise yourself with alternatives to the legal-rational Western system of economic organisation (including relationship-based systems and clans). This will allow you to understand how corporate governance reforms have been used to promote financial growth and what firm-level consequences result from such reforms, driven by the international financial institutions.

Topics addressed in this module include ‘the Washington Consensus,’ the Law and Finance school, legal reforms and the transplant effect, the impact of shareholder protection on stock market development, and shareholder vs. stakeholder models of corporate governance.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critically assess theories of corporate governance and the role of law in promoting financial and economic development
• Demonstrate an awareness of how such theories have been used by development agencies and international financial institutions to promote policy reforms in various countries
• Explain and critically reflect on limitations of legal reform as an instrument for development
• Understand and critically evaluate alternative forms of economic organisation to the legal rational system of developed Western economies
• Critically evaluate key theories in the areas of comparative corporate governance, law and finance, and development studies
• Critically analyse reform programmes and policies based on these theories and assess their impact on corporate governance systems and firm-level practices
• Critically analyse and synthesise academic literature and other sources of information

Assessment

• Assignment (80%)
• Presentation (20%)

Management and Governance in Emerging Economies

Management and Governance in Emerging Economies

This module will equip students with the necessary academic skills to understand the challenges firms face in different developing countries and assessing different ways in which firms can overcome these challenges. By the end of this module, students will be able to critically use different concepts describing developing countries’ business environments, including institutional voids, institutional distance, state capitalism, hierarchical market economies, embedded autonomy, and predatory states.

Based on these key concepts from international business, comparative political economy, and development studies literature, students will be able to critically analyse what specific challenges arise for firms in such contexts and how different types of firms have reacted to them. Topics addressed in the module include the strength and weaknesses of institutions, the role of the state, rule-based vs. relationship-based systems of governance, business groups, and state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module students should be able to:

• Identify and critically assess institutional specificities in a series of developing countries
• Be critically aware of how institutional factors shape companies’ organisational structures and practices
• Critically evaluate a range of contextual factors in developing countries and how firms can react to them
• Explain and critically reflect on different ways of doing business in different parts of the world
• Critically evaluate key concepts used to describe the institutional and cultural business context in developing countries
• Critically analyse companies strategic and organisational reactions to key challenges in developing countries
• Critically analyse and synthesise academic literature and other sources of information
• Construct and present convincing, logically coherent arguments orally and in writing
• Demonstrate effective oral presentation skills

Assessment

• Assignment (80%)
• Group presentation (20%)

Political Risk in Emerging Markets

Political Risk in Emerging Markets

This programme asks the question: what are political risks and how are they defined for emerging markets.

You will uncover the lure of emerging markets and the range of risks that can be associated with such collectives, including geopolitical risks, regulatory risks and international political risks.

Time will also be dedicated to the consideration of emerging markets as nodes in the global market. By the end of the module, you will have a thorough grasp of the political and geographical risks at play for emerging markets, as well as the politics of 'doing business' for particular groups.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, you should be able to:

• Discuss diversity of political risks within emerging markets
• Explain the various factors that make emerging markets important nodes in international business activities
• Critically evaluate existing literature and understandings of emerging markets.
• Construct reasoned arguments, synthesise and analyse relevant information and exercise critical judgement
• Reflect on your own learning and make use of constructive feedback
• Analyse current events and discuss them in groups as part of an editorial meeting
• Discuss essay questions as part of a group and plan possible outlines
• Communicate effectively in speech and writing
• Use communication and information technology for the retrieval and presentation of information
• Work individually, demonstrating initiative, self-organisation and time management
• Explain events as they are reported in media coverage, and examine their contents

Assessment

• Coursework (100%)

Optional

Entrepreneurship and Family Firms in Emerging Markets

Entrepreneurship and Family Firms in Emerging Markets

This module will enable students to make informed assessments of the implications of family ownership and governance for entrepreneurship within emerging economies.

We will evaluate the constraints and opportunities that family ownership presents, particularly the implications for entrepreneurial behaviour and innovation.

The module will establish the forms of entrepreneurship that characterise firms in emerging markets and consider how these manifest in family-owned firms versus the distinctive characteristics exhibited by family firms.

The module will equip you with an understanding of the distinctive challenges that family-owned firms from emerging markets face, particularly how they respond to economic transition and seize opportunities to grow and internationalise.

On completion of this module, students will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the range of strategies that family-owned firms deploy in the context of emerging markets
• Explore the role of founding families in providing a distinct heritage that shapes the cultures of such firms, including how this varies across different emerging economies