The increasing pace of globalization and technological developments of the past decade have opened up new avenues through which firms can create competitive advantage. These developments require managers to cope with enormous complexity. This course deals with the strategic challenges managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) face and aims at providing a fundamental understanding of strategy and strategic management in an international context. Besides discussing general principles of Strategy and Strategic Management from different viewpoints, the course puts a special emphasize on the following issues that I perceive as paramount for contemporary strategic management in the multinational firm:

• Diversification strategies
• International alliances and inter-firm cooperation
• Global strategic technology and innovation managament
• Building and profiting from multinational subsidiary networks

The course is specifically tailored to enable students to:

• …understand the content of strategic and international management theories;
• …apply different concepts of strategy, including the way strategy is formulated;
• …analyze data about a company and how to build a strategic argument;
• …balance local adaptation versus global integration imperatives;
• …understand the preconditions and challenges linked to managing innovation in a global context;
• …reflect on best-practices for organizing global innovation;
• …identify and assess the costs and benefits of building and maintaining operational flexibility in multinational networks; and
• …exploit operational flexibility potentials in order to profit from environmental uncertainty in international markets.

Students must attend at least 80% of contact hours in order to pass the course. 

The course comprises lecture units providing theoretical foundations and up-to-date empirical evidence from the field of strategic management and international business, group work, student presentations, and case study analyses. In addition, we will invite leading consulting firms and guest speakers granting first-hand insights into their daily business of strategy building in order to pronounce the practical applicability of the presented theories, tools, and frameworks in real-life business settings.

The provided reading list will give you a comprehensive picture of what global strategy is all about and may stimulate you to engage in further readings on specific topics suggested by the lecturer.

Overall, students will be assessed on:

• Their knowledge of the content domain of Global Strategic Management.
• Their ability to understand the strategic issues in the cases we discuss in-class (including those they are supposed to prepare and work on over the course sessions), to use the appropriate analytical techniques, and to marshal the relevant data.

The final grade consist of individual and group components and will be based on the following elements:

• Participation in class (20%)
• Final Exam (40%)
• Group work (40%)