This course aims at providing students with a fundamental and comprehensive understanding of various models and theories used to capture and explain the internationalisation of firms, with a particular focus on recent trends in firm internationalisation, such as de-/semi-globalisation and digitalisation. The course aims to develop students ability to relate theoretical models and frameworks to real-life, practical problems. In order to achieve this, the theoretical readings will be complemented by in-depth work on case studies.

On completion of this course, the participants should be able to

• explain current trends in the internationalisation of firms, including small- and medium sized firms
• develop fundamental strategies for firm internationalisation and assess their relevance and usefulness to explain the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises

Additionally, participants will develop their ability to identify the effects of current changes in the environment on various facets of economic activity and discuss these effects in the context of the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises

Finally, these course helps students in

• selecting and critically assessing the usefulness of theoretical models and frameworks to solve practically-relevant problems
• developing their ability to succinctly and convincingly present potential solutions for practically-relevant problems based on existing theory
• fostering their ability to provide and deal with constructive criticism.

Students are required to attned at least 80% of all sessions (including online sessions).

The course

• consists of lectures on key topics, as well as group presentations and discussions.
• aims to develop the autonomous and team-based development and analyses of current issues related to the internationalisation of firms.
• supports the application of knowledge to practically-relevant managerial problems.
• will be provided online in its entirety.
• will consist of synchronous online classes and asynchronous lecture casts provided via learn@wu. 

Additional online group coaching sessions will be provided to support the group work. Students are expected to actively participate in synchronous online classes and work through the provided lecture casts. Students are expected to actively contribute to group work.

The assessment of the course consists of three elements.

Individual report (40%)

Group report (20%)

Group presentation (40%)

Prerequisite for this course is the completion of the two courses "SME Management" and "Foreign Trade Management".

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Alexander Mohr: alexander.mohr@wu.ac.at
Valentin Kiefner: valentin.kiefner@wu.ac.at