International Business

Examinations handbook – International Business

You can find information about the exams, as well as about the registration and deregistration deadlines, in the examination schedule and in myHAW.

Please be sure to register (or deregister) for your exams on time via myHAW. Registration requests will not be accepted after the deadline. If you write an exam that you are not registered for, it will not be considered as completed.

Examinations handbook

The course focuses on the major issues and underlying concepts of modern and traditional corporate finance. Topics will be addressed from the perspective of large corporates with international activities, i.e., multinational enterprises. The core theories of corporate finance that can be used to develop and evaluate rules for financial decision-making will be studied in detail. The implications of these concepts for operational management problems and for strategic boardroom decisions will be discussed. Furthermore, the theoretical foundations, agents, and instruments as well as the organisation and structure of financial markets are addressed.

This module provides a managerial approach to legal and ethical issues that come along with the operation of international businesses. The students gain expertise of the regulatory environment for management decisions by means of case-based learning. The cases address issues relating to selected areas of law such as the regulation of sustainability/ESG, EU single market, competition law, IP-law and li-censing, manager liability, investor relations/ad-hoc reporting obligations, corporate governance, the handling and management of contracts and standard trade terms, data protection law, etc. The students learn to apprehend markets and market institutions as regulatory constructs and become aware of the potential strategic relevance of policy decisions. The participants obtain a deeper understanding of essential legal institutions by deploying selected methods used by economic analysis of law.

The course focuses on the underlying concepts of international management and organisational theory. Topics are addressed from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises, and family businesses with international activities. Fundamental theories, and selected emerging concepts on internationalisation strategies, as well as industrial, and organisational (re)design, are studied in detail. Relevant implications for strategic and operational management decisions are discussed. Selected real life business cases are analysed and/or developed.

International Strategic Management
As potential strategists in an international Corporation students detect strategic business opportunities, create a related customer-centric value proposition based on an external and internal environmental analysis.

International Strategic Marketing
As potential marketing manager in an international enterprise or entrepreneur students develop an international brand strategy as well as creative and innovative marketing solution according to the business strategy and its value proposition. Students evaluate and calculate the market and target group potential.

The course offers a systematic approach to business intelligence and management reporting systems. BI terms, concepts, and architectures are presented.

Key words are e.g., SQL&NoSQL Databases, OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing), OLTP (OnLine Transactional processing), In memory, Data Warehousing (Top-Down Approach), ETL (Extraction, Transformation, Loading), Data Lake (Bottom-up Approach), ELT (Extraction, Loading, Transformation), Data Ingestion, reporting, dashboards, Management Information Systems (MIS), Decision Support Information Systems (DSS), Executive Information Systems (EIS).

Current subjects concerning Big Data Ecosystem, Storage and analysis at internet scale (e.g., Apache Hadoop) and Business Analytics are also to be discussed. Methods are introduced from an application-oriented perspective in order to show how to design a BI application.

The course offers a systematic approach to the theory and practical application of advanced statistical methods and data mining techniques to quantitative data collected through different research processes. Current subjects regarding digitalisation, data science, machine learning and big data are enlarging the methodological focus. Key concepts, methods and challenges for carrying out quantitative empirical research projects incorporating the application of advanced statistical analytics are discussed: constituent topics along the research process are e.g. sources of business relevant data, primary and secondary data collection, data understanding and processing, complex data analytics and modelling, communication of analytical proceedings and outcomes to academic and business audiences, platform based reporting of analytical results.

Various advanced statistical methods are introduced and consecutively deepened in theory and practical application using case studies supported by data sets stemming from real business problems. Analytical computations, modelling and programming are performed with state-of-the-art statistical software.

Special emphasis is put on ways of processing relevant information in the context of complex statistical data analysis as well as on summarizing and visualizing analytical results in order to gain new insights relevant for strategic objectives and decision support of a company. Actual developments in data visualization and information design are also addressed

In the “Strategic lab” students take over the role of managers in an international enterprise or entrepreneurs. Students set up an own strategic business model process and thereby develop the managerial and entrepreneurial skills.

The course enables students to develop financial models that support management decisions. The theoretical framework is based on the principles of modern managerial and financial accounting. The focus is on financial analysis, integrated planning of financial forecasts, and valuation. The technical aspects of spreadsheet modelling are also addressed. The course looks at corporates and projects in the form of foreign direct investments, with greenfield and brownfield projects also touched upon. It discusses modelling options and underlying theoretical concepts, examining their impact on model outcome.

Topics addressed include discounted cash flow models in the form of the weighted average cost of capital approach, the flow to equity approach and the income approach as well as valuations based on economic value added and cash flow value added. The course is designed to enable students to develop an individual approach to economic problems while strengthening their technical skill sets.
 

The course covers fundamental aspects of money, prices, interest rates, foreign exchange markets and the impact of monetary policies. Moreover, issues related to the economics of monetary union are analysed. Also, causes and consequences of recent developments on foreign exchange and capital markets and an outlook on future developments are addressed. Contemporary model-based approaches for the analysis of monetary flows and their impact are studied. Implications of the model outcomes for strategic decision-making in international companies are analysed.

The course focuses on the underlying concepts of international business theory on multinational enterprises, and their evolving position in the global economy. The core theoretical frameworks on multinational enterprises, the interplay between home and host country institutions, as well as regional and global interdependencies are studied in detail. Relevant implications for strategic and operational management decisions are discussed. Furthermore, the theoretical foundations, and selected approaches assessing economic impact of corporate activity on home and host country locations are addressed.

The thesis project enables students to demonstrate that they can resolve independently a research problem that is linked to their field of studies and has a sufficient complexity. Research, documentation, and presentation must be based upon the formal research and citation rules of the department.

International Business (M.Sc.) degree course, June 2023

Äquivalenzrichtlinie | Equivalence Directive M-IB

Course timetable

Information about your timetable

Examination schedule – current semester

Application for recognition of credits completed at universities (in German only)

Application for recognition of skills attained outside a university setting (in German only)

Statutes on recognition of credits (in German only)

Please see the Information sheet for students on recognition and calculation of credits (in German only)

Application to interrupt and withdraw from an exam pursuant to section 24 of the general examination and study regulations (APSO-W) for health-related reasons

Application to extend the deadline for a written exercise for health-related reasons

Sick note (Krankmeldung) for an exam

Application for thesis registration (English) 

Application to extend the submission deadline

Declaration of consent for online publication

The usual time allocated to complete a Master's thesis following receipt of the application is 26 weeks.

You can find detailed information in the general examination and study regulations for the Department of Business.