Students will work on a live case of a company wanting to expand or evaluate its operations internationally, thus applying their knowledge and skills of international expansion strategy, international operations and working in an international environment in multicultural teams. 

It commences with developing an understanding of the international enterprise and its opportunities and challenges in a globalized world, covering the following three areas:

• Reinforcing foundations of international business such as globalization, global economics and the internationalization paths of an enterprise
• Strategies of an enterprise expanding into foreign markets
• Operations of a company with an international/global presence and its management of the cross-border business functions (i.e. international HR, Marketing, etc.)

Besides relevant concepts and frameworks of global economy, international strategy and operations this module builds on real cases of companies entering and operating in foreign markets. Thus, students work on a live case of a company aiming to go global or to improve its global operations. The live case company and the challenge it is facing in their international strategy and/or operations will be presented to the students during the module. Students work in mixed teams from the participating partner university(s) and apply their knowledge acquired in preceding modules to complete assignments arising out of the live case. Student teams will meet each other during two study trips (HMBS students will visit Bern in April 2026 and BFH students will visit Munich in June 2026). 

Requirements: foundation in business, international business, strategy and academic skills

Competencies upon completion      

Subject: Students

• understand the phenomena of internationalization of firms; the reasons and drivers of companies to go international/global
• understand the specifics of the international operations of an enterprise
• understand and are able to apply the strategic process of going international/global
• understand and are able to develop a strategy for international expansion
• are able to develop solutions for challenges the company is facing within its international operations
• are able to apply their intercultural competences and sensitivity to working in multicultural teams 

Method: Students

• understand the process of developing international expansion strategies as an integral part for a corporate strategic planning process
• know, understand and are able to implement the international expansion specific steps of the strategic planning process (strategic analysis, choice of target markets, headquarter level and subsidiary level strategy)
• are aware of the differing academic and individual cultures and learn how to deal with opportunities and challenges working in a multicultural project team
• learn how to manage working in a virtual team, applying different perspectives which could lead to innovative solutions 

Social: Students

• learn how to prepare for and ask relevant questions, engaging with the live case partner, in order to benefit from their practical experience and enlarge their own knowledge of international business
• learn to work in multicultural mixed teams of students virtually and during the study trips
• learn to plan and organize themselves during the study trips, where a balance between study, sightseeing and social life will need to be achieved

Teaching and Learning method

Problem-based learning with input, coaching and self-directed work. Students will be assigned tasks and readings which will support them in completing the live case assignments. This is an applied course, students will be expected to apply their prior acquired knowledge and experience in analysing and providing solutions to the live case.

All coaching sessions are mandatory, students are expected to be prepared for these coaching sessions, that is the coach is only able to support in so far as the team is prepared with questions they require support with.

Contact lessons

The course schedule will be uploaded on Moodle at the beginning of the semester with relevant dates and deadlines.

Literature

Videos, slides, articles and selected chapters from various sources provided by lecturers via Moodle.

Assessment

There are two assessment components in this course.

Assignment 1 is a written assignment. The report length is max. 15 pages (excluding title pages, bibliography and the appendix). All relevant analyses and conclusions are covered within the 15 pages, the appendix includes supporting information.

Assignment 2 is a final presentation. The presentation is max. 20minutes with a 10min Q&A session. The audience will be lecturers, representatives of the Live Case company as well as your classmates