International Business Fundamentals

Explore how international business moves goods, services, knowledge, capital and technology across borders, and why firms benefit from exports, licensing, and global markets.

Identify political, foreign exchange, cross-cultural, and commercial risks in international business. Explore how currency fluctuations, trade barriers, and cultural differences impact strategy and risk management.

Explore globalization of markets and production, where trade barriers shrink and tastes align, driving global brands like Coca-Cola and Apple via dispersed, cost-saving production networks.

Global organizations reduce trade barriers and support international business, from GATT and WTO to the World Bank, IMF, and UN, promoting development, cooperation, and sustainable economic growth.

Explore the EPRG framework for international business decisions, detailing ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric, and geocentric orientations for headquarters and host country operations.

Understand culture in international business through research, observation, and diplomacy, applying Hofstede’s dimensions to tailor products, build rapport, and nurture lasting cross-border customer relationships.

Explore market, mixed, and planned economic systems, and how government roles, private ownership, and supply-demand dynamics shape international business, entrepreneurship, and profitability.

Explore how governments use tariffs, subsidies, quotas, voluntary export restraints, local content requirements, administrative policies, and anti-dumping measures to intervene in markets and protect local producers.

Discover how regional economic integration reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers to boost intra-regional trade. Learn the five levels—from free trade area to political union—and their impact on opportunities and competition.

Explore six international entry modes—exporting, turnkey projects, licensing, franchising, joint ventures, and wholly owned subsidiaries—and learn how political and economic stability, costs, timing, and strategy shape expansion decisions.

Learn how international business negotiation, driven by globalization and cross-cultural communication, resolves scarce resources and interdependent goals, contrasting bargaining with negotiation and applying BATNA, distributive and integrative outcomes.