International Business Concentration

This course will familiarize the student with the intricacies and special aspects of international marketing both for consumers and those within a business to business setting. Case studies will be used to allow for analysis of business problems and issues.

This course provides an introduction to the financial variables and related paperwork involved in international business. Students learn about the role of economic development authorities in states and the US Small Business Administration, as well as the basics of loans and business loan programs and guarantees.

In the post-9/11 and globalization environment, awareness of the complex link between international politics and economics is crucial for determining relationships between states, and therefore, the domestic and international politics and business conducted among them. Combining historical context with contemporary case studies, students will learn key analytical concepts necessary in comparing different geopolitical systems (polarity, literalism, balance of power, etc.), and consider international actors’ (states, international organizations, and multinational corporations) incentives and interactions in the pursuit of individual or collective objectives and outcomes.

This course builds on COM 130, but with an emphasis on how to develop skills for communicating competently in an increasingly diverse society. Students will explore how culture is communicated verbally and non-verbally, and how to interpret and understand culturally-specific communicative practices. They will also learn how to establish, develop and manage relationships with culturally different peoples, and how to recognize and overcome cultural stereotypes and prejudices.