COURSE NUMBER: MBA 277.1

This course is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program.

COURSE TITLE: International Business

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Laura D’Andrea Tyson and Felix Vardy

E-MAIL ADDRESS: tyson@haas.berkeley.edu and fvardy@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: tbd

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m

PREREQUISITE(S): None.

CLASS FORMAT: The course will include both lectures and class discussions of assigned readings and cases.  Discussion questions will be provided to help students prepare for class discussions.

REQUIRED READINGS: tbd

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Grades will depend on class attendance and participation (20%); mid-term group case presentations and discussions (35%); and individual final papers (45%).

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
MBA/EWMBA 277-1 is a course on international business with a focus on the challenges, opportunities and risks of doing business in emerging market economies. The course is designed to enhance students' ability to start, manage, lead and invest in companies operating in emerging markets and to respond to new competitors from emerging markets.  Emerging markets are home to nearly 80% of the world's population and are expected to account for half of global GDP growth over the next 25 years.

The course will address several questions including the following:   What is unique about the business context of emerging markets?   What frameworks should be used to identify strategic opportunities and challenges in emerging markets?   How can companies from developed markets realize opportunities created by globalization and the growth of emerging markets?   What are the lessons from companies that are trying to do so?  How can outsourcing in emerging markets be used to gain global competitive advantage and what are the risks from outsourcing? How is the rise of new firms from emerging markets affecting global competition and how should established companies respond to challenges from these new competitors? Are there profitable business opportunities from serving the needs of poor consumers in emerging markets—the so-called “bottom of the pyramid”?  Is micro-finance a scalable profitable business opportunity in these economies?

The course draws on disciplinary material from both economics and strategy.  The course begins at the macro level with readings and discussions on trade, global capital flows, foreign direct investment, and foreign exchange markets. The focus then shifts to global business strategy using the frameworks developed by Professor Pankaj Ghemawat and Professor Tarun Khanna,  For their mid-term assignments, students will make group presentations of assigned cases based on the application of these frameworks. The last sections of the class will focus on three special topics: micro-finance and other business approaches for alleviating poverty in emerging market economies; the benefits, costs, and risks of outsourcing for both companies and countries; and the changing economic and political relationships between firms and the nations in which they are headquartered.  

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Professor Laura D’Andrea Tyson is Professor of Economics and Business Administration at the Haas School of Business. She was Dean of London Business School from 2002 through 2006. She was Dean of the Haas School between 1998 and 2001. She served as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Clinton in 1993 and 1994 and as his National Economic Adviser and head of the National Economic Council in 1995 and 1996. She is a member of the board of directors of AT&T, Kodak, and Morgan Stanley and also serves on the boards of several not-for-profit research organizations including the Brookings Institution, the Center for American Progress, the New America Foundation, and the Peterson Institute of International Economics. Professor Tyson received her PhD in economics from MIT. Her main fields of interest are trade, development, and global competition.

Before joining Haas this Fall, Felix Vardy worked in various capacities at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Netherlands Competition Authority. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton.