Entrepreneurial, Strategic, and International Management

Entrepreneurship provides students with knowledge of the theoretical concepts and models of entrepreneurship. The set up of this first part is twofold: (1) Students will acquire in-depth theoretical knowledge on: - Definitions, regional aspects, and special forms of entrepreneurship in a complex and uncertain environment - Entrepreneurial individuals, including their personality, creativity, idea development, cognition, opportunity recognition, decision making, and affect - Entrepreneurial firms, including their growth strategies, strategic alliances, and resources. (2) Beyond that, students will engage in break out group workshops to personally experience the process of opportunity recognition and development. In these workshops they will work in teams and apply theoretical models from academic literature to real world entrepreneurial problems. Furthermore, students give presentations to the audience and discuss their results. Strategic and international management targets long term decisions and the sustainable development of the company. In the course of globalization, it is crucial to consider the international dimension of management. Strategic and international management skills are not only important in the management of companies that are doing business across borders, but also within single business functions when shaping competitive strategy. In detail, this module discusses the following aspects: - Foundations of management - Stakeholders, objectives, and governance - Strategic decision making and performance - Strategy analysis - Competitive strategies - Strategy implementation

First, students will know and be able to explain basic concepts of entrepreneurship including basic definitions, psychological processes and characteristics of the person of the entrepreneur, and potential development paths of young firms. Second, students will transfer this basic knowledge to real world cases. Thus, students will be able to solve entrepreneurial problems in real world settings drawing on theoretical frameworks of the entrepreneurial process. Third, upon successful completion of this module, students are able to understand and reproduce fundamental knowledge about the management of multinational enterprises. Fourth students are able to explain and apply theories, models and methods related to international management as well as strategies of multinational enterprises. Finally, students are able to identify and analyze challenges and problems in multinational enterprises respectively; they are able to develop and outline solution approaches by applying theoretical concepts.

The grading of the module is based on a written exam (120 Minutes). First, the written form of the exam allows a comprehensive assessment of students' knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of entrepreneurship. They will answer questions about the concepts explaining the mindset of entrepreneurial individuals and the management of entrepreneurial firms as introduced in the lecture. They will also answer questions about basic definitions of specific types of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behavior. Second, the written exam requires students to show their ability to reproduce fundamental knowledge about strategic and international management by answering questions about theories, models and methods related to management as well as strategies of multinational enterprises. The exam also assesses students´ ability to understand the fundamentals of strategic and international management as well as to identify and analyze challenges and problems of multinational firms because they will answer questions related to management concepts, stakeholder management, finance, market entry of firms etc. The written exam will include single choice questions. Resources such as books, course slides, personal notes, etc. are not allowed to answer the questions.

The module will combine several learning methods. - The basic knowledge as well as real world examples will be provided through lectures. Lectures will be done in class as well as in form of online lectures and interactive in-class lectures and online feedback sessions. - During the lectures relevant concepts, approaches, theories, and empirical studies in the fields of entrepreneurship, strategic and international management are introduced and discussed. - Discussions in the lecture and active participation are encouraged and will contribute to deepen the understanding of the concepts, theories and methods introduced as well as application to practical examples and case studies. - Students will get additional background knowledge from the academic literature in private reading. The self-study of literature is part of the whole module. - Moreover, students are encouraged to engage in individual exercises and small group assignments in order to look deeper into the course contents.