Theories, frameworks, tools, and facts for understanding the environment of firms in international competition. Main world-level economic flows (trade, investment, finance). How country-/industry-level economic, political, and sociocultural factors influence behavior/functions of firms in international competition. prereq: MGMT 3001 or 3004

Causes/history of international differences in design of financial accounting/reporting systems, efforts to harmonize them into worldwide system. Role/impact of currency translation on financial statements. International Accounting Standards, conceptual framework. prereq: 5101; [5102 or concurrent registration is required (or allowed) in 5102] recommended

The course is intended to help you develop a global perspective on the economy. You will develop a set of skills and concepts that will permit you to understand and to analyze the foundations of the economy at large. We want to understand the main drivers of economic growth over time and across countries. Key skills and conceptual take-aways from this course: 1. Explain how an economy, firms, labor, and finance fit together. 2. Able to use the Solow and Romer growth models: i) to understand long term growth, ii) to predict shock effects, iii) to measure TFP iv) to examine GDP differences across countries 3. Understand labor market using supply and demand, and using the bathtub model 4. Able to analytically derive the classical gains from free trade. Understand key benefits and drawbacks to globalization. The lectures are structured as Foundations, Growth, Labor, Globalization. We start by setting up a foundation that stresses the fact that things have to fit together coherently. We need to be careful about how we measure things. The role of firms and financial markets are frequently misunderstood so we devote special effort to why these exist and what role they play. Next we turn to the overall evolution of the economy ? sometimes called mega-trends. People open underestimate the amount of economic variation from one decade to the next and hence may not adequately prepare. A key purpose of this course is to help you understand key drivers of economic growth, and the wealth difference across time and between countries. This will provide context for you to think about some potentially forthcoming major changes. The role of labor deserves special attention since it connects directly to human beings. The treatment of, and returns to labor are critical to human welfare. We will consider the labor market in general, unemployment, and inequality both within and across countries. Finally we will examine the role of globalization and international trade. We will formally develop the classical gains from free trade. We will also discuss the reasons for controversies surrounding trade and globalization. prereq: 3001 or 3001H, CSOM major or Math major/Act Sci, or Management minor.

This course provides the student with an understanding of the nature and purposes of financial management in the international context for multinational enterprises and skills in international investment, financing techniques and exchange rate risks. The student will examine barriers to international capital flows and some of the tools used to overcome these barriers. The course presents cost of capital in emerging economies and currency risk management. prereq: CSOM major, Fina 3001 or 3001H, 4121 or 4121H, 4221

This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Students will learn entrepreneurship concepts and apply them to opportunities in a variety of global contexts including China, Cuba, Brazil, and others. Students will interact virtually with global entrepreneurs and leaders. After engaging with international entrepreneurs students will apply their experience to future entrepreneurship opportunities.

This course addresses gender in the workplace, including the complex reasons for the lack of representation of women in senior leadership positions?within the United States and in the larger global context? ?gendered? communication at work, and work-life effectiveness for both women and men. Other topics that we will touch on include gender-based differences in negotiation, teamwork, communication, conflict management, and leadership. Historical and cross-cultural perspectives are integrated into the course.

This course provides state-of-the-art knowledge about information technologies and fundamentals of entrepreneurship with an international perspective. It also provides a comprehensive overview of current and emerging technologies in several different areas of IT, focusing on the needs of the modern net-enhanced organizations and IT adaptation to local markets. In particular, the course covers basics of consumer electronics, Internet and mobile communications, web technologies, cloud computing, cyber-security, social network, etc. Students will be trained to use sprints to evaluate ideas, risk, costs, and culturalization needs of IT solution for local markets. We will look at how technology leaders/entrepreneurs in the rest of the world are addressing these opportunities. This class will teach students to use sprints to answer pressing business questions. First, students will map out the problem and pick an important place to focus. Second, they will sketch competing IT solutions on paper. Third, they will need to make decisions and turn their ideas into testable hypothesis. Fourth, they will develop a real or conceptual model for a prototype. Lastly, they will prepare to test out the ideas or pitch them to the partner companies.

Study abroad course focused on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This course will utilize these constructs to introduce students to an overview of emerging approaches to business and its relationship with the environment. CSR and corporate approaches to sustainability will be explored from a global perspective.

Discussion, analysis, site visits, and experiential learning of current topics and developments in international business. Topics will vary.

This course is an experiential introduction to global business. This course focuses on how international organizations innovate their business models to adapt to new markets and how global entrepreneurs launch businesses. Students will seek to understand diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies and understand the role of creativity, innovation, discovery, and expression. They will deepen their own cultural awareness through the CQ Assessment. Students will interact virtually with South American business leaders to conduct their own research and experiential projects. prereq: Carlson School undergraduate students with at least 90 cumulative credits

This course provides students with an understanding of the functions of large, global banking organizations. We will start with a review of the impact of the financial crisis on the regulatory landscape, and identify some of the key differences between US, European, and global regulatory frameworks; discuss the different business models adopted by banks in Europe compared to the United States. We will look at how those different business models are reflected in financial statements, and learn how to interpret bank financial statements through ratio analysis. Finally, we will discuss the impact of digital disruption, and how it is forcing banks to consider new strategic directions. prereq: FINA 4121

Contemporary business strategy drives growth across industries and geographies. Thus, effectively selling an approach to an ambiguous business situation is an important skill for those entering the business world - either as a consultant or a staff member wishing to sell ideas to senior management. You will learn how to approach an opportunity and how to communicate your approach and an action plan to management with appropriate emphasis and structure. The class consists of a series of hands-on workshops and real-world, global business cases (which serve as proxies for real-life consulting and staff experiences). Prereq: IDSc 3001 or I-Core (completed or concurrent), or Instructor permission.

This course teaches students how to create culturally aware messages in business settings. Students will learn to recognize the cultural dimensions and communication patterns of various social identities that form at the intersection of nationality, religion, race, ethnicity, and gender. Through intercultural development assessments, case studies, simulations, business writing assignments, and discussions, students will: 1) reflect on their own cultural identities and worldview, 2) recognize how different cultural values can impact business success, and 3) engage in debates about the complex ethical, political, and social issues that arise from cross-cultural exchange.

This course covers concepts and tools required to devise strategies that enable a global business to create superior value for customers and to capture a sufficient share of that value. It will offer perspectives on analyzing competitive situations and identifying and evaluating strategic options. In particular, it focuses on: - Applying fundamental concepts of strategic management--including strategy identification, the relationship of strategy and organization, industry analysis, competitor analysis, firm and industry evolution--coupled with economic theory and quantitative analysis to evaluate competitive strategies in a global context; - Developing an awareness of the impact of external environmental forces and of strategic actions by the firm and its rivals on business strategy. - Integrating knowledge gained in previous and concurrent core courses with a focus on understanding applying analytical concepts that are most useful to business analysts and managers. prereq: Mgmt 3004

Globalization and the technological developments of the digital age have created exciting new opportunities for managers who seek growth and profits by accessing resources and serving markets worldwide. At the same time, managing across cultures and nations in a world where foreign companies are not always viewed in a positive light, poses its own challenges. This course will address the global context and then focus on the strategic and cultural challenges involved in managing activities across borders, in an increasingly interconnected world. It will build on the concepts introduced in MGMT 3040, as well as the students? ?Study abroad? experience (if any, given recent travel restrictions). Our course is taking place in the midst of an unprecedented (peace-time) world-wide threat. The pandemic has created a host of paradoxes. Countries have closed their borders and yet, have never depended so much on each other to deal with the common threat. We are acutely aware that one country's failure is every country's failure when one single item is on top of everyone's agenda. Even though these are challenging times for all of us, they also provide an extremely rich context within which we can discuss the topics on our syllabus. prereq: CSOM sr, completed semester abroad, IB major or minor

Determining product markets where organizations should compete based on ability to create/maintain competitive advantage. External environment of business. Constructing/evaluating global marketing strategies. Largely case-based. This is the capstone course in the Marketing major. prereq: Mktg 3011, Mktg 3041, (or Mktg 3010 & Mktg 3040) and 8 Mktg elective credits

Ecological/ethical concerns of food production systems in global agriculture: past, present, and future. Underlying ethical positions about how agroecosystems should be configured. Decision cases, discussions, videos, other media.

Impact of global economy on workplaces/workers in the United states, Mexico, and Caribbean countries. Influence on consumption. Consequences for American culture/character. Effects on U.S./Mexican factory work, service sector, temporary working arrangements, offshore production jobs in Dominican Republic, and professional/managerial positions.

Topics vary. Field research. Politics of ethnographic knowledge. Marxist/feminist theories of culture. Culture, language, and discourse. Psychological anthropology. Culture/transnational processes.

Studying language as a social practice, students transcribe and analyze conversation they record themselves, and consider issues of identity and social power in daily talk.

Practical application of theories/methods from social/cultural anthropology. Issues of policy, planning, implementation, and ethics as they relate to applied anthropology. prereq: 1003 or 1005 or 4003 or grad student or instr consent

Systems of production/distribution, especially in nonindustrial societies. Comparison, history, critique of major theories. Cross-cultural anthropological approach to material life that subsumes market/nonmarket processes.

Anthropological/ethnographic understandings/research techniques.

Indicators of economic development, growth in trade, and welfare of developing countries. Globalization. Drivers of growth, productivity, technical change, and research. Comparative advantage. Distribution consequences of trade. Trade policy instruments/institutions. prereq: [1101 or ECON 1101], [1101H or ECON 1101H], [1102 or ECON 1102], [1102H or ECON 1102H]; 3001, 3006 recommended

International perspectives on resource use and sustainable development. Integration of natural resource issues with social, economic, and policy considerations. Agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, non-timber forest products, water resources, certification, development issues. Global case studies. Impact of consumption in developed countries on sustainable development in lesser developed countries.

Often, the most progress on challenging issues such as health and equity is made when you apply an interdisciplinary perspective. The same is true for global health issues. Whether responding to emerging pandemics, food insecurity, maternal mortality, or civil society collapse during conflict, solutions often lie at the intersection of animal, environmental, and human health. In this course, students will work in teams to examine the fundamental challenges to addressing complex global health problems in East Africa and East African refugee communities here in the Twin Cities. Together we will seek practical solutions that take culture, equity, and sustainability into account. In-field professionals and experts will be available to mentor each team, including professionals based in Uganda and Somalia. This exploration will help students propose realistic actions that could be taken to resolve these issues. This course will help students gain the understanding and skills necessary for beginning to develop solutions to global health issues. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.

Do you want to make a difference? We live at the intersection of COVID-19, racism, economic recession, and environmental collapse. Now is the time to make an impact. In this project-based course, you will work in interdisciplinary teams. You'll develop entrepreneurial responses to current social and environmental problems. You'll develop tools, mindsets, and skills to address any complex grand challenge. Your project may address food insecurity, unemployment, housing, environmental impacts, equity, or other issues. Proposed designs for how you might have a social impact can take many forms (student group, program intervention with an existing organization, public policy strategy, or for-profit or non-profit venture) but must have ideas for how to be financially sustainable. Community members, locally and globally, will serve as mentors and research consultants to teams. Weekly speakers will share their innovative efforts to serve the common good. A primary focus of the course is up-front work to identify the ?right? problem to solve. You will use a discovery process, design thinking, and input from field research to addressing the challenge you choose. You will build a model around the community?s culture, needs, and wants. By the end of the class, you will have a well-designed plan to turn your project into an actionable solution if that is of interest. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.

This course provides a multi-disciplinary look at problems (and some of the possible solutions) affecting food production, distribution, and requirements for the seven plus billion inhabitants of this planet. It is co-taught by a plant geneticist (Morrell) and an economist (Runge) who together have worked on international food production and policy issues for the past 40 years. Historical context, the present situation and future scenarios related to the human population and food production are examined. Presentations and discussions cover sometimes conflicting views from multiple perspectives on population growth, use of technology, as well as the ethical and cultural values of people in various parts of the world. The global challenge perspective is reflected in attention to issues of poverty, inequality, gender, the legacy of colonialism, and racial and ethnic prejudice. Emphasis is placed on the need for governments, international assistance agencies, international research and extension centers, as well as the private sector to assist in solving the complex problems associated with malnutrition, undernutrition, obesity, and sustainable food production. Through a better understanding of world food problems, this course enables students to reflect on the shared sense of responsibility by nations, the international community and ourselves to build and maintain a stronger sense of our roles as historical agents. Throughout the semester students are exposed to issues related to world food problems through the lenses of two instructors from different disciplinary backgrounds. The core issues of malnutrition and food production are approached simultaneously from a production perspective as well as an economic and policy perspective throughout the semester. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.

Students will explore ecological and human health consequences of climate change, the psychology of climate inaction, and will be invited to join us in the radical work of discovering not only their own leadership potential but that of others. We will unpack the old story of domination and hierarchy and invite the class to become part of a vibrant new story of human partnership that will not only help humanity deal with the physical threat of climate change but will help us create a world where we have the necessary skills and attitudes to engage the many other grand challenges facing us. Using a strategy of grassroots empowerment, the course will be organized to help us connect to the heart of what we really value; to understand the threat of climate change; to examine how we feel in the light of that threat; and to take powerful action together. Students will work in groups throughout the course to assess the global ecological threat posed by climate change, and they will be part of designing and executing an activity where they empower a community to take action. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. prereq: soph, jr, sr

Through readings, lectures, discussions, written assignments, and presentations this course introduces the critical issues underpinning global change and its environmental and social implications. The course examines current literature in exploring evidence for human-induced global change and its potential effects on a wide range of biological processes and examines the social and economic drivers, social and economic consequences, and political processes at local, national, and international scales related to global change. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.

An invisible, not-quite-dead, not-quite-alive entity?the coronavirus?forced us, rudely and tragically, to reckon with space. As we try and maintain social distance from other bodies, wear masks to disrupt the virus? pathways of diffusion, confront shortages in grocery stores, home supply outlets, and car dealerships, adjust to interruptions in many services, and either choose to, or are forced to stay at home, in our cities, in our countries, we are thinking and acting spatially. And we are reminded that ?stuff??food, medicines, toilet paper?reaches us often through geographically extensive and logistically intricate webs of economic production and distribution. We will learn what it means to think geographically about the capitalist economy as a spatial, relational formation. In doing so, we will challenge dominant ways of understanding and analyzing the economy, and of what counts as economic. We will also examine two simultaneous aspects of the world economy?fixity and flow. On the one hand, the economy propels and is propelled by flows?of goods, of services, of people, of labor, and of finance. On the other hand, physical infrastructures are rooted in place on the earth. After all, even the digital worlds of Facebook, Google, and Amazon are enabled by vast server farms. The course will also highlight the production and proliferation of inequalities?between social groups, states, countries, and regions?in and by the world economy. In fact, we will ask: Is economic unevenness a mere byproduct of capitalist economic growth, or the condition of possibility for it? Finally, we will discuss the relationships between global phenomena and local events. Crises like global climate change, overflows of waste matter, COVID19, and the 2008 financial meltdown make it clear that the global and the local are intimately entangled. Not only do global events impact individual livelihoods, including yours and mine, but economic jitters in one place can escalate, sending shockwaves across the world.

Comparative analysis and explanation of trends in fertility, mortality, internal and international migration in different parts of the world; world population problems; population policies; theories of population growth; impact of population growth on food supply and the environment.

This course will introduce students to some of the world's most powerful global institutions -- such as the World Bank (IBRD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations, and affiliated agencies such as UNHCR (for refugee support). We will follow their efforts to promote a style of global development practices -- large-scale capital lending and global expertise building -- that has crystallized into a common understanding of how global north-south dynamics should progress. Cases pursued in class may include their lending and debt policies, dam building and energy projects, climate resilience and water loans, and the ways they mediate free trade agreements among competing countries. We will also hear from the multitude of voices, theories, and practices that offer alternative visions as to how peoples strive to produce a more just, socially equitable, and climate-safe world. We will use books, articles, films, in-class debates, case study exploration, small-group projects, and guest speakers to create a lively discussion-based classroom environment.

'Globalization' and 'Culture' are both terms that have been defined and understood in a variety of ways and the significance of which continues to be debated to the present, both inside and outside the academy. Globalization has been talked about both as an irresistible historical force, tending toward the creation of an increasingly interconnected, or, as is sometimes claimed, an increasingly homogeneous world, and as a set of processes, the outcome of which remains open-ended and uncertain, as likely to produce new kinds of differences as universal sameness. Culture meanwhile has been variously defined as that which distinguishes humans from other species (and which all humans therefore share) and as that which divides communities of humans from one another on the basis of different beliefs, customs, values etc. This course reflects on some of the possible meanings of both "Globalization" and "Culture" and asks what we can learn by considering them in relation to one another. How do the phenomena associated with globalization, such as increasing flows of people, capital, goods and information across increasing distances challenge our understandings of culture, including the idea that the world is composed of so many discrete and bounded "cultures"? At the same time, does culture and its associated expressive forms, including narrative fiction, poetry and film, furnish us with new possibilities for thinking about globalization? Does global interconnection produce a single, unified world, or multiple worlds? Are the movements of people, goods, ideas and information across distances associated with new developments caused by contemporary globalization, or have they been going on for centuries or even millennia? Might contemporary debates about climate change and environmental crisis compel us to consider these phenomena in new ways? The course addresses these questions as they have been discussed by scholars from a variety of disciplines and as they have been imagined by artists, poets, novelists and filmmakers. In doing so, it considers whether the distinctiveness of present day globalization is to be sought in part in the new forms of imagining and creative expression to which it has given rise.

Why do countries go to war? Are individuals, organizations, and states driven by their interests or their ideas? What role does power play in international relations and is there any role for justice in global politics? Do international laws and transnational advocacy groups matter in a world dominated by powerful states? Whose interests are served by a globalizing world economy? These questions are central to the study of international relations, yet different theoretical approaches have been developed in an attempt to answer them. Often these approaches disagree with one another, leading to markedly different policy prescriptions and predictions for future events. This course provides the conceptual and theoretical means for analyzing these issues, processes, and events in international politics. By the end of this class, you will be able to understand the assumptions, the logics, and the implications of major theories and concepts of international relations. These include realism and neorealism, liberalism and liberal institutionalism, constructivism, feminism, Marxism, and critical theory. A special effort is made to relate the course material to world events, developments, or conflicts in the past decade or so.

This course analyzes the compatibility of democracy and markets - whether democratic institutions undermine (enhance) the workings of market institutions and vice versa. Competing theoretical perspectives in political economy are critically evaluated. And the experiences of countries with different forms of democratic market systems are studied. Among the topics singled out for in-depth investigation are the economics of voting, producer group politics, the politics of monetary and fiscal policy, political business cycles, and trade politics.

Causes of economic inequities in contemporary world. Long-term economic developments in cases taken from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North/South America. Various theoretical approaches to study of economic development. Introduction to key concepts.

Inequality in the form of extreme wealth and poverty in our world are major causes of environmental degradation. In addition, development failure as well as certain forms of economic growth always led to environment disasters. This course examines how our world?s economic and political systems and the livelihoods they engender have produced catastrophic local and global environmental conditions. Beyond this, the course explores alternative approaches of achieving sustainable environment and equitable development. prereq: Soph or jr or sr

From the city streets of Bangalore to the high plateaus of La Paz to the trading floors of New York City, people from around the world are becoming increasingly interdependent, creating new and revitalizing old forms of power and opportunity, exploitation and politics, social organizing and social justice. This course offers an overview of the processes that are forcing and encouraging people?s lives to intertwine economically, politically, and culturally. prereq: Soc majors/minors must register A-F

From the city streets of Bangalore to the high plateaus of La Paz to the trading floors of New York City, people from around the world are becoming increasingly interdependent, creating new and revitalizing old forms of power and opportunity, exploitation and politics, social organizing and social justice. This course offers an overview of the processes that are forcing and encouraging people?s lives to intertwine economically, politically, and culturally. prereq: Soc majors/minors must register A-F