Course Name Year Term Period Faculty / Graduate School All Instructors Credits
33842:[2025 Spring]International Business (E) 2025 Spring Thu2 College　Of　Economics KOBAYASHI MIZUKI 2

Campus

BKC

Class Venue

Ad-seminario302

Language

English

Course Outline and Method

This lecture provides you a wide range of issues related to company's international expansion. The course is designed for undergraduate students, including lecture part, case study part, and presentation and discussion part.
     Lectures cover basic concepts and theories in strategic management and international business.
     Case studies are considered to be useful for students to understand the knowledge in company's strategy and management in general, and its international expansion activities.
     Presentation and discussion encourage students to practice their expression and analytic skills.
     This course requires students to read the English textbook on the reference. The textbook is supposed to be available at Ritsumeikan Coop Book Store.
     The lecture aims at active-learning. After the lecture given by the instructor, students will be required to discuss the topic. Intensive reading and speaking are necessary for this course. Students who take this course are required to understand, speak, and write in English.

※It might be a chance to invite a guest speaker to the class (zoom) to have discussion with the students regarding certain topics.

Student Attainment Objectives

・Acquirement of knowledge of strategic management and international expansion.
・Improvement of students’ intellectual curiosity and analytic capability.

Recommended Preparatory Course

Course Schedule

Lecture/Instructor（When there are multiple instructors) Theme
Keyword, References and Supplementary Information
1

Introduction of the course

course requirement explanation
Ch.1 Globalization

2

Ch.2 National differences in political, economic, and legal systems

Collectivism and individualism, market economy and command economy, different legal systems

Discussion required

3

Ch.3 & Ch.4 National difference in economic development and culture

Culture, society, the nation-state, religions and languages

Discussion required

4

 Ch.8 Foreign direct investment

Absolute advantage, comparative advantage, the product life-cycle theory, and Porter's diamond theory.

The direction of FDI, the form of FDI, the reasons of FDI, and benefits and costs of FDI

Discussion required

5-6

Presentation regarding countries' differences and firm's FDI

preparation and presentation

7

Ch. 13 The strategy of international business

Global standardization strategy, localization strategy, international strategy , and transnational strategy

Discussion required

8

Ch. 14 The Organization of international business

Vertical differentiation (centralization and decentralization) and horizontal differentiation (the design of structure)

Discussion required

9

Ch. 15 Entry strategy

Timing of entry, scale of entry and strategic commitments, and entry modes

Discussion required

10

Ch. 17 Global production and supply chain management

Production site selection, make-or-buy decisions, global purchasing and logistics, and coordination in global supply chains


Discussion required

11

Ch. 19 Global Human Resource Management

Strategic role of global HRM, types of staffing policies, expatriate managers, global mindset, training for expatriate managers, and guidelines for performance appraisal

12-13

Presentation regarding multinational enterprises' international operation

Preparation for the presentation

14

Course review

 +R 授業<details will be announced on Manaba+R and lecture>
Final Report submission on Manaba+R

Class Format

Basically in-person class.

A few lectures will be scheduled on Zoom.
Zoom URL and dates will be announced later in the class and on Manaba+R.



Recommendations for Private Study

Read academic papers and books as many as possible for the presentations and report.

Grade Evaluation Method

Kind Percentage Grading Criteria etc.
Final Examination (Written)

Report Examination
(A report to be submitted by the unified deadline)

Exams and/or Reports other than those stated above, and Continuous Assessment　
(Evaluation of Everyday Performance in Class)		 100

Class discussion: 30%
Presentation: 20%
Final report: 50%

Grade Evaluation Method （Note）

Advice to Students on Study and Research Methods

Textbooks

Title Author Publisher ISBN Code Comment
International Business Competing in the Global Marketplace 13E Charles W.L. Hill and G. Tomas M. Hult McGraw Hill Education 9781260575866

Textbooks （Frequency of Use, Note）

Reference Books

Reference Books （Frequency of Use, Note）

Web Pages for Reference

How to Communicate with the Instructor In and Out of Class(Including Instructor Contact Information)

Other (Separate instructions will be provided)

Other Comments

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