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Global Business

Course leader: Mr M. Jefferson (email: humanities@buckingham.ac.uk )
Spring Term (15 units)

Aims of the course

This course will provide practical insights into the past performance, modern operations and future planning of trans-national companies, drawing on the first-hand experiences of international companies and inter-governmental institutions of the lecturer. The course is intended to enlighten potential business people, diplomats, negotiators, and staff of international organisations as to what such companies have done, have failed to do, and could usefully do now when faced with an uncertain future. The challenges and opportunities for those working in such environments are touched upon.

Objectives of the course

At the end of the course, students should be able to understand and communicate how trans-national companies function and the environment within which they do so, and how to fit this knowledge into their future employment, either within a trans-national company or in their relationships with TNCs

Topics include:

• Origins and growth of the trans-national company
• Decline and fall of major companies
• Competitive positioning
• Linking to the 'outside world'
• Lessons of history
• Strengths and weaknesses of central control
• Responding to climate change
• Facing an uncertain future

Assessment

• Examination (50%)
• Term paper (25%)
• Case study (25%)

Key texts

• Jones, G. Multinationals and global capitalism: From the nineteenth to the twenty-first century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). ISBN: 0-19-927210-7 (pbk).
• Dunning, J.H. & S.M. Lundan, Multinational enterprises and the global economy (2nd ed., Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2008). ISBN: 978-1-84720-122-5.
• Lewis, R.D. When cultures collide: Leading, teamworking and managing across the globe (3rd ed., Boston: Nicholas Brealey, 2006). ISBN: 1-904838-02-2.

Further reading

• Jefferson, M. "“Fiddling while the world burned", Renewable Energy (April 2006).
• Jefferson, M. "Sustainable energy development: performance and prospects", Renewable Energy (April 2006).
• Jefferson, M. "Accelerating the transition to sustainable energy systems", Energy Policy (November 2008).
• Jefferson, M. "Economic uncertainty and business decision-making", in J. Wiseman (ed.), Beyond positive economics? (New York: St Martin's Press, 1983). ISBN: 0-312-07780-7.