International Business
BA (Hons)

Numbers by themselves can be misleading and you will progress to examining accounting statements to assess just how well a business is performing. Managers cannot improve the performance of a business unless they make correct interpretations of situations and learn how to diagnose problems.

Business costs will be identified and analysed to aid decision making relating to the control and viability of projects. Sources of finance will be identified and discussed. This basic financial knowledge is essential to anyone wishing to pursue a career in business, whether on a self-employed basis or in a larger corporation.

It will develop your appreciation of the importance of basing your analysis and evaluation on information that comes from sources that are academically rigorous, contemporary and relevant; this will involve use of relevant referencing systems. You will also learn how to identify the appropriate research strategy and methodology for research in the accounting and finance disciplines.

The module will enable you to understand the relevant principles of research ethics, again, particularly for the accounting and finance disciplines.

Together all this will then provide you with the relevant foundation to support the rest of your academic studies as well as develop the relevant professional skills that accountants are expected to possess including reporting writing.

This module develops your understanding of economic information found in news reports and economic and marketing reports and develops your ability and confidence to create your own independent analysis. Take a look at the BBC website and see how much of the business news is about markets and economics. This type of information and analysis affects business decisions and business strategy. Economics is also a model-based discipline which will help you to develop more rigorous analytical skills required in levels 5 and 6. It also provides the disciplinary context on which many other subjects draw at these levels, including strategic management, management operations, enterprise, marketing and finance.

It will introduce you to the basic models of macroeconomic analysis which will enable you to start analysing the impact of the government’s monetary and fiscal policies on the aggregate economy in today’s globalised world. You will understand how interest rates are set and how taxation levels are determined. You will improve your awareness of the daily finance and economics goings-on and you will develop your understanding of the content and implications of economic analysis. You will develop problem-solving and analytical skills that will improve your every-day decision-making.

You will explore how the theory is used in economic analysis to assess rational consumer choice, producer strategy decisions, general business activity in markets and industries. You will also use the theory to examine and assess the impact of government policy on consumer choice, business decisions and markets.

You will apply the theory to different issues and use real time data on firms and markets from the Bloomberg database in your analysis. This will develop key theory and analysis skills for further applied analysis in level 4 and 6 modules.

In this module you will apply economic theories and principles to real-life situations, delve into current economic debates and apply economic analysis to a range of contemporary issues. Further, we will adopt an explicitly historical perspective in the discussion of the current topical economic debates. This will contribute to your knowledge of economic theory and analysis and to your greater understanding of how political debates and economic thinking evolve. This module will enable you to be able to argue and critically evaluate responses by government to various current issues.

The module will take an integrated and applied approach to macroeconomic topics from economic growth, inflation and unemployment, to financial markets, interest rates and investment, and to policy making in an open economy. You will develop competence in using data analysis skills using real macroeconomic data and effective statistics and graphical tools.

The emphasis is on practical analysis with real data and on developing the ability to interpret results for end users. To be a good analyst you need to have good practical skills but also be able to understand why, how and when different techniques are appropriate, and be able to interpret and communicate results to others.

You will gain an appreciation of the value of corporate governance and the responsibility of good managers to wider stakeholders in the business. Without good management control and coordination of financial resources, businesses frequently fail to meet their potential.

You will study common pitfalls in performance management and how to avoid them. This module will equip you with key skills, such as the ability to understand, analyse and interpret financial, management and non-financial information in the context of modern business. Such skills are vital to any business manager, irrespective of discipline.

The module is designed to help you fully understand the relevance of these elements, giving you transferable skills you can apply in an organisational context. Strong emphasis will be placed upon you to demonstrate skills and reflect upon your progress on how knowledge can be applied in a business environment. The skills you will develop will be transferable from an academic context to business environmental context.

You will analyse the range of human resources (HR) tools and techniques used to manage the attraction, retention and departure of employees within the UK legal framework. By the end of the module, you will be able to describe HR planning, recruitment and retention methods and demonstrate skills required to undertake many of these in the workplace.

It analyses topics such as the relation between states and international institutions or multinational companies, but also the politics and policies relating to international trade and investment. It focuses on the relation between “politics” and “money” at international level by exploring topics such as global governance and the international financial crisis or the effects of the imposition of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). By the end of the term, students will have a firm understanding of IPE as a discipline, including what it can tell us about a wide variety of policy outcomes.

As a manager of any business it is important to understand the impact of the physical assets with regard to the bottom line, this module will give you insight into how to measure the financial return on specific physical assets of the business (for example – vehicles) and the financial impact of factors such as depreciation.

In order to maximise asset value, optimisation is fundamental, this module will enable you to investigate and evaluate some of the methods and approaches for efficient asset management, for example – asset maintenance and integration of technology through Enterprise Resource Management systems. To complement the specific subject areas, you also learn new skills to enhance your development with regards to working in a business, including the development of risk assessments.

Public Relations is about managing a corporate image and reputation. Deciding which public a company needs to engage with and which media to utilise in delivering the corporate ‘message’ are key issues that the module will equip you to make. With that understanding, you will then be in a position to suggest creative ideas for an optimised PR plan that is likely to optimise a company’s corporate reputation and increase its brand equity.

Management of media/press relations plays a central role in the delivery of PR activities and requires sensitive and imaginative management if these channels are to be fully utilised to the organisations benefit. This area will be explored extensively during the module allowing you to fully appreciate the interrelationship between PR and the Media. While doing this, you will develop an understanding that reputation management needs to be an continuous ongoing core activity within a company. You will also see the importance of PR in the management of exceptional (crisis) situations, corporate social responsibility and the needs for all PR activity to fall within acceptable legal and ethical parameters.

The module has been formulated with the requirements of the appropriate PR professional body in mind and skills embedded that resonate with those expected by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Your learning will be enhanced through the use of guest lectures by media professionals.

Throughout this module, you will develop critical practical skills valued by employers and professional accreditation bodies. These include selecting and interpreting data, problem-solving and decision-making which are vital for successful careers in a variety of international and domestic organisations.

As part of this module, you will learn how to develop a strategy for an international business as well as how to implement such a strategy. When putting strategy into action you will consider a range of complex issues like culture, leadership, corporate governance and others.

Throughout this module, you will develop critical practical skills valued by employers and professional accreditation bodies. These include problem solving and decision-making, positioning analysis, and developing and evaluating strategic options. Such skills are vital for successful careers in a variety of international and domestic organisations.

The module will explore and analyse the theory and practice of sustainable development as well as analyse international business transaction as it relates to the sale of goods and the provision of services. In this capacity, the module will link these two strands and will engage students with live and contemporary development problems facing governments and then allow the students to implement functional and realistic business solutions to these problems.

The module places the student at the heart of sustainable international business and fosters problem-solving, creativity, enterprise, critical analysis and innovation for the purpose of direct impact. To bolster this, the module will engage and interact with the Government Department for International Development and, the British Council through guest speakers and projects offered by these institutions. The assessment is by coursework and will require students to analyse a series of case studies and implement a sustainable business transaction.

During this module you will practice presenting your thoughts to an audience and developing and improving your presentation style. Presentations will be filmed so you can watch yourself and reflect on how you can improve. Also you will experience informal lectures and seminars to build up your understanding as to how and why organisations perform in the way they do.

Understanding how a business performs and being able to communicate this to all levels in business is a key employability skill. This module will give you the confidence that you can critically evaluate a business scenario and make a verbal presentation to a small audience.

You will read broadly on international business and economics issues and write assignments where you will exercise your analysis, interpretation and persuasion. At the same time, you will practice a range of personal and business skills necessary for success both at university and in the business world. You will evidence those skills and reflect upon the progress achieved during various stages of the module. The academic expertise you will develop and the skills you will improve in this module will help you achieve highly in your studies and will contribute to your personal and professional development.

You will analyse banks as providers of services to international businesses (managing funds, hedging and insuring risk, facilitating trade and investment etc.) and, at the same time, examine their activities as international businesses themselves (investing, brokering, underwriting etc.). In doing so, you will analyse central banks and government involvement in financial markets through monetary policy and regulation. 

All along, you will develop critical practical skills required by professional accreditation bodies such as selecting and interpreting data, analytical reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making skills which are vital for successful careers in a variety of international and domestic organisations.

You will understand its evolutionary character – new regulations and governance enhancements are mostly introduced in the wake of scandals and crises. The 2008 global financial crisis is simply one of the latest events bringing turmoil to corporate governance. Using an international comparison perspective, we will look at the differences in the practices employed by corporations to organise and coordinate themselves and in the mechanisms by which governments and societies try to influence the behaviour of corporations. 

You will develop skills in comparative analysis and evaluation and develop a critical understanding of the importance of governance to the global economy and, hopefully, increase your interest in improving it.

In recent years, international business and entrepreneurship have been coalescing into a single cognate area that is now becoming regarded as cohesive in its own right. Trading blocs such as the EU have placed emphasis on entrepreneurship as an engine of economic growth and the trend towards greater international involvement of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) is accelerated by technological advances.

At the same time, globalisation has prompted the re-emergence of local cultures which influence the growth of entrepreneurship in diverse ways. We can therefore see a tension between the global and local elements. Creating an in-depth appreciation of these elements will enable you to apply theory to inform, evaluate and enhance potential international entrepreneurial ventures. Ultimately, all organisations need to be aware of the development of international business and that they can no longer rely simply on national trade.

The purpose of this module is therefore for you to explore entrepreneurial activity across boundaries paying attention to cultural and political differences, choice of markets, supply chain relations and appropriate marketing implementation. You will apply your learning to a local SME to produce an international market entry strategy and critically evaluate the process you have undertaken.

An alternative approach is that of the lean business venture. In this approach, a minimum viable product or service is developed and tested with potential customers. The results of this are fed back into the further development of fulfilling the business opportunity. However, the immediate customer feedback means less waste and is, as such, a lean process.

This lean process is what we will be asking you to demonstrate within this module. The aim is for you to take a minimum product or service which addresses a business opportunity, present it to possible customers, learn from their actions and reactions and then develop and improve the product or service. You will then need to reflect on the pros and cons of achieving that goal.

Trade unions remain strong in the public sector. This is partly through the existence of institutions of collective consultation, reinforced by continued reliance in many cases on industry-level bargaining and the public policy emphasis on ‘partnership’.

The collective aspect of the employment relationship is too often regarded as being synonymous with disruption, conflict and contradiction, but this is not necessarily the case and a range of viewpoints will be examined. Additionally, trade unions and collective employment relationship mechanisms are also evident in other countries and the reasons for this will also be explored as part of recognising the global aspects of managing the employment relationship.

Despite instances of industrial action and workplace conflict the emphasis on employee relations continues to embrace concepts of the psychological contract, employee voice and employee involvement, commitment and engagement.

CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) suggest that evidence shows that the informal workplace climate appears to have a stronger influence than collective consultation machinery on employee satisfaction and commitment levels.

Employers should also pay attention to the mechanisms that contribute to good employee relations, such as effective approaches for employee voice including two-way communications, project teams and joint consultation, together with electronic media, attitude surveys and 'partnership'.

The employment relationship is a vital component of the workplace jigsaw and how this is understood and managed is vital to the organisation and the well-being of the individual and society at large.

The module will further explore the economic tenets of contemporary international economic relationships in order to critically evaluate their impact on rights to development. In these contexts, the module will be examining the status of International economic relations, in particular the tension between global institutions and United Nations and other actors.

With the ever-increasing pressure of competition among companies, the move towards consolidation of global production and the improvements in communication and transportation systems the supply market is now a global phenomenon. To that end the sourcing and outsourcing of materials or the engagement of service providers is taking on an international perspective. This alters dramatically the role of purchasing, to a more strategic and global posture. This module explores the forces that guide the development of the supply chain: the supply chain concept, the trends within global business and a strategic shift being taken by an increasing number of enterprises towards core competencies.

Your assessment is coursework-based, designed to enable you to demonstrate your ability to approach a business challenge as a marketer and business manager. The assessment methods used on this module will also help you develop key skills desired by employers, for example, critical analysis, business report writing and presentation skills.