Curriculum

The effective management of channel relationships
is essential to the marketing manager's ability to create value for customers though the efficient delivery of goods
and services. This course provides the knowledge and skills required to manage channel relationships effectively. Specifically, the course facilitates an understanding of: (1)
alternative channel structures; (2) roles played by channel members in strategy and logistics; (3) effective methods for
negotiating with channel members, and (4)technologies that enable the channel system.

This course emphasizes the use of the target language in context, especially the lexicon of business. Readings from newspapers, journals, and books (although to a restricted degree in non-Latin alphabet languages) familiarize future international managers with issues in the areas of the world where the target language is spoken. Activities include small group discussions, oral and written projects, and grammar review.

This is an introductory course for beginning language learners. No prior knowledge is required. Students study language fundamentals such as pronunciations, vocabulary and grammar. The emphases are: a) establishing a solid foundation in pronunciations; b) building up vocabulary and sentence patterns in communicative contexts; c) introducing writing systems and preparing students to read characters. In addition, cultural and social information that go along with language use are also included in the teaching.

This course explores the mix of organizational practices and people that can be the basis of sustainable competitive advantage in the contemporary global business environment. Topics covered include cross-cultural issues in managing people; traditional and emerging models of organizations; organizational culture; leadership; employee skills and motivation; reward systems; and change management.

Economic development and social change can
offer tremendous business opportunities for global managers.
At the same time, the development process can lead to social,
cultural, economic, and political conflicts. This course
explores the roots of such conflicts, and methods of conflict
management such as negotiations and multicultural communications.

As business enters the 21st century, a shift in thinking about business? role in society is underway. Society?s demands for social and environmental responsibility are growing dramatically and few managers have the requisite skills to respond effectively. This course is designed to give future business leaders the knowledge and tools needed to develop a CSR strategy that creates value, not only for society and the environment, but also competitive and financial value for the company.

Corporate Partners consists of classroom meetings and hands-on business projects conducted by Thunderbird students for U.S. and International entities. The course will focus on a specific industry and/or region depending on the location and project available. The projects require close interaction among students and their assigned business entities covering topics across the spectrum of business operations to include but not limited to strategy, marketing, import/export, operations, supply chain, and finance.

Global managers must be concerned with the
risks to their businesses posed by political, social, and financial
forces at work internationally and in specific regions and
countries. This course is centered around state-of-the-art
assessment models used by businesses and foreign investors.
Issues include methods of measuring and forecasting risk;
and methods of mitigating risk such as political risk insurance.

This course focuses on consumer behavior from a
cross-cultural perspective. Topics include the cognitive processes underlying consumer choice (needs, perceptions and attitudes);
descriptive consumer characteristics (demographics, psychographics,
VALS); and environmental influences on behavior
(culture, family, situation). Emphasis is placed on the implications
of consumer behavior for global marketing strategy. Class assignments emphasize the application of these concepts to real marketing problems.