Global Business Operations

5 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This is the second in a set of two courses (8 credits) examining the causes and consequences of the distribution of economic activity around the world with an innovative focus on the networks of suppliers, investors, and partners orchestrated by multinational corporations’ global value chains (GVCs). The distribution of employment and investment around the world has profound effects on development, inequality, prosperity, firm performance, political stability, security, and human rights. Topics include advanced international political economy and international finance, development and policy topics related to global value chains, as well as traditional international business topics such as firm-level strategy, international operations and supply chains/logistics, transfer pricing, and global corporate social responsibility. This course contains an international, multi-location, experience which takes place at the end of the junior year. This experiential learning unit is designed to explore the causes and consequences of the distribution of economic and business activity through the lens of a particular commodity, product, or firm. The project-based experience examines global value chain networks at both the “bottom” (commodity production in lower-income countries) and the “top” (activities in higher-income countries) associated with topics such as economic policy making and international economic relations, climate change and water use, foreign direct investment, sustainability, development, human rights, labor standards and workforce development, and global financial flows.