Oxford Brookes University

MSc in International Business Management

Study modules

Compulsory modules

• Global Strategic Management
  Strategic management is the process by which managers formulate and implement strategies to generate high performance. In this module, you will develop your understanding of the managerial strategic challenge; how to deliver sustainable competitive advantage. You will engage in critical evaluation of the key strategic issues. You will consider the wider economic environment and explore why strategy is important, how organisations make strategic decisions through the processes of analysis, choice and responsible and ethical management and leadership.
• Innovation, Change and Organisations
  The aim of this module is to provide insight into a series of topics that represent key issues around innovation and change and the organisational context in modern general management. The module is forward-looking from the contemporary organisation towards future developments. A key perspective is a development to date of entrepreneurship, innovation, change and organisational practices making students aware of long-term patterns and cycles, and the way and extent to which the past can shape the present.
• Introduction to the Principles of Marketing
  In this module, you will be introduced to the key principles of marketing. You will explore the roles of buyers, the marketing environment, and the ways marketers plan, manage, and monitor marketing programmes in an international environment.
• Developing Skills for Business Leadership
  Successful leaders have different approaches to their work, sharing a range of diverse personality traits. A key purpose of this module is to encourage you to develop a strong sense of self-awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses as a manager and colleague. In addition, you will develop a range of transferrable skills which are pivotal to successful management practice. These include decision-making skills, team-working and interpersonal skills and others associated with developing personal effectiveness.
• Operations Management
  In this module, you will develop your understanding of an organisation's ability to deliver goods and services of the quality, quantity and cost that will satisfy customers' needs, while making efficient use of resources. The key principles introduced in this module can be applied to any business sector and function. Issues covered include ethics, environmental sustainability, global business, complexity and uncertainty, and continuing professional development.
• Finance and Accounting for Business
  In this module, you will develop your critical assessment of corporate financial information from the users' perspective. You will study both financial and management accounting covering three areas: basics (terminology, purposes, users), rules and regulations, and business entities.
• Financial accounting - key financial statements, published accounts and analysis and interpretation through ratios.
• Management accounting - costing, budgeting and forecasting, budget management and pricing.
  • Financial accounting - key financial statements, published accounts and analysis and interpretation through ratios.
  • Management accounting - costing, budgeting and forecasting, budget management and pricing.
• Research Methods
  This module prepares you for completing high quality, systematic business and management research, and equips you to be successful in your final dissertation or another capstone module. You will learn how to undertake effective research drawing upon a range of secondary and primary data sources and will be introduced to a range of tools required for research including methodological issues, data collection techniques and study skills.
• Consultancy Project or International Management in Practice: Study Trip
  You can choose between:
• Consultancy Project: gain practical international project experience by working in a cross-cultural team on a real problem for a client organisation. You will develop problem solving and communication skills as well as the ability to work in cross-cultural teams. Your team will work virtually, face-to-face and with help from tutors.
• International Study Trip: this module gives you a hands-on, intensive experience of current business ideas and practices through visiting multinational enterprises and international organisations. You meet with leaders of global firms and international organisations and have the opportunity to tour facilities. The programme includes presentations from local and international executives, managers and academics. To participate in the study trip students are required to pay an additional fee, see the Field Trips section for example costs.
  • Consultancy Project: gain practical international project experience by working in a cross-cultural team on a real problem for a client organisation. You will develop problem solving and communication skills as well as the ability to work in cross-cultural teams. Your team will work virtually, face-to-face and with help from tutors.
  • International Study Trip: this module gives you a hands-on, intensive experience of current business ideas and practices through visiting multinational enterprises and international organisations. You meet with leaders of global firms and international organisations and have the opportunity to tour facilities. The programme includes presentations from local and international executives, managers and academics. To participate in the study trip students are required to pay an additional fee, see the Field Trips section for example costs.

Optional modules

• Understanding Customer Behaviour
  You will critically appraise the behaviours of customers and their interactions with marketing. Informed by behavioural science, you will analyse why customers behave as they do and how marketing activity influences their behaviours. This analysis informs your critical understanding and implementation of both strategic and responsible marketing practices. An innovative dimension of this course is the investigation of change agents that will significantly influence the behaviours of customers in the future, for example, neuroscience, climate change and technology innovation. This is an analytical module that utilises research evidence to inform evaluation, behavioural and communications research.
• Global Marketing Strategy
  In this module, you will apply concepts you studied earlier with an emphasis on the global environment of marketing. You will develop your understanding of creating sustainable competitive advantage in a global context, implementing strategies to take into account both the convergence and divergence of consumer preferences, creating global products and brands that have near-universal application and appeal, and the importance of ethical and social issues in the global marketplace.
• Resourcing, Talent and Performance Management
  A major objective of the human resources (HR) function is the mobilisation of a workforce. Organisations can only function if they are able to assemble teams of people with the necessary skills to meet their goals and retain effective performers. In this module, you will focus on the practical aspects of recruitment, selection, employee retention and exiting. You develop the knowledge and skills required for resourcing and talent management within a global context. You will gain an understanding of how performance management can support the strategic objectives of an organisation, how the performance of people can be enhanced and inspired by leadership, and how it contributes to high-performance work organisations.
• Managing Employment Relations
  This will develop your understanding of managing employment relations within a global business. Employment relations is a changing subject that is influenced by external factors (political and economic) and internal factors (management and management style). You will explore the impact of different national environments on employment and the roles of different stakeholders in employment relation systems. You will also critically review employment relations in an organisation and make suggestions to drive improvements to human resource management. This module includes a practical skills workshop.
• Entrepreneurial Theory and Practice
  This module enhances your understanding of enterprise and entrepreneurship and helps you develop vital entrepreneurial skills. These skills include idea generation and evaluation, communication, networking and the evaluation of risk. In addition, you will develop an understanding of the social and economic impact of entrepreneurialism. The module focuses on developing an understanding of factors relating to the development of the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial idea and the entrepreneurial organisation. By studying these topics the module bridges the gap between theory and practice.
• Planning for New Business Ventures
  This module develops your business planning skills and is essential for those students who intend to start and run their own businesses. At the heart of the module is an evaluation of a firm's business model. You will prepare a business plan in groups for a new or existing venture, which will be assessed by a panel. You will be evaluated on its economic logic, value to the customer and return on investment for its owners.
• Strategic Business Simulation
  This module teaches you about group decision making. It involves a live new business development scenario, through which you apply your understanding of business and entrepreneurship principles to a computer simulation. The simulation will challenge your business, entrepreneurial and responsible management decisions when running an international business and will consider a range of business functions. You will develop management skills such as team management, budgeting, strategising, implementing a communications strategy and coping with unexpected competitor activity.
• Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility
  In this module, you will learn about alternative perspectives on strategic management and corporate governance. This will encompass stakeholder issues including ethics, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). You will develop your understanding of approaches to solving problems when governing in the corporate sector. Your studies will consider current issues and consider the social implications of governance. You will also focus on the impact of globalisation on international management practices. You will be equipped with the knowledge to enhance management decisions involving ethical choices. Finally, you will consider your assumptions about the role of managers and organisations in a complex and challenging context through the exploration of contemporary issues in CSR.
• Corporate Finance Concepts
  You will study how businesses manage their finances within a company in line with their corporate strategy. This includes understanding the different methods used for valuing a business. You will also understand how key business decisions are made from a financial perspective, such as the investment in major projects, managing working capital and evaluating risk.
• Financial Markets and Institutions
  You will study how businesses interact in an external financial context by understanding how funds are provided through markets and institutions. This module looks at how financial markets operate, including stock markets, markets for fixed income assets and derivative markets and focuses on issues of asset pricing and market efficiency. With regard to institutions, we examine the transformation of the financial sector as a result of globalisation, technical innovation and regulatory change.
• Procurement & Supply Chain Management
  In an increasingly globalised business environment, the ability of organisations to identify, and then manage, supply networks and individual chains of supply have grown in its significance. It is of vital importance that both the upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and customers are managed effectively to ensure value is added whilst controlling costs and ultimately satisfying the customer. In this module, you will learn about the key elements and activities within procurement and supply chain management, how this function supports the wider organisation and its objectives, and how these activities can be managed to ensure the optimal outcome.
• Strategic & Sustainable Logistics
  Physical logistics is concerned with managing and controlling the activities and processes along a chain of supply, from procuring materials to moving, distributing and delivering finished goods that satisfy customer orders. Customers have become ever more demanding, wanting more for less and greater added value. This often involves customised products and services, quick response deliveries, and state-of-the-art information systems. This new era of customer ‘pull’ as well as the globalised business environment, alongside the emphasis on sustainability, has led to the concept of ‘Strategic and Sustainable Logistics’. Students will evaluate how effective logistics and distribution systems can become key business enablers and the importance of managing international logistics systems.
• Digital Business Strategy
  It is no overstatement to say that digital technologies are having pervasive and disruptive effects on organisational life. Few industries and areas of work have been untouched by their ever-deeper penetration into products, services and business processes. The 21st century has seen the rise of new industries and business models unthinkable without the availability of fast, affordable and flexible digital devices – together with their associated networked infrastructures. This module aims to help students appreciate and address the organisational challenges and opportunities bound up with digital innovation and transformation. It looks in particular at the strategic and leadership issues managers are likely to confront, and the concepts, theories and frameworks they need to understand and apply in response to these.
• Information Systems in Organisations
  Digital technologies, as diverse as accounting and sales software, internet and mobile technology, artificial intelligence and robotics, have wide-ranging roles and impacts in organisations that need to be understood and managed. This module aims to equip students with knowledge and skills for understanding, analysing and evaluating the use of digital technologies in organisations, taking an information perspective. This will be grounded in systems theory, and focus on the role of data and information in management decision making and business processes.

Final project - choose one of

• Dissertation
  This is an opportunity for you to carry out an in-depth investigation into a topic of International Business Management which is of particular interest to you. It should have an appropriately clear focus and be an investigation based on primary and/or secondary data, justified and supported by detailed reference to relevant theories and concepts from literature.
• Synoptic Research Project
  In this module, you will integrate, apply and extend your knowledge and skills gained within the core modules through an international case study and oral examination. You will learn more about the complexity of Business and Management by synthesising and applying the learning gained in other modules.
• Client Project
  The work-based project is an opportunity for you to link theory with practice. You will analyse a real organisational issue from the inside and provide a workable approach. The issue may be a problem that the organisation currently encounters or concerns its future strategy. You are responsible for managing a significant proportion of your own learning, including tracking and recording your own progress.

Work placement

• Work placement
  This supervised work experience module is part of the two-year sandwich mode for students who join the Programme in September. The module supports and assesses students who are engaging in paid supervised work experience (a placement) in a role relevant to their programme. It provides students with the opportunity to understand first-hand how businesses work and to apply the learning gained from the taught element of their programme within a real working environment.
  We will provide support to help you find a placement - our team has a database of opportunities and runs events where you can meet potential employers. A placement will provide you with valuable experience, although securing one takes a lot of effort and success is not guaranteed. You would need to cover your own living and travel costs throughout the duration of your placement.
  Fees will be charged for the placement year in Year 2 and are available on request in May of the year of study.

You will graduate with highly relevant knowledge as well as practical experiences on how to manage different functional units in organisations.

Many of our graduates find managerial positions at a wide range of organisations, including:

• companies producing fast-moving commercial goods
• consultancy firms
• financial institutions
• retail giants
• charities
• SMEs

Examples of these employers include:

• Amazon
• IBM
• Deutsche Telekom
• Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, EY
• Oxfam
• BASF Group
• Kautex Unipart
• Raiffeisen Bank
• Revolution Insurance
• American Business Conferences
• Consilio Global
• Or return to their family business