International business concerns all the commercial transactions that take place between two or more countries. The best modes of operation in an international context may not be the same as those of the purely domestic business environment. International business involves activities such as exporting and importing, dealing with foreign governments, cultures and regulations, as well as domestic regulations affecting those firms who seek to do business outside their home country.

This online course introduces students to the practices of doing business in today's global environment. The course begins with an overview of the Globalization phenomenon and the key differences that characterized the various countries of the Globe. Then, students will be introduced to trends affecting the global trade and investment environment as well as the strategy and structure of international business. Finally, issues related to international business operations such as production, marketing, logistics, human resources management will be introduced.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the field of international business. Students should become familiar with three basic areas: underlying theories of international business, environmental factors affecting international activities, and the management of business functional operations in an international context.

In addition to the subject matter, students are expected to learn how to analyze international situations and evaluate contemporary issues in international business. These goals will be accomplished through the following activities: Case analysis will elaborate on basic issues in the field to ensure a breadth of understanding in the class. Reading assignments will offer more specific insights into particular areas of international business, providing depth of understanding. Suggested Optional Readings, such as The Economist, will provide up-to-date, real-life examples of the abstract theories and generalizations of the textbook and lectures. The Exams will offer students the opportunity to integrate everything they have learned in the course into a comprehensive framework, which will help make concepts seem more real, and aid in applying those concepts to everyday life.

Global - students will be able to apply knowledge of political, legal, economic, and cultural country differences to develop competitive strategies in foreign, regional, and global markets.

Critical thinking - students will be able to apply critical thinking skills to complex business problems. This includes: analyzing complex business problems with no "right answers", identifying and evaluating relevant issues and information, generating and evaluating possible solutions to the problems, recommending solutions based on well-reasoned rationales, and communicating these thought processes to others in an effective manner.

Use of information technology - students will be able to use information technology as a tool to do essential business tasks. These include: the ability to create documents, presentations, databases and spreadsheets; the ability to use the web to find information and/or create, use webpages; and the ability to understand the information technology related terminology.

This is an online class that requires initiative and discipline in order to complete this course effectively. You are responsible for reading the chapters using the timeframe set in the schedule of topics. At times you will be required to enter discussion forums to discuss and participate in online activities. There will be regular quizzes/exams online to ensure that you keep pace with the learning objectives. Group Case Study is also one of assessment tools for this course. It is expected that students will share their own "real world" experiences, when appropriate; to enrich the online learning experience and the environment should be highly interactive.

The College of Business cares about the quality of your education. For more information please visit the Assurance of Learning site to learn more on the College's commitment to this initiative.

Assignments from the text and other resources are listed below for each class session. Students are expected to be pace their learning according to the posted course assignments.

It is expected that interactive learning and teaching will enrich the learning experience of all students, and that each student will work in partnership with the professor to create a positive learning experience for all. Student engagement is a necessary condition for an effective learning experience, and includes contributions to debate and discussion (if any), positive interactive learning with others, and an enthusiastic attitude towards inquiry. Everyone is expected to be a positive contributor to the class learning community, and students are expected to share the responsibility of teaching each other.

Statement of Understanding between Professor and Student

Every student must respect the right of all to have an equitable opportunity to learn and honestly demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all students must adhere to a standard of academic conduct, demonstrating respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the educational mission of the University. As a student in the College of Business taking this class:

• I will not represent someone else’s work as my own
• I will not cheat, nor will I aid in another’s cheating
• I will be honest in my academic endeavors
• I understand that if I am found responsible for academic misconduct, I will be subject to the academic misconduct procedures and sanctions as outlined in the Student Handbook

Failure to adhere to the guidelines stated above may result in one of the following:
Expulsion: Permanent separation of the student from the University, preventing readmission to the institution. This sanction shall be recorded on the student's transcript.
Suspension: Temporary separation of the student from the University for a specific period of time.

Additionally the following two documents should be used by every student in business classes that require individual or group written assignments:

• Certification of Authorship Assignment Cover Page (Individual)

• Certification of Authorship Assignment Cover Page (Groups)

For details on the policy and procedure go to ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT. (Section 2.44)

NOTE: Intensive Auditing of the course will be conducted to prevent academic misconduct.

Please review the policies page as it contains essential information regarding guidelines relevant to all courses at FIU and additional information on the standards for acceptable netiquette important for online courses.

One of the greatest barriers to taking an online course is a lack of basic computer literacy. By computer literacy we mean being able to manage and organize computer files efficiently, and learning to use your computer's operating system and software quickly and easily. Keep in mind that this is not a computer literacy course; but students enrolled in online courses are expected to have moderate proficiency using a computer. Please go to the "What's Required" page to find out more information on this subject.

For detailed information about the technical requirements, please click here.

For detailed information about the specific limitations with the technologies used in this course, please click here.

For more information about Blackboard's Accessibility Commitment, click here.

If you have a disability and need assistance, please contact the Disability Resource Center (University Park: GC190; 305-348-3532) (North Campus: WUC139, 305-919-5345). Upon contact, the Disability Resource Center will review your request and contact your professors or other personnel to make arrangements for appropriate modification and/or assistance.

For additional assistance please contact our Disability Resource Center.

For more information about prerequisites, click here.

Please note that the information contained in this section applies only if your course requires a proctored exam.

It is the student’s responsibility to determine whether this online course requires proctored exams by carefully reviewing this syllabus. For detailed instructions please visit our Proctored Exam Resources page on the FIU Online website.

This is an online course, meaning that most of the course work will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in an online course are the same as for a traditional course; in fact, online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills that can make them more demanding for some students.

Communication in this course will take place via Blackboard Messages

Once you have access to the course, please send me all personal correspondence through Blackboard's Message tool. Only Message sent through the Blackboard course message tool will be answered. Furthermore, when responding to either e-mails or discussion forum postings, please use the "quote" features to ensure that the original message is included with your response. This will improve the speed at which I communicate within the course.

Blackboard Message:
Messages will usually be answered during the evenings, three times a week (Mon, Wed, and Fri). However, occasionally messages will be answered even sooner. In case that I am out of town, I will respond to your messages once I return and have access to the Internet.

Discussion Forums will be used for class discussions and other postings of general interest that are directly related to the course. To maintain its effectiveness, please post messages to the main discussion forum only if they are relevant to the entire class. Please do not send me any personal correspondence using the Discussion Forums. 

Keep in mind that forum discussions are public, and care should be taken when determining what to post. If you need to send a private message to an instructor or student, please use blackboard course message tool. Instructor will review discussion forums and reply to students as needed.

Only use Internet Explorer as your browser when taking a quiz in Blackboard.  Also, make sure you take the practice quiz before taking your first real quiz. Furthermore, to ensure that you do not encounter any technical difficulties, you should take the practice quiz from each new PC that you will be taking a quiz from.  All quizzes will be available for the duration of its indicated time frame within each part on the syllabus (typically 40 minutes). However, be advised that although you can begin your quiz at any given time, you will not be able to save any further answers once your quiz duration has expired.  Once your time expires, you will only have the ability to submit your quiz for grading.  

Quiz questions will come from the textbook and assigned readings exclusively.

There are 6 Exams for this course and each Exam consists of a number of chapter quizzes for that particular part. For example, Exam I consists of 3 quizzes that are derived from Chapter 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Each quiz will cover materials assigned for its corresponding chapters only thus
 there will be 20 quizzes in total. You can take an attempt on each quiz individually during its availability. You will also be allowed to take each quiz twice with your highest score being recorded. Each will be open from Monday (7:00 AM) to Sunday (11:55 PM) of the corresponding time periods. It is highly recommended that you do not to wait until the last minute to take many quizzes as once the availability has ended, you will not be given access any of the quiz. There will be no exceptions to this rule under any circumstance for any student.  



Please note that these quizzes are meant to be challenging and achieving a perfect score on them is very difficult. I have intentionally made them difficult and only give you a limited amount of time to take them.  In my opinion, the quizzes are the only portion of this course that really puts pressure on the students to perform.  Furthermore, due to the subjective nature of this course, quiz questions may not always appear to have only one correct answer.  However, there is always one answer that is the most correct and as long as you approach each question from the standpoint of the textbook you should be ok.  Therefore, try not to focus too much on your actual grade; rather, try to absorb the material and learn. The terms and principles that you will learn about in this course will help you throughout your career.  Should you feel that you would like to go over any of the quizzes, my door is always open so if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In order to mitigate any issues with your computer and online assessments, it is very important that you take the "Practice Quiz" from each computer you will be using to take your graded quizzes and exams. It is your responsibility to make sure your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements.

Please note assessments in this course are not compatible with mobile devices and should not be taken through a mobile phone or a tablet. If you need further assistance please contact FIU Online Support Services.

Group Case Study Instructions

Oftentimes business plans are based on teamwork. Thus, the Group Case Studies will be used in this class. The Group Case Studies are not only to ensure that you are truly grasping the assigned readings, during each module, but also exercise your abilities to cooperate with others. Details on exactly what cases will be analyzed and when they will be due can be found on “Course Calendar”. All Group Case Study discussions will take place in a virtual case room within the "Discussion Forum".

The format of the case discussions will be as follows:

1. Each student will be assigned to a virtual case room at about the 3rd weeks of class.

2. Once assigned, you can access your case room through the discussion forum.

3. Each virtual case room will consist of approximately 7-8 students.

4. All cases exercises will be discussed within your assigned case room.

5. Discussions will be based on the all questions of the assigned Group Case studies. Each group must elect a leader for each Group Case Study. Then, the leader can organize the discussions and assign tasks for his/her group members to complete each Group Case Study.

6. Please synthesize your group answers to all case study questions and submit them to the instructor before the end of their corresponding availability date. The group leader will be responsible for the submission using his or her assignments tab in Blackboard. Please be informed that only one submission from each group for a case study will be graded.

7. Your group answers for a Group Case Study must be less than 1,000 words. Submission with more than 1,000 words will not be graded.

8. Please make sure to list all participating member names and panther IDs in your group submission. Students who are not listed on the submission will be considered as "not contributing" to the group answers and will receive ZERO points.

To earn your points:

The final points are based on the group's answers, group discussion processes, and your individual involvements and contributions on the Case Study. If you are not participating and contributing to your group answers, the majority of your group may not include you in the list and you will get ZERO points. Free riding or lack of contribution problems are considered as internal problems within your group and should be solved before final submission.

Expected quality of the responses:

This assignment encourages each group member to share and exchange his/her knowledge. Thus, the group's final answers for a case study should be based on the group works. Please be well informed that the group case study assignments weighted 20 percent of the grading. Should you have any questions after reading these instructions, please contact me ASAP for the cases are a substantial part of your grade.

In order to help other classmates and the instructor relate a face to each name, your first assignment is to develop a small homepage area within this course's website. You can access the Student Homepages by clicking on the Discussions link on the course tools menu within your course in Blackboard. In this area you will need to do the following:

• Post an image of yourself ***Required*** Students must use the HTML creator to publish their image (not as just attached file). Please make sure your image is at least 640x480 but no larger than 1024X768 pixels.

• Provide a short bio about yourself to include:
  • Your Full Name (Put this in the subject line of the message)
  • Your Major
  • Your Student Status (Freshman, Junior, Sophomore, Senior, other)
  • Degrees and Affiliations
  • Your Working Status (Working/Not Working)
  • Your Interests/Hobbies
  • Your Expectation from this Course
  • What You Want to be Doing in 5 Years
  • Links to Two Favorite Web Sites, and
  • Any Personal Information You Want to Share with Your Classmates (optional)

Please note that you can submit assignments and take exams at any time during a given availability period. However, all quizzes must be taken and all assignments submitted before the first day of the following availability period. Due to the great flexibility that this class offers students, I will not accept any late assignments nor will I under any circumstance re-schedule a quiz. It is your responsibility to ensure that you follow the syllabus and complete all of assignments on time. Simply forgetting that an assignment or quiz was due is not a valid excuse and does not justify as grounds for an extension.

Professional quality in the organization, completeness, neatness, and timeliness of any material submitted will be expected (including quizzes). Late assignments will not be accepted under any circumstances. Please do not ask for a time extension. You are professional adults and as such I expect that you can manage your time and schedule accordingly. Should you feel that this course might be overwhelming for you, please contact me immediately so I can address your concerns to ensure that you do well in this course.