Take a deep dive into doing business abroad in a multidisciplinary environment. Your learn to frame international business challenges through the 17 UN SDGs. You explore interconnections and apply cross-cultural theory, sustainable business models, sustainability marketing/communication, and nation branding. 

 

This course can be taken in two variants: one of 15 EC and one of 30 EC.

 

You are taken on a learning journey in which you discover that environmental, social and governmental challenges are interrelated, and an integrated approach is required that undertakes action at various levels simultaneously. Subjects are: 

1. History and politics of the sustainable development goals. 

1. Cross-cultural theories, many cross-cultural experiences, their implications in business. 

1. Sustainable businesses models. 

1. Sustainability marketing and communication. 

1. Organizational strategy related to sustainability. 

1. Nation branding for individual countries and groups of countries (i.e., the EU). 

 

 

You will learn how to frame complex international business problems within the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and understand how these goals are deeply interconnected. Using Jeffrey Sachs’ work as the theoretical foundation, you will start with an in-depth exploration of the SDGs, including their historical and political background. You will develop a broader view of sustainability: creating long-term business value while improving quality of life, promoting fairness and inclusion today, and taking responsibility for future generations within the planet’s ecological limits. 

 Throughout the course, you will discover how environmental, social, and governance challenges reinforce one another and why integrated solutions are needed at multiple levels. You will gain practical and conceptual insight into cross-cultural theories and experiences and their implications for international business. In addition, you will learn about sustainable business models, sustainability marketing and communication, organizational strategy for sustainability, and nation branding for individual countries and regional blocs such as the EU.

All students are welcome to participate in this minor. However, we expect students to have a basic knowledge about international business.

Further entrance requirements:

1. You must have successfully completed the propaedeutic phase.
2. Furthermore, we expect you to possess competency level 2 (post propedeutic). This means the following:

- We assume that you can analyze complexity, design learning tasks, and collaborate both independently and interdisciplinarily.

- We encourage you to use different perspectives and engage in dialogue with other disciplines and cultures.

- Throughout the minor we also ask you to reflect critically on content, context, process, your own person, profession, and worldview.

• Anholt, S. (2016). Competitive Identity: The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and Regions (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. 

• Belz, F., & Peattie, K. (2012). Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective (2nd ed.). Wiley. 

• Meyer, E. (2016). The culture map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures. Public Affairs. 

• Sachs, J. D. (2015). The Age of Sustainable Development. New York City, United States of America: Columbia University Press. 

• Wit, D. B. (2020). Strategy: An International Perspective (7th ed.). Cengage Learning EMEA. 

• Articles related to weekly topics.  

September - November (15 EC)

September - February (30 EC)

The exact timetable will be announced in due time.

This is an example of a timetable week for the minor:

         

Monday
Day of teaching: Seminars 13:00 – 17:00 

Tuesday 
Day of self-study: Work on assignments with project group, Business Visit 8:45–12:30 - 13:00–15:00 

Wednesday 
Day of teaching: Seminars 8:45–12:30 

Thursday 
Day of teaching: Seminars 13:00 – 17:00 

Friday 
Day of self-study: work on assignments with project group 

Term 1 

Cultural Encounters 

Over a six-week period, students will take part in structured cross-cultural experiences designed to explore how culture operates in practice and how cross-cultural theories can help interpret what they observe. Throughout the program, students will work both collaboratively and individually to analyze cultural differences, identify potential risks and opportunities for cooperation, and demonstrate professional teamwork and intercultural competence. They will apply relevant academic sources and models (such as Hofstede, Trompenaars, Schein, and Meyer) to support their analyses and reflections. The overall aim is to help students develop into more effective cross-cultural professionals. This module carries 5 EC. 

Sustainable Business Models 

This part of the program aims to help students to find out what the future of sustainable business models looks like. Through a combination of business visits, research on new sustainable business developments and extensive discussions, students discover what a regenerative business model and the system of which is a part might look. Students will apply their newly acquired knowledge in a business plan for an existing business. This assignment is also 5EC. 

Sustainable Development 

This individual assignment consists of an essay in which the student needs to critically reflect on the theoretical work of Sachs (2015) related to the sustainable development goals. Student needs to show they master such topics as stewardship, shalom, resilient cities, poverty, development goals, planet, climate, and biodiversity. This assignment is 5EC. 

Term 2 

Nation Branding 

In this group assignment students undertake a project in the field of nation branding. First, students do research on the application of the SDGs in several preselected countries. Secondly, they jump into the topic of nation branding and find out how the same preselected countries give shape to their nation brand. We also take a closer look at the nation brand of the European Union, a very particular one as research shows. Finally, students combine the learnings of the two previous assignments and draft advice for the government of one of the preselected nations, so that this government can improve its nation brand from the perspective of the SDGs. 

We make extensive use of Simon Anholt’s work on nation branding in this course, and we take recent scientific research for up-to-date examples. The goal of this assignment is to provide students with the opportunity to gain business experience in on sustainable nation branding. This assignment is 7.5EC. 

Sustainability Marketing and Communication 

In this assignment groups of students need to identify a particular sustainability issue in a business or an industry, and they need to critically assess it from the perspective of sustainable international business concepts, theories and frameworks (coming from the works of amongst others Wit (2020) and Beltz & Peattie (2012)). They will have to write a research report, that also includes advice to the organization or industry, and they need to do a presentation. The goal of this assignment is to make students aware of the (un)sustainable impact that businesses have and how this can be improved. This assignment is 7.5EC. 

Procedure after registration:

1. Download your learning agreement(s) then send a request to your own examination board with your signed learning agreement(s) attached.
2. Pending the decision of your examination board, we reserve the minor place(s);
3. Your own examination board gives approval by signing the learning agreement(s) and affixing a stamp from your college;
4. You mail this signed and stamped learning agreement(s) to kiesopmaatminors@che.nl;
5. After the learning agreement(s) are received at kiesopmaatminors@che.nl, you will receive an email detailing the steps you need to take to finalize your application for the minor(s).