Global Challenges in Business

This course focuses on understanding subsistence marketplaces and designing business solutions for the billions of people living in poverty in the global marketplace. To develop understanding of these markets, we use exercises to that enable learners to view the world from the eyes of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs, facilitate bottom‐up understanding generated by participants, and provide insights from extensive research. More broadly, the course uses the context of extreme resource constraints to learn about the bottom-up approach pioneered through the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative and apply it in broadly. A parallel project will focus on understanding a specific need in a subsistence marketplace, and designing a solution and an enterprise plan for implementation. You will be able to: • Develop an understanding of subsistence marketplaces • Design solutions for subsistence marketplaces • Develop enterprise plans to implement solutions for subsistence marketplaces • Apply the bottom-up approach for subsistence marketplaces and other contexts This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

This course will explore current challenges and opportunities facing firms in the area of environmental sustainability. It will begin with an introduction to sustainability, with a particular focus on how environmental sustainability is relevant to business. Topics such as unsustainable consumption/consumer behavior, market research on sustainable product design , and sustainable value chains and communications will be covered. We will also cover the bottom-up approach in terms of immersion, emersion, and design as applied to sustainable business enterprise. The course concludes with a summary of insights on global challenges in business, with particular focus on poverty and the environment. You will be able to: • Understand the importance of sustainability for business • Analyze specific topics including consumer behavior, market research, product design, value chains and communications using the sustainability lens in business • Design solutions and develop enterprise plans for sustainable business initiatives • Apply the bottom-up approach for sustainable business initiatives in varied contexts This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

Starting in the late 1990s, “globalization” became a buzzword to describe the apparent integration of markets in the world economy. Many authors and pundits claimed that the world was converging towards a market-friendly democratic place, while gurus and consulting firms were rapidly producing formulae and advice on how to make profits out of the global economy. Decades later, new realities show that globalization does not necessarily mean political, cultural, and economic convergence and that, in fact, forces against it are strong. This course seeks to help you understand the forces of globalization and how cross-cultural management and the relationship of a multinational organization to various host countries is becoming more and more critical in today’s global economy. This course begins with the discussion of these issues and global relationships and delves into a deeper understanding of business strategy in today’s global business marketplace. You will be able to: • Understand how we got to the present moment of globalization and why it matters • Understand the complexities of the current globalization, recognizing not all countries are the same • Evaluate the effects of international trade regulations on international business • Evaluate when and why companies operate as multinationals This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

This course explores the ways firms overcome challenges when operating globally – a process characterized for its complexity and uncertainty. Corporations trying to succeed in the global economy need to develop different types of strategies depending on where they are conducting business or industry they are in. You will be able to: • -Determine the best strategy to follow when expanding globally • -Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of those strategies • -Develop appropriate responses to external pressures. This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

Globalization has brought dramatic changes to the marketplace. A proliferation of global brands brings diverse cultures to a consumer population that is also culturally diverse. This course enables students to understand how globalization changes consumers at a psychological level and provides tools for infusing brands with cultural meaning that can resonate with global consumers. The focus is on understanding that culture exists in the mind as well as in the environment, and that globalization creates multi-cultural spaces in contemporary societies. Consumers can use the cultural meaning of a brand to build their identities or reject the brand’s cultural meaning. The course will help students identify when assimilation vs. exclusionary reactions are more likely to occur and to devise strategies for imbuing brands with cultural meanings that can elevate them to the status of cultural icons. You will be able to: • Understand how globalization impacts the psychological responses of consumers in global markets • Explain what culture is and how it manifests itself in business environments • Understand how brands acquire cultural meanings and predict consumers’ responses to the cultural meanings in brands • Identify strategies to win-over multi-cultural consumers in globalized markets • Practice the fundamentals of how to build an iconic brand This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

Global business ethics is the study and analysis of how ethics and global business are connected. Because commerce is about markets, and markets entail exchanges between people and groups of people, commerce is about human relationships.. One of the important challenges in global business is working out the extent of these obligations in the interrelationships between businesses and the particular local cultures in which that business operates. The ethical issues arising from these engagements, the kinds of values-based considerations out of which an organization negotiates with local concerns, and how an organization can be both an enabler of economic value while respecting cultural differences are important topics of this course. You will be able to: • Become morally sensitive to ethical dilemmas in global commerce • Identify ethical issues in global business • Master stakeholder analysis • Use a well-reasoned process by which to arrive at ethically defensible decisions • Differentiate between good and weak ethical arguments and defend conclusions This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.