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Course Manual
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
2nd Year Bachelor 2014/2015
Third trimester: week 14 week 25 TABLE OF CONTENTS: Summary of
important rules and regulations for BScIBA and MSc students 2
General Information 2 Summary of Workshop/Team/Mid-term
Registration dates 3 Student Advisers 3 Master Event 3 Third Year
Elective Choices 3 Article 3.4 Fraud 4 Corporate Finance (BAB24) 5
Cross Cultural Management (BAB23) 12 International Marketing
Research (BAB011) 28 Marketing Management (BAB25) 33 Technology
Management (BAB20) 46 IBA curriculum 2014-2015 57 Course Manuals
give more detailed information about courses within a trimester.
They contain the following information per course: - course title,
course code, number of credits; - name of coordinator; - teaching
staff; - contact person, secretariat, room numbers, phone numbers,
visiting hours; - educational form; - examination form; -
examination regulation; - examples for examinations; - aims and
objectives of the course; - extended description of the course
content; - subjects per lecture/workshop; - required literature:
books, syllabus, reader, sheets; - literature and course content to
be examined; - recommended further reading. Course Manuals will be
available at the beginning of each trimester, for each year of the
programme.
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Summary of important rules and regulations for BScIBA and MSc
students The following rules and regulations, depending on your
situation, may have an effect on your studies. For more information
and a detailed explanation of all of these rules please consult the
BSc IBA Examination Regulations.
RSM rules The Bachelor-before-Master rule Admission to all RSM
Master programmes is only possible if students have completed the
en-tire Bachelor programme, without a single course left open.
Period of validity of grades Final course grades (published in
Osiris) for the bachelor programme are valid for six years. The
final course grades (published in Osiris) for the master programmes
are valid for 3 years. (Consult Examination Regulations for
detailed information) Compensation rule for 1st year courses The
compensation rule means you can compensate one insufficient grade
(between 4.5 and 5.4) with at least one rounded 7 or higher,
provided that you have passed all your other courses of Bachelor 1
in your first year of enrolment. The grade for the compensated
course will remain on your grade list and counts in the grade point
average for the total bachelor programme. (Consult Examination
Regulations for detailed information) Compensation rule for 2nd and
3rd year courses Students (excluding Pre-Master students) may
graduate from the BSc IBA programme with a 4.5 or higher for one
examination part of the course year B2 or B3 (with the exception of
the minor, internship, and the Research Training & Bachelor
Thesis), provided that the calculated grade point average for the
total bachelor programme (including the course to be compensated)
mentioned in Article 6.2 paragraph 2 of the Rules and Guidelines is
at least 7.0. This compen-sation rule will only be applied by the
Examination Board upon request. The grade for the com-pensated
course will remain on your grade list and counts in the grade point
average for the total bachelor programme. (Consult Examination
Regulations for detailed information) Last-Result Rule Students
have a free choice in the number of times that they wish to take a
written examination. The result is the last grade obtained. If the
material to be studied for an examination has changed, the new
material must be studied.
General Information You can download the Bachelor 2 Trimester 3
course manual, schedule, and book list via the RSM IBA Current
Students page (www.rsm.nl/current-students/iba). Also be sure to
subscribe to all of your trimester 3 courses via SIN. If any
changes to the schedule, registration dates, etc. should occur,
these updates can be found in the respective SIN course channels.
Tip: Take the time to peruse the message archive of your courses
once a week to make sure you are aware of all relevant registration
dates, schedule changes, etc.
Registration for the final exams takes place via OSIRIS-Online.
The registration dates are always 35 to 7 days before the date of
the exam. Mark your calendar! More info:
http://www.eur.nl/english/essc/student_administration/written/osiris/
and
http://www.rsm.nl/information-for/current-students/bachelor-iba/examinations-grades/examination-registration/
An online course evaluation will be mailed to you at the end of
each trimester 3 course. This evaluation will remain open until the
courses exam date. The day of the final examination you will
receive a separate evaluation about the exam. Please take the time
to fill in both of these
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evaluations; your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated
by members of the IBA teaching staff and programme management. We
also recommend that you subscribe to the following SIN channels:
RSM Bachelor 2 International Business Administration - IBA B2
general information channel with messages from programme management
RSM Examination Board - The RSM Examination Boards own channel
Tentamenlocaties (Dutch for Examination Locations) seating
assignments for exams in the M-hall are announced via this channel
IBA Notice Board - where all non-programme related messages for IBA
students are posted
Summary of workshop/team registration dates (per course)
Register via SIN! Corporate Finance (BAB24)
You do not need to register for the BAB24 plenary workshops.
Cross Cultural Management (BAB23)
You have been assigned to one of the 6 workshop groups and
notified via Black-board. You can match your group number to the
room assignments in your schedule (also available via the CCM
course channel under timetable Workshops). You can find the CCM
country/workshop group assignment file on Blackboard.
International Marketing Research (BAB011)
Assignment group registration (4-6 students) - 2 March - 12
April 2015
Marketing Management (BAB25) Case group registration (4-5
students) - 2 March - 6 April 2015 Technology Management
(BAB20)
Company & team registration already closed 8 February
(course began in 2nd tri-mester).
Student Advisers The student advisers key task is to support
students with their IBA studies. Students may con-tact one of the
student advisers for information, advice and/or guidance. The
student advisers are familiar with all aspects of the course
programmes and can assist students in making deci-sions in the
fields of study planning, study choices, internships, exchange, a
second study, mediation with regard to examination board issues,
etc. Students who are not able to continue their studies or
experience delays, for instance because of personal circumstances
such as illness, handicap, family circumstances etc., may also turn
to the student advisers for personal advice and guidance. For more
information and contact details please consult the following site:
http://www.rsm.nl/study-advice/bachelor-iba/
3rd year Elective choices (Exchange or Internship/Minor + 5 ECTS
elective) For a complete overview see:
http://www.rsm.nl/bachelor/current-students/bachelor-iba/bache-lor-3/elective-options/
Exchange: The application process for the fall 2015 exchange
already took place. Minor: You have the option to take a minor at
the EUR or at another university. Minors on offer at the EUR:
www.eur.nl/minor Registration period: 1 May 31 May 2015
Please note: You may only do a minor if you have obtained at
least 60 ECTS from the IBA curriculum.
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Internship: Another option to consider is to conduct an
internship which involves the research of a practical problem that
is carried out for an international organization abroad or in the
Neth-erlands (for non-Dutch students). To be used for credit, the
internship must last at least 10 weeks full-time (the equivalent of
420 working hours). For information about finding an intern-ship,
meeting the specific requirements for receiving credit, and much
more, please consult the Bachelor Internship Manual and the
Bachelor Internship Steps to Follow found on the IBA Current
Students page
(http://www.rsm.nl/information-for/current-students/bachelor-iba/bache-lor-3/internships/
). There is no specific deadline for arranging your internship,
however it is recommended that you request approval from an
academic coach for your internship proposal before the summer
months. Please note: You may not do an internship for credits if
you have not successfully passed all of your B1 courses. 5 ECTS
Options: There are a number of different options available to
students who choose to do a minor or an internship and who still
need 5 ECTS in order to graduate. For detailed expla-nations about
these options, please consult the following Current Students page:
http://www.rsm.nl/information-for/current-students/bachelor-iba/bachelor-3/elective-options/
Interim Project - held in weeks 46-50 (after the Minor exams)
Elective course from another faculty / university Upon approval of
the faculty offering the course and the RSM Examination Board. See
IBA Current Students Elective from another faculty or university
for more information. Language Elective - after successful
completion of 2 modules of the same language. See IBA Current
Students Language Electives for more information.
Article 3.4 fraud 1. If in the matter of taking an examination,
fraud within the meaning of Article 1.2, para-graph 2 is detected
or suspected, this is set down in writing as soon as possible by
the invig-ilator or the examiner whom he/she must call in. The
invigilator or the examiner may ask the student to make available
any items of evidence. A refusal to do this is recorded in the
written report. The student is given the opportunity to add written
comments to the written report of the invigilator or examiner. The
written report and any written comments are handed over to the
Examination Board as soon as possible. 2. The Examination Board or
the examiner may exclude a student who has cheated from fur-ther
participation in the examination during which the irregularity was
detected, and/or take other appropriate measures. The exclusion has
the consequence that no result will be estab-lished for the
examination concerned. Before the Examination Board decides to make
the ex-clusion, it gives the student the opportunity to give
his/her account. 3. The other appropriate measures as referred to
in paragraph 2 may consist of, among oth-ers, the following
sanctions: a. reprimand; b. invalidation of the examination
concerned; c. ex-clusion from the examination concerned for at most
one year; d. exclusion from one or more rounds of examinations; e.
a combination of the above measures with a maximum of one year. f.
in a serious case of fraud the Examination Board may advise the
Executive Board to end the enrolment for the programme of the
person concerned once and for all.
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Corporate Finance (BAB24) Course name: Corporate Finance
Course code: BAB24
Course load: 5 ECTS
Trimester: 6
Teaching staff: Dr. Anjana Rajamani (co-ordinator)
Ms. Eveline Fidder (workshop); Ms. Yudan Ying (workshop)
Course structure: Plenary lectures, workshops
Course schedule: PL Monday afternoons (with the exception of
weeks 15, 18 and
22), WS Wednesday mornings (except weeks 15, 18 and 22)
Examination: closed-book MC exam (100%) + maximum of 1.0 bonus
point
(see below)
Office Hours
Instructor: Tuesdays, 14:00-15:20 hrs (office T08.34) between 30
March 2015 and 2 June 2015.
TA: Yet to be determined at time of publication. Course
Overview
This course is an extensive introduction to the basic tools,
techniques and theories that are necessary to understand the
financial decision-making in the modern corpo-ration. The themes we
deal with in this course are particularly relevant for business
decision-making in areas as whether or not to invest in a project,
how to finance an investment, and how to deal with uncertainty.
Corporate finance can be seen as supportive to other fields such as
strategy or mar-keting; often in these fields the business
decisions are formulated (e.g., in what mar-kets or products should
we invest), whereas in corporate finance we evaluate these choices
and analyse how to fund them best. This course is offered to you by
the Finance Department (www.rsm.nl/finance) Learning Goals
Following this course, you should be able to:
Valuate assets by means of both the net present value and real
options.
Relate capital budgeting decisions to capital structure
decisions.
Design a capital structure of a corporation that maximises the
value of that com-pany.
Hedge financial risks using derivatives.
In order to achieve these goals, we deal with the following main
topics:
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the static trade-off
theory of capital structure.
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Modigliani-Miller propositions.
Financial derivatives (forwards, futures, financial
options).
Real options.
Financial risk management using derivatives.
International finance.
In addition to these main topics we deal with some specific
topics. Literature
Hillier, D., Ross, S.A., R.W. Westerfield, J. Jaffe, and B.D.
Jordan (2013) Corporate Finance: 2nd European Edition, Boston, MA:
McGraw-Hill. ISBN-13: 978007713914-8. We will provide solutions to
a select set of end-of-chapter exercises in the weekly workshops.
For those of you who want more practice, you can do so through the
Connect page which will be set up for this course. The link to the
course Connect page will be made available on Blackboard. You will
need access to the ConnectTM system from Mc-Graw Hill to access the
Connect page for this course. Many of you may already have
purchased this text book last year for Foundations of Finance and
Accounting (BAB69). If you purchased the text book from the
StudyStore last year, then the ConnectTM login code is valid for 4
years and can be used again for this course. If you do not own this
book currently and hence do not have access the ConnectTM, then you
will be able to get access to the Connect page for this course for
0 by clicking on the link provided on Blackboard. Access to the
E-book in addition to access to the Connect page can be purchased
for 45. Note: Access to ConnectTM is not required for participation
in the weekly bonus sys-tem. Course Information You are strongly
advised to finish the introductory course BAP069 (Foundations of
Finance and Accounting) prior to starting with this course. The
course load of this BAB24 course has been set at 5 ECTS,
representing a time budget of 140 hrs. For this course, you will
spend most of the time reading and pre-paring exercises. The
teaching adds up to 20 hrs of plenary lectures, plus 20 hrs of
workshops. This leaves you with some 100 hrs of studying, implying
ten weeks of 10 hrs of studying. Beware you will need these 10 hrs
per week of studying in or-
der to pass with a satisfactory grade. Bear in mind that
postponing effort is a poor recipe for success, so please start
studying in the first week. You are strongly ad-
vised to participate in all lectures and workshops. Examination
Dates
Final Examination: Thursday, 11 June 2015, 9:30-12:30 hrs.
Re-sit Examination: Monday, 13 July 2014, 18:30-21:30 hrs.
Registration via Osiris required. You can register from 35 to 7
days before the exam-
ination.
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Assessment and Examinations
There will be a 100% MC closed book exam consisting of 40 MC
questions and covering chapters 12 till 30 of the textbook, EXCEPT
FOR chapters 13, 21, 26, 27, and 28. No graphical or programmable
calculators are allowed at the exam. Bonus System
For the current academic year, I offer a bonus system through
which a maximum of 1.0 bonus point can be obtained. You will be
able to access the weekly bonus tests via a link on the Blackboard
page for this course. The following restrictions apply in regard to
the bonus system:
Participation in the bonus system requires your online
availability on Thursdays from 18:30 to 20:30 hrs during the entire
course.
By participating in the weekly assignments you earn the right to
answer two bo-nus questions on the final exam (and/or resit exam).
With these two bonus ques-tions (Questions 41 and 42 on the exam or
resit exam) you can earn a maximum of 1.0 bonus point. Your final
grade for the course, however, is capped at 10.
If you earn the right to answer the two extra bonus questions
during the course, they will be applied to the regular examination
and also to the July resit in the current academic year
(2014-2015).
Your score from answering the bonus questions on the exam
(and/or resit exam) will be added to your final grade only if: (i)
you score 4.5 or more (ex-cluding the bonus questions) on the exam
or re-sit (based on question 1 through 40 of the respective exam),
and (ii) you have scored a minimum of 60% in at least 6 out of the
10 weekly bonus assignments (see details below).
Details: Every week I offer a bonus assignment, which allows you
to achieve a maximum of 5 points. If you score 60% or more on a
bonus assignment (so at least 3.00 out of 5 points), you will get a
score of 1 for that week on the Blackboard Grade Centre (not
participating or scoring lower than 60% on the bonus assignment
results in a score of 0 for that week). I offer 10 such weekly
bonus assignments. If you score 60% or more in at least six of the
ten weekly bonus assignments (so at least six times a "1" on
BlackBoard GradeCentre), you earn the right to answer two
additional bonus questions (questions 41 and 42 on the exam and /or
re-sit). These two bonus questions will almost literally be drawn
from the set of weekly recom-mended exercises which will be
discussed in the workshop. With these two bonus questions you can
earn a maximum of 1.0 bonus point (so 0.5 points per question).
Note: Access to ConnectTM is not required for participation in the
weekly bonus sys-tem. Students Retaking the Course
Students retaking the course must complete the assignments and
exams as they are required for the current academic year. The
examination for re-takers is thus based on the content and
conditions that apply to the current academic year (2014-2015).
Bonus credits obtained in previous years will not be valid this
academic year. Any
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bonus credits obtained during the current academic year expire
after the resit exam of the current academic year. Examination
Perusal
The date, time and place of the perusal will be announced when
the grades are published. I will only organise a plenary perusal
for the June exam. RSM Student Representation
If you as a student have any comment about the quality of your
courses, be it posi-tive or negative, please send an e-mail to the
corresponding representative or ap-proach him or her personally
after the lecture. For the Corporate Finance course, e-mail:
[email protected] Recording/Taping of Lectures
Any recording or taping of lectures, workshops and other events
at RSM (by stu-dents or others) requires the consent of the
lecturer/organiser in advance, otherwise it represents illegal
action. More information
Course updates and documents are posted on BlackBoard:
www.myeur.nl Preliminary exam grades and programme management
messages may be posted on SIN-online:
https://rsm.sin-online.nl/channel/pub/channel.html?chid=37574
Official exam grades are posted on Osiris:
http://osirisstudent.eur.nl/ Lecture Schedule
The plenary lectures take place on Mondays (with a few
exceptions). In essence all lectures will be on Mondays in the
weeks between 30 March and 1 June from 13:00-14:45 hrs in CB-1,
with a couple of exceptions:
On Mondays 6 April, 27 April and 25 May the university is closed
(public holi-days). These lectures are delivered on the subsequent
Wednesdays (8 April, 29 April and 27 May) from 11:00-12:45 hrs in
room CB-5 or CB-1 (see below
scheme). Since that timeslot is reserved for the workshops, the
workshops for these three weeks will be shifted to Thursday (see
workshop schedule). The lecture scheduled for 1 June will take
place from 13:00-14:45 hrs in M2-03.
Please note that changes may occur and the most up to date
timetable can be found via the BAB24 SIN channel.
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Week Date Room Lecture topic Chapters covered
14 30 Mar CB-1 Cost of capital and long-term financing 12,
14
15 8 Apr CB-5 Capital structure 15
16 13 Apr CB-1 Limits to the use of debt 16
17 20 Apr CB-1 Dividend policy 18
18 29 Apr CB-1 Long-term financing: Issuing securities &
long-term debt
19, 20
Valuation for levered firms 17
19 4 May CB-1 Introduction to options and other derivatives
22
20 11 May CB-1 Options: Pricing of financial options 22
21 18 May CB-1 Options: Applications to real options 23, 24
22 27 May CB-5 Financial risk management using derivatives
25
23 1 Jun M2-03 International finance 30
Note: Chapter 14, 19 and 24 provide descriptive information on
topics. There is little to add to the information in the textbook
chapters, hence these chapters will not be discussed in class.
Nevertheless, the exam is on the entire range of topics indicated
under section Assessment and Examinations. Workshops
In addition to the plenary lectures, you may attend the
workshops. The workshops are not mandatory, but I strongly
recommend you to participate in them. Enrolment is NOT necessary.
The date, time and place for the weekly workshops are indicated in
the schedule below. We discuss a selection of the end-of-chapter
exercises that
are suggested for that particular week. Note that for the
current year, the workshops take place before the bonus test of
that week, which may help you to improve your odds at that weeks
bonus test. Workshop schedule
The workshops are scheduled for Wednesday morning (11:00-12:45
hrs) except in weeks 14, 15, 18, 19 and 22.
Week Date Time Room Exercises to prepare
14 1 Apr 09:00- 10:45
M2-03 Ch 12: questions 12.32, 12.35 and 12.36 Ch 14: questions
14.9 and 14.17 Ch 15: questions 15.12, 15.13, 15.22 and 15.30
15 9 Apr (Thur)
09:00- 10:45
CB-1 Ch 15: questions 15.23, 15.31, 15.32, 15.33 and 15.34
16 15 Apr 11:00- 12:45
CB-5 Ch 6: questions 16.17, 16.19, 16.22, 16.23 and 16.25
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17 22 Apr 11:00- 12:45
CB-5 Ch 18: questions 18.18, 18.22, 18.30, 18.31 and 18.34
18 30 Apr (Thur)
09:00- 10:45
CB-1 Ch 20: questions 20.27, 20.28, 20.30, 20.31 and 20.32
19 6 May 09:00- 10:45
M2-03 Ch 17: questions 17.8, 17.11, 17.13, 17.14 and 17.25
20 13 May 11:00- 12:45
LB-107 Ch 22: questions 22.13, 22.15, 22.17, 22.19 and 22.23
21 20 May 11:00- 12:45
CB-5 Ch 23: questions 23.14, 23.15, 23.18, 23.19 and 23.20
22 28 May (Thur)
09:00- 10:45
CB-1 Ch 25: questions 25.23, 25.24, 25.27, 25.36 and 25.37
23 3 Jun
11:00- 12:45
CB-5 Ch 30: questions 30.30, 30.32, 30.36, 30.37 and 30.38
Notes: 1. Per workshop we will discuss approx. 3-4 exercises in
detail. 2. For some end-of-chapter exercises, the book suggests you
might use a spread-
sheet to find the solution. Most of the time, however, a
spreadsheet is not nec-essary so please calculate using a simple
pocket calculator.
Webcast
Dr. Arjen Mulder, the previous instructor of this course, has
set up a series of short Webcast videos in which he zooms in on
some themes that you may find difficult. All themes are also dealt
with in class, but for some of you the explanation may be too brief
or fast. If you want to re-visit any of the themes dealt with in
class, you can watch the webcast videos. These videos typically
last between 10-30 minutes, and are meant to help you preparing
even better for the exam. All the webcast videos are available in
stream, WMV, and Podcast formats. With kind permission from Dr.
Mulder these videos will be made available under the webcast page
for this course: http://webcast.rsm.nl/RSM/BAB0024 If you have any
comments, suggestions for improvements, or suggestions for other
themes to be explained in a new video, please drop your notes on
the BlackBoard discussion board. Communication
In the event you have a question with respect to the course
materials, please use the following methods of communication for my
BAB24 course:
In class, feel free to raise an issue during the lecture (if of
interest to the whole group);
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In class, approach me during the break (if not of interest to
the whole group);
Ask me after class;
Visit my weekly office hours or the office hours of the TA;
Make use of one of the BlackBoard discussion boards that I use
for this course;
E-mail (not preferred). I strongly favour the use of the
BlackBoard discussion boards since a well-formulated question is
not only likely to get high-quality feedback (which is good for the
original poster), but also because once an issue has been resolved
others have the option to read the discussion and get informed.
Though I cannot guarantee to be involved in each and every
discussion, I will do my best during the first nine weeks of the
course to participate in the discussions about twice per week. In
the last week of my teaching, however, I am probably too busy
preparing the exam and I cannot guarantee my BlackBoard
participation anymore. After my last lecture I stop participating
in the BlackBoard discussions, but I give you the opportunity to
continue discussing amongst yourselves. For those of you who wish
to send an e-mail, please use the following email address:
[email protected]. Please beware that e-mails sent from domains
other than
@student.eur.nl will probably not pass my junk e-mail filter.
Use Erasmus student e-mail when e-mailing me. Though I will do my
best to read the non-filtered student e-mails, I cannot guarantee
that I will answer every individual e-mail. Impolite or
in-appropriate e-mails will not be answered but forwarded to
programme management instead.
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Cross Cultural Management (BAB23)
Course name: Cross Cultural Management Course code: BAB23 Course
load: 5 ECTS Term: Trimester 2 & Trimester 3 Coordinator: drs.
G. Touburg Teaching staff: Prof. dr. S.J. Magala, dr. J. Essers,
dr. S. Mor, drs. G. Touburg,
guest lecturers. Course structure: In the first part of the
course (trimester 2) you will attend plenary
lectures by staff and guest lecturers. The second part of the
course (trimester 3) consists of interactive seminars as well as
case workshops. In addition you will be engaging in a
work-inten-sive project called Living Diversity and an individual
assignment Cross-Cultural Competence
Course schedule: Plenary lectures (Trimester 2): January 7th -
March 4th Living Diversity Workshops (Trimester 3): March 31st -
June 2nd Case Discussion Workshops (Trimester 3): immediately
follow-ing the living diversity workshops
Examination: Mid-term exam, team assignment, and individual
assignment Course email: [email protected] Office hours: By
appointment
1. General Information
1. Introduction
The overall purpose of the course is to provide students with
means to cope with diversity and complex realities of multicultural
collectives, associations, compa-nies, institutions and societies,
in which cultural identities can rarely be taken for
granted. More specifically, this course aims to answer two
distinct, but closely related sets of questions. The first set of
questions reads: How can I leverage the power of a diverse
workforce? How do I create mutual understanding among culturally
distant groups, all part of my value chain? How can I make sure
people coming from different backgrounds can effectively exchange
their context-sensitive knowledge? This course aims to answer this
first set of questions by providing a comprehensive understanding
of the issues involved in cross-cultural and diversity management.
While culture became one of the buzz words for explaining
differences in complex business practices across na-tional divides,
less attention has been devoted to an in-depth understanding of
cul-tural diversity inside organizations, institutions and
associations and its im-pact on organizations their structure,
their climate, their performance and their sustainability. This
course goes beyond the superficial application of cultural
dimensions to the analysis of intra- and inter-organizational
processes. You will learn how to balance emic and etic approaches
to organizational and managerial studies and how to be able to
collaborate more effectively. The second set of questions is less
directly focused on business, but aimed at under-standing the
broader transformations that make management an increasingly uphill
battle: Is the world flat or spiky? Are we encountering a
convergence towards a
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global culture in which we are all cosmopolitans or is there an
ongoing clash of civi-lisations? Are revolutions in information
technology democratizing access to knowledge or do these play into
the hands of political and corporate elites, who now have the means
to monitor their constituency? If traditional bureaucratic measures
fail to align workforce interests with those of managers, what are
the alternatives? Using a handbook on cross-cultural management and
supplementary material, we will help you navigate these muddy
waters and provide you with robust means to cope with diversity and
basic knowledge about the complex realities of multicultural
workforces, customers and constituencies. We will also familiarize
you with the schol-arly discipline of cross-cultural management,
its varying methodological approaches, internal debates, and
promises for the future. You will also get feedback on two sur-veys
we ask you to fill in. With this feedback, you should be able to
have a rough idea of what your strengths and weaknesses are in
terms of cross-cultural competence. Using insights and literature
from the broader social sciences and the humanities, we will help
you unpack oft-used, but rarely problematized concepts like
culture, iden-tity, globalization, or knowledge and show you how
these influence managerial decision-making. Besides attending
lectures, reading the prescribed literature, and subsequently
taking an exam, you and your fellow IBA students will be placed in
a multicultural team of consultants. Your job is to familiarize
employees of a firm that is branching out inter-nationally with
their new cultural surroundings through a presentation. This
assign-ment also allows you to show intercultural leadership skills
in making this team effort a success. Through case-cracking
sessions, we will challenge you to come up with solutions for
various cross-cultural dilemmas. Finally, through individual
assignments, you will reflect both on the academic debates we
immersed you in and on your own cultural assumptions and how these
assumptions impacted your cross-cultural inter-actions. Having
completed the course, you should be able to identify cross-cultural
differences and successfully conduct research and
managerial/consulting activities across cul-tural boundaries.
However, this is not a course that will provide you with
ready-made, just-add-water, solutions. Rather, it will provide you
with a repertoire from which to choose when you will be managing a
company in an increasingly interconnected world. 1.2 Learning
objectives
Understanding the impact of diversity (national, ethnic, gender,
etc.) on management practices and interpersonal collaboration in
modern organizations Getting to know the major theoretical
perspectives and frameworks in the field of cross-cultural
management and intercultural communication and critically assess
their utility in analysing organisational behaviour; Being able to
apply these models and frameworks to a range of different
organisa-tional settings in a variety of socio-political contexts;
Understanding ones own cultural identity and its impact on values,
beliefs and be-haviours and becoming aware of ones own biases;
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Understanding ones own cultural identity and its impact on
values, beliefs and behaviours and becoming aware of ones own
biases; Improving intercultural communication and cross-cultural
management skills; Decoding the (hidden) stereotypes in multimedia
messages in order to identify bi-ases and prejudices we are exposed
to. 2. Course Overview
In the first part of the course (trimester 2) you will study the
basics in plenary lectures by professor Magala and other members of
the CCM team. There will also be guest lectures by esteemed
professional and academic experts. All lectures have pre-scribed
readings. In addition, you will be engaging in a work-intensive
project called Living Diversity. In the second part of the course
(trimester 3), you and your team will present the results of your
Living Diversity project. This part consists of interactive
seminars as well as case workshops. 2.1 Trimester 2
Academics and practitioners will share their ideas and provide
insights for your teams presentation in the second trimester.
Therefore attendance is strongly recommended for the first
trimester of the course. 2.1.1 Mid-term exam (50% of the final
grade)
The mid-term exam will consist of 30 multiple-choice questions
and 20 fill-in the blank questions. It is a closed-book exam.
Dictionaries are not allowed. The exam is based on the lectures,
the book by Steers et al. (not just the chapters men-tioned as
prescribed readings for the lectures) and other prescribed
readings.
2.2 Trimester 3
During the second trimester of the course you will participate
in workshops every second week of the trimester (5 sessions in
total). These sessions are held in smaller groups of approximately
60 people each (you will be assigned to groups during the 2nd
trimester). Your presence at the first part of these 5 sessions in
which the teams will present their Living Diversity assignment is
mandatory. For the Living Diver-sity assignment you will be working
in teams of five; we will announce which team you are assigned to
before January 14th, 12:00.
2.2.1 Team Formation
Once you are assigned to a team, you can submit your teams
desired country via an online form before 12:00 on January 21st.
The link to the form will be provided via
Blackboard. But before you do, please see the Guide to Choosing
a Country (and City) for additional information. You will know your
teams assigned country before 12:00 on January 28th.
2.2.2 Living Diversity Team Assignment (25% of the final grade;
team task)
For the Living Diversity Team Assignment, you and your team will
gain insight into the cultural aspects that might be encountered
when working in a certain country. The findings are presented in a
20-minute training session for your colleagues dur-
ing the first part of the workshops in trimester 3. Please note
that you will have a
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15
meeting with your workgroup tutor in week 8 or 9 in which the
progress of the assign-ment will be discussed; the deadline for
scheduling an appointment with your workgroup tutor is February
4th, 12:00. The deadline for handing in the presentation is March
23rd , 12:00. See the Guide for the Living Diversity Team
Assignment for
additional information. 2.2.3 Cross-Cultural Competence
Assignment (25%; individual task)
In order to enhance your awareness of the role that culture
plays in organizations, you will write a short essay on the
application of cultural models and frameworks in organizational
settings and apply these to the group dynamics you witnessed while
working on the Living Diversity-assignment. The deadline for the
CCC-assignment is June 9th, 12:00. Please see the Guide for the
Cultural-Competence Assignment for
additional information. 2.2.4 Case Discussion (max. 0.5 Bonus
Points)
After each Living Diversity session in trimester 3, a case
discussion is held. A week before the class you will receive a
small case or exercise, which we are going to analyse together in
the second part of each workshop. In order to be eligible for bonus
points and to make sure everybody comes prepared, you have to hand
in a sheet on which short answers to the questions posed in the
case are provided before
the start of the case discussion session.
Case analysis process is not about finding the right answer.
Rather an analysis of multiple solutions and context-sensitive
approaches is what we are searching for. Consequently, the quality
of the analysis and how much you will learn in the classes will
greatly depend on your preparation.
Your participation assessment will be based on the quality
rather than quantity of your input. Consequently, make sure you do
not monopolize the discussion. A thorough preparation will allow
you to add depth to our understanding of the case. Appropriate
reference to theories and models should be included in your
response. Moreover, you will be judged on the way you structure
your response and ability to include your comments at relevant
points in time. Take into consideration the flow of the discus-sion
and bring in your points logically, building upon proceeding
comments. At all times remain respectful towards the opinions
presented by your colleagues.
In order to help us to identify you (and note your inputs), it
is necessary that you bring a name card to each of the 5 sessions
and place it in front of you on the desk.
It needs to be acknowledged that grading of in-class
participation is a subjective pro-cess. However, the guidelines
above will help you to structure your responses in line of what we
are searching for. Please bear in mind, however, that the actual
grading of the in-class participation also depends on the dynamics
of the discussion as it unfolds.
In total (i.e. for bonus points awarded to individuals and
groups), a maximum of 0.5 bonus points can be attained across
sessions per individual. The bonus point will be added to your
final grade and will only be awarded if the final grade for the
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entire course is 5.5 or higher. See section 3.1 for an overview
of the assessment
and an example. 3. Cultural Sensitivity Assessments
One of the learning objectives of the course is improving
intercultural communication and cross-cultural management skills.
To check to what extent this has been the case and to give you
feedback on your skills and learning experience, we ask you to fill
in two surveys.
For the first survey, besides some demographic data, you will be
asked about your confidence in intercultural interactions and your
past intercultural exposure. At the start of the course, we will
send you an email with instructions for the first survey. The
deadline for answering the first survey is January 9th. After
answering the first survey, you will receive a report with personal
feedback.
This confidential feedback report will provide you with
information on how you com-pare to others in the BAB23 Cross
Cultural Management class in terms of dimensions of international
experience and related psychological dimensions that have been
found to promote leadership ability in international or
multicultural settings. In her lecture on February 25th, dr. Mor
will present the results of the social network part of
the survey. The second survey is about your experiences with the
Living Diversity Team Assign-ment and needs to be filled in after
you uploaded the Living Diversity Team As-signment (deadline March
23rd, 12:00). The deadline of the second survey is March 25th. In
the last part of the final workshop (May 26th/June 2nd), we will
present the results
of the second survey. The links to both surveys and a sample
report can be found on Blackboard. Of course, all data will be
treated confidentially; we will not share the raw data with other
parties. Individual responses cannot be traced back to individual
respondents or teams. If you have any issues with the survey or the
report, feel free to contact Shira Mor at [email protected].
Trimester 2
See SIN-Online for the latest information on the time and place
of the lecture.
Session/time Time/place Content Mandatory readings
INTRODUCTION
Session 1 January 7, 2015
CB-1 14.00-14.45
1A: COURSE OUTLINE & WELCOME Introduction to the teach-ing
team and the course Giorgio Touburg
Course man-ual
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Session/time Time/place Content Mandatory readings
15:00-15:45
1B: SETTING THE STAGE theoretical grid of emic/etic,
qualitative- quantitative, academic vs. applied
approaches/para-digms Sawomir Magala
See folder Lectures on Blackboard
PART I: GLOBAL FORCES SHAPING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Session 2 January 14, 2015
CB-1 14.00-15.45
THE POWER OF IDEAS Jiska Engelbert
See folder Lectures on Blackboard
Session 3 January 21, 2015
CB-1 14:00-15:45
GLOBALIZATION Giorgio Touburg
See folder Lectures on Blackboard; Steers et al.: Chapter 1
Session 4 January 28, 2015
CB-1 14.00-15.45
IDENTITIES Personal, organizational and imagined communities
Sawomir Magala
See folder Lectures on Blackboard
PART II: THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF CCM
Session 5 February 4, 2015
CB-1 14.00-15.45
AN ENGINEERS ODYS-SEY Hofstede, GLOBE, and al-ternative models
of CCM Sawomir Magala
See folder Lectures on Blackboard; Steers et al.: Chapters 2-3
and the Ap-pendix
Session 6 February 11, 2015
CB-1 14:00-15:45
THE UNKNOWN KNOWN What is knowledge man-agement and what can CCM
learn from it Juup Essers
See folder Lectures on Blackboard; Steers et al.: Chapters
4-5
(February 16-27, 2015)
(announced via SIN-online)
(Workgroup instructors meet with teams to discuss progress)
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Session/time Time/place Content Mandatory readings
PART III: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Session 7 February 18, 2015
CB-1 14:00-15:45
THE CULTURAL BEHAV-IOUR OF ACCOUNTANTS Olof Bik
See folder Lectures on Blackboard Steers et al.: Chapters
8-9
Session 8 February 25, 2015
M2-03 14:00-15:45
CROSS-CULTURAL NE-GOTIATION Shira Mor (Note: the results of the
first survey will be dis-cussed)
See folder Lectures on Blackboard Steers et al.: Chapters
6-7
CONCLUSION
Session 9 March 4, 2015
CB-1 14:00-15:45
CELLULOID CROSS-ROADS Applying what we have learned so far
through the use of famous movie scenes Sawomir Magala
Exam March 19, 2015
9:30-12:30 Steers et al. (all of it), other manda-tory readings,
and lectures
Trimester 3 See SIN-Online for the latest information on the
time and place of the lecture.
Session/ Time Place Content Preparation Guide
Session 10: Africa & the Middle East
March 31, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-39
Work group 1 (BAB23-14/1) Juup Essers
See folder cases on Blackboard; be sure to answer the questions
and hand them in on a piece of paper if you want to be eligible for
bonus points!
T3-25 Work group 3 (BAB23-14/3) Giorgio Touburg
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Session/ Time Place Content Preparation Guide
April 1, 2015 11:00-13:45
T3-39 Work group 2 (BAB23-14/2) Shira Mor
April 2, 2015 -09:00-11:45
T3-10 Work group 5 (BAB23-14/5) Shira Mor
April 7, 2015 T3-25 Work group 4 (BAB23-14/4) Juup Essers
T3-31 Work group 6 (BAB23-14/6) Giorgio Touburg
Session 11: South America
April 14, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-17 Work group 1 (BAB23-14/1) Juup Essers
See folder cases on Blackboard; be sure to answer the questions
and hand them in on a piece of paper if you want to be eligible for
bonus points!
T3-31 Work group 2 (BAB23-14/2) Shira Mor
T3-25 Work group 3 (BAB23-14/3) Giorgio Touburg
April 21, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-25 Work group 4 (BAB23-14/4) Juup Essers
T3-20 Work group 5 (BAB23-14/5) Shira Mor
T3-31 Work group 6 (BAB23-14/6) Giorgio Touburg
Session 12: Asia & Oceania
April 28, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-17 Work group 1 (BAB23-14/1) Juup Essers
See folder cases on Blackboard; be sure to answer the questions
and hand them in on a piece of paper if you want to be eligible for
bonus points!
T3-31 Work group 2 (BAB23-14/2) Shira Mor
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Session/ Time Place Content Preparation Guide
T3-25 Work group 3 (BAB23-14/3) Giorgio Touburg
May 4, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-10 Work group 4 (BAB23-14/4) Juup Essers
T3-17 Work group 5 (BAB23-14/5) Shira Mor
T3-24 Work group 6 (BAB23-14/6) Giorgio Touburg
Session 13: North & Central America
Session 13 May 12, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-31
Work group 1 (BAB23-14/1) Juup Essers
See folder cases on Blackboard; be sure to answer the questions
and hand them in on a piece of paper if you want to be eligible for
bonus points!
T3-25 Work group 2 (BAB23-14/2) Shira Mor
T3-20 Work group 3 (BAB23-14/3) Giorgio Touburg
May 19, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-25 Work group 4 (BAB23-14/4) Juup Essers
T3-16 Work group 5 (BAB23-14/5) Shira Mor
T3-31 Work group 6 (BAB23-14/6) Giorgio Touburg
Session 14: Europe (Note: the results of the second survey will
be discussed)
Session 14 May 26, 2015 09:00-11:45
T3-16 Work group 1 (BAB23-14/1) Juup Essers
See folder cases on Blackboard; be sure to answer the questions
and
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Session/ Time Place Content Preparation Guide
T3-25 Work group 2 (BAB23-14/2) Shira Mor
hand them in on a piece of paper if you want to be eligible for
bonus points!
T3-20 Work group 3 (BAB23-14/3) Giorgio Touburg
June 2, 2015 T3-25 Work group 4 (BAB23-14/4) Juup Essers
T3-16 Work group 5 (BAB23-14/5) Shira Mor
T3-31 Work group 6 (BAB23-14/6) Giorgio Touburg
July 3, 2015 18:30-21:30
Re-sit Steers et al. (all of it), other mandatory read-ings, and
lectures
4. Examination and Assessment
4.1 Grading
Your final grade for this course will be composed of the
following:
Subcomponent Weight
Mid-term exam 50%
Teamwork assignment Living Diversity 25%
Individual assignment Cross-Cultural Competence 25%
Points will be subtracted from any work that has been handed in
too late (one minute or more past the deadline). No final grade
will be calculated in the event that your exam score (including the
re-sit) is lower than 4.5. A bonus of up to 0.5 point (to be added
to your final grade) can be earned through in-class participation
in the case discussions during the second trimester of the course.
The bonus point will only be awarded if the final grade for the
entire course is 5.5 or higher. Example: If a student were to
attain an 8 on the exam (+4.0), an 8 for the Living Diversity
assignment (+2.0), and a 6 for the Cross-Cultural Competence
assignment (+1.5)
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22
the student would have a final grade of 7.5 (4.0+2.0+1.5). If
that student would also have been awarded .4 bonus points, then he
or she would attain a final grade of 7.9 (7.5 +.4). 4.2
Examination
The exam will consist of 30 multiple-choice questions and 20
fill-in the blank questions. It is a closed-book exam. Dictionaries
are not allowed. The exam is based on the plenary lectures and the
following readings:
Readings (mandatory):
Steers, RM, Nardon, L., Sanchez-Runde, C.J., 2013. Management
Across Cultures: Developing Global Competencies, second ed.
Cambridge Uni-versity Press, Cambridge. ISBN: 9781107645912 (the
whole book, not just the chapters used for the lectures; you may
also use the first edi-tion of this book, but please note that the
numbering of the chapters is slightly different)
The readings labelled as mandatory on Blackboard; Handouts for
the lectures will be posted on Blackboard throughout the
course or distributed in hard copies during the plenary
lectures. 4.2.1 Examination dates:
Examination: March 19th, 2015, 9:30-12:30
Re-sit: July 3rd, 2015, 18:30 21:30 Registration via Osiris
required. You can register from 35 to 7 days before the
examination. The date, time and place of the perusal will be
announced when the grades are published. 4.2 Attendance and
tardiness
Attendance is strongly recommended for the first trimester of
the course. Managers, consultants and researchers will share their
ideas and provide insights for your team work in the second
trimester. During the second trimester, attendance during the
presentations of the Living Diversity assignment is compulsory. If
for some reason you will be absent, please send an e-mail to
[email protected] (please include the phrase
Ab-sent_date_your_name in the title of your message (e.g.
Absent_jan10_John_Doe)). In the mail, state the reason of your
absence. There is a possibility you will have to make an assignment
to compensate for your absence. People who have missed more than
two workshops have to re-take the Living Diversity part of the
course next year.
It is also very important that you are on time for the lectures
and workshops. Barg-
ing in while your fellow students are already presenting is both
rude and distractive. Therefore, once presentations have started,
you will not be allowed to enter the classroom and you will be
marked as absent, which means there is a possi-
bility you will have to make an assignment to compensate for
your absence.
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23
4.3 Transferring old grades If you received a grade of 4.5 or
higher for last years (2013-14) exam, you
may transfer the grade. You may also transfer last years
(2013-14) grade for the Living Diversity
assignment. Because the Cross-Cultural Competence assignment has
been
changed significantly, it is not possible to transfer your grade
for this
part of the course. You need to inform us about your desire to
transfer one or more grades before the 13th of January 2015, 12:00.
Only requests sent to [email protected] before
that date will be taken into consideration (please include the
phrase Trans-fer_your_name in the title of your message (e.g.
Transfer_Jane_Doe)). Please specify whether the grade you want to
transfer is from a regular exam or a re-sit exam.
4.4 RSM Student Representation
If you as a student have any comment about the quality of your
courses, be it posi-tive or negative, please send an email to the
corresponding representative or ap-proach her personally after the
lecture. RSM SR email: [email protected] 5. Overview of
Deadlines
January 9th Deadline for students to fill in the first survey
January 13th, 12:00 Deadline for students to request grade transfer
January 14th, 12:00 Deadline for staff to announce LD-teams January
21st, 12:00 Deadline for students to request country to present on
January 28th, 12:00 Deadline for staff to announce countries
assigned to teams and their workgroups February 11th, 12:00
Deadline for students to make appointment With workgroup
instructors March 23rd, 12:00 Deadline for students to upload
LD-assignment March 25th Deadline for students to fill in the
second survey April 2nd Deadline for staff to announce preliminary
exam grades April 28th Deadline for students to send the progress
of their CCC-assignment to their workgroup instructors June 9th,
12:00 Deadline for students to hand in CCC-assignment June 23rd
Deadline for staff to announce LD-grades June 30th Deadline for
staff to publish grades CCC-assignment and preliminary final grades
July 17th Deadline for staff to announce preliminary re-sit grades
and updated final grades
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24
Guide to Choosing a Country (and City)
Throughout the course you are going to work on the Living
Diversity Assignment. We will assign you to a diverse team of five.
This team will remain unchanged through-
out the course. You can register your team name and your
preferences for certain countries via an online questionnaire (see
URL below). You can only submit your preferences once, so take care
to have the following at hand when you browse to the form:
Your teams ID-number (announced via Blackboard); The desired
name of your team; A list of 5 preferred countries to present on (1
per part of the world: Africa &
the Middle East, North & Central America, South America,
Asia & Oceania, and Europe).
Based on this list the instructors, in order to ensure an even
distribution, will make the final choice and decide which of the
proposed countries will be yours for the re-mainder of the course.
Once you finalize your team composition, please submit one entry
per team through the online questionnaire. DEADLINE for submitting
your country choices via the online questionnaire: January 21st,
2015, 12:00
Within a week, we will let you know on which country your team
has to present. To avoid broad generalizations, you will also have
to pick a specific city or region in the
country of choice. This is where either the firm will open a new
subsidiary, where a lot of employees from another subsidiary will
be re-located to. In a feedback session with your workgroup teacher
in week 8-9, progress will be dis-cussed.
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25
Guide for the Living Diversity Team Assignment
Imagine you are a team of consultants asked to prepare a
training session for a mul-tinational company X, which is about to
open a new subsidiary in city or region Y, located in country Z.
Your audience is about 50 employees who are going to be relo-
cated to this city or will work in virtual teams with the
nationals of the given country. You know that much of the
information can be found online, but the client specifically asks
for unique and emic insights for their staff and that is the added
value they want
you to provide (the concept of emic insights will be discussed
in class). Your job is thus to describe at least 3 most insightful
emic, culture-specific insights, firmly rooted in the first-hand
intercultural experiences of your interviewees. Your analysis
should go beyond the narrowly defined cultural dimensions. Try to
explore the paradoxes of the culture you are investigating, look at
possible points of conflict and include exam-ples to illustrate
your points. Your presentation should be structured in the
following way:
Intro and overview of the country and city or region (including
a brief sum-mary of the cross-cultural dimension research on the
country)
Overview of the methodology and data collection At least 3
selected, most relevant emic insights (include business exam-
ples that illustrate your arguments) Learning points (please,
avoid the dos and donts, which can be listed in a
simple hand-out and focus on more sophisticated and careful
considera-tions). Think about insights that that will help your
viewers in their day-to-day interactions (what should I do when
confronted with)
Mention 2 key readings that you would recommend to your
colleagues (with the explanation why these, rather than other
readings, best reflect the culture of the country). At least one of
the readings should be an aca-demic article
You are required to interview at least 3 representatives of the
country or city: these could be fellow students (max. 1 person from
your own team), expatriates or people living in the given country
and city. Be creative in selecting and finding your respond-ents.
Please make sure you approach and treat your potential respondents
respect-fully. Include a full name and an e-mail address or
telephone number of your inter-viewees. We will randomly contact
some of them to check if they have participated in your research
(this is to prevent students from creating some of the
respondents). For your endeavours, be sure to take notice of the
code of integrity:
http://www.eur.nl/fileadmin/ASSETS/abd/Integriteitscode/Erasmus_University_Rot-terdam_Code.pdf
Consider multiple media: short podcasts or videos. Include
interactive elements, to make sure your training participants are
also involved throughout your presentation, but do not go
overboard: only use interactive media when this helps you to
communi-cate the emic insights. While the presentation of the
results of your teamwork takes place in the 3rd trimester, we
advise you to start working on your assignments straight away. Our
experience
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26
shows that teams, which do not put sufficient efforts throughout
the trimester, have great difficulties with delivering high quality
work. The presentation will be graded on:
Meeting the objectives of the assignment Depth of the analysis
Quality of the research Sophistication of your analysis and
presentation Structure Relevance of included material Quality of
the presentation (are you able to keep your audiences atten-
tion?) Creativity and uniqueness (what innovative tools,
methods, resources and
approaches did you include?) Make sure that your presentation is
interesting, lively and attention grabbing but above all:
informative for the audience. Checklist Deliverables:
Last slide of your presentation should include names and contact
details of your respondents (this slide you do not need to show
during the presenta-tion it is only visible to the CCM team)
Maximum presentation time is 20 minutes Presentation should
consist of Power Point Slides (and if applicable addi-
tional files that can be run with Windows Media Player) Include
your team name and student numbers on the cover page of the
Power Point slides. Use the following file name for the
presentation Living Diversity-[insert
your team name here] (e.g. Living Diversity-Culture Consultancy)
If you have embedded other media directly in your presentation,
make
sure these will run on another computer. Additional media files
should be compatible with Windows Media Player.
If you have multiple files, put these files in a zip folder
along with your presentation.
Use wetransfer.com to transfer your files to
[email protected]. Use a registered email address from one of
the team members (preferably an Erasmus student mail address) to
send the file. In the message section in-clude the name of your
team, your country, names and student numbers of all the team
members.
DEADLINE for submitting the presentation via wetransfer.com:
March 23rd, 2015, 12:001
1 Make sure you submit a final version of your presentation on
the 23rd. No additional corrections or additions will be allowed
afterwards!
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Guide for the Cultural-Competence Assignment
In addition to the Living Diversity Team Assignment, we ask you
to write an individual reflection paper. In your reflection focus
on:
Your assumptions about culture in general before taking this
course; Your knowledge about/stereotypes of the supposed national
culture of
your fellow team members before taking this course; To what
extent the interaction between the team members updated or con-
firmed this knowledge or these stereotypes; Misunderstandings in
the team, your take on their supposed causes and
how these were resolved; In what way your interpretations
differed from those of your colleagues
(give concrete examples). How did you resolve differences? In
what way do you think your own cultural background might have
influ-
enced or biased your analysis (give concrete examples)? In what
way did analysing cultures Y/Z influence your perception of
your
own cultural background and cultural assumptions? In what way
did interacting with your fellow team members influence your
perception of your own cultural background and cultural
assumptions? In what way did the takeaways from the readings and
lectures influence
your perception of your own cultural background and cultural
assump-tions?
What were the surprising, exciting and/or counterintuitive
findings? Did your findings chime or clash with the theories
offered in the course?
We strongly encourage use of both mandatory and optional
readings to strengthen your analysis. You have to engage with at
least 2 concepts, models or theories from the course.
Guidelines
The assignment should be between 1500-2000 words long (title
page, ab-stract and references excluded).
Use Harvard Style referencing. For further information, review
your notes from the Academic Writing course, consult websites (e.g.
http://www.eur.nl/ub_informatievaardigheden/ul_instruction/ver-wijzen_en_citeren/,
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/) or use this online guide with
examples:
http://guides.is.uwa.edu.au/con-tent.php?pid=43218&sid=318559.
Submit the essay in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) using
the Safe-Assignment in the folder Cross-Cultural Competence
Assignment on Blackboard
DEADLINE for submitting the assignment via Blackboard: June 9th,
2015, 12:00.
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28
International Marketing Research (BAB011) Course name:
International Marketing Research
Course code: BAB011
Course load: 3 ECTS
Term: Trimester 3
Coordinator: G. Paolacci
Contact: [email protected]
Office hours: by email appointment, market-
[email protected]
Course structure: Combination of Plenary Lectures and
assignments
Course schedule: Plenary Lectures on Thursday
Examination: Examination (55%), assignments (45%)
Student Representation: [email protected]
Course Overview
Organisations base their strategies on information about
consumers, industrial buy-ers, distributors, employees,
competitors, and suppliers. The International Marketing Research
course deals with how to collect and analyze this information. The
course applies the knowledge acquired during previous methodology
courses to the market-ing domain, and integrates it with the most
advanced developments in marketing re-search, such as
crowdsourcing. Learning Goals
This course aims to enable you to approach managerial problems
scientifically: un-derstand the kind of research that problems
require, conduct such research, and use research findings to make
informed decisions. To do this, classes integrate marketing
applications of previously studied research methods with insights
into the opportuni-ties offered by the most advanced techniques in
marketing and other managerial fields. Altogether, the course aims
at developing the following abilities:
Choosing the best research method to inform a marketing problem;
Collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data;
Deriving recommendations for your marketing problem.
Recommended prior knowledge
The course builds on knowledge acquired in the first-year
courses Skills 1, 2, and 3 (BAP065, BAP066, BAP067), Quantitative
Methods & Techniques: Statistics (BAP058), and Methodology
(BAP73), along with the second-year course Applied Business Methods
(BAB08). It is assumed that you are familiar with the content of
these courses. How the workload is divided
The course has three credits (ECTS) and has been designed with
the aim of a total workload of 84 hours. Of course, the actual
workload varies across individuals, but
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the following estimates are informative of the effort that you
should expect to put into the course: Attend seven lectures (14
hours); Complete assignments (28 hours); Studying the course
materials (39 hours); Take the final exam (3 hours). Required Study
Material
Customized version (selected chapters) of "Marketing Research"
by McDaniel and Gates (ninth edition). ISBN: 9781119927150.
Readings posted on Blackboard
Lecture slides posted on Blackboard shortly after each class
Course Schedule
Notes: The schedule is subject to changes. Students are solely
responsible to stay up to date by checking SIN-Online and
Blackboard. Chapter numbers correspond to those of the customized
edition of the book (not of the original version). 1. April 9
(Thursday) 13.00-14.45, Room CB-1 The Marketing Research process
Readings: Book Chapters 1-2 2. April 16 (Thursday) 13.00-14.45,
Room CB-1 Techniques in Qualitative Research Readings: Book Chapter
3 3. April 23 (Thursday) 13.00-14.45, Room CB-1 Survey Research:
Issues in Design and Measurement Readings: Book Chapters 4-6-7-8-9
4. April 30 (Thursday) 13.00-14.45, Room CB-1 Experimental Research
Readings: Book Chapter 5, articles on Blackboard 5. May 7
(Thursday) 13.00-14.45, Room CB-1 Data Analysis in Marketing
Research You are expected to be familiar with basic statistical
tests in hypothesis testing 6. May 21 (Thursday) 13.00-14.45, Room
CB-1 The Internet in Marketing Research Readings: articles on
Blackboard 7. June 4 (Thursday) 13.00-14.45, Room CB-1 Wrapping up,
Q&A
Examination Dates (Make sure you register on time on
Osiris!)
Final Examination: Friday June 19, 2015 9:30-12:30 Re-sit
Examination: Wednesday July 15, 2015 9:30-12:30
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Final Exam
55% of your final grade depends on the final exam. The exam will
be composed of multiple-choice questions. You need to score at
least 4.5 on the final exam in order to obtain a grade for the
course. Assignments
45% of your final grade on the course depends on three group
assignments. As-signments are meant to develop your abilities in
fundamental marketing research activities, such as qualitative and
survey research. The output of each assignment will be a completed
Report Form to be handed in hard copy and posted on Black-board
Safe Assignment. There will be three deadlines for these
assignments: 1) Focus Group (due April 28, h. 12.00) 2) Survey
Design (due May 12, h. 12.00) 3) Data Collection and Analysis (due
June 4, h. 18.00) A companion document called Assignments General
Information will be posted on Blackboard before the beginning of
the course including more details. Enrolment in Study Groups
You are responsible for forming your own group. Groups can have
4, 5, or 6 stu-dents. If you are having troubles forming the group,
you can use the forum Group Formation on the Blackboard Discussion
Board. Once the group is formed, one team member needs to enroll
the team via SIN-Online. You can enroll at any time between Monday,
March 2 and Sunday, April 12 at 23:59. SIN-Online sends an
email-confirmation to your student email address. If you have
not received a confir-mation within 24 hours after the moment of
enrolment, please notify Raechel Torner ([email protected]) in order
to check your enrolment. The final group composition, to-gether
with group numbers, will be announced on Blackboard. Students
retaking the course
Students who are retaking the course are allowed to keep partial
grades from the previous year (2013-2014), upon request. In
particular, two cases apply: 1) Students who received a grade of
5.5 or above on the final exam in 2013-2014 may request to have
their exam grade carried over to this year. This request should be
made to [email protected] before April 17. If you are
planning to
carry over your exam grade, please note that you still must
register for this years final exam via Osiris in order to receive a
final grade for the course. 2) Students who received a passing
grade (5.5) for the assignment in 2013-2014 may request to have
their original assignment grade combined with this years final exam
grade. This request should be made to [email protected]
be-fore April 17. The examination for re-takers is based on the
content and conditions
of the current academic year (2014-2015). Bonus points for
research participation
RSM Erasmus University is a worldwide leader in management
research, through the work of the members of the Erasmus Research
Institute of Management (ERIM). ERIM is the joint research
institute of RSM and the Erasmus School of Economics.
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Practically all the teachers that you meet in class are members
of the institute and they are active in research two days per week
on average. During this term, you will be offered the opportunity
to participate in research studies in return for bonus points
towards the final grade of this course. Participation is en-tirely
voluntary. Participation in these studies will provide you with
additional learning opportunities, as a complement to the content
of the lectures. Through participation in research studies, you
will become aware of the nature and insights of management research
and learn about a variety of research areas and methods in an
engaging manner. During the lectures of this course, reference will
be made to the critical role of empir-ical research and research
methods in producing the business knowledge that is taught in this
course. You will be able to earn a maximum of 0.4 points
contributing towards your final
grade for this course. This means that during this term you can
participate for course credits in a maximum of two sessions of
approximately 30 minutes. Note that bo-nus points will only be
awarded if the final grade for the course (without bonus) is at
least 5.5.
You will be able to participate in research studies to earn
bonus points for this course between the following dates:
07/04/2015 and 05/06/2015. Additional information
about registration procedures will be announced in class and on
Blackboard at the beginning of the course. Reminders and deadlines
will be communicated during the term via email. Check your student
email regularly. All studies will take place at the Erasmus
Behavioral Lab (EBL), which is located on the 12th floor of the T
building. To access the lab, you will need to use the elevators
located towards the back of the T building. The bonus points are
only valid for the current academic year (in other words, the bonus
points expire after the re-sit exam). You are responsible for
checking that your credits have been attributed to the correct
course after each experiment. If a mistake occurred or if you want
to reassign your credits to a different subject, please contact the
system administrator be-fore the deadline: 05/06/2015 Note that
credits earned in past terms cannot be re-
assigned to this course. You can sign up for a research session
via the Erasmus Research Participation Sys-tem (ERPS). To register,
log in at www.rsm.nl/lab. On the platform you will also find FAQs
that should answer most of your practical concerns. If you have
problems log-
ging in, or if you have any remaining questions regarding the
course credits or your profile information, please contact the ERPS
administrator, not the teacher(s) of this course. The name of the
administrator is Anika Stuppy; you can contact her at the following
email address: [email protected]. Examination Perusal
The date, time and place of the perusal will be announced when
the grades are published.
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RSM Student Representation
If you have any comment about the course, be it positive or
negative, please email the corresponding representative
([email protected]) or approach him or her personally after the
lecture.
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Marketing Management (BAB25) Course name: Marketing Management
Course number: BAB25 Course load: 5 ECTS Term: 3rd Teaching staff:
Dr. Nicole Mead Course structure: Combination of plenary lectures
and case discussions Course schedule: Plenary lectures and cases
Wednesday and Thursdays (3-5pm) Examination: Examination (60%) and
assignments (40%). See below. Student Rep: [email protected]
BlackBoard: www.myeur.nl
Coordinates
Name: Dr. Nicole Mead Office: T10-23 Phone: 010-408-9583 E-mail:
[email protected] Office hours: Wednesdays after class (5-6 pm) Guest
lecturers: Hein Everts Sales Director Retail Mondelez Nederland
B.V.
Christophe Lambregts Assistant Professor of Marketing Management
(starting 2015) TAs: Daniel Todorov Anne-Fleur Vaartjes Course
Description
Marketing strategy is a complex business function that requires
a balance of analyti-cal and synthetic skills. This course
introduces a series of frameworks and tools that can be used to a)
solve general business problems and b) develop specific marketing
strategies and programs. The analytic part of the course moves from
the general to the specific. The course is oriented around
understanding the three Cs (customers, company and competitors),
developing a strategy for the chosen product/market(s), and
translating this strategy into more specific plans through the
elements of the marketing mix, the four Ps (prod-uct offering,
pricing, promotion and physical distribution). The synthesis of all
these elements is achieved through case analysis. In addition to
bringing together the different theoretical elements in the context
of concrete busi-ness problems, active participation in case
analyses will (1) allow students to en-hance their problem-solving
and decision-making abilities in various areas of market-ing and
(2) provide an opportunity (both written and oral) to develop,
present, and defend their own recommendations, and to examine and
discuss the recommenda-tions of others critically.
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Class Meetings
Day and time: Wednesdays and Thursdays 3-5pm Room: See SIN for
the most accurate location Course Materials: Mandatory
Business articles that can be obtained through the library; see
reading list below for links to access those articles
Readings and handouts provided via BlackBoard
Coursepack C-387-73173-STU available from the Case Centre
Recommended Textbook
There is no required textbook for this course, but I recommend
the fol-lowing text for optional background reading: Kotler, Philip
and Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, 14th Edition, Pearson
Prentice Hall. Many students find this book to be a useful resource
to consult both throughout the course and in the future.
Course Format
Lectures and Class Discussion About three-fourths of the time
will be spent on the presentation and discussion of theories,
concepts, tools, and empirical findings through lecture and class
discussion. Lectures/class discussions are often accompanied by
assigned articles and notes. The lecture/discussion will be used to
consolidate and extend the concepts devel-oped in the assigned
materials. Thus, it is important that you read and study materials
prior to class.
It is important to note, however, that what I discuss in class
is not just a summary of whats in the readings. (You can read, so
why would I tell you what you should already know from the
readings.) The lectures provide a structure for the readings and
cover a lot of information that is not in the readings and vice
versa. Both are important so you need to know both whats in the
readings and whats in the lectures. All the read-ings can be found
on BlackBoard, through the library, or in the course packet.
Consult the course schedule for complete information. Case
Discussion
The remaining fourth of the time will be devoted to analysis and
discussion of as-signed case studies. Cases put you in the seat of
a marketing manager and force you to put the skills and tools you
learn in class into practice. Thus, cases are an integral part of
your learning in this course. For each case, I will post
preparation questions on BlackBoard. These are designed to get you
thinking about the important issues in the case but discussion and
analysis should never be limited to the posted questions. At the
beginning of a case discus-sion, I will typically start by asking
one or more students to answer a specific question or series of
questions. Anyone who has thoroughly prepared the case should be
able to do a good job on this lead-off assignment. After this
initial analysis, the discussion will be open to the rest of the
class.
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In these sessions, I will act to facilitate discussion: first to
obtain all views and then help pull together the prevailing views
of the discussion. Note that the direction and quality of the
discussion is the collective responsibility of the group, not the
sole re-sponsibility of the instructor. Make a commitment to be
fully engaged in the case learning process. This means devoting
time and energy to prepare before class, listen to others, and
engage verbally and thoughtfully in class discussions. You may find
it uncomfortable to make decisions even after you have a thorough
analysis. This is normal. Often you may feel as though key pieces
of information will be missing. Despite this, you will have to 1)
make reasonable assumptions to arrive at a decision 2) defend these
assumptions and 3) clearly define the logic of your analysis and
subsequent marketing strategy. All of this will increase your
comfort with making decisions under uncertainty and with limited
information, a reality all manag-ers face. A typical request at the
end of a case discussion is for me to provide "the answer". In
general, the case method of learning does not provide the answer.
In most (but not all) case discussions, several viable answers will
be developed and supported by various students within the total
group. What is important is that you know what you would have done
in that specific marketing situation, and that you begin to
construct your own framework for approaching marketing problems in
general. Evaluation
Evaluation of performance will be based on: Final exam 60% Group
case write-ups 40% Note: You need to score at least 4.5 on the
final exam in order to obtain a grade for this course. If you score
below a 4.5 on the exam your overall grade will be listed as
insufficient in Osiris, regardless of how well you did on your
cases. Bonus possibilities
A bonus of up to 4% can be earned through class participation.
If you don't want to talk, an alternative would be to participate
in two qualifying experiments at the Eras-mus Behavioral Lab (if
experiments are available during the term--availability of
ex-periments is not guaranteed). Participation in class or in the
experiments is entirely voluntary. The experiments are managed
through the Erasmus Research Participa-tion System (ERPS) and
administered by Ms. Anika Stuppy ([email protected]). More detailed
information will be provided via BlackBoard. Note that bonus points
will only be awarded if the final grade for the course based on
cases and final exam is at least 5.5. Groups
This course relies on group work for case preparation and groups
are also useful to discuss lecture topics before or after class. A
well-functioning discussion group can be a very valuable resource
to develop your understanding of the issues and topics raised in
the course. The discussion group is a useful and informal forum to
generate and test ideas. Group work should also help you develop
the critical social skills you need to function in almost any
organization. You are responsible for selecting your own group and
for managing the division of labor within your group.
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Group Size Experience indicates that optimum group size is 4-6
persons. Groups of fewer than 4 or more than 6 will not be allowed.
Group Composition Diverse groups can be effective learning
environments because it can increase the amount of novel
information that is shared by the group and can stimulate students
to seem problems from new, undiscovered angles. However, try to
minimize diversity in terms of ambition and willingness to work.
Find group members who share your level of effort and ambition.
Also make sure your group members schedules are compatible, so you
can actually find a time to meet with the whole group. Enrollment
in Study Groups You should put together your own case group of
between 4 and 6 persons and enroll using SIN Online
(http://rsm.sin-online.nl/channel/). If there are less than 4
people in your group and you can't find one or more additional
group members, you can use the temporary discussion board in
BlackBoard for students still looking for group members. I will not
monitor this discussion board. Please note that SIN Online can only
process enrollments that are filled in completely and correctly.
Enrolment starts March 2. You should register no later than April
6. SIN Online sends an email confir-mation to your student email
address. If you havent received a confirmation by SIN Online within
24 hours after the moment of enrolment, please notify Ms. Raechel
Torner ([email protected]) in order to check your enrolment. The
system can overload if everybody signs up during the last few days,
so try to enrol well before April 6. Note that you need to sign up
separately for Marketing Management and International Mar-keting
Research. Peer Evaluations (to be submitted only in case of
free-riding problems) At the end of the course, each group member
can submit a peer evaluation form. This evaluation is used to avoid
free-riding on your peers efforts. Each group mem-ber submits an
evaluation of each other members contribution, with 100% implying
that a group member did a fair share of the work. 90%, for example,
would indicate that a group member did only 90% of what a fair
share of the work would have been. The average rating across all
members will be taken as the final peer evaluation rat-ing for a
group member. A 90% rating implies that the group member will get
90% of the group grade. If no rating is turned in, a default rating
of 100% will be used. Talk to me before things get out of hand
Working in groups is often not easy, and every year some groups
fail miserably at maximizing the potential benefits from working in
a group. Group problems are part of the learning experience that
you have to try to sort out yourselves. If your group experiences
group trouble and has tried but failed to work things out, come
talk to me. Although I cannot solve your group's problems for you,
I may in some cases be able to facilitate the process. It is
important that you talk to me before the damage is irreparable.
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Class Participation
How much you learn from this course will depend on your and
others' class participa-tion. Each student is expected to be
present and prepared to participate (i.e., talk) in each session.
Of course, the benefits from class participation depend mostly on
its quality, not just its quantity. Grading class participation is
necessarily subjective, es-pecially when there are over 300
students, but let me give some idea of what I am looking for when
grading class participation bonus points: 1. Analysis: Are you
prepared? Do your comments show an in-depth analysis of
case or other materials that adds to our understanding of the
situation? Do your comments show an understanding of the issue or
material at hand? Do you go beyond a mere restatement of data or
information in the materials?
2. Continuity: Are your comments relevant to the discussion? Do
they build on pre-vious speakers' contributions and do they evoke
follow-up contributions by oth-ers? Are you willing to listen and
maintain the continuity of the discussion? Are you willing to wait
until the discussion reaches the issue you want to comment on?
3. Clarity: Are your comments clear and concise and communicated
in a convincing way?
4. Civility: Do you make sure not to monopolize a discussion?
How do you deal with
people who disagree with you in a heated discussion? Is your
criticism construc-tive or destructive?
5. Identification: I need to be able to identify (and remember)
who you are. The remembering part will eventually work out if you
participate regularly, but for iden-tification, I need you to put a
name card on the desk in front of you.
6. Quality over quantity. Speaking often merely to be heard is
not an optimal strategy for making your comments and contribution
memorable. Please prepare and bear in mind that there are many
students in the class. Do participate, but be consci-entious about
your contribution.
Preparing for Case Discussion
When preparing a case, I recommend that you read the case three
times. The first time, you quickly read through the text of the
case to get a feel for what the case is about and the type of data
it contains. The second time, you should carefully work through the
exhibits. They're usually there for a reason and will help you in
analyzing the situation. You'll often find that you need to do some
calculations or reasoning and combining with other data to benefit
from the information in the raw data. After the second pass, you
should have a good idea of the fundamentals of the case. The third
time you search to understand the specific situation and try to get
at the root causes of problems. You gather data from the case that
will allow you to make specific action recommendations and answers
to the assignment questions. You probably want to take a good look
at the assignment questions between the second and third reading.
Cases often don't have all the data you would like. Nevertheless,
you have to come up with recommendations and answers based on the
data you have. Cases are dif-ferent from reality. To highlight
specific issues, facts may be distorted and important
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situational factors might be omitted. Therefore, you should not
try to rely on infor-mation about the case from outside sources
(unless I or the preparation questions suggest you do so). You
should also not try to find out what really happened to the company
or business as a basis for making your decision. You should not use
papers or notes from previous or concurrent marketing courses. For
more information, consult the Working with Cases document posted on
Black-Board. Written Case Analyses
Four cases will be assigned for detailed analysis and write-up.
The four write-ups are: 1. Crescent Pure (due Thursday April 16 at
15h)
2. elBulli: The Taste of Innovation (due Thursday April 30 at
15h)
3. Altius Golf and the Fighter Brand (due Thursday May 7 at
15h)
4. Cialis Lifecycle Management (due Thursday May 28 at 15h)
All case write-ups are based on a group effort and only one
write-up is expected per group. However, you must submit TWO copies
of EACH case write-up. Both are due at the beginning of the class
(15h) on the day that the case is due (of course they can be handed
in ahead of time if no one is able to bring it into class; these
can be deliv-ered to the Marketing Management Secretary Office on
T10). Late submissions (of the hardcopy and/or electronic copy)
will NOT be accepted. No late write-ups can be accepted because we
discuss the case in class and it would be unfair to the other
students if you could hand in an assignment after we have started
analyzing it in class. Note that this means that you give your
whole group a zero for a case write-up if you, for example, miss a
train or have printer problems and hand in the case late. Plan for
such unforeseen circumstances by building some slack into your time
schedule when coming to class on case days. To summarize:
1. At the beginning of class (15h) on the day that the case is
due, you must submit a hardcopy of your write-up. This is to be
submitted IN THE
CLASSROOM. 2. Before the beginning of class (15h) on the day
that the case is due, one
group member must submit an electronic version of the case to
SafeAssign (via BlackBoard); please clearly designate the team
number.
Formatting of the Case Write-Up Please identify all written work
with the TEAM NUMBER