MASTER’S COURSE IN INNOVATION & DIGITAL BUSINESS

The concentration modules allow students to dive deep into specific fields of international business. In the first semester, students enroll in 2 out of 5 additional courses.

International Entrepreneurship: Identifying and Generating a Business Idea

• Develop a business idea using different decision-making approaches and begin to prototype the idea.
• Study different types of entrepreneurship, creativity techniques, and entrepreneurial decision-making approaches.

Innovation and Digital Business

• Learn how to develop smart solutions based on the latest technologies and successfully launch them on the market.
• Recognize the potential of digital-based innovations and translate this into new business models.

International Family Firms: Understanding and Managing Family Businesses

• Develop an understanding of key concepts and key tools for balancing family and business aspects over time.
• Work on a case study analyzing a real-life family to apply the concepts studied and design an approach for implementation.

Foundations of Sustainable Business

• Get to know the ecological, social and economic components of sustainability and understand their effects and challenges.
• Understand which tools and techniques are used in sustainability management.

• Learn the basics of financial derivatives on interest rates and how to assess their effectiveness and values.
• Gain insights to core issues of international financial business management with a focus on hedging interest rate risks.

• Learn how to design, implement and monitor the relevant marketing and management strategies in a service context.
• Participate in a digitalization workshop and apply the concepts learned in class to program a website for a service marketing concept.

• Learn how to apply project management tools and methods on a real-life business problem.
• Plan, organize, conduct and control a project for a business partner and gain insights into the company.
• Assess the quality and reliability of existing data / research findings based on their source, data collection method and analysis / interpretation of the findings.

Sub-Modules:

International Strategic Management

Organizational Behavior

Conscious Business

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• Learn about the drivers of globalization, related strategic models, and how to apply them in business operations.
• Study the relationships between individual, organization, and society and reasons for behaviors in organizations.
• Develop an understanding for alternative business practices compared to traditional profit orientation as the core goal of a business based on the four tenets of Conscious Capitalism as well as best practices in the field of Conscious Business.

Choose 1 out of 3

• Business in Germany
• Business in Latin America
• Business in China

Gain insights into business practices and current business topics in the chosen region based on an understanding of the social background as well as the economic and political system in the respective region.

Choose 1 out of 3:

• Spanish
• Chinese
• German

Depending on the level, learn the appropriate grammar and vocabulary skills to advance to the next level of language proficiency.

Sub-Modules:

Business Communication

Business Ethics

Negotiation Skills

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• Identify and master the challenges of business communication particularly in an international and intercultural context.
• Study and discuss topical and controversial business ethics issues as well as the philosophical origins of ethics.
• Learn how to use effective communication skills as well as manage the human behavior dynamics in the negotiation process.

Feel a stronger sense of belonging to the MBS community by actively engaging in a variety of extracurricular offerings.

The concentrations allow students to dive deep into specific areas of international business. In the second semester, students choose 2 out of 7 courses:

Corporate Finance: Corporate Finance and Portfolio Management

• Distinguish between different valuation concepts and learn to apply specific valuation approaches.
• Learn how to create a portfolio that meets the given investment goals as well as how to perform a “risk and return” analysis.

International Marketing: Integrated Corporate Communication and Relationship Marketing

• Evaluate and design all elements of integrated corporate communication campaigns and adapt them according to different communication settings.
• Develop an understanding of relationship marketing concepts and frameworks as well as how to apply them to real-life examples.

International Entrepreneurship: Establishing a Startup and Testing the Business Idea

• Learn how to evaluate, write and pitch a business plan for creating a new venture.
• Develop skills to set up a new venture, assess growth determinants, detect and solve managerial challenges, and evaluate and prepare exit strategies and steps for dealing with failure.

Innovation and Digital Business

• Develop an understanding of innovation management in corporate structures and the impact of digitalization on novel product and service offerings
• Learn the basics and principles of digital business models in the context of corporate entrepreneurship

International Family Firms: Building, Protecting and Investing Family Wealth

• Develop an understanding of the dynamics between ownership-family-firm and the importance of balancing the system.
• Apply the key concepts for the execution of ownership, investment and core activities in the heart of the system to a case study.

Foundations of Sustainable Business

• Develop a deep understanding of the principles of the circular economy and their implementation in companies.
• Solve complex human sustainability challenges as part of a project by applying sustainable design methods such as biomimicry, circular design and design thinking at product and process level.

• Learn how to apply project management tools and methods on a real-life business problem.
• Plan, organize, conduct and control a project for a business partner and gain insights into the company.
• Assess the quality and reliability of existing data / research findings based on their source, data collection method and analysis / interpretation of the findings.

Choose 2 out of 8:

• Independent Research Project:
  Learn how to and develop a scientific paper, publication, working paper (or similar) on a self-chosen research topic in consultation with a faculty mentor.
• Success Factor Happiness:
  Personally experience the concepts of happiness, mindfulness, higher purpose, compassion, and gratitude through specific exercises and learn from best practices how to apply them in a work environment to increase (among others) subjective well-being, health, productivity, and satisfaction and decrease stress.
• Management Consulting:
  Analyze the characteristics of the consulting market, evaluate the critical success factors in consulting and develop the ability to structure and analyze business problems in a highly professional way.
• Consolidated Financial Statements:
  Develop an understanding of consolidated financial statements, how to prepare them and what challenges may arise in their preparation.
• Communication Management:
  Learn how organizations can communicate with consumers and acquire tools to facilitate communication within a company.
• Applied Game Theory:
  Learn how to translate economic problems into game theory and evaluate important solution concepts of game theory.
• Process and Logistics Management:
  Understand and recognize the importance of strategic operations and logistics managements as well as learn how to use relevant practical tools.
• International Economic Relations:
  Develop an understanding of why countries trade with each other and an ability to reflect on both advantages and problematic developments of international trade.

Choose 1 out of 5:

• Business in Europe
• Business in Latin America
• Business in China
• Business in USA and Canada
• Business in Emerging Economies (India, Africa)

Use case studies, business simulations, in-depth reports as well as expert knowledge to understand the complexities of the business environment in the chosen region from a cultural, economic, social, political, and legal perspective.

Choose 1 out of 3:

• Spanish
• Chinese
• German

Depending on the level, learn the appropriate grammar and vocabulary skills to advance to the next level of language proficiency.

Sub-Modules:

Responsible Leadership

Business & Society

Master Thesis Preparation

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• Learn how to lead and manage people in business in a responsible way, including how to motivate and support people depending on the given circumstances, personality, and culture.
• Get familiar with the origin and development of different cultural core beliefs, value systems and how they define business practices from a top management perspective.
• Learn how to collect, evaluate, assess and present the state of the art in the academic discipline regarding a specific research question.

Feel a stronger sense of belonging to the MBS community by actively engaging in a variety of extracurricular offerings.

Students in the Master International Business gain comprehensive international experience by studying one semester at one of the numerous international partner universities of MBS. Alternatively, students can spend two semesters at selected universities and complete their studies with a dual degree. 

Last but not least: writing you Master Thesis