Master's in Sustainable Business

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

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: Innovation and Digital Business I

• 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.

Global Family Business: 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.

Sustainable Business: 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.

Luxury Management: Manage and Market Luxury Brands

• Identify the key strategic (marketing) challenges in the luxury industry.
• Learn how to build a network of companies and executives within the industry

• 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.

Sub-Modules:

• International Strategic Management: Learn about the driving forces behind globalization and the associated strategic models, and find out how you can apply them in business operations.
• Organizational Behavior: Explore the relationships between individuals, organizations, and society, as well as the reasons behind behaviors in organizations.
• Conscious Business: Develop an understanding of alternative business practices as opposed to the traditional focus on profit as the core objective of a company, based on the four principles of conscious capitalism and best practices in conscious business.

Choose 1 out of 3

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.

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

Choose 1 out of 3
Depending on the level, learn the appropriate grammar and vocabulary skills to advance to the next level of language proficiency.

• Spanish
• Chinese
• German

Sub-Modules:

• Business Communication: Recognize and master the challenges of business communication, especially in an international and intercultural context.
• Business Ethics: Study and discuss current and controversial business ethics issues as well as the philosophical origins of ethics.
• Negotiation Skills: Learn how to use effective communication skills and master the dynamics of human behavior in the negotiation process.

Feel more connected to the MBS community by actively participating in a variety of extracurricular activities.

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: Company Valuation

• 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: Innovation and Digital Business II

• 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

Global Family Business: 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.

Sustainable Business: Sustainable Business Transformation

• 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.

Luxury Management: Luxury Brand Management

• Identify the key strategic (marketing) challenges in the luxury industry.
• Learn how to build a network of companies and executives within the industry.

• 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.

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 5:
 

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

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

Choose 1 out of 3:

• Spanish
• Chinese
• German

Sub-Modules:

• Responsible Leadership: Learn how to lead and manage people in your company responsibly, including how to motivate and support people depending on the circumstances, personality, and culture.
• Business & Society: Familiarize yourself with the origins and development of various cultural beliefs and value systems and learn how these shape business practices from a top management perspective.
• Master Thesis Preparation: Learn how to collect, evaluate, assess, and present the state of the art on a specific topic.

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

Students of the Master have the opportunity to spend their third semester abroad at one of our numerous international partner universities. During the semester abroad you will gain extensive international experience and develop your intercultural skills. Alternatively, students can spend two semesters at selected universities and complete their studies with a dual degree.

Students who have studied at the university level or worked professionally consecutively for at least one year outside the German-speaking region can apply to replace the study abroad period in the third semester with a subject-related internship in the German-speaking region. If this is approved, an 15-week full-time internship for 15 ECTS must be completed during in the third semester.

Last but not least: writing your master's thesis.