Global Challenges in Business

Business Challenges of the 21st Century

Equip yourself with frameworks to pursue business opportunities in the current global environment.

About This Specialization

Learning Outcomes for the Specialization: Upon completion of this specialization, you will be able to: Understand how businesses function in the global marketplace. Make ethical decisions to run a responsible business in the global marketplace. Understand the role of business in addressing global challenges such as poverty and the environment. Understand how business can pursue opportunities and confront challenges in the complex global marketplace.

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7 courses

Follow the suggested order or choose your own.

Projects

Designed to help you practice and apply the skills you learn.

Certificates

Highlight your new skills on your resume or LinkedIn.

Projects Overview

Courses

Beginner Specialization.: No prior experience required.

COURSE 1
Sustainable Innovation for Subsistence Marketplaces
Upcoming session: Oct 2 — Nov 6.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
This course focuses on understanding subsistence marketplaces and designing business solutions for the billions of people living in poverty in the global marketplace. To develop understanding of subsistence marketplaces, we use exercises to enable participants to view the world from the eyes of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs, facilitate bottom‐up understanding generated by participants, and provide insights from extensive research. More broadly, the course uses the context of extreme resource constrained contexts to learn about the bottom-up approach pioneered through the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative, and apply it in any context. The course will involve virtual immersion in subsistence contexts, emersion of unique insights, bottom-up design, innovation and enterprise. A parallel project will focus on understanding a specific need in a subsistence marketplace, and designing a solution and an enterprise plan. Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to: • Develop an understanding of subsistence marketplaces • Design solutions for subsistence marketplaces • Develop enterprise plans to implement solutions for subsistence marketplaces • Apply the bottom-up approach for subsistence marketplaces as well as other contexts This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 2
Sustainable Business Enterprises
Upcoming session: Sep 25 — Oct 30.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
This course will explore current challenges and opportunities facing firms in the area of environmental sustainability. It will begin with an introduction to sustainability, with a particular focus on how environmental sustainability is relevant to business. Topics such as unsustainable consumption/consumer behavior, market research sustainable product design, sustainable value chains and communications will be covered. The bottom-up approach in terms of immersion, emersion, and design as applied to sustainable business enterprise will be covered. The course concludes with a summary of insights on global challenges in business, with particular focus on poverty and the environment, and on the unique approach employed here in terms of bottom-up immersion, emersion, design, innovation, and enterprise. Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to: • Understand the importance of sustainability for business • Learn about specific topics consumer behavior, market research, product design, value chains and communications using the sustainability lens in business • Design solutions and develop enterprise plans for sustainable business initiatives • Apply the bottom-up approach for sustainable business initiatives in any context This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 3
Global Strategy I: How The Global Economy Works
Upcoming session: Sep 25 — Oct 30.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
Starting in the late 1990s, “globalization” became a buzzword to describe the apparent integration of markets in the world economy. Many authors and pundits claimed that the world was converging towards a market-friendly democratic place, while gurus and consulting firms were not short of formulae and advice on how to make profits out of the global economy. Decades later, new realities show that globalization does not mean political, cultural, and economic convergence and that forces against it are strong. This course seeks to help you understand the forces of globalization and how cross-cultural management and the relationship of a multinational organization to various host countries is becoming more and more critical in today’s global economy. This course begins with the discussion of these issues and global relationships and delves into a deeper understanding of business strategy in today’s global business marketplace. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: • Understand how we got here and why it matters • Understand the complexities of the current globalization (not all countries are the same) • Evaluate the effects of international trade regulations on international business • Evaluate when and why should we operate as multinationals This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 4
Global Strategy II: Doing Business in The Global Economy
Upcoming session: Sep 25 — Oct 30.
Subtitles
English
About the Course
This course explores the ways firms overcome challenges when operating globally. The global economy is characterized for its high complexity and uncertainty. Corporations trying to succeed in the global economy need to develop different types of strategies depending on where they are conducting business or what type business they are in. Students taking this course will learn how to determine the best strategy to follow when expanding globally, the advantages and disadvantages of those strategies, and the appropriate responses to external pressures. This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 5
Global Impact: Cultural Psychology
Upcoming session: Oct 2 — Nov 6.
Commitment
4 weeks of study, 4-6 hours/week
Subtitles
English
About the Course
Globalization has brought dramatic changes to the marketplace. A proliferation of global brands brings diverse cultures to a consumer population that is also growing culturally diverse. This course enables students to understand how globalization changes consumers at a psychological level, and provides tools for imbuing brands with cultural meanings—creating iconic brands—that can resonate with global consumers. The focus is on understanding that culture exists in the mind (e.g., values and beliefs) as well as in the environment (e.g., objects, brands, and institutions), and that globalization creates multi-cultural spaces in contemporary societies. Consumers can use the cultural meaning of a brand to build their identities (i.e., assimilate the brand cultural symbolism) or reject the brand’s cultural meaning(s) (i.e., exclusionary reactions). The course will help students identify when assimilation vs. exclusionary reactions are more likely to occur, as well as devise strategies for imbuing brands with cultural meanings that can elevate them to the status of cultural icons. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: • Understand how globalization impacts the psychological responses of consumers in global markets • Understand what culture is and how it manifests itself • Understand how brands acquire cultural meanings • Predict consumers’ responses to the cultural meanings in brands • Identify strategies to win-over multi-cultural consumers in globalized markets • Learn how to build an iconic brand This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.
COURSE 6
Global Impact: Business Ethics
Upcoming session: Oct 2 — Nov 6.
Commitment
4 weeks of study, 4-6 hours/week
Subtitles
English
About the Course
Global business ethics is the study and analysis of how ethics and global business are connected. How we should treat each other and our organizations in global and local contexts is the topic of this course. Business ethics and corporate responsibility are inherent in global commerce. Commerce is about markets, and markets entail exchanges between people and groups of people. So commerce is about human relationships, and indeed, it could not be otherwise. One of the important challenges in global business is working out the extent of these obligations in the interrelationships between businesses and the particular local cultures in which that business operates. The ethical issues arising from these engagements, the kinds of values-based considerations out of which an organization negotiates with local concerns, and how an organization can be both an enabler of economic value-added while respecting cultural differences will be topics of this course. Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to: • Become morally sensitive to ethical dilemmas in global commerce • Identify ethical issues in global business • Master stakeholder analysis • Address issues from more than one point of view • Use a well-reasoned process by which to arrive at ethically-defensible decisions • Evaluate good and weak arguments • Defend your conclusions This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
You can choose to take this course only. Learn more.

Creators

Founded in 1867, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pioneers innovative research that tackles global problems and expands the human experience.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world leader in research, teaching and public engagement, distinguished by the breadth of its programs, broad academic excellence, and internationally renowned faculty and alumni. Illinois serves the world by creating knowledge, preparing students for lives of impact, and finding solutions to critical societal needs.