International Management

44M0132

Master

English

5.0

only winter term

1 semester

This module addresses the tasks of strategic corporate development with regard to activities in international sales and procurement markets in the agricultural and food industry.

1. opportunities and challenges of globalisation and internationalisation of companies in the agricultural and food sector

2. methods for analysing and selecting international markets and instruments for deriving internationalisation strategies

3. forms of international market entry, analysis and evaluation of typical internationalisation strategies in the sector based on an international case study in food retailing

4. analysis and evaluation of specific market entry barriers with regard to international market development

5. special features of processing international procurement markets

6. handling and researching international databases related to foreign trade

The total workload for the module is 150 hours (see also "ECTS credit points and grading").

• Project Report, written or
• Written examination or
• oral exam

The standard form of examination is a written project report; deviations from this will be announced in the first four weeks after the start of lectures.

The project report is prepared jointly as a team and is based on a real case study presented by company representatives.

Written project report - circa 15-20 pages per person in the project group, excluding any appendix

or written exam, 2 hours, or oral exam circa 20-30 minutes

Basic knowledge of economics. 
Knowledge in data research, especially the selection and evaluation of data quality. 
English language skills, as the entire lecture, the secondary data, the group work, the examination in the form of project work etc. will be conducted in English.

Students know the analysis procedures for selecting international markets and research options. They are familiar with normative internationalisation strategies and are able to critically evaluate and justify their selection with regard to a field of application. They know the prevailing ethical challenges of internationalised companies in relation to the industry. They understand the problems and challenges of sustainability in relation to internationalisation strategies.

Students have a detailed specialised knowledge of the methods of market analysis and selection. They know the opportunities and risks of various internationalisation strategies and can identify and evaluate companies and their internationalisation strategies with regard to strategic consistency. They know the tasks of market entry and can plan and prepare these for an entrepreneurial task. They are able to develop and test a scoring model for ranking country data and macro data from market analyses for meaningful use in a case study and apply the utility value analysis in country preselection. 

• Skills - instrumental competence
  Students can handle international databases and research options, categorise the data and make it usable for an entrepreneurial question. They can apply market selection methods, know the advantages and disadvantages of the methods and can select and implement the right method for the respective issue. They can prepare a market entry for a company in the sector.
• Ability - communicative competence
  Students can present the results of a project to analyse and prepare an international market entry and argue in front of experienced colleagues and specialists at a professional level.
• Ability - systemic competence
  They can apply a range of common analytical skills, international database skills and market evaluation and selection techniques to develop and evaluate the internationalisation strategy for a company in the sector.

The imparted knowledge and skills are meaningful for work in all types of companies that want to advance their strategy development in the area of internationalisation. Multidisciplinary teams are usually put together to deal with such complex issues. It can therefore be relevant to have acquired this knowledge and expertise, regardless of your future specialist career. In any case, it is highly relevant for people who want to work in the field of strategy development, foreign trade, management or setting up their own company. 

Consideration of sustainability strategies in international strategy development.

Master's students are able to present, discuss and reflect on the analysis tool they have developed for international market selection as well as the results of the analysis, addressing the company providing the case. Complex sustainability issues and trade-offs in particular are recognised and strategically weighed up.

Students develop a professional identity that aligns with the objectives and standards of professional practice, both within the academic sphere and in career contexts outside of academia.
 
 

This module complements modules in the field of strategic management, sustainability and sustainability assessment, market analysis/marketing, economics, business administration.

• Land Use Transformation M.Sc. (01.03.2026)

• Agriculture, Food Science and Business M.Sc. (01.09.2025)

• Schnitker, Karin

• Schnitker, Karin

Vertreter*innen des Fall gebenden Unternehmens.