Introduction
Maximum number of students: 60
China is one of the two largest economies in the world in terms of both GDP and population and is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world. As such, developing an understanding of how to do business in or with China is no longer an option for many firms but a necessity. Developing knowledge about China is especially useful for firms based in smaller countries like Norway which naturally tend to look beyond Norway’s borders to gain ample economies of scale. As such, China is clearly a very important market for managers to understand. However, China is also a country that is quite different from the Norway and other Western countries more broadly and has proven perplexing and hard for many mangers to understand. This course seeks to help participants to develop an understanding of how to do business in and with China effectively and efficiently and provides participants a comparative advantage as a result. The course will also discuss how to deal with the fact that China is quite diverse and rapidly changing. For example, the course will discuss implications of the Chinese government's belt road strategy (a policy to encourage Chinese firms to internationalize) and the Chinese government’s push to change from being the factory of the world just focusing on producing products to also having much innovation done in China.
The course explores a wide range of issues relating to how to do business in and with China. Broadly speaking the course focuses on what management practices and strategies work best in China. The course also highlights that China is a large and diverse country and that people, firms, and the situations they are in differ greatly and need to be taken into account. The importance of considering the context and specifics of any situation will be stressed in the course--a one size fits all approach is not possible to doing business with China. The course aims to move beyond simply teaching content to helping students understand how they can apply the content they have learned. This is done in several ways including via a live case project which is like a consulting project that students will do for a firm as an important component of this course.