School of Management
The University of Texas at Dallas
Course: International Corporate Finance (IMS 6220.0G1)
Instructors: Prof. David Berg, course developer; George Barnes, course manager
Semester: Summer 2003
| Instructor Info | Course Description | Course Materials | Tech Requirements | Course Access |
| Communications | Student Assessment | Course Evaluation | Scholastic Honesty | Schedule |
George Barnes
Email: gbarnes@utdallas.edu
Alternative email: through WebCT course site
Phone: 972-883-2783
Profiles:
Berg currently is Assistant Professor, international strategy, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For 4 years ending Summer, 2001, he taught international corporate finance and international strategy at UTD, and conducted Asian Area Studies courses. Berg spent 5 years with EDS, mainly in international treasury and import/export. He has his PhD in Business Administration (international strategy) from the University of Minnesota.
Barnes is Director, Global MBA Online at UTD, and Senior Lecturer, international management studies. Currently he teaches in the undergraduate business program (Export Market Development and International Business) and also team-teaches International Marketing in the online MBA Program. His interests are in export market development, and he spent 16 years in international executive positions with Citibank in the Middle East, including country head for Bahrain/Kuwait, and with Mobil Oil Corporation in New York, in corporate planning and political risk analysis. Barnes has a Masters degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Course Objectives
This course focuses on corporate financial management issues faced by managers operating in an increasingly globalized competitive environment. Foreign operations and international financing possibilities entail additional opportunities, risks, and complexities that must be understood by both financial and strategic managers. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to some of the factors and decisions that relate to the short-term and long-term financial position of the firm in an international setting, and to help you become familiar with some ways of dealing with the added complexity of cross-border financial management.
We will begin by considering the evolution of the financial context of international business, including the development of foreign exchange markets. We will then explore the different exposures and risks faced by a firm doing business in multiple currency environments, as well as how to manage or control those risks. We next examine various funding options for international operations and how foreign investment decisions are made. Finally, we discuss some of the ways in which international operations create additional financial management demands on the firm.
Prerequisites:
IMS5200 Global Economy and FIN 6301 Financial Management, or equivalent, or consent of instructor.
Textbook: Multinational Business Finance, Eiteman, David K., Arthur I. Stonehill & Michael H. Moffett (ESM). 2001 - 9th Edition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Textbooks and other materials can be ordered online through MBS Direct Virtual Bookstore: http://direct.mbsbooks.com/utd.htm. They are also available in UTD bookstore.
Hardware
· A Pentium processor or equivalent Mac system; Windows 98/Me/2000/XP or Mac OS 9.x or OS X 10.1.
· Internet access with modem or preferably with other faster connections.
· 32 MB system Ram; 200 MB free disk space or sufficient storage
· Sound card
· CD-ROM capabilities
Software
· Netscape Navigator 4.7x or higher (but 4.78, 4.79 and 6.0-6.1 not supported), or Internet Explorer 5.0 to 6.0 (but 5.5 SP1 not supported).
· MS Office 97/98 is the minimum standard. (Microsoft software is available at a nominal cost from UTD Microsoft Program. For more information, visit Global MBA Online Student Service web page at: http://som.utdallas.edu/globalmba/service.htm).
· Virus detection/protection software such as McAfee
· “Plug-ins” tools such as current version of RealPlayer/RealOne Player (available at: http://www.real.com/realone/index.html) and Adobe Acrobat Reader (available at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
· A zip file expansion tool such as WinZip or Stuffit Expander (available at: http://www.download.com).
Web Browser Configuration
For the WebCT courses to work properly, you need one of the WebCT supported browsers listed above with JavaScript enabled and cookie enabled. It is also important that you set the cache settings of your browser to verify web documents “Every Time”. The methods for configuring these settings vary among browsers. Please follow this web link provided by WebCT to tune-up your browser:http://www.webct.com/tuneup/
This course is developed using a web course tool called WebCT. It is to be delivered entirely online. You will be notified by email about the course access information at the start of the course. You’ll need to have a UTD NetID and password (your UTD Unix/Email ID and password) to access the course. If you have not used a UTD NetID account yet, you can go to https://netid.utdallas.edu/ to initiate your account shortly before or at the start of the semester. Your UTD NetID is your WebCT ID to be used to log on to the UTD WebCT courses. For more information, please check out this NetID FAQs page. The URL for the course login page is: http://webct.utdallas.edu. You can login to the course whenever you want. You are required to meet any deadlines for the assignments and exams and also any schedules for class activities or tasks the course requires. You should login to the course site regularly to check course updates, discussion board messages and so on.
You’ll access “My WebCT” page after you login. The page listed all the courses you’ve registered. You can click the course title to access the course Home page which displays several icon links. Clicking each icon link will take you to different subsidiary pages containing the course content elements or built-in course tools. Some navigation components such as the Navigation Bar with Course Menu on the left side, the Menu Bar and the path link on the top and the Action Menu on the content page can help you navigate within the course site.
To get started with a WebCT course, please see Getting started: Student WebCT Orientation. For more information about WebCT tool usage, please see the WebCT’s Student Help Index. Within the course site, you can always click HELP on the WebCT Menu Bar to find information and answers. You can also check out the Orientation Center to Online Learning and WebCT provided on WebCT’s web site. For more WebCT information and its learning resources, visit http://www.webct.com.
If you have any problem with your UTD account or connection to the UTD WebCT server, you may email to: assist@utdallas.edu or call UTD computer help call center at: 972-883-2911. If you encounter any technical difficulties with the course, you can send an email to gmbasupport@utdallas.edu.
WebCT built-in communication tools: There are four built-in communication tools to facilitate learning, communication and collaboration. A course conferencing system, the Discussion, allows the communications among all course participants. Discussion topics or groups can be set up for topic discussions and homework assignments. You can use course Mail tool to communicate privately with instructor and classmates. The Chat tool can be used for real time communication among course participates. Please see specific information for accessing Chat tool: http://som.utdallas.edu/training/chat.htm. Finally there is a Whiteboard tool also allows real-time interaction among course participants using a graphical interface. Instructor may schedule times to use the Chat and/or Whiteboard tools for office hours and/or class discussion sessions. Small groups may also use Chat for group discussions.
Interaction with Instructor: Instructor will communicate with students mainly using course Discussion board. Students may send personal concerns or questions to the instructor using course Email tool. Instructor will reply to student emails or Discussion board messages within 3 working days under normal circumstances.
International Corporate Finance will use the following WebCT communication tools:
- in Discussions, Main Topic for students to post questions about the course requirements or weekly excercises/quizzes of interest to all students; these questions may be responded to by students or instructor
- in Discussions, Course Announcements Topic where instructor will post updated information, or new information, but which is not intended to be an actual discussion area
- in Discussions, Current Events, where students post something about a relevant topic from a news source, with short analysis, source, and/or website link (for credit toward Participation grade)
- in Discussions, Private topic will be set up for each midterm case study group
- Chat Room for office hours which will be announced periodically
- Email (in course) for any personal concerns; please do not use email for questions of general interest to all students; instead, use Main Topic
Students have an option to set up a personal web page within the course (go to Student Tools), including picture; this is encouraged by the Instructor as a way to get to know each other since no real-time interaction is scheduled.
MeetingPlace Conference System: UTD maintains a 48-port telephone conferencing system from Latitude Communications. Online instructors can use the system for class teleconference sessions during the semester. Participants can access a meeting by dialing a “972” area code number using any touch tone phone and entering a meeting code, or by using very inexpensive Internet connectivity, such as Net2Phone (see their website for instructions). A class teleconference is usually recorded and can be reviewed over the phone after the conference. Please see TeleConference Guide for general conference participation and review instructions.
For the two (2) Latitude System teleconferences scheduled for this course, you will be informed about times and access instructions. See Schedule for proposed dates which could change.
Grading Information:
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Course Requirements & Evaluation
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Midterm Case Quizzes (best 3 out of 5) Final Exam Participation Assignment (Ch 20) |
20 % of total grade 15 % of total grade 40 % of total grade 10 % of total grade 15 % of total grade |
Participation
Included in this grade are
-submission of a personal statement,
-credit for the number of quizzes taken (4 out of 5 are required),
-attending at least one of two teleconferences,
-quality and relevance of any postings in course Current Events Discussion area, and
-optional bonus for one submitted exercise (eligible excercises: 4.6, 5.2, 7.4, 12.5, and 14.2)
Personal Statement: Between the time the course is released, and June 2, students are to submit a Personal Statement to Instructor using Assignment Dropbox. The statement should be a Microsoft Word document, 100-120 words in length, stating your name and in a narrative style briefly discussing the following: how long have you been in the online MBA program; why did you choose International Corporate Finance as one of your electives; what is your current position, employer, main responsibilities (if you’re employed), and what you hope to get out of the course.
Assignments
Case - The group midterm case to be submitted is Lufthansa on page 187 of the text (see Schedule for due date).
Each group’s writeup is to be a maximum of four pages, double-spaced, and must reflect your own thoughts on the case. The writeup should begin with a brief summary of your recommendations, followed by the justification for those suggestions. Spend as little time and space as possible on the facts of the case—assume your Instructor knows the basics. You may use the questions on page 193 to frame your thinking (and if you use questions to guide your analysis, clearly identify each question being discussed).
Exercise - Exercises from selected chapters are to be prepared as practice and are not to be submitted. Solutions will be revealed in Evaluation Tools at the conclusion of the applicable module (week). However, one solution to an exercise question may be submitted to Instructor, prior to weekly posting of solutions, for a maximum of 4 bonus points credited to Participation grade. See "assignment submission" instructions below.
For this course, Assignment Dropbox will be used for the following:
- submission of Personal Statement at start of course
- submission of Mid-term case study
- optional submission of one exercise (see eligible exercises under Participation)
- submission of written assignment (Ch 20)
Assignment submission instructions: You will submit your assignments (as MS Word document with simple file name and .doc extension, no space or special characters) by using the Assignment Dropbox tool in the course site. See Assignments icon on the Evaluation tools page. You can click each assignment name link and follow the on-screen instructions to upload your file and submit it. Please refer to the Help menu or the WebCT Student Guide for more information on using this tool. Please notice: each assignment link can only be used one time and will be deactivated after the assignment due time. After your submission is graded, you may click each assignment’s “Graded” link to check the results and feedback.
Tests/Quizzes
There are five “Self assessment” quizzes, which students will take on their own time during the week they are posted. Quizzes are for self assessment purposes, but required participation in the quizzes is a component of the Participation grade, and the best 3 quiz grades will be used as an overall Quiz grade.
You can access quizzes by clicking the Online Quizzes icon and then clicking the available quiz title links. Each quiz can only be accessed one time within the scheduled time. Please read the on-screen instructions carefully before you click the Begin Quiz button. You may review your quiz results by clicking the Completed link.
Exam
There will be a proctored final exam consisting of multiple choice questions and computation exercises.
An on-campus class exam session is scheduled on Thurs. July 24, 2003, 6:00 – 8:00 pm in room GR 2.532 under the supervision of the instructor.
Students who are not able to attend this exam session with instructor can arrange an individually proctored exam with a testing service of their choice at any date within this required exam time window: July 24 – July 26. For local students, testing service is available at UTD Learning Resources Center. Students who find UTD geographically inconvenient may use a testing service at a convenient location to have the exam proctored. All individually arranged proctored exams must be completed within the required exam time window. Student who will use either UTD testing service at Learning Resources Center or an outside testing service, please inform the instructor and the Global MBA Online office (gmbasupport@utdallas.edu) and complete a proctored exam form and send back to GMBA Office be by June 20. For more information on arranging a proctored exam, the detailed procedures and a downloadable exam form, please go to the Proctored Exam Information page at: http://som.utdallas.edu/globalmba/examinfo.htm. All exams must be mailed back immediately when completed to ensure the receiving at UTD by July 30 11:00 am so that the grades can be reported on time.
As required by UTD academic regulations, every student needs to do an evaluation for each enrolled course at the end of the semester. An online instructional assessment form will be made available for your confidential use. Please look for the course evaluation link on the course Homepage toward the finish of the course. Your grade will not be posted until you submit a course evaluation.
The university has policies and procedures regarding scholastic dishonesty. Detailed information is available at: http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html. All students are expected to maintain a high level of responsibility with respect to academic honesty. Students who violate university rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the university. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students and the integrity of the university, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced.
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Week/ dates |
Topic |
Readings |
Assignments/activities
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May 29-31 |
Course access and self-orientation: Introduction audio |
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Week 1 Jun 1-7 |
The International Monetary System: Lecture 1 |
Ch 1 & 2 |
Personal statement due Jun 2
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Week 2 Jun 8-14 |
Foreign Exchange Markets: Lecture 2 |
Pgs 59-83; 103-118; 122-131
Skim rest of ch 3-5 |
Exercises: Ch 3: #2 Ch 4: #2, 6 Ch 5: #2, 3 Quiz #1 |
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Week 3 Jun 15-21 |
Foreign Exchange Exposure and Management: Lecture 3 |
Pgs 152-170; 202-225
Skim rest of ch 6-7 |
Exercises: Ch 7: #4
Quiz #2 |
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Midterm |
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Lufthansa case pgs 187-193 (due Jun 23) Teleconference on case (Jun 25) |
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Week 4 Jun 22-28 |
Financing the Global Firm: Lecture 4 |
Pgs 303-310; 336-340; 361-366 Skim rest of ch 10-12 |
Exercises: Ch 12: #5 Quiz #3 |
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Week 5 Jun 29-Jul 5 |
International Investment Decisions: Lecture 5 |
Pgs 406-420; 469-475
Skim rest of ch 14, 16 |
Exercises: Ch 14: #2 Ch 16: #5
Quiz #4 |
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Week 6 Jul 6-12 |
Funds Movement and Working Capital: Lecture 6 |
Pgs 519-525; 530-544; 554-564
Skim rest of ch 18-19 |
Quiz #5
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Week 7 Jul 13-19 |
Trade Financing: Lecture 8 |
Ch 20 |
Yoko Beach Shop assignment (due Jul 19)
Teleconference on Countertrade (Jul 20) |
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Week 8 Jul 20-23 |
International strategy, risk and evaluation: Lecture 7 |
Pgs 386-401; 617-631 |
Exercise: Ch 13: #1
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Final |
- On-campus final exam session: Thurs. Jul 24, 6:00-8:00 pm in Rm. GR 2.532 - Proctored exams at testing centers: Jul 24-26, all exams must be received by Jul 30, 11:00 am |
Final Exam (ch 2-7, 10-12, 14, 16, 18, 19) |
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