ESCI-UPF School of International Business
The International Business Program is jointly offered by the ESCI-UPF School of International Business and the UPF Education Abroad Program. The program is aimed at undergraduate students with a major or minor in business who wish to acquire an international perspective and a better understanding of the successful management practices needed to compete in the global economy. Moreover, the program is designed to offer students insight into international business from a multicultural perspective and to improve their professional qualifications.
Our experience with summer programs and regular exchange agreements with many European, American, and Asian academic institutions make us confident that the program is a useful and enjoyable experience for all participants. Our faculty is looking forward to working with international students interested in learning how to manage companies in the global economy and to providing them with the skills and knowledge they need for a successful start to their business careers.
All students who complete the ESCI-UPF International Business Program will be awarded a joint certificate from the ESCI International Business School and the UPF Eduation Abroad Program attesting that they have successfully completed at least two international business courses.
Key Areas
- International Business
- International Management
- International Finance
- International Economics
(!) All ESCI courses will take place at ESCI-UPF Edifici Born, which is about a ten-minute walk from our Ciutadella Campus. They have different codes for the Fall/Winter terms. Please, be aware of this when configurating/registering your class schedules.
Calendar | Apply | Fees | Policies
Program Requirements
The ESCI-UPF International Business Program is designed primarily for students majoring or minoring in business. Most students pursuing a degree in business administration or economics will not need to complete any additional prerequisites. Applicants pursuing degrees in other fields should make sure they have fulfilled the recommended prerequisites specified for each course.
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Applicants should have a 3.0 GPA minimum at their schools of origin.
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The program is suitable for both students with a strong command of Spanish and for those wishing to take courses only in English, as it includes courses taught in both English and Spanish.
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Please, note that to take courses taught in Spanish, students are strongly advised to have completed at least four semesters of college-level Spanish.
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Applicants should come from a university or study abroad provider that has a study abroad partnership with UPF
Academic Structure
The certificate requires a full semester course load (normally 4-5 courses, equivalent to 24-30 ECTS credits) with the following breakdown:
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One compulsory core course: International Management
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At least one of the program elective courses: International Finance, International Economics, Doing Business in Europe, Corporate Finance, New Trends in International Marketing, Economic Global Order, Financial Risk Management, Strategic Brand Management, Consulmer Behavior or Cross Cultural Management and Intercultural Communication.
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Two or three additional courses, to be chosen from among the following:
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Another program course
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The ESCI-UPF undergraduate course offering
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The Barcelona Program for Interdisciplinary Studies course offering (culture and Spanish language courses)
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Deadline for applications:
Fall: May 30 | Winter and Spring: October 30
Academic offerings & Schedules
SYLLABI: All ESCI IBP and ESCI regular syllabi are available in this link: select the bin "cerca per assignatura", type the ESCI course code and select the button "veure plan docents". Then select the language (Catalan/Spanish/English) and download.
SCHEDULES: Customized timetables can be checked on this link (using the ESCI CODE)
51634 (Fall)/ 51701 (Winter)- International Management
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Business Organization
The International Management course focuses on the opportunities and challenges created by globalisation. It examines a series of cross-cultural and management issues related to management in an international marketplace. The aim of this course is to enable students to analyse and understand the opportunities and challenges that companies face when expanding their activities internationally and when dealing with international competitors in their home markets. Special attention is placed upon the different tools and analytic competences available to the different specialised managerial roles when competing internationally.
The course comprises three segments. The first builds a better understanding of the challenges in the international environment. It focuses on the analysis of country differences in political economy and political risks as well as cultural and social heterogeneities. In this segment, the course covers the major facets of the international management environment (legal, political, economic and cultural). The central debates surrounding the cultural construct, formal and informal institutions, economic development and regional integrations are presented in class, along with the major frameworks that have been used to describe these phenomena.
51655 (Fall) / 51705 (Winter) - Corporate Finance
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Accounting
This introductory course into the world of Corporate Finance helps students master the vocabulary of financial statements and accounting reports and equips them with the skills to use these tools to communicate with internal and external interlocutors. It also focuses on how to measure corporate investments and considers the different finance resources that are currently available.
NEW! 51901-Doing Business in America
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Business organization not compatible with 40106
Understanding American society, geopolitics and culture. Specific aspects of economic and business organisation.
51636 (Fall)/ 51704 (Winter) - Doing Business in Europe
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Business organization
Historical background of the EU. Institutional structure. Internal and external policies. The European business environment: managerial and consumer behavioural differences.
51633 (Fall) /51703 (Winter) - International Finance
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Accounting, Financial Management
The monetary markets. Stock exchanges and commodity markets. Cash and deposit operations. Options and contracting of financial futures. Interbanking products. Business risk.
NEW! 51902-International Product Management
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Marketing. Market Research. Strategy. Not compatible with 40112
This course takes a holistic approach to product management and sets out how to make a product consumers’ preferred choice across markets. It comprises four modules: Product Innovation and Innovation Ecosystems, New Product Development, Product Branding and Positioning, and Product Life Cycle Management
51669 (Fall) / 51706 (Winter) - New Trends in International Marketing
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Introduction to Marketing
This course aims to ensure that students understand new trends in the marketing arena and appreciate their relevance to business and the global economy. By linking theory and practice, the course gives students an international perspective and hands-on experience developing new marketing trends.
51745 (Fall)/ 51746 (Winter) / 51780 (Spring) - Cross Cultural Management and Intercultural Communication
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall, Winter and Spring
Recommended prerequisite: Business Organization
The present course analyzes concepts and tools of Intercultural Communication and Cross Cultural Management to make sense of a globalizing world across the 20th and 21st centuries, such as multi-culturalism and diversity, which are subject to increasing refinement or marginalization in favor of newer ideas, including inter-culturalism and super-diversity in the business environment. This course focuses on the dynamics of where cultures converge, resulting in cross-cultural connections.
51751 (Fall)/ 51752 (Winter)- Consumer Behavior
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Introduction to Marketing . Not compatible with 40204
The goal of this course is to use a variety of insights from the social psychology literature in order to understand how consumers behave and, particularly, the reasons behind such behavior. With this knowledge, students should be better equipped to answer important marketing questions such as how to boost product awareness or how to increase purchase intentions.
51728 (Fall)/ 51729 (Winter) - Financial Risk Management
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Corporate Finance
A Black Swan is costly. This statement is absolutely agreed by businessmen and professionals, particularly those facing inherent risk in their professional lives. Minimizing the cost of risk to an optimum level unanimously means that we are increasing the value of a firm and the value of any investment. Using integrated approaches and real life cases, the course will emphasize discussion on the design and implementation of risk management practices. Basically, it purports to help students realize, and understand various state-of-the-art risk management theories and
practices (such as loss control, loss financing, and internal risk reduction mechanisms) as well as their advancement in the future. Hence, risk management course is of importance to business students expecting to deal with business and professional lives in the future in a global context.
This course covers all kinds of financial risks such as credit risk, currency risk exposure, interest rate risk, price volatility risk, among others. Hedging financial risk with various risk management concepts, tools, and techniques will be held by the derivative products: Futures, Forwards, Options, and Swaps.
NEW! 51903- Organizational Behavior
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Business organization Not compatible with 40331 International Talent Management
Company’s personnel area. Selection, training, payment and promotion of personnel. Cessation of employment and turnover. Performance assessment.
51730 (Fall)/ 51731 (Winter) - Strategic Brand Management
Credits: 6 ECTS
Terms: Fall and Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Marketing management
Strategic Brand Management will provide the students with a deep knowledge of the strategic role of branding, enabling them to master the key principles of building enduring brands in competitive markets and create market value. The course combines the key elements and latest research in brand management with real-world cases of brand successes, but also missteps. Topics covered include: The principles of brand management. Where do we come from and what are the new challenges ahead? Essential tools to build successful brand strategies. Designing effective Brand Strategies. Answer to what, how and why of a brand. From research, purpose and values to the action plan for the better brand management. Renewed focus on Branding and marketing in the digital era. At the end of the course, students are expected to have developed a managerial perspective regarding Strategic Brand Management in a global framework.
51870-Digital Business Modeling and Competitive Strategy
Credits: 6 ECTS
Term: Winter
Modality: Face-to-face learning options
Recommended prerequisite: Business organization, Business strategy
Development of a strategic approach to the analysis of competitive factors in digital environments. Technological disruption and the creation of digital
business models. The Gartner Hype Cycle, the life cycle of technological industries, the concept of competitive paradigm, and the analysis of multi-layer platform models.
51871-Marketing Research
Credits: 6 ECTS
Term: Winter
Recommended prerequisite: Business organization; Business marketing
Key principles of how to design and plan marketing research. Quantitative and qualitative market research methods and techniques. Data transformation, analysis and presentation of results. New trends in marketing research.
51741-Business Innovation
Credits: 6 ECTS
Term: Spring
Recommended prerequisite: Business organization
Creative and innovation process. Management of innovative organizations. Development of innovative projects