Global Business

The private sector plays a significant role within all aspects of international affairs by interacting with governmental and non-governmental actors. The failure of a large firm can have real effects on people at all corners of the world. Development policies now recognize the critical role of private incentives at the most micro level. Corporations are under increasing scrutiny to demonstrate ethical and socially responsible behavior. 

Description

The Global Business (GBUS) major will provide BSFS students with a unique opportunity to combine a basic business education with their political and economic coursework, as well as their advanced language, research, and cross-cultural proficiencies. The major offers BSFS students access to courses in accounting, international marketing, corporate finance, and business operations. Students are enabled to use the tools from the business disciplines to understand and analyze the firm and the private sector.

Through an integrated learning experience, the aim of the major is to produce a new breed of graduates who are fluent in the global languages of business, politics, economics, and culture. This fluency and the associated analytical capacity should allow graduates to pursue careers in the private and public sectors, non-profits, and academia, and allow them to freely move between those sectors as their careers evolve. Graduates of the GBUS major will be able to understand corporate ethics and social responsibility and how political and economic environments have made these strategic concerns of the global firm.

Goals of the Major

The Global Business major is designed to provide students with all of the rigorous, multidisciplinary tools needed to analyze business enterprises and how they operate within financial, social and cultural forces around the world. Students acquire a core set of tools in the business disciplines from select MSB courses, as well as study in the social sciences and humanities while completing SFS and University requirements.

Objectives

  • Acquisition of quantitative and qualitative methods.
  • Acquisition of analytical tools of the business disciplines of accounting, finance, marketing, and operations.
  • Combining of business, social science, and humanity disciplines to understand and analyze the firm and the private sector in the context of global social and cultural forces.
  • Understand the multinational corporation and its behavior.
  • Understand international investments and corporate finance.
  • Understand the interactions of businesses and governments in public sector policy making.
  • Understand corporate ethics, social responsibility, and environmental impacts, and how political, economic, and social conditions have made these strategic concerns of the global firm.

Requirements for the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in Global Business

Courses in the SFS core requirement serve as foundational requisites of this major. 

The GBUS major requires 8 courses in addition to the calculus prerequisite.

Prerequisite: Calculus I (MATH 1350 – Calculus I or AP Credit, or equivalent) or Essential Math for Econ (ECON-1357)

GBUS majors are required to complete both ECON 2543 and 2544 as co-requisites.  If you are considering GBUS you should plan to select either ECON-2543 (International Trade) or ECON-2544 (International Finance) to fulfill one of your SFS core economics requirements.  It is important to note that ECON-2542 (International Economics) will not count towards your major so we advise against selecting it if you plan to pursue the GBUS major.

Should you opt to complete ECON-2542 and then, at a later date, decide to major in GBUS, you will be required to complete one higher-level economics course to fulfill the stated co-requisites.

  • Statistics: ECON-2110, GOVT 2201, INAF 3200, MATH-1040, or MATH-2140* (AP Stats does NOT meet requirement)

*One required.

  • Marketing (MARK 1101)
  • Business Core Track (Choose 1)**
    • Standard Track: Business, Accounting, and Finance (GBUS 4400)  – OR –
    • Finance Track: Accounting I (ACCT 1101), Accounting II (ACCT 2101), and Business Financial Management (FINC 2101)
  • One International Business course
  • Three SFS Supporting courses
  • One MSB Supporting course

**Students interested in pursuing advanced education in business, or employment in sectors which require training in both managerial and financial accounting, should pursue the Finance Track.

Honors in Global Business

Parallel to the other majors, honors in the Global Business major requires a 3.5 overall GPA and 3.67 GPA in the major. In addition, qualification for honors will require a thesis judged to be of honors quality by a committee of faculty members or completion of additional requirements as determined by the field committee.

Additional information on the major and required coursework may be found on the BSFS website.

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