Winter 2021 | MGMT 298D 19 – Non-Market Risks and Understanding Politics: The Global Context for Doing Business

Quarter: Winter 2021
Instructor: Christine Loh

Non-market risks - political risk being a major one - can be highly disruptive. The ability to understand the politics of a place and its culture is helpful to assessing risk and making decisions. Global issues are often affected by domestic politics, which also impact business. In this course, students will consider the global political environment and how much it affects business. This course is designed to contrast where the experience is most divergent - between the Western experience (exemplified by the United States) with that of the People's Republic of China - as this can provoke the deepest reflection. The two systems are underpinned by very different thinking, and they are coming up against each other in a globalized world. These differences will define a key global discourse for decades to come. Students will develop a framework to analyze non-market/political risks in relations to an organization. The course also introduces non-state bodies and actors -- international regulatory bodies; cities and regions (I.e. municipal and regional authorities); and non-government organizations - as well as 'megatrends' - climate change and sustainability, as well as technology - all of which affect risk assessments, politics and business. By the end of the course, students will grasp how all the issues are interrelated.