International Business
The Master of Science degree course in International Business provides a solid basis for a career in the global business world, enabling students to manage complex processes and structures in a constantly changing international environment.
Graduates are ideally prepared to rise to future management challenges. Some top performers may choose to go on to doctoral study.
The programme promotes a holistic and cross-functional approach and does not emphasise specific sectors or roles. Case-related analysis and integrated modelling are key foci of the course, as are methods, theories and technical skill sets that will enable graduates to master a variety of challenges in various sectors and open up opportunities for their ongoing personal development.
Good reasons to study International Business at HAW Hamburg
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Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) is a vibrant academic institution located at the heart of one of Germany’s most exciting cities. One of the largest universities in northern Germany, we offer degree courses in a wide range of fields, including engineering, computer sciences, fashion, design, and – of course – business and social sciences. We specialise in delivering real-world, hands-on higher education on a solid scientific basis. Our students and academic staff come from a broad spectrum of academic, professional, national and cultural backgrounds. Qualifying our students to take on responsible professional roles in business and society and continuously improving the academic education we deliver are at the heart of our mission.
The right course for you?
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This course is targeted primarily towards graduates with a Bachelor’s or equivalent degree in international business, management sciences or related subjects. You should have strong analytical, numerical and communication skills, and be interested in studying alongside a small group of equally qualified graduates from diverse cultural backgrounds, working closely with highly motivated academic staff with track records in research and business. We’re looking for applicants with an interest in all business-related fields who aim to widen their methodological and intellectual horizons in order to qualify for strategic roles in companies or organisations working internationally.
Course content and structure
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The Master of Science in International Business is a three-semester programme worth 90 CP in the ECTS system. You take five required modules in your first winter semester (September–February), a further five required modules in the summer semester (March–July), and undertake a research project in the following winter semester which you write up in your Master thesis.
The curriculum will provide you with a solid understanding of the global marketplace and covers a broad range of interrelated fields. Alongside a core set of modules on business and management issues, you will gain an all-round picture of international business by taking modules on strategic, quantitative, technological, intercultural and legal matters, and leave us with the latest knowledge on modern management theories. You can find details about the modules in our Module Handbook.
Admission requirements
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The admission requirements are as follows:
- Bachelor's or equivalent degree in 'International Management' or 'International Business' or in a major field of studies in economic sciences with a strong international emphasis.
- Bachelor's degree is based on studies with a minimum of seven semesters and at least 210 CP (ECTS) (European Credit Transfer System).
- For graduates whose Bachelor degree stems from a six semester programme (180 CP): Provided that you satisfy all of the other entrance requirements and that the course is not yet filled to capacity you might be enrolled under the condition that you acquire 30 CP (ECTS) within the first year of your Master's studies at HAW Hamburg. The student advisor for Master's studies (Studienfachberater_in) will decide which additional courses have to be taken.
- Analytical qualification: In order to qualify, applicants need to have successfully completed courses with a total of at least 60 CP (ECTS) related to modules which treat economic questions with a strong international focus. Additionally, applicants have to achieve at least 50 percent of ECTS on general economic topics (not sector-specific, not regional and not function oriented).
- Experience abroad: Experience abroad, such as a semester abroad, an internship or professional activity of at least 20 weeks, is mandatory.
- Language requirements: Knowledge of English, level B2
- Accepted test scores (Level B2 of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages): TOEFL IBT, IELTS, University of Cambridge ESOL Examination (General English):
- CAE (Certificate in Advanced English)
- FCE (First Certificate in English
- CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) - School-leaving certificate with qualifying grade in English: German advanced entry qualification for universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulreife): very good grade in English (minimum of 14 points); German entry qualification for universities (Allgemeine Hochschulreife): good grade in English (minimum of 11 points)
- Other means to meet the language requirements: School-leaving certificate from a school in an English-speaking country, two years of successful university studies in an English-speaking country, two years of post-graduate professional experience in an English-speaking country
- Accepted test scores (Level B2 of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages): TOEFL IBT, IELTS, University of Cambridge ESOL Examination (General English):
Further documents to be submitted:
- Letter of motivation
- CV
Optional:
- GMAT/ TM-WISO
- Proof of additional qualifications
Selection criteria:
If there are more applicants than there is intake capacity (20), applicants will be selected by way of scoring.
There are three point scores that will be used to compute a total point score:
Point score for academic grade of Bachelor degree
+ Point score for a voluntary TM-WISO or GMAT score
= Total point score
The 20 applicants with the highest total point scores will be enrolled in the programme.
The point score for academic grade of Bachelor degree and the TM-WISO/GMAT can be found in the admissions policy.
Application process
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The degree course admits students for the winter semester only. Application period:
1 May–15 June
Applications and admissions are handled solely by the HAW Hamburg Student Admissions and Registration Office (Studierendensekretariat).
You can find more information at Applying for a Master's degree course.
Contact the Student Center
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Applications and admissions:
HAW Master's Degree Course Admissions Office
Stiftstrasse 69, 20099 Hamburg (Berliner Tor Campus)
Tel.: + 49.40.428 75-9898
master-application(@)haw-hamburg.de
Office hours:
Drop-in office hours: Monday/Tuesday: 11:00 am–1:00 pm; Thursday: 2:00–5:00 pm
Infothek opening hours: Monday–Thursday: 10:00 am–4:00 pm; Friday: 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Telephone office hours: Moday/Tuesday, 9:00–10:00 am; Thursday: 9:00–11:00 am
Due to the restrictions resulting from the corona pandemic, drop-in office hours are not being offered at the moment. You can reach us by telephone during these times. The Infothek is closed until further notice.
For general queries about degree courses:
Student Counselling Team (Studienberatung)
Stiftstrasse 69, 20099 Hamburg (Berliner Tor Campus)
Tel.: + 49.40.428 75-9110
studienberatung(@)haw-hamburg.de
Advice and information by phone: Monday–Tuesday: 10 am–1 pm; Thursday: 1 pm–5 pm
Contact person for applicants with disabilities or chronic health conditions:
Meike Butenob
Alexanderstrasse 1, 20099 Hamburg, room 4.10
Tel. +49.40.428 75-7220
meike.butenob(@)haw-hamburg.de
Current office hours:www.haw-hamburg.de/inklusion
Contact the department
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Specifically subject-related queries
Prof. Dr. Stephan Boll
Berliner Tor 5, Raum 09.20, 20099 Hamburg
Tel.: + 49.40.428 75-6987
stephan.boll(@)haw-hamburg.de
At a glance
Degree
No. of semesters
Applications accepted
Language of instruction
Fees/charges
Full-/part-time
Location
Starting your studies
First-semester orientation
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Important dates and deadlines
Lecture and semester dates
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Winter semester 2020/21: 1 September 2020–28 February 2021
Changes to semester dates due to the corona pandemic:
| Degree courses in the Department of Nursing and Management / Department of Public Management | 14 Sept 2020–30 Jan 2021 |
| Bachelor's students in their second semester and higher / Master's students | 12 Oct 2020–27 Feb 2021 |
| First-semester Bachelor's students | 2 Nov 2020–27 Feb 2021 |
Christmas holidays (no lectures): 21 December 2020–1 January 2021
Summer semester 2021: 1 March 2021–31 August 2021
Lecture period: 22 March 2021–16 July 2021
(Alternative dates for degree courses in the Department of Nursing and Management and the Department of Public Management: 15 March 2021–16 July 2021)
First day of lectures: 15 March 2021 / 22 March 2021
Last day of lectures: 16 July 2021
Winter semester 2021/22: 1 September 2021–28 February 2022
Lecture period: 20 September 2021–4 February 2022
First day of lectures: 20 September 2021
Last day of lectures: 4 February 2022
Christmas holidays (no lectures): 20 December 2021–31 December 2021
Summer semester 2022: 1 March 2022–31 August 2022
Lecture period: 21 March 2022–22 July 2022
First day of lectures: 21 March 2022
Last day of lectures: 22 July 2022
Re-registration
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To re-register for the new semester, please pay the semester contribution by bank transfer within the re-registration period. Please do not pay before the start of the re-registration period as the final amount will not be determined before this period begins.
The total semester contribution for re-registration for summer semester 2021 is €335.60.
Re-registration deadlines
Winter semester: 1 June–15 August
Summer semester: 1 December–15 February
The semester contribution must be in the HAW Hamburg account by the last day of the re-registration period at the latest!
Important: Late re-registration can result in involuntary deregistration from the university. Subsequent re-registration is only possible within the appeals period. Regardless of whether or not deregistration takes place, an additional administrative fee will be charged for late re-registration.
If you are financially unable to pay the semester contribution, you may contact the Students' Union (AStA). In warranted cases it can provide you with a loan.
Bank account information
Recipient: HAW Hamburg
Account number: 106666000
BLZ: 21050000
Bank: Hamburg Commercial Bank
IBAN: DE11210500000106666000
BIC: HSHNDEHH
Purpose:
Semester code 20211 and your student ID number (please do not leave a space in between!) last name, first name (please leave a space between the student ID number and your name!), e.g.: 202111024563 Mustermann, Karl
As soon as the semester contribution is credited to the HAW Hamburg account you can update your chip card, and with it your semester ticket for the public transport system. To do so, you must insert the chip card in a validation station.
Exam information and registration deadlines
Registration deadlines for exams
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You can find information about the exams, as well as about the registration and deregistration deadlines, in the examination schedule and in myHAW.
Please be sure to register (or deregister) for your exams on time via myHAW. Registration requests will not be accepted after the deadline. If you write an exam that you are not registered for, it will not be considered as completed.
Examination handbook
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Course content
Course content and structure
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Business intelligence and advanced analytics (BADM)
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The course offers a systematic approach to business intelligence and advanced data analytics. Various statistical methods and data mining techniques are introduced in theory and practice using case studies.
Special emphasis is put on ways of processing relevant information and summarizing analytical results in order to gain new insights relevant for the strategic objectives and decisional support of a company.
The area of business intelligence tools is complemented by selected topics on competitive analytics helping a company to assess relevant facts and drivers of success with regard to competitors, customers or markets.
Corporate finance (CF)
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The course focuses on the major issues and underlying concepts of modern corporate finance. Topics will be addressed from the perspective of large corporates with international activities, i.e. multinational enterprises. The core theories of corporate finance that can be used in order to develop and evaluate rules for financial decision-making will be studied in detail. The implications of these concepts for operational management problems and for strategic boardroom decisions will be discussed.
Topics to be studied include inter alia the net present valuation and separation theorem (Hirshleifer, 1985), the equity valuation model (Gordon and Shapiro, 1956), the irrelevance of the debt-to-equity ratio (Modigliani and Miller, 1958), the irrelevance of dividend policy (Modigliani and Miller, 1961), the agency theory models (Jensen and Meckling, 1976), the capital asset pricing model (Sharpe, 1964; Lintner, 1965) and the efficient markets hypothesis (Fama, 1970). Additionally, portfolio allocation theory (Markowitz, 1952) and option pricing model (Black and Scholes, 1973) will be touched upon.
Intercultural management and organisational behaviour (COM)
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The seminar prepares students to manage processes within organisations and in different cross-cultural business and management contexts and helps to develop a critical awareness of the complexity of managing cultural diverse organisations.
Drawing from advanced research on the impact of national and sub-cultures on organisations, it, on the one hand, explores the effects of cultural diversity on central management processes and on the other aims at increasing student’s understanding and consciousness of their own practices, assumptions and beliefs with regard to organisational behaviour.
Based on this students will develop transferable skills in order to enhance their performance in a cross-cultural working and international business environment and their ability to deal with people problems within organisations.
Financial modelling (FM)
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The course enables students to develop financial models that support management decisions. The theoretical framework is based on the principles of modern managerial and financial accounting. Focus will be on financial analysis, integrated planning of financial forecasts as well as on valuation. Technical aspects of spreadsheet modelling will be addressed. Objects to be studied are corporates and projects in the form of foreign direct investments whereby greenfield and brownfield projects will be touched upon. Modelling options and underlying theoretical concepts will be discussed and their impact on model outcome studied.
Topics to be addressed include inter alia discounted cash flow models in the form of the weighted average cost of capital approach, the flow to equity approach and the income approach as well as valuations based on economic value added and cash flow value added. The course is designed to develop an individual approach to economic problems while strengthening technical skill sets.
International business law (IBLE)
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This module provides a managerial approach to legal and ethical issues that come along with the operation of international businesses.
The students gain expertise of the regulatory environment for management decisions by means of case-based learning. The cases address issues relating to different areas of law such as the EU single market, competition law, IP-law and licensing, manager liability, investor relations/ad-hoc reporting obligations, corporate governance, the handling and management of contracts and standard trade terms, data protection law, etc.
The students learn to apprehend markets and market institutions as regulatory constructs and become aware of the potential strategic relevance of policy decisions. The participants obtain a deeper understanding of essential legal institutions by deploying selected methods used by economic analysis of law.
International supply chain management (ISCM)
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Subjects of the module „International Supply Chain Management“ are questions of international logistics, the cross-business cooperation alongside the supply chain and the creation of international supply chains.
The course provides an understanding of the physical and administrative core processes in international logistics. Based on the knowledge of these chain links some of the main tasks in logistics management are analysed. Furthermore students work on main topics of the management of especially international supply chains. The link between the supply chain strategy and the corporate strategy of the firm will be a major topic when analysing existing logistics conceptions in the context of appropriate case studies.
Monetary economics (ME)
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The module provides an in-depth insight into the functioning of an economy’s and the international, in particular European, monetary system and its connections with a company’s activities, in particular its financial conditions.
Especially, students will achieve the ability to draw conclusions about the impact that monetary policy decisions can have on financial markets and the real economy.
The module considers more recent approaches to the macro-economic analysis of monetary policy decisions, thereby creating an integrated view on the interaction between monetary authorities, financial markets and international corporations.
Multinational enterprises and the global economy (MNEGE)
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The course provides an understanding of the development and current position of MNEs in the global economy and focuses on the distinctive features of an MNE and main issues as well as underlying concepts of international business activity involving MNEs and host/home country institutions. The pattern and main determinants of MNE activity based on the revisited OLI paradigm (Dunning, 2008) are analysed.
Further topics to be studied cover an internal and external perspective of MNE activity, inter alia the analysis of internationalisation process of MNE based on the value-added network approach (internal), as well as impact of MNE activity on host/home country economy (external), encompassing dimensions: economic growth, employment and human capital development, technological capacity and innovation potential, balance of payments and the structure of trade, market structure, spillovers and linkages. In addition, emerging market multinationals (EMMs) and their strategic choices are analysed in the context of appropriate case studies.
Strategic innovation and technology management (SITM)
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The students learn how to use technology in order to implement efficient business processes and develop competitive products and services.
A major area of focus is the new product development business process from generation of new ideas until launch of new products and services. The role of CAD and virtual prototyping technologies will be discussed as well as the application of lean and total quality management methods.
Strategic management and strategic marketing (SMSM)
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The objective of the strategic management lecture is to gain advanced knowledge of corporate level strategies and the strategic process. As potential managers in an international enterprise students will be enabled to analyse business opportunities for international companies. Therefore, course participants shall be introduced to an integrated theoretical as well as practice oriented perspective on strategic analysis and strategic management: with focus on corporate level strategies and internationalization.
The objective of the strategic marketing lecture is to gain advanced knowledge of state of international marketing strategies according to business and corporate level strategies. As potential brand manager students in an international enterprise will be enabled to strategically support a launch or relaunch of a national or an international brand. Therefore, course participants shall be introduced to an integrated theoretical as well as practice oriented perspective on international marketing strategies.
Study organisation
Examination and study regulations
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Module descriptions
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Course timetable
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Examination schedule
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Documents and forms (in German only)
Recognition and calculation of credits
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Application for recognition of credits completed at universities (in German only)
Application for recognition of skills attained outside a university setting (in German only)
Statutes on recognition of credits (in German only)
Please see the Information sheet for students on recognition and calculation of credits (in German only)
Forms for exams missed due to illness
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Application to interrupt and withdraw from an exam pursuant to section 24 of the general examination and study regulations (APSO-W) for health-related reasons
Application to extend the deadline for a written exercise for health-related reasons
Sick note (Krankmeldung) for an exam
Final thesis
Forms and declaration of consent (in German only)
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Application to complete a Bachelor's or Master's thesis
Application to extend the submission deadline
Declaration of consent for online publication
Submission deadlines
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The usual time allocated to complete a Master's thesis following receipt of the application is 26 weeks.
You can find detailed information in the general examination and study regulations for the Department of Business.
Student advisor, Master's degree courses
Berliner Tor 5, Room 9.20
20099 Hamburg
T +49 40 428 75-6987
stephan.boll@haw-hamburg.de
nach Vereinbarung per E-Mail
