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Master in International Business: Curriculum

Perfectly structured to help you go further. The Master in International Business equips you with comprehensive management knowledge and decisive leadership skills for success in a global and fluctuating business world.
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Our Master in International Business is your gateway to an international career. This program merges academic knowledge with real-world applications, letting you delve into practical cases. not just theory. Offering a diverse range of courses in general management, we equip you with the skills to succeed.

Beyond a robust curriculum, our program unveils the leader within you, providing ample opportunities to grow your network. Develop your personal leadership style and access the WHU network.

Eight core modules provide essential knowledge from the field of general management. Customize your Master in International Business journey with electives early on.

Curriculum

Year 1

Before September

The pre-master module provides foundational concepts and principles across key business topics, helping you build a solid foundation, refresh prior knowledge, or deepen your understanding of certain business topics. The pre-master module courses are delivered entirely online, providing a self-paced learning experience.

For MiB students without business background, some courses are mandatory to complete before the beginning of their studies at WHU.

The following courses are mandatory for MiB students without a business background:

  • Foundations of Management
  • Financial Accounting
  • Introduction to Economics

Additionally, the following courses can be taken if interested:

  • Python Programming
  • Quantitative Methods 

September - October

Core Modules:

  • International Accounting
  • International Strategy
  • The Analytics' Edge

November - December

Core Modules:

  • Global Business Environment
  • Managerial Economics
  • Strategic Marketing

Electives:

  • Actionable Customer Analytics
  • Advanced Corporate Finance
  • Advanced Methods of Market and Management Research
  • Advanced Organizational Behavior
  • Decision Support & Analytics
  • Performance Management and Controlling
  • Strategy Making in Professional Sports
  • Venture Capital Finance

January - February

Core Modules

  • Designing Sustainable Global Supply Chains
  • Psychology of Leadership

Electives (choose one course):

  • E-commerce Operations Management
  • Managing Data Science
  • Managing The Family Business
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Negotiations
  • Responsible Leadership
  • Strategic Technology and Innovation Management

March - April

Electives (choose three courses):

  • Building and Scaling Successful Companies - the WHU founder lecture
  • Data Driven Entrepreneurship
  • Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation
  • Health Economics, Policy and Management
  • Leadership in Professional Services
  • Leading the High-Performance Sales Force
  • Luxury Brand Management
  • Managing Resilient and Sustainable Supply
  • Strategy Execution
  • Text, Image, and Video Mining
  • Visual Prototyping
Year 2

May - July

You will gain valuable work experience and the opportunity to apply theory learned in class through an internship in Germany or abroad. The Career Center supports you in finding an internship position via a broad range of activities such as individual career counseling, workshops, and company presentations.

To the Career Center

September - December

The Master in International Business Program also includes a semester abroad at one of WHU's 200 partner universities worldwide. During the semester abroad, you will gain a global perspective and immerse yourself in another culture.

Explore our international options

January - May

The Master thesis concludes your studies, providing you the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge you have gained throughout the course of the Master Program. While writing your thesis, you will be supervised by a WHU faculty member. You may also write your thesis in collaboration with a company.

Video Program Overview: Professor Felix Reimann, Academic Director Master in International Business

Our faculty

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Professor Pisitta Vongswasdi
Core Module ‘Psychology of Leadership'
The Psychology of Leadership course explores theories, research, and practice of leadership effectiveness to build a deeper understanding of the key issues in the psychology of leadership and leadership processes. Taking a collaborative learning approach, our course takes students through an iterative cycle of knowledge sharing, reflection, and experimentation. Students will learn to translate leadership research insights into evidence-based management practice. This course empowers future leaders to navigate diverse challenges, shaping a new era of responsible and visionary leadership. The course builds a foundation that goes beyond textbooks, embracing the complexities of leadership in a globalized world.
Professor Pisitta Vongswasdi
A man with grey hair and a suit smiles happily
Professor Stefan Spinler
Core Module 'Designing Sustainable Global Supply Chains'
In this course you will learn how to make supply chains more robust, resilient, and greener. The following topics will be addressed: supply chain strategy, the pillars of the supply chain strategy (network, inventory, transportation, information), sustainable supply chains, risk management in global supply chains.
Professor Stefan Spinler
Professor Michael Frenkel
Core Module 'International Trade & Investment'
This course introduces the major transactions of international business in international goods and financial markets. After a brief discussion of globalization, the course focuses on foreign direct investment, examining both the reasons why firms engage in such investment and the ways in which government policies encourage or discourage these transactions. The course then focuses on the reasons for international trade and the effects of protectionism. In the last part, the working of the foreign exchange market is examined.

Chair of Macroeconomics and International Economics
Professor Martin Glaum
Core Module 'International Accounting'
This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the theory and practice of financial accounting and reporting in an international context.
Professor Martin Glaum
Professor Arnd Huchzermeier
Core Module 'The Analytic’s Edge'
In the big data landscape, it becomes imperative to understand what tools are available to gather and subsequently aggregate data into information and how to use this information to make better decisions. In this course, we start with descriptive analytics to summarize and visualize various data types for effective communication. We then discuss different methods for predictive analytics.
Professor Arnd Huchzermeier
Professor Jane Lê
Core Module 'International Strategy'
The primary objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the basic principles of international strategy and further develop this understanding based on advanced case study work. The theories and practices taught in this course are applicable in a wide array of positions in all types of organizations students may enter.
Professor Jane Lê
apl. Professor Tim Oliver Brexendorf
Core Module 'Strategic Marketing'
This course provides an introduction to strategic marketing:

1. Relevance of strategic marketing
2. Understanding the market and discovering market opportunities
3. Developing marketing strategy
4. Implementing marketing strategy
apl. Professor Tim Oliver Brexendorf
Asst. Professor Anna Ressi
Core Module 'Managerial Economics'
The main goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the main concepts and analytical tools of the theory of managerial economics. Managerial economics is a broad research stream that aims to provide a framework for managerial decision-making. It applies economic theories to help managers understand complex problems and make better decisions.
Asst. Professor Anna Ressi
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A helpful guide to our courses

For more information about all of the courses included in our Master in International Business, please click below.

See our online course guide

Qualification goals

You can find an overview of the learning objectives and competencies that you will achieve with a Master in International Business here:

Qualification goals Master in International Business (PDF, 145 KB)

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