International Business, Finance Concentration, B.B.A.

Dr. Marion M. White, Director
Phone: (540) 568-3231
Email: owyarhmm@jmu.edu
Location: Zane Showker Hall, Room 435
Website: http://www.jmu.edu/cob/international-business

Professors
I. Clarke, S. Elwood, S. Gallagher, R. Horn, Q. Liu, R. Jerome, M. Rosser

Associate Professors
H. Sono, M. White

Assistant Professor
N. Cavusoglu

Lecturers
D. Parker, D. Zisk

Mission

The mission of the Program of International Business is to provide nationally competitive undergraduate education in the study of international business. The program is cross disciplinary and designed to prepare students for participation in organizations that require a broad business perspective, applicable skills in global business and an understanding of the complexity of the globalized world. The program also prepares students for graduate programs in business and related fields.

Goals

• To provide a strong foundation in the international implications for the business disciplines.
• To develop students’ cultural understanding through course work and a required semester abroad.
• To enable students to gain proficiency in a second language.
• To enable students to develop extensive knowledge of a specific region of the world related to the second language.
• To develop students’ competencies in addressing specific managerial issues related to international business, such as ethical considerations, managing foreign exchange risk, managing a multicultural work force, etc.
• To facilitate students’ continuing development of written and oral communication skills.

Career Opportunities

• Consumer marketing and business-to-business marketing, including sales, consumer relations and market analysis.
• Consulting, including management analysis, strategic planning, expansion overseas and market entry strategies.
• Marketing research, including database management and account analysis.
• Corporate finance, financial analyst, project management, junior analyst-finance, planning and administration.
• Capital management, credit manager, assistant treasurer – funds flow and risk management.
• Banking and financial institutions, lending officer and marketing officer.
• Foreign commercial service officer in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• Careers that require analytic acumen and the ability to adapt quickly to diverse and changing environments.

Co-curricular Activities and Organizations

International Business Club. This student club is open to all JMU students. It sponsors speakers, informational sessions and social events.

Epsilon Chi Omicron. This organization, founded in 1987 at JMU, is the international honor society for international business. The purpose of the organization is to encourage and recognize scholarly achievement. Membership requires an outstanding academic record while at JMU.

Madison Marketing Association. This student club is affiliated with the American Marketing Association, a national marketing association for marketing professionals, faculty and students. MMA is open to all JMU students. MMA is comprehensive with its marketing programming and offers students information and activities in direct marketing, retailing and marketing management.

Pi Sigma Epsilon. This is a professional fraternity, which focuses on programming and extracurricular experiences in marketing, personal selling and sales management.

Financial Management Association. FMA is an organization designed for those interested in pursuing a career in the financial arena.

Degree and Major Requirements

Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business

The B.B.A. degree in international business requires a minimum of 120 credit hours of undergraduate work. Fifty percent of this work, 60 credit hours, must be taken outside of the College of Business. In counting the 60 credit hours of nonbusiness courses, B.B.A. students may include all hours taken in general education (usually 41), up to a total of nine hours in economics and three hours of COB 191. Business Statistics. The remaining hours, to bring the total to 60, must be taken from any department outside the College of Business. Students should purposefully select these nonbusiness electives to help them gain additional knowledge and expertise for their careers and personal lives.

Students planning to major in international business must complete the 30 to 31 hour, lower-division B.B.A. curriculum prior to enrolling in upper-division core courses, normally taken in the first semester of the junior year. It is expected that lower-division core curriculum along with the university general education curriculum will be completed during the first two years of study. Failing to complete all lower-division core requirements on time will delay enrollment in upper-division core and major courses until at least the second semester of the junior year. The foreign language requirements of the major begin at the advanced level. Consequently, students with little or no foreign language training must use elective credits to obtain proficiency through the intermediate level.

Major Requirements 

Students majoring in international business must carefully plan their individual course work because not all required courses are offered each semester and because each student in the major is required to study or work abroad. The study/work abroad requirement is for a minimum of six weeks outside of the United States, unless express permission is granted by the program director for another option. The primary language spoken in the country chosen by each student for the study/work abroad requirement is not to be English and must be the language chosen by the student to meet the IB language requirement. Approval of the study/work abroad requirement must be obtained from the program director (approval forms are available online or outside Zane Showker Hall, room 436). International students should see the program director to determine appropriate requirements for this aspect of the curriculum. International business majors must select a world region on which to concentrate that coincides with their selected language. For example, an international business major who selects French as his/her second language could choose Europe, Africa or Asia as a world region. Also, a student who selects Spanish as the second language could select either Europe or the Americas. The acceptable world regions are Africa/Middle East, Americas, Asia and Europe. As part of the JMU assessment program, graduating seniors are required to participate in assessment activities. Assessment information is used to assist the COB faculty in modifying curricula and co-curricular events.

Concentrations 

Students in international business may choose to concentrate in general international business, marketing or finance. The concentrations are as follows.