Select 7 Electives from a list of offers (6 ECTS each, Total 42 ECTS).
Most of our electives are in collaboration with international and local companies or organisations. Students work on recent scenarios with contributing companies throughout their learning. The programme also offers international electives* which are intensive and on-site learning at partner universities and organisations. These intensive learning electives take place during the semester’s and mid-semester's break. Students can connect and engage with students and companies in a foreign country and experiencing their organisational and social cultures. Students work on projects featuring different commercial and development contexts, including enrichment activities for a prospective or developing region.
Students also can choose a module from the MSc Business Information Systems programme or select an approved module from our partner universities abroad during the winter and summer break.
* Subject to conditions, no travel restriction (alternative plan may be offered if travel is restricted) and additional cost may apply.
Corporate Focus on Business and Management (Corporate linked)
In collaboration with twelve companies, students gain new insights of the extraordinarily challenging times that many businesses face in the situation of uncertainty, where new adaption and crisis management are an ongoing basis during an unforeseen circumstance. Related topics include the new customer experience management, business value, multichannel management, open banking, sustainability, corporate responsibility, global trade tensions, change in strategic projects and business consultancy, digital branding and marketing, global social media strategy, investment and risk management, digitalisation and strategy, global b2b OEM collaboration, or new world topics.
Cross-Cultural Consumer Behaviour (Corporate linked)
Tailoring to cross-cultural and multiculturalism knowledge, students will learn and work with a leading Swiss company to plan and design the latest portfolio of consumer journey, consumer touchpoints and activation methods. The learning process also adopts a psychological, technological, economical approach to consumer research and consumer behaviour analysis, and explores the implications for individual consumers, organisational consumers and international marketers.
Design Innovation for Organisation and Business (A Cross-disciplinary Practice-led Project)
This module brings design and business students together in a lab setting and coaching-based sessions. Participants are invited to study, debate and rethink their relationship to inter-, cross-, trans- and multi-disciplinarity while focusing on empirical and practice-based design and traction strategy for a real-life case from the industry.
Educational and Managerial Experiences (Intensive Learning Abroad in East Asia)
This intensive learning module provides students with the opportunity to connect and engage with students and companies in a foreign country’s businesses, education, and organisational and social cultures. Student will gain on-site knowledge of a country’s business and economic history, and experience how a country’s social innovation impacts its economy.
E-Governance and Public Service Orientation in Estonia (Intensive Learning Abroad)
This intensive learning provides students with a realistic experience of how public sector implements e-governance and applies service orientation. It also provides students the opportunity to experience, connect and engage with companies in the Baltic region. Besides cultural learning, students will develop an e-service idea and present their idea to an industry panel. There will be real-life topics from lecturers’ own experience such as e-voting, e-taxes, e-health, e-school, down to e-Christmas tree.
Emerging Topics in International Management
Global megatrends change societies and economies and challenge businesses. This module takes these trends as starting points and looks at the economic, technological, ecological, and socio-cultural sources and drivers of change. The module aims to raise students' abilities to deal with change and manage effectively and efficiently in a changing world. It will help students to understand where innovations come from, how they become established, and how they affect an organisation's performance.
Eurasia-Pacific Enrichment Economy (Intensive Learning Abroad, Hybrid Format)
This intensive learning provides students an opportunity to work on a natural resource-based project together with international corporate and academic partners. Some regional markets and public management remain misunderstood or not fully studied. There are opportunities to enrich the impending resources of a country in the Eurasia-Pacific region and the living of the local community based on their local natural resources if any. Students will gain a better intercultural understanding of lesser-known contexts while learning different styles of management, leadership, education, and its implication to economy, society and community.
Global Industry Immersion: Singapore & Switzerland (Intensive Learning Abroad, hybrid collaboration, pre- and post- onsite tasks)
The collaborative learning module between two groups of students in Switzerland and Singapore examines concepts, tools, and frameworks essential for business success in the global environment of Singapore/Switzerland. Through comprehensive lectures with a global framework, in-depth and thought-provoking project work, and industry site visits to companies, students will learn how companies manoeuvre the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment to achieve organisational efficiency and effectiveness for various stakeholders in the business ecosystem.
Global Economics Immersion: New York City, USA (Intensive Learning Abroad, including pre- and post- onsite tasks)
Students have an opportunity to learn from changemakers of global macro economy and corporate lecturers from the world of finance and technology expertise throughout the intensive learning experiences in New York City. Examine how the city on earth shapes the global economy and reinvents itself. Students will gain an understanding of the methods that undermined the market leading to the global economies’ profits, collapsed or challenging bankruptcy. Other learning experiences may include public-private economic partnerships, the workforce and business development initiatives, and topics related to planning, adaptive reuse, leveraging resources. Students also will dive into on-site research exploring the different cultures, diversity, community engagement and societal insights.
Innovation Academy (Online OR Intensive Abroad)
The FHNW MSc International Management programme is part of the EIA Global University Alliance. Students will take part in the world's leading entrepreneurship programme, meet and learn from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Students work on ‘real-life process of building a start-up from concept to launch,’ giving them the ‘know-how to make it happen’. In the past years, our students were in the winning teams and won several awards, including trademark award, provisional patent award, an expedited interview with venture capitalist, design mentoring award, business mentoring award and post-mentorship award.
Introduction to transcultural Gender & Diversity Studies (Online & Global Collaboration)
This multiple universities’ collaborative teaching provides students with insights in current research fields and topics of Gender & Diversity Studies in the different perspectives, based on academic literature and public debates. The module reflects on the manifold constructions of difference, aspects of transculturality from a critical and self-reflexive perspective, and the notion of equality in the context of gender and diversity studies. The module also explores methodologies and terminologies, and experiments a comparative discussion. Students gain insights into the various social, economic, and geopolitical contexts, get to know key issues of gender and diversity studies in the involved countries and participate in an experiment.
Leading People in Changing Environments
Leadership is commonly held to be a key to organisational survival in strategic business environments distinguished by rapid and complex change. Students will learn to develop a ‘critical discourse’ about the nature and relevance of leadership in different business sectors and across diverse strategic business contexts, and demonstrable appreciation of the relevance and potential impact of leadership in environments characterised by change. The emphasis is on how systematic reference to leadership influences the choices people make - individually and collectively - as they respond to changing environments.
Independent Learning Module as an elective
Students can choose a module from the MSc Business Information Systems programme or an approved module from our partner universities abroad during the winter and summer break.
