Dear participants of "International Business and Ethics" (2IBusE-BL)
Welcome to this years's edition (HS21) of this module. The main objective of the module is to elaborate and deepen your understanding of challenges business companies (including Swiss companies of different size and industry sectors) face in today's globalized world. Almost all companies are somehow interlinked with international trade, either through own activities in foreign countries, through international trade and (customer) relationships, or trough the global supply and value chains of their good and services.
To be economically successful, this requires them to understand the conditions of international business (such as the economic, political, cultural and legal circumstances) in other countries. Moreover, they need to make sure to limit legal compliance risks in an international enviornment and understand ethical expectations of their stakeholders. Oftentimes, these expectations (e.g. of their customers in Switzerland or other Western markests) not only require them to comply with existing laws and regulations, but to do more (e.g. through the application of non-mandatory codes, internal rules, or industry standards).
In many companies it is the job of compliance officers, which may be business lawyers, to balance considerations of economic success, legal compliance and corporate responsibility management (which refers to the ethical expectations and available management tools) in order to minimize reputation risks and seize opportunities in incleasingly complex markets with critical customers and other stakeholders.
In this module we draw on some knowledge from other studies in your Business Law program, such as "Public and Private International Law" (PPIL) or "BWL-Grundlagen und Strategien" to broaden your perspective both with various concepts, legal cases and business management cases. These concepts combine legal approaches and management approaches.
In this context, we discuss, how much regulation is necessary and beneficial for business companies. In Switzerland, for instance, the "Responsible Business Initiative" (in German: "Konzernverantwortungsinitiative") wants to establish a legislation that shoud oblige companies to engage more into their respect for human rights. Throughout this fall semester, we have the unique opportunity to observe the political process around that initiative (before and after the public referendum on 29 November 2020, where Swiss citizens were called upon to vote for or against a legislation). With this example we also observe, how laws are being developed based on ethical considerations in global market environments.
Contents of the module will be uploaded throughout.
We are looking forward to seeing you in the module's lectures and tutorials soon.
Best regards,
Ghazi Kablouti
Patricia Enzmann
Dominique Ursprung
Christophe Zimmerli
Module responsible and coordinator:
Dr. Ghazi Kablouti (kabl@zhaw.ch)
P.S.: Information regarding the COVID-19 context
The module delivery is based on the assumption that in the fall semester 2021 classes and exams will both take place on campus. As recently communicated to you, a COVID-Certificate is mandatory to enter the ZHAW Buildings. Lectures and Tutorials will be streamed for students without a valid COVID-Certificate.
A Webex link to enter the live stream is available in the introductory text to this module.
Changes affecting the module or type of performance assessment are however possible at short notice (such as a switch to an online format) if the situation changes due to the pandemic.
Welcome to this years's edition (HS21) of this module. The main objective of the module is to elaborate and deepen your understanding of challenges business companies (including Swiss companies of different size and industry sectors) face in today's globalized world. Almost all companies are somehow interlinked with international trade, either through own activities in foreign countries, through international trade and (customer) relationships, or trough the global supply and value chains of their good and services.
To be economically successful, this requires them to understand the conditions of international business (such as the economic, political, cultural and legal circumstances) in other countries. Moreover, they need to make sure to limit legal compliance risks in an international enviornment and understand ethical expectations of their stakeholders. Oftentimes, these expectations (e.g. of their customers in Switzerland or other Western markests) not only require them to comply with existing laws and regulations, but to do more (e.g. through the application of non-mandatory codes, internal rules, or industry standards).
In many companies it is the job of compliance officers, which may be business lawyers, to balance considerations of economic success, legal compliance and corporate responsibility management (which refers to the ethical expectations and available management tools) in order to minimize reputation risks and seize opportunities in incleasingly complex markets with critical customers and other stakeholders.
In this module we draw on some knowledge from other studies in your Business Law program, such as "Public and Private International Law" (PPIL) or "BWL-Grundlagen und Strategien" to broaden your perspective both with various concepts, legal cases and business management cases. These concepts combine legal approaches and management approaches.
In this context, we discuss, how much regulation is necessary and beneficial for business companies. In Switzerland, for instance, the "Responsible Business Initiative" (in German: "Konzernverantwortungsinitiative") wants to establish a legislation that shoud oblige companies to engage more into their respect for human rights. Throughout this fall semester, we have the unique opportunity to observe the political process around that initiative (before and after the public referendum on 29 November 2020, where Swiss citizens were called upon to vote for or against a legislation). With this example we also observe, how laws are being developed based on ethical considerations in global market environments.
Contents of the module will be uploaded throughout.
We are looking forward to seeing you in the module's lectures and tutorials soon.
Best regards,
Ghazi Kablouti
Patricia Enzmann
Dominique Ursprung
Christophe Zimmerli
Module responsible and coordinator:
Dr. Ghazi Kablouti (kabl@zhaw.ch)
P.S.: Information regarding the COVID-19 context
The module delivery is based on the assumption that in the fall semester 2021 classes and exams will both take place on campus. As recently communicated to you, a COVID-Certificate is mandatory to enter the ZHAW Buildings. Lectures and Tutorials will be streamed for students without a valid COVID-Certificate.
A Webex link to enter the live stream is available in the introductory text to this module.
Changes affecting the module or type of performance assessment are however possible at short notice (such as a switch to an online format) if the situation changes due to the pandemic.
- ZHAW Teacher: Patricia Enzmann (W Wiss. Mitarbeiterin)
- ZHAW Teacher: Matteo Mösli (W Wiss. Mitarbeiter)
- ZHAW Teacher: Nico Pfändler (W Wiss. Mitarbeiter)
- ZHAW Teacher: Dominique Ursprung (W Wiss. Mitarbeiter)
- ZHAW Teacher: Christophe Zimmerli (W Dozent)
