IBUS90003 The Multinational
The Complete Exam Bible · S2 2026IBUS90003 Overview
- University of Melbourne
- Semester 2, 2026
- Postgraduate subject
- 2-hour on-campus digital exam
- Case-based seminars
IBUS90003 The Multinational is a postgraduate subject at the University of Melbourne about managing an organisation that operates across geographically dispersed and legally, institutionally, socio-economically and culturally diverse environments.
- Assessed by Group presentation, group report, participation and an exam
- Exam shape Concept questions, then a full-length case
- Core move Problem, cause, options, justified choice
- Key frameworks OLI, archetypes, AAA, Uppsala, Hofstede, HQ control
How IBUS90003 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Group case presentation (20 minutes) | 20% | Group; in-class oral presentation in weekly seminars from Week 7, with a case allotted seven days ahead and a wildcard scenario |
| Group case analysis report (4,500 words) | 30% | Group; electronic submission in Week 12, due 23 October 2026 at 11:59pm; at least 10 academic references in APA style |
| 2-hour on-campus digital exam | 40% | Individual; held in the Semester 2 examination period; Part 1 concept questions, Part 2 a full-length case study |
| Participation and preparation | 10% | Individual; throughout the semester, including the Week 6 country business environment task |
What IBUS90003 covers
Eleven chapters follow the seminars from Week 1 to Week 8, moving from why firms become multinational to how they enter, organise and learn across borders. Each chapter links to its free guide.
Multinationals, FDI and Cross-Country Distance
Week 1. What makes a firm an MNE, the 10% control threshold for FDI, the scale of multinational activity, why distance still matters, emerging markets and the backlash against globalisation.02Internalisation Theory and the OLI Paradigm
Week 2. Exporting, contracts and FDI; transaction costs and Buckley and Casson's internalisation theory; Dunning's ownership, location and internalisation conditions, with Starbucks in Japan.03FDI Costs and Benefits for Home and Host Countries
Week 2. Benefits and costs of FDI for host and home economies, the benefits of being multinational, and the policy levers governments use to encourage or restrict inward and outward FDI.04Entry Modes and International Joint Ventures
Week 2. Exporting, contractual and investment modes; the control against resources trade-off; joint venture types, asymmetries and performance; and the liability of foreignness.05FDI Motives, FDI Types and MNE Archetypes
Week 3. Horizontal, vertical and conglomerate FDI; market, resource and strategic asset seeking; and the centralized exporter, international projector, international coordinator and multi-centered MNE.06Location Strategy: Opportunities, Costs and Risks
Week 3. Screening host countries for opportunities, costs and risks, the limits of economic indicators, and how location factors change with the investment motive, with the Amazon case.07Entry Timing, Licensing, Franchising and Acquisitions
Week 4. First and late mover advantages, licensing against integration, franchise contracts and quality, greenfield against acquisition, brownfields, and the evidence on acquisition outcomes.08AAA Logics, the Uppsala Model and Operating Strategies
Week 4. Adaptation, aggregation and arbitrage with IBM and P&G; the Uppsala model and psychic distance; integration against responsiveness; international, multi-domestic, global and transnational strategies.09Managing Across Cultures
Hofstede scores and Tesco. Week 5: values and norms, language and context, Hofstede's dimensions with the seminar's country scores, ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric management, and culture in joint ventures.10Headquarters-Subsidiary Relationships and Control
Week 7. The MNE as a network, dependence between HQ and subsidiaries, three sources of conflict, Google in China, control systems, incentives and performance ambiguity.11The Global Factory, Value Chains and Innovation
Week 8. Porter's value chain, fine slicing, Buckley's global factory, outsourcing and offshoring, relational governance, knowledge flows, subsidiary roles and global innovation.Running an MNE means handling research and development, human resources, supply chains, production, servicing and marketing in several regions at once, and the subject asks why firms take on that complexity and how the successful ones manage it. It is taught through real-world cases, with seminar discussion each week and group presentations from Week 7.
The seminars build a toolkit in sequence.
They start with distance and the definition of an MNE, move through internalisation theory and Dunning's OLI paradigm, the effects of FDI on home and host economies, entry modes, FDI motives and MNE archetypes, location choice and entry timing, then turn to organising: Ghemawat's AAA logics, the Uppsala model, the integration against responsiveness grid, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, headquarters-subsidiary control and the global factory.
Later weeks take up MNEs from emerging economies, born globals and the digital economy, and ethics.
Assessment combines a 20-minute group case presentation (20%), a 4,500-word group case analysis report (30%), participation and preparation (10%) and a 2-hour on-campus digital exam (40%).
The exam has two parts: general questions on concepts, theories and frameworks, then a full-length case released on the LMS a week beforehand, in which you identify problems, analyse causes and consequences, present options and justify a choice. This guide is organised around exactly those moves.
Worked example · free
Decide between licensing and a subsidiary with the OLI test
- 2Ownership: the patented membrane is a non-location-bound FSA that rivals cannot easily copy, so the firm has a basis for going abroad.
- 2Location: high tariffs on finished units make producing in Indonesia cheaper than exporting from Australia, so exporting is the weaker option.
- 2Internalisation: uncertain patent enforcement means a licensee could absorb and copy the technology, so exploiting it in-house is safer than renting it out.
Key terms
- Multinational Enterprise
- A firm that owns or controls assets producing income in two or more countries, rather than one that simply sells abroad.
- Foreign Direct Investment
- Investment that gives a foreign investor management and control of a business undertaking, set in practice at a holding of 10% or more of the voting power or ordinary shares.
- Firm-Specific Advantage
- A resource or capability unique to the firm, such as technology, a brand or know-how, that lets it compete against local firms abroad.
- Liability of Foreignness
- The extra costs a firm bears as an outsider in a host market, made up of unfamiliarity, discrimination and relational hazards.
- OLI Paradigm
- Dunning's framework stating that FDI occurs when a firm has ownership advantages, a host location is preferable and internalising the advantage beats contracting it out.
- Psychic Distance
- The factors, such as language, education, business practice, politics and culture, that make a foreign environment difficult to understand.
- Transnational Strategy
- An operating strategy that pursues global integration, worldwide learning and local responsiveness at the same time.
- Performance Ambiguity
- Difficulty in attributing results to one subunit, which rises with interdependence and makes control more costly.
- Global Factory
- Buckley's term for an MNE structure that integrates innovation, distribution and production by fine slicing activities and choosing the best location and control for each.
IBUS90003 FAQ
What is The Multinational subject at Melbourne about?
It studies why firms become multinational and how they manage operations spread across very different legal, institutional, economic and cultural settings. Theory such as the OLI paradigm is always tested against real company cases.
How is The Multinational assessed?
There are four tasks: participation and preparation worth 10%, a group case presentation worth 20%, a group case analysis report worth 30% and a 2-hour on-campus digital exam worth 40%, as listed in the subject guide and the handbook.
What does the end-of-semester exam look like?
It is a 2-hour individual digital exam on campus with two parts. The first asks general questions on concepts, theories and frameworks; the second asks you to analyse a full-length case, which is released on the LMS one week before the exam.
How should I answer the case part of the exam?
Work through four moves: identify the problems, analyse their causes and consequences with a named framework, present at least two options, and justify the one the company should pursue with first implementation steps.
Which frameworks come up most in this subject?
The seminars return again and again to distance and CAGE, the OLI paradigm, FDI motives, MNE archetypes, the AAA logics, the Uppsala model, the integration against responsiveness grid, Hofstede's dimensions and headquarters-subsidiary control.
Are the presentation and report done in the same group?
Yes. The subject guide asks you to stay with the same group for both the group presentation and the case report, and students without a group by Week 6 are allocated to one by the coordinator.
What textbook does the subject use?
The prescribed textbook is Charles W. L. Hill, International Business: Competing in the Global Marketplace, 14th edition, published by McGraw-Hill Education in 2022, with further readings on the LMS.
How to study for the exam
Revise in two layers, because the exam has two parts. For Part 1, build a one-page sheet per seminar with each framework stated in two sentences and one company example beside it: distance and CAGE with Uber or Tesco, OLI with Starbucks in Japan, archetypes with Boeing and Philips, AAA with IBM and P&G, culture with the Hofstede scores, control with Google in China.
Test yourself without notes until each definition comes out cleanly. For Part 2, practise the four case moves on short cases you already know from the seminars, writing one paragraph per move and timing yourself.
When the exam case is released a week before the exam, read it twice, list every problem it describes, and decide which chapter's framework explains each one, so that on the day you are applying rather than discovering. Keep every recommendation tied to a cause you have named, and always say why the option you rejected is weaker.
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