Institute for the International Business Collaboration
STRENGTHENING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCIES.
Our vision is to help students better prepare to face the cultural challenges of a global work world. The workforce of the future … today’s students … need more international experience and cultural awareness to function in cross-cultural environments.
Our mission is to help students, faculty, and staff develop their intercultural competencies through customized, collaborative experiences that happen both in and out of the classroom. The Institute for International Business Collaboration (IIBC) creates course assignments and extracurricular activities that connect students across borders and require virtual collaboration.
Today’s employees need more international experience to compete in the global work world. Culture and the differences that impact business success are best learned through hands-on experiences.
Founded by marketing professor Dr. Carol Scovotti in 2006, our mission is to help students, faculty and staff develop their intercultural competencies through customized, collaborative experiences that happen both in and out of the classroom. The Institute for International Business Collaboration (IIBC) creates course assignments and extracurricular activities that connect students across borders and require virtual collaboration.
The Institute of International Business Collaboration is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Course Collaboration
Students collaborate virtually with students from foreign partner schools to work on course assignments and simulations.
Extracurricular Activities
Students travel abroad to participate in intercultural team sales competitions or international marketing competitions.
Research
Collect data from students, faculty, and business participants for research publications and conference presentations.
Through the Institute for International Business Collaboration, students have the opportunity to participate in multicultural competitions and simulations. The virtual collaboration followed by in-person collaboration proved to be a powerful combination and achieved multiple goals.
In addition to helping students build intercultural competencies through competition, it opened the door to additional collaborations. Students from foreign partner universities have traveled to the United States to attend regional conferences, such as the AMA Regional Conference.
University of Hertfordshire
England
Winona State University (WSU)
United States
Assumption University of Thailand (AU)
Thailand
HAN University of Applied Sciences
Netherlands
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Germany
Cologne University of Applied Sciences (TH-Köln)
Germany
Intercultural Courses Since 2006, the Institute has successfully completed various intercultural course collaborations where students work virtually with peers at foreign partner universities.
For those interested in incorporating cross-cultural assignments into their courses, the Institute of International Business Collaboration maintains:
- A database of interested parties by institution and discipline
- A repository of assignment ideas that can be adapted to fulfill intercultural skill development objectives
Through the participant database and assignment repository, the Institute is able to connect interested parties from different institutions. The Institute continues to work to expand program offerings to all continents and to create collaborations in every discipline from college freshmen to doctoral candidates.
