III. Teaching Methods

To fulfill the set course objectives, the instructor is supposed to do the following:

1. Before class:

Assign students certain reading (e.g. a text chapter, and certain mini case history), key terms, questions, and as preview tasks.

2. In class:

1. Lectures: address the important concepts with the assigned questions. After inviting answers from students, try to interweave relevant concepts in the lecture, so as to bring home to students the focal points.

2. Discussion: Interactive activities such as class discussion are to be frequently initiated to ensure students’ comprehension of the key concepts. They are also necessary for training students’ creativity and communication skills.

Some part of the sessions will be devoted to discussion and presentation of the following:

(1) Certain course-relevant issue on Chinese companies in Chinese context is to be selected and brought up for discussion by the instructor. This has to be held at least once in the semester.

(2) Organize brief class discussion of 5-6 mini cases under APPLYING THE CONCEPT (some of them can be discussed when they are adapted against Chinese background)

(3) Have the students organized in groups with 5 members each. Pick up and assign 3-5 major cases for analysis from the end-of-chapter COMPANY CASE throughout the textbook. When the work is done, 2-3 groups are to present the result of discussion in class as scheduled to stimulate interesting debate.

3. After Class

The instructor will encourage the students to discuss in groups the given questions attached to the cases.

Office hour once a week is fixed to allow students to have one-to-one contact with the instructor, when the later can help the former with difficulties in the course study.

4. “Marketing Experiment”（a compulsory supplementary course）: With training of playing a marketing game, it was previously a part of the course “Principles of Marketing”; now it’s a separate offspring, still supplementary to that main course. Organized in teams, students are supposed to assume responsibilities of developing marketing strategies for one of the four firms competing in an industry. Each team will submit marketing plan of three subsequent periods, and they are graded according to the level of profit accumulated over the three periods. The team that earns the highest profit (P1) will gain full 20 points, while the lowest (P4) 14 points. The two teams in between are supposed to get the points calculated by the following formula: 14+6 х（Pi-P4）/ (P1-P4).