Teaching Web-Based International-Marketing-Research through the Creation of a Global Hedge Fund

Abstract

A web-based experiential learning innovation is presented that imparts the important international marketing research skills of surveillance and search. Over the period of a semester, students monitor and search the now abundant English-language newspaper websites from foreign countries to identify developing stories that would impact the environment of conducting business in these countries. Students create a hedge fund in Stock-Trak, a global portfolio simulation (www.stocktrak.com) in order to demonstrate they have learned how changes in the environmental dimensions of international markets, such as fluctuations in foreign economies, and currency exchange rates, would influence operations in these markets. Weekly ranking reports from Stock-Trak serve as a fun and powerful incentive for students to conduct effective research.