Guest Lectures in Bordeaux and Lyon

The representative of the Department of Communication attended the International Week (May 14-18, 2018) organized by INSEEC – École de Commerce Européenne. The INSEEC Group, which was founded in 1975 and counts 23,500 students in total, offers a wide variety of interdisciplinary study programs at its campuses in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Chambéry, Geneva, London, Monaco, San Francisco, and Shanghai. One of the group’s schools, namely the INSEEC – ECE, offers a 4-year Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program and has been a partner institution of FHWien der WKW – University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication for many years. For this year’s International Week, 22 guest lecturers from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey were invited to inspire the local students. Not only did the guest lecturers give lectures and workshops at the school’s Bordeaux and Lyon campuses, but they were also invited to serve as jury members in a company start-up challenge. The French students presented their product ideas in project groups and afterwards received valuable feedback as well as a grade from the international guest lecturers.

David Bourdin, MSc (Teaching & Research Associate at the Competence Center for Marketing), whose trip to France was funded through a grant by the European Union mobility program Erasmus+, provided the students with interesting insights into the results of an empirical study on cross-cultural consumer behavior. He illustrated his statements with practical examples, in order to make the proposed theories and models more graspable for students. The study, which Mr. Bourdin’s lecture was based on, was conducted as part of a research paper that he co-authored with  Professor Attila Yaprak (Head of PhD Program Business Administration at Wayne State University, Michigan).

The participation of David Bourdin at the International Week in France gave him the opportunity to exchange and discuss ideas with lecturers from universities around the globe, to share his expertise with French students in interactive workshops, and to strengthen the partnership between FHWien der WKW – University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication and INSEEC – ECE. This, in turn, showcases the international orientation of our University of Applied Sciences and significantly contributes to the execution of the institution’s internationalization strategy.