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IMBA 242: Multinational Corporate Management
Inquiry-Driven • Scaffolded • Experiential

Reflection on Instructional Change:

In this project, I implemented engaged lecture with structured questioning, an ACUE technique from the Inspiring Inquiry and Preparing Lifelong Learners microcredential. I chose this approach for my IMBA 242: Multinational Corporate Management course because students were working with dense scholarly definitions of multinational corporations and needed a clearer pathway to synthesize theoretical perspectives. I opened the session with brief lecture segments, then used targeted questions based on students concept maps to prompt students to identify how each author conceptualized ownership, geographic scope, control systems, and managerial roles. I implemented the technique intentionally during the second hour of our Saturday session, when students had enough background knowledge to engage in higher-level conceptual work.

Using this approach meaningfully shifted both my teaching and student engagement. Students participated actively, drawing on their professional experience in energy, finance, and technology. However, their comments revealed recurring challenges: they often blurred theoretical perspectives, struggled to distill essential concepts, and had difficulty identifying the correct level of analysis. Their debates, such as whether an issue belonged at the global strategy level or corporate headquarters, demonstrated strong motivation but uneven conceptual clarity.

The FLC activities that most influenced my instructional change were the ACUE Observe and Analyze videos and the FLC peer discussion. Seeing instructors model questioning techniques helped me calibrate my prompts, while colleagues’ feedback clarified where directions could be more explicit.

My key “aha moment” was recognizing that students needed scaffolded concept mapping, sequencing global, corporate, and functional levels of analysis separately before integrating them. This insight is now shaping future iterations of the activity.

**Evidence of Instructional Change**
Observe and Analyze - Structured Questioning Structured Questioning Scaffolding for Concept Maps Exercise	Student Concept Maps Student Concept Maps Illustrate Collaborative Active Learning Combined with Structured Questioning on the Relationship and Levels of the Concepts	Course Activities Developing Career Skills Final Group Project Assignment Developing Analytical Skills for Multinational Business Careers

Changes in Course Syllabus and Schedules:

Pre FLC - Syllabus and Schedule

Post FLC - Syllabus and Schedule

**Faculty Bio**
	Darcy Fudge Kamal (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at the College of Business Administration at Sacramento State. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include how trust, strategic alliances, and buyer-supplier relationships improve firm performance. The LA Times and APM’s Marketplace quoted her knowledge of the Thoroughbred horse industry. Darcy has published in prestigious journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Strategic Organization, PLoS One, Journal of Business Strategy and the Journal of Business Logistics. She primarily teaches undergraduate, MBA, and executive-level strategic management courses.

**Program Sponsors**
	This work was supported by: National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project Degree with a Purpose P031S210061 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Teaching& Learning P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.