Maastricht University - School of Business and Economics

The course presents an introduction to the economic theory of the public sector. The topics covered include public goods, externalities, education, health care, pensions, redistribution, collective decision making and cost-benefit analysis.  A prerequisite for this course is a basic course in microeconomics.

This course addresses one of the most important contemporary issues - responsible data use. The concept of responsible data is based on understanding the individual and societal collective duty to prioritize and respond to the ethical, legal, and social challenges coming from the use of data. The key elements of responsible data use - data privacy, data protection, and data ethics - are discussed in detail. The main feature of the course is to bring all these three elements together and to discuss them in the context of the contemporary legal and technological environment as well as future development.

This course focuses on designing strategies from the market back to create, deliver, and sustain customer value in competitive and dynamic markets. To do so, a comprehensive investigation and analysis of all major components of marketing strategy and their integration. This course takes a business-oriented setup by focusing on real-life examples/cases, allowing participation in a market simulation game. The objective of the simulation is to put into practice the concepts related to marketing strategy and the marketing mix in a risk-free environment. Prerequisites: A basic marketing course at the level of Management of Organizations and Marketing and Marketing Management, and/or knowledge of the basic concepts of marketing

This course focuses on designing strategies from the market back to create, deliver, and sustain customer value in an industrial setting. To do so, this course views marketing as both a general management responsibility (building capabilities and firm processes) and an organizational orientation (culture and structure). The course pays attention to tactical decisions (e.g. sales, advertising, pricing) or formal models of marketing decision-making (e.g. forecasting or product diffusion models). The level of analysis is on the business unit and its network of channels, customer relationships, and alliances. Participants learn about the nature and value of market orientation vs. other firm orientations; the development of marketing capabilities and assets, and understand principles such as market learning, customer relationships, alliances, and dynamic distribution channel strategies.

The course gives an in-depth view of brand concepts and covers several aspects of marketing communication. The starting point and primary topic are how brands can be managed. The course studies what a brand is, which elements constitute a brand, and what needs to be considered in brand management. Brand measurement as well as the basic branding strategies related to brand systems and brand extensions are discussed. For building brands, advertising, and communication are perhaps the most important instruments and deserve explicit attention. Advertising and communication seek to influence consumer behavior; therefore, understanding the basic aspects of that topic is important for studying brand management.