University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi

The course analyzes the impact of digital transformation in changing the competitive landscape of several industries. Of particular interest of the course are: the disruptive nature of technological changes; the entrepreneurial ferment across industries; the interplay between incumbents and newcomers. The goal of the course is to: analyze digitalization as a context for the transformation of cultural organizations; discuss its implications for industry configuration, value appropriation, and offering configuration; compare inter-company and inter-industry competition. 

The mission of this course is to get students ready for the growing complexity of the international business and to equip them with a toolkit for decision making in the modern global context. The main learning goal of this course is to formulate or contribute to the formulation of international strategy for any kind of business. This course covers topics including globalization trends and internationalization goals; differences among markets and adaptation decisions; internationalization strategy definitions; foreign markets selection; entry modes to foreign markets and cross-border alliances; and implementation of internationalization strategy. Prerequisites: prior background knowledge of key terminology and theoretical frameworks of general management and business administration.

This course provides an in-depth understanding of the main alternative assets and investment strategies employed by private and institutional investors globally. The emphasis is on the following macro classes: (i) Public Markets/Liquid assets, such as Hedge Funds and liquid alternatives; and (ii) Private Markets/Illiquid assets, such as Private Debt and Private Equity, Real Estate and Art, and Sustainable Investments (ESG). Asset classes are examined in terms of the following aspects: key characteristics, investment strategies, and portfolio consideration (alternative risk premia and contribution to portfolio’s performance). The course requires students to be familiar with the basic concepts of probability, statistics, financial markets, and investments as a prerequisite.

The course provides the technical skills for implementing financial models with Excel including array, financial, and statistical functions. Students are equipped with the basic operational tools to understand financial markets and employ the modelling abilities developed via sample applications to build their own models. Coursework mainly focuses on functions already embedded in the worksheet as well as on procedures designed to solve specific problems. The course concentrates on the application of several theoretical models for financial valuation, optimal portfolio choice, and performance evaluation. Topics covered include: mean-variance portfolio choice, efficient frontier with and without short selling constraints, and parameter uncertainty; bonds: duration, convexity, immunization, and the term structure of interest rates; stocks: CAPM, beta estimation, and the security market line; introduction to APT and multifactor models; binomial model, lognormal distribution, and Black-Scholes model; and event study and style analysis. The course requires students have an intermediate knowledge of Excel as a prerequisite.