Copenhagen Business School

This course develops an integrated framework of household finance for private and public use. It covers how to maximize intertemporal utility given an individual's life-cycle income; how to become rich if one wants to pay the price for it; how to save, borrow, and purchase property (and if one should do it at all); et cetera. In terms of public policy, the course provides a holistic view of wealth and income inequality, how poverty restricts sound financial decision making, and how policies can improve social outcomes by reducing (or increasing) income inequality. Topics include developing a sound integrated framework for individuals to manage their finances with a long-term horizon in mind (based on the permanent income hypothesis); analyzing the impact of credit restrictions and hyperbolic discounting in household financial management in poor and middle-income countries; investigating the role of public policy in improving household financial decisions; and explaining the determinants of wealth and income inequality and how economic policies can improve social outcomes. 

Google, eBay and Amazon have one thing in common: their business is providing a platform that facilitates users’ interaction. The success and failure of these business models depend to a large degree on the number of people using the platform and the “network effects” between them. Understanding networked businesses, their unique management challenges and competitive dynamics is crucial for students interested in a career in any such industry. Platform businesses comprise a large and rapidly growing share of the world economy. Such businesses in the computer, consumer electronics, media and internet sector comprise the heart of the so-called “New Economy.” Network effects are at the core of a series of improbable success stories, such as the intense growth of the smartphone-based car service Uber, the enormous user numbers of the Chinese auctioning site Taobao, and the massive advertising revenue that Facebook realized in recent years. Platform businesses face distinctive management challenges, which differ from those found in traditional manufacturing and service industries. Familiar rules for marketing and strategy may not apply. Pricing strategies for example follow different rules and platform providers often price their products and services below cost – or even given them away for free. Traditional barriers to entry no longer hold. Many of the industries gravitate towards “winner-take-all” competition. They have room for only few large players outperforming all of their competitors, as the spectacular success stories of Facebook, Amazon, and Google show. The course introduces concepts and frameworks to analyze platform business models and provides a foundation for strategic decision making in them. Using the Harvard Business School case study method, students discuss real-life cases, their successes, failures and options for the future. After completing the course, students are able to systematically analyze different networked businesses and evaluate the economic, technological and public policy context for the development of such businesses.

The course prepares students for a life as strategic planners, marketers, and communication professionals in a global environment. Companies working internationally are faced with the global-local dilemma. On the one hand they seek to reap the efficiency benefits of globally standardized advertising. On the other, national differences require specialized advertising to effectively reach target audiences in different markets. The course provides students with an understanding of the problems and opportunities facing people working with international advertising. Students are given the tools to understand the relationship between corporate marketing and communications, subsidiaries, the master ad agency, and local sub-agencies. In the course, students watch and analyze commercials and current marketing and communication trends, conduct international research and strategic planning, and adapt these strategies to the local markets.

This course explores the new role of brand activism as a tool to forge consumer-brand relationships, manage corporate brand reputation, and drive social and environmental impact. It examines both the promise and the pitfalls of brand activism and evaluates how storytelling and digital enhancement can support brand activism. The course covers how brands are increasingly embracing social, environmental, and political ideologies as a way to build their brand-centered identity and engage with various stakeholder groups. It explores this phenomena as an off-shoot of corporate social responsibility and more traditional branding strategies. It examines the corporate brand as the embodiment of the firm’s value position. After an introduction to what is meant by brand activism, the course moves to examine several planning issues, including how to connect with stakeholders, choosing values and causes that are authentic, and determining risk exposure. It then moves to explore how storytelling, digital enhancement, and partnerships can all magnify the impact of brand activism. 

This introductory statistics course focuses on data analysis. It begins with the essential concepts that are necessary for understanding data analysis, such as probability and their distributions. It then covers sampling, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, correlation, and linear regression analysis. Additional topics include probability concepts, probability distributions, sampling distributions, and two group comparisons.

This course covers important theories and conceptual models for analyzing and understanding organizations in order to design effective structures and cultures that allow them to create value, survive, develop, and thrive. It investigates how employees do not always act in a rational and consistent manner: whether as a new employee, a middle manager, or a top-level executive, the ability to understand, explain, and predict human behavior in organizations is a valuable skill. The course studies a wide range of organizational situations and examples and connects them to organizational theories and effective management methods. It bridges theory and practice through organizational analysis by exploring a series of successful and unsuccessful examples. Students learn to apply different theoretical perspectives to provide situational analysis and plausible solutions. Rather than providing a singular model of an effective organization that can be applied universally, the course explores the factors and conditions within and outside an organization that can be controlled to provide the best fit with the dynamic environment and thereby create the greatest opportunity for success. The imperative for organizational learning, continuous adaptation, and change based on new developments is emphasized.

This course covers the international firm and its role in society. It explores both the firm’s obligation to conduct its business as profitably as possible and at the same time to act responsibly toward society at large. The first part of this course deals with the various aspects of conducting international business, including how firms expand internationally, how they conduct their business outside their home borders, and what determines the success and failure of firms around the globe. It provides an overview of the essential concepts, theories, and analytical frameworks in international business. The second part of the course utilizes case studies to explore how international business can assist in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, looking particularly at the goals of no poverty, zero hunger, decent work and economic growth, responsible consumption and production, and partnerships for the goals.  

This course introduces the marketing function of an organization. It provides an overview of the theories and principles of marketing, which are supported by marketing science. The course focuses on how organizations identify the needs of their target markets, understand the buying behavior of their target markets, and develop a marketing mix to satisfy the needs and wants of these markets. While the course has a theoretical base that is underpinned by a marketing science approach, practical application of the concepts of marketing is an essential element.

The evolution of digital technologies – such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, digital platforms, and blockchain – is radically changing businesses. Information Technology (IT) is not just about improving the efficiency of existing business processes, but has the potential to bring about the creation of new services, of new business models, and of entire new industries. Digital transformation is a wide-encompassing trend that forces us to rethink the interaction between organizations, technology, and people. This course explores the phenomenon of digital transformation, with a focus on business. Students are provided with theoretical and practical tools to critically understand digital transformation at a societal, organizational, and at a consumer level. Understanding the transformative impacts of digitalization enables students to evaluate how digital technologies can be embedded in successful business strategies, and how value can be created from novel digital tools. The course features the analysis of real life cases and the critical discussion of different perspectives on the impacts of digital transformation on businesses.