Business Administration

This course examines the use of spreadsheets and databases for business management and analysis. It develops basic computer skills through the use of various features of Microsoft Excel such as Scenario Manager, Solver, Pivot Tables, and
Macros to solve complex business problems. It will also develop basic spreadsheet skills in Excel using basic functions, logic and reference functions, statistical functions, and charting to solve complex business problems. Moreover, it explores basic SQL (the most common database language) for business analytics.

This course explores media policy, industry change, and work practices, including concepts of labor and practical responses to workplace dynamics. 

This course introduces the process of entrepreneurship, including various factors that affect the success of start-up companies such as choosing a product and finding a target audience, gathering a team, and raising funds. 

The course examines strategic brand management through the study of leading Spanish and Barcelona-based brands and industries. Students explore brand equity, positioning, identity, reputation, corporate and place branding, and integrated communications, while analyzing how businesses and institutions use culture, innovation, and strategic communication to build competitive advantage in global markets. Case studies span tourism, fashion, technology, culture, entertainment, food, banking, and other major sectors.

The course examines emerging trends in international marketing and their relevance to global business. Students explore digital and social media marketing, content marketing, neuromarketing, gamification, consumer behavior, diversity marketing, retail marketing, and other contemporary developments. The course emphasizes innovation, globalization, and the application of current marketing trends to international business. 

The course is designed to prepare students for leadership in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse workforce. Throughout the course, students are challenged to question, think, and respond thoughtfully to the issues they observe and encounter in the internship setting, and the designated city in general. Students have the opportunity to cultivate the leadership skills of problem-solving, deliberation, negotiation, teamwork, intercultural communication, and systems thinking. In addition, the virtual nature of the course, with classmates attending from different regions of the world, offers a unique opportunity for cross-cultural comparative analysis. This is a hybrid course, with both online and in-person components. Online components include instructor led webinars, video lectures, discussion forums, assignments, and readings. Face-to-face elements of the course include local events, site visits, workshops, guest speakers, and participation in a prearranged internship, where students are required to work approximately 200-240 internship hours over the 8-week term.

Course outline: This course equips students with crucial intellectual resources for facing the challenges presented by a globalised knowledge-dependent economy. Its focus is on developing critical reasoning skills, in particular competence at, and confidence in, assessing the quality of available evidence; distinguishing disinformation from misinformation, and understanding the influence of social media on shaping judgments and decision-making. Students will learn how to use evidence and sound argumentation to reach well-justified conclusions, and to then efficiently and persuasively communicate those conclusions to relevant stakeholders. Practically, the course uses case studies of contemporary debates on social and traditional media to emphasise the importance of understanding commercial activity as occurring within particular social and political environments, and on how those environments can affect our ability to make rational decisions. DP requirements: Submission of all coursework assignments. Participation in small group case study discussions as required. Achieving a weighted average of at least 40%. Assessment: Coursework 75%; Capstone assessment 25%. A sub-minimum of 45% must be achieved in the capstone assessment.

Based on the theory of corporate finance, this course will further elaborate on corporate valuation and financial policies along with practical case studies, building upon students having primary knowledge of financial management theories. The specific content mainly includes: Based on the theory of real options, financial contracts, and behavioral finance, this course provides an in-depth explanation of the framework, content, and examples of modern corporate financial operations, and interprets related theories such as innovative project valuation, project segmental capital injection, manager compensation incentives, and company ownership structure arrangements.

This course explores the critical roles of entrepreneurship and innovation in the Chinese growth story and its implications for conducting business in the country. We will begin by documenting the rise of entrepreneurship and innovation in China, then, using in-depth case studies and statistical evidence, we will examine how factors like personal characteristics, social networks, demographics, and government policies shape this landscape.