Business Administration

This course provides a comprehensive overview of what blockchain is and how it works. It explores the transition from the accounting traditional ledger to a distributed one and describes how transactions occur under this new paradigm. Insights on how blockchain affect the future of industry and organizations also are covered. The course also covers aspects related to automation of assurance procedures and provides some concepts to develop a blockchain system. Finally, an introduction to the concept of the digitalization of assets and related contract automation which leads to Smart Contracts are discussed. The mission of this course is to introduce concepts and tools to understand the potential of blockchain technology in real world applications.

The course provides students with an overview of important topics in corporate finance. Topics include mechanisms of discounting, stocks and bonds, links between risk and return and their implications for corporate financial management, basic functioning of financial markets, implications of the firm’s capital structure, and key theories about market efficiency and behavioral finance. This is a technical module drawing heavily on mathematical techniques, although at moderate level. 

This course helps the students to 

1) Understand financial statements and master statement analysis methods
2) Understand various valuation models and their application in different scenarios

3) Master M&A-related knowledge, including: M&A concept, M&A transaction process, transaction structure, financing strategy, application of valuation models in M&A, and the impact of consolidated financial statements

4) Master the valuation of listed companies

This course consists of three parts. The first part will systematically review financial statements and form the basis of financial statement analysis. Based on this, the course will introduce various valuation methods.
The second part of the course will focus on mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions reflect the allocation of resources in the capital market, have strategic significance for enterprises, and are complex in transactions. The course will introduce the basic concepts, motivations and economic consequences of mergers and acquisitions, the main processes involved, transaction structure, valuation, financing methods, etc. This part will be based on the valuation methods of the first part, combined with the characteristics of unlisted companies.
The third part will discuss the valuation of listed companies and provide reference for investors' resource allocation decisions. The course aims to establish the connection between financial information and capital market, and cultivate students' ability to integrate and apply basic knowledge of finance and accounting to investment decision-making.

This course is designed to present the fundamentals of negotiation; the art and science of addressing disputes, and securing agreements between two or more parties. The course material is relevant to a wide variety of problems faced by professionals, managers, and entrepreneurs; it aims at successfully conducting negotiations in a variety of settings. Students engage in diverse negotiation exercises, followed by debriefings of the exercises and brief lectures and illustrations on the science of negotiation.

Understanding sustainability broadly, the course explores how social entrepreneurship and innovation are a particular form of organizing toward social transformation. The course provides knowledge of how to explore and evaluate social entrepreneurship and innovations in theory and practice. Different theories and intellectual tools from social sciences are used to both understand the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship and innovation and apply them to the design of social entrepreneurial ventures in groups. During the theoretical part of the course, an introduction to the academic field of social entrepreneurship and important key concepts in social innovations are reviewed. Students work in groups to develop their own social enterprise. 

This course develops the basic concepts and tools applicable to corporate financial decisions. It studies the three main tasks of financial managers: project evaluation, financing decisions, and working capital management. Specific topics include present value calculation, valuation of stocks and bonds, investment criteria and capital budgeting, risk and return, cost of capital, capital structure, dividend policy, short term financial planning, and credit and inventory management. Prerequisite: an introductory accounting course. Text: Ross et al., CORPORATE FINANCE FUNDAMENTALS. Assessment: four assignments (16%), 16-page group project (14%), midterm exam (30%), final exam (40%).

This course provides an introduction to financial economics. The course starts with a brief discussion of the functions of financial systems and a description of existing financial assets, financial intermediaries, and markets. The first part of the course deals with the time value of money and its applications, notably the pricing of risk-free bonds and the capital budgeting decisions by firms. The second part then introduces the notions of risky assets, risky returns, and risk aversion, and highlights the benefits of diversification. It presents the foundations of portfolio theory, explains the standard models of equity risk premia, and highlights some of their important applications. The last part discusses the efficient market hypothesis and the contending theories of behavioral finance.

This course introduces students to the "experience economy" (Pine and Gilmore), experiential marketing, and a range of virtual and physical "experience-scapes." Research indicates that Generation Z tends to prioritize immersive, interactive, and highly personalized experiences, such as concerts, eating out, holidays, and other leisure activities, over actual products. This course addresses the meaning and characteristics of "experiences" and lifestyle from a marketing and branding perspective. It encourages students to critically explore the role of marketing in the customer experience design process and in its delivery. By synthesizing key concepts and theoretical foundations of experiential and lifestyle marketing with market orientation concepts, students are expected to interrogate customer's perspectives and assess how this highly complex mix influences consumer decision making and loyalty, and how it ultimately contributes to the customer experience.