Business Administration

This course provides holistic and comprehensive coverage of the development and implementation of business and functional action strategies for firms in manufacturing and service industries. It investigates the recent changes in platform business models and strategies related to the advances in IoT, AI, blockchain technologies, industry 4.0, smart factory, digital transformation, etc. It also delves into enterprise risk management (including COVID-19 pandemic) and sustainable ESG management issues. Specifically, the course covers: 1) Business model and strategy development, including environment, capability and resource analyses, corporate vision, competitive strategy and priority, operating pipeline and platform business models, and performance management and assessment, 2) Details of technology and innovation strategies, operations and supply chain strategies, procurement and supply management strategies, and enterprise risk management strategies, 3) Corporate growth strategies and required capabilities and resources in different growth stages, including the 4th industrial revolution and blue ocean shift strategies, and 4) Social value and sustainability management strategies based on the triple bottom line. 

This course offers a study of the basics of marketing including its multiple dimensions, as well as consumer knowledge, market research, and strategic decision-making.. 

This course engages with some of the key theories that explore how language and social interaction underpin organizational life. It draws on an interdisciplinary research field to interrogate the unique properties of "organizational discourse" and "institutional talk." The course is structured around studies of organizational texts (e.g. recruitment brochures, mission statements, websites, and adverts), as well as studies of social interaction in organizational settings (e.g. business meetings, call centers, healthcare delivery, and sales encounters). 

When studying organizations, different social science disciplines do not merely define this concept, they propose theories about why organizations exist, how they operate, how they can be structured, how they develop, how they interact with their external environment, and how they innovate. Insights into different organization theories are thus crucial for the understanding of a wide array of social science theories that build on the notion of organizations. The first part of this course examines seminal theories concerning different facets of organizations: stakeholders and ethics, structure and culture, strategy and relation to the external environment, and lifecycle and change. Near the end of the course, students review how organizations are shaped by organizational politics and cognitive biases in decision-making and how platforms are changing the organizational landscape. Students use case studies to analyze an existing organization using the theories learned in the course. 

Consumption has come to dominate our lives, is driving economies, yet also endangering the future of our planet. This course asks questions about consumption from multiple perspectives, such as how did consumption assume its prominent place, how do economists rationalize consumption, how do companies use behavioral models to craft marketing strategies, whether consumption is good or bad for society or the individual, or whether consumers need to be protected.

This course introduces key concepts and theories of human resource management. It covers various functions of human resources management including job analysis, HR acquisition and allocation, salary and incentive, learning and development, labor relations management, and different types of enterprises (state-owned, private, and foreign enterprises). The course analyzes case studies and includes discussions regarding how to solve current management issues in China.