Business Administration

Creating a true brand is one of the most powerful things any company can do to enhance its market power. When a product-commodity becomes a brand, its use value is imbued with symbolic value that consumers deploy in constructing and maintaining their identities. This course draws on a diverse set of theories to understand current issues in brand management rather than merely relying on the cognitive, information-processing approach to branding.

This course introduces students to the purpose, operations, and implications of management by exploring the contexts within which management takes place. Students reflect on management in relation to the social, economic, technological and legal conditions within which it operates, and analyze political and environmental consequences. We often think of management as trying to manage flows of energy, finance and labor, but it increasingly is required to confront changing social and political structures on a world scale, and challenging environmental conditions as well.

This course provides an introduction to accounting within a traditional business environment, including (1) the analysis and recording of financial information and (2) the preparation of formal financial accounting statements. The course introduces common accounting practices and procedures, based upon generally accepted accounting principles. Students also perform some basic financial analysis and learn how to interpret the accounting information they prepare. 

This course covers the main functions and theories of government finance. It examines the basic theory of finance (introduction, public goods, and externalities) and analyzes fiscal expenditure. It explores taxation theory and systems, government budget and public choice, future public policies and public affairs, and government financial relationship and economic behavior.

This course offers an introduction to simulation, optimization, and machine learning techniques.

This course provides systematic knowledge of management in a multi-cultural context. The course uses examples, cases, movies, and group activities from Taiwan and other cultures to discuss the related concepts. The course discusses the leadership styles of Yung-Ching Wang, Terry Guo, and Morris Chang and how they handle problems such as the Foxconn crisis during May 2010 and the TSMC's layoff incident during March-April, 2009. Focus is on the cultural aspects and implications of these incidents. Texts: Nancy Adler, INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR; Geert Hofstede, CULTURE'S CONSEQUENCE: INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN WORK-RELATED VALUES.

This course is for students who wish to develop the skills and techniques to develop and test a new business idea. It covers methods for analyzing, specifying, designing, and launching new ventures along with strategies for the assessment of business opportunities and techniques for effective business planning to secure the necessary resources (including finance). The course introduces frameworks to assess and to mitigate key risks to new ventures including those relating to personnel, markets and technologies. The course draws on case studies that illustrate the challenges of creating high potential enterprises but also explicitly focus on the testing and validation of new venture concepts generate.

This course examines the nature of financial markets; property as an investment medium; modern portfolio theories & strategic portfolio management; and property trusts & other investment vehicles.