Business Administration

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 provides a study of how housing markets work and the roles of policy in housing production, consumption, investment and governance. The course introduces basic housing economic concepts that can help to understand housing markets, cycles, and housing finance. It examines the roles of housing policies in delivering and governing a housing provision system, for example, the policies to promote homeownership and the roles of town councils in housing estate management. Cases and examples are drawn from the housing markets in both Singapore and other countries.

This course further develops and applies the economic tools learned in Microeconomics I and II and requires fluency in the use of algebra, calculus, and graphs, to develop theoretical models and apply them to particular issues. The course includes an in-depth analysis of current issues in the field of microeconomics theory.

The course discusses capital structure, real options, long-term financing, short-term financing, and special topics such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and event studies.

At the end of the course students understand and apply the main financial principles and concepts: they understand why and how financial intermediation exists, how the basics of mathematical finance should be applied in the evaluation of financing contracts and financial instruments; how to invest in a portfolio, taking into account both expected returns and risks; and how the monetary policy is related to what they learn in this course, and how to interpret the current issues on financial markets. The course addresses the following topics: principles of finance, financial equivalence, banking services, mortgage evaluations and amortization, principles of valuation, basic financial instruments and their pricings, uncertainty and risk measures, risk and return relation in financial markets, capital asset pricing model, and investment portfolios and performances.

This course introduces basic concepts and their application of finance to students. As an introductory course, it starts with learning about financial statement analysis. Then, concepts on time value of money, basic capital market theory, valuation of financial securities, investment decisions, capital structure theory, and dividend payout will be covered. 

The Introduction to Global Entrepreneurship course answers every aspiring entrepreneur’s most pressing question: How do I turn my idea into a business? The course answers this question by taking a high level, international overview of the entrepreneurial path - from identifying an opportunity opening for business, running the business, and selling the business. This includes exploring the mind-set of relevant stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, investors, board members, founders, employees, customers, and even friends and family, as well as organizations of all sizes in both the public and private sectors. Moreover, the course equips students with skills to plan, launch, and grow a business, all while making good decisions along the way.

The course delivers a comprehensive introduction to the field of project management. Topics include the processes of project management, leading and managing the project team, project finances and resourcing, the environment and project risk and its management, project administration and the work of the project office, and project development and the critical aspects of using project work in all aspects of organization change and development.

This course provides an analysis of portfolio selection, corporate decision making and asset pricing. It also provides the tools and advice needed to understand corporate finance principles and strategies and information on the risks and rewards associated with corporate finance and lending. The lectures develop the central concepts of modern finance: net present value, efficient markets and the trade-off between risk and return, and use them to explain corporate finance with a balance of theory and application. It emphasizes the modern fundamentals of the theory of corporate finance, while providing contemporary examples to make the theory come to life, such as determining an operating budget and calculating future cash flows. The course also covers behavioral corporate finance, which identifies the key psychological obstacles to value maximizing behavior, along with steps that managers can take to mitigate the effects of these obstacles.