Business Administration

This course shows how the principles of marketing can be applied to marketing problems across national boundaries and within foreign countries. Attention is paid to the development of global marketing strategies and to the different approaches needed to market consumer items, industrial goods, and services internationally. The impact on marketing of the cultural, economic, political, and technological environments in different countries are examined. Text: Warren J. Keegean and Mark C. Green, GLOBAL MARKETING. Assessment: midterm exam (25%), final exam (35%), group projects (30%), class participation (10%).

The course explores how sustainability is becoming an existential challenge for humanity – due to such alarming issues as climate change or growing social inequality – and a source of change for companies. Organizations are rethinking their role in society and increasingly choosing to exceed the legal requirements they face and to take action to address social and environmental problems. Students are confronted with the theoretical bases of sustainability, seen as a perspective that shapes the role of the organizations within society and promote sustainable development, and the challenges of incorporating this perspective into the practices of organizations. A strategic approach to sustainability is more complex than traditional strategy, because it requires managers to engage with the non-market environment including regulators, activists, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The course is oriented around understanding the conditions under which sustainability can benefit all the stakeholders involved. The course discusses topics including sustainable development and corporate sustainability; climate change and the road to Net Zero; the business case for sustainability; circular economy and sustainable business models; sustainable supply chains; sustainability in the marketplace; social sustainability in the workplace; sustainable finance, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria, and purpose-led shareholders; sustainability metrics and reporting; and embedding sustainability in organizations. The course recommends students should be familiar with basic concepts regarding management, organizations, and global economy as a prerequisite.

The course introduces the basic concepts of corporate finance both in practice and theory. It focuses on how firm raise money, how to evaluate a firm’s value, and how firms make investment decisions. Specific topics addressed in the course are the valuation of companies, the operating capital of company, the costs of capital, the ways of raising money both equity and bonds, the rules of evaluating investment and liquidity management.

This course investigates the theory behind techniques adopted by professionals in marketing, sales, public policy as well as general business negotiation environments in order to change stakeholder behavior and attitudes, influence outcomes, and gain compliance. Students explore, compare, and integrate a variety of theories of persuasion grounded in research from the fields of psychology and marketing.

Operations Research is a field in which people use mathematical and engineering methods to study optimization problems in Business and Management, Economics, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, etc. This course focuses on deterministic optimization techniques, a major part of the field of Operations Research. The course is divided into four modules: (1) Linear programming, (2) Integer programming, (3) Nonlinear programming, and (4) Dynamic programming.

The course provides an overview of the fashion system and an in-depth understanding of the strategic, organizational and managerial features of fashion companies, both in the high end and in the mass market. Main topics addressed in the course are: what is fashion, which are the fashion related sectors, and what are the differences between fashion and luxury; how creativity and management do integrate in fashion and luxury companies; how to carry out an industry analysis: strategic features of fashion companies and main business models in fashion and their evolution; the role of the textile sector and the origin of trends: where do they come from and how do they spread; fashion history and country branding: why France, Italy and US became leaders and which are the new centers for fashion; customer segmentation: how to engage the customers from new senior to generation Z; brand positioning in fashion: how to become a lifestyle brand; and key processes and main roles in fashion: product strategy and merchandising, distribution and omnichannel management, and communication and PR in the digital era. This course recommends background knowledge on some basic concepts on corporate and competitive strategy (such as industry analysis, consumer segmentation, growth strategies, and SWOT analysis) as a prerequisite.