Business Administration

This course provides a study of cross-cultural and management issues related to management in an international marketplace. It examines the opportunities and challenges that companies face when expanding their activities internationally and dealing with international competitors in their home markets. Special attention is placed on different tools and analytic competencies available to the different specialized managerial roles when competing internationally. Note: This course is offered by ESCI and therefore has a different calendar, syllabus, and unit value than the course by the same title offered in the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences.

This course covers the various organizational and managerial issues commonly found in the global business environment.

The course explores the principles of financial analysis and provides a framework to understand how businesses’ values and risks are captured in financial statements and price them correctly. At the end of the course, students are able to understand various techniques in financial statement analysis; apply techniques to assess and compare firms’ financial position, performance, and credit risk; understand the limitations of financial statement numbers; extract accounting information to make forecasts and valuations; and select the most appropriate valuation model depending on the company analyzed. This course is relevant for students who want to pursue careers in investment banking (particularly in equity research), security analysis, private equity analysis, consulting firms, or corporate finance.

This course is concerned with the ways we design, develop, and assess new technologies and innovations for organizations. It considers the activities involved in the design process: how to identify what users need, how to design solutions that fit those needs, and how to assess whether technology meets those needs.  It focusses on computer technologies to support work activities and organizations. The first part of the module details approaches and methods for design and development. The second part focusses on recent areas of technological innovation that are relevant to businesses and organizations. The course considers technology and innovation from a social scientific perspective. 

The course covers the use of data analysis tools and techniques and data sources used to solve problems in a business and management environment. It focuses on how to use Excel to perform data analysis and how to interpret the resulting analyses involving uncertainty and variability; how to model and analyze the relationships within business data; and how to make correct inferences from the data (and recognize incorrect inferences). The course utilizes advanced computer modelling tools available in Microsoft Excel to analyze and present quantitative data. It therefore develops practical skills in statistical and mathematical techniques commonly used in business and management decision-making. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course provides a general overview on business strategy main concepts and definitions. These concepts are discussed under critical lights by relating them to real world cases. Specific topics regarding the cultural and creative industries are addressed during the classes, and the boundaries between standard industrial contexts and the cultural ones are explored in depth. The classes cover the following topics introduction: what is a business strategy; the external perspective on strategy; the internal perspective on strategy; competitive advantage; competition analysis; partnerships and strategic alliances; innovation in cultural and creative industries; business models in creative and cultural industries; and intermediation in cultural and creative industries.

This course is the second of a two-course sequence. This course builds on the fundamental knowledge learned from the first course, to explore more advanced issues related to the linkage between organizational mission and governance structures and accounting’s role in coordinating, controlling, and managing organizations. 

This course provides the managerial tools needed to understand and articulate the impact of an organization's business processes, and the ability to analyze and continuously improve these business processes.