Business Administration

This course provides insight into corporate financial management and capital markets. Emphasis is on the financial aspects of managerial decisions and topics covered include all areas of finance, including the valuation of real and financial assets, risk management and financial derivatives, the trade-off between risk and expected return, corporate financing and payout policy. Text: Richard A. Brealey, Stewart C. Myers and Alan J. Marcus, FUNDAMENTALS OF CORPORATE FINANCE; Case: Square, Inc., Financing a Unicorn. Assessment: case (10%), quiz (20%), final exam (35%), midterm (35%).

The evolution of digital technologies – such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, digital platforms, and blockchain – is radically changing businesses. Information Technology (IT) is not just about improving the efficiency of existing business processes, but has the potential to bring about the creation of new services, of new business models, and of entire new industries. Digital transformation is a wide-encompassing trend that forces us to rethink the interaction between organizations, technology, and people. This course explores the phenomenon of digital transformation, with a focus on business. Students are provided with theoretical and practical tools to critically understand digital transformation at a societal, organizational, and at a consumer level. Understanding the transformative impacts of digitalization enables students to evaluate how digital technologies can be embedded in successful business strategies, and how value can be created from novel digital tools. The course features the analysis of real life cases and the critical discussion of different perspectives on the impacts of digital transformation on businesses.

This course focuses on the use of market based instruments (MBIs) for environmental management and sustainable development. It compares the regulatory approaches of environmental management to those employing MBIs at different special scales and examines the types of policy instruments that can be utilized for environmental management (e.g. EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Environmental Tax Reform etc.). It examines the institutional and agency frameworks necessary for the successful implementation of MBIs.

 

This is a special studies course with projects arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific topics of study vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. The number of units varies with the student's project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student's special study project form.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the main international models of corporate governance and their specific problems. Special attention is placed on minority shareholders' protection and on the integration of the European Financial markets through the recent harmonization of financial regulations. The course discusses topics including an introduction to international corporate governance models; agency costs from separation of ownership and control in a public company; the US Enron scandal and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; the Continental European Model; investors' protection around the world; corporate governance reforms and investors' protection in Italy; the value of the voting right in dual class firms; the Financial Services Action Plan and major EU directives; economics of takeovers and the EU takeover directive; and the Nabisco takeover and the movie "Barbarians at the gates."