Business Administration

Strategic marketing management is a business philosophy that puts the customer at the center of the business. It is the ability of the organization to organize itself to meet the current and the future needs of customers more effectively than its competitors. It requires a range of skills on the part of the strategic marketing manager, and it requires the organization to adopt a carefully thought out systematic approach with clearly articulated objectives. Strategic marketing management integrates different aspects of marketing activity within the organization including segmentation, positioning, competitive strategy, new product development, brand management, communications, pricing, and distribution. This course provides students with an appreciation and understanding of the particular challenge that strategic marketing management presents, and equips them with a range of tools to be effective strategic marketing managers.

This course provides a strategic framework and practical knowledge that can be applied to future entrepreneurs who explore new business opportunities through creating a venture or acquiring a job position at existing firms. We are living in a world that is significantly different from the past several decades. Socio-economic environment is one example. Finding a job after college was relatively easy as the economy and international trade surged dramatically after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Even under the fierce global competition firms that survived expanded in scale and scope and, as a consequence, they could absorb a vast majority of college graduates. Meanwhile, in terms of technological business environment the emergence of digital era, represented by such as commercial internet, mobile platforms, e-commerce, big data and AI, replaced conventional businesses. Such changes in the business environment imply the potential for new opportunities for virtually all firms and industries. At the same rate, the degree of uncertainty is growing everywhere exponentially and it requires a new thinking and mindset. Texts: Kathleen R. Allen, LAUNCHING NEW VENTURES: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL APPROACH; Jay B. Barney and William S. Hesterly, STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. Prerequisite: Principles of Management (not compulsory)

This course introduces important trends in the globalization of business. It presents the historical development of global enterprises and their international challenges, company strategies for sequencing the penetration of countries and committing resources, variables considered as a global enterprise expands into a foreign market, and management functions and strategies in business operations. Topics include introduction to global enterprises, international financial management, global manufacturing management and control, international human resource management, and global marketing management.

In this course, students join an journey of exploration into Global Readiness®, the skills and attributes that can make or break your future success in international business, government or NGO work. Participants choose a specific area to focus on for a team project, and conduct primary and secondary research to increase understanding of leadership, team dynamics, and personal development. A key component of the class is Presentation Skills, your "personal presence" that is reviewed by yourself (via video links), classmates and the professor.

This course introduces students to the theories and practical skills of leading and managing change in contemporary organizations reflective of operating in an internal or external consultative capacity. It explores the hard (structure and strategy) and soft (people) skills needed to lead the change process from the initial consultative diagnostic through to the design of interventions to inform and guide organizations to their optimal operative changed state. Emphasis is placed on learning the skills needed to operate within a leader/manager role during change and/or engage with organizations on a consultative basis through the change process. Examples of these include identifying the forces and recognizing the need for change, using diagnostic models, designing interventions which facilitate change, and monitoring systems for long term effectiveness. The course draws on past and current research as well as current expert experience of implementing change.

This course focuses on the strategic management of technology development and acquisition in the modern business organization for the purpose of developing new products. The course covers the fundamentals of the nature of innovation and new product development. Students examine strategy, the nature of technological knowledge, how firms manage new product and process development, how they organize and manage research and development, the importance of learning from others, collaborative arrangements for innovation, how to profit from innovation, and the dynamics of competing technologies.

The course introduces the following topics: marketing and consumer behavior; market definitions and scope in leisure and tourism; cultural influences on tourist consumer behavior; international consumers: cultural convergence and differences; and factors influencing tourism and leisure demand at the individual level such as consumer psychology, perception, learning and memory, motivation, personality and self-concept, lifestyles, and group influence and opinion leadership; consumer behavior, the internet and social media; consumer behavior tourist typologies, and tourist destinations; tourist expectation formation; market segmentation in travel, tourism and leisure; and consumers and marketing planning.

This course provides an overview of business management in a complex and constantly evolving environment. Topics include the main functions of businesses, sustainable business models, corporate social responsibility, and business ethics.