Business Administration

Operations and Production are the resources and the processes, respectively, by which an organization transforms inputs (e.g., labor, material, and knowledge) into outputs (products and/or services). Operations/production managers are responsible for designing, running, and improving the related systems to efficiently deliver on the production/service goals. This course focuses on the basic concepts and tools employed by operations/production managers to provide their organizations with competitive advantages in terms of operations strategy, process design, quality, supply chain management, and resource planning and utilization.

This is an introductory course to business and business management and examines the logic behind how businesses currently respond to challenges in the environment.

This course examines the notion of Spanish brands and how Spain's culture and society have influenced its businesses and institutions. Topics include: building brand equity; triangulation of institutional, social, and corporate efforts in the shaping of place branding-- the Barcelona city brand case study; the influence of globalization on local brand positioning-- creating competitive identities through values beyond volume; family business in Spanish corporate tradition; homemade identity-- influencing outreach vs impact, quality and quantity; the creative marketing mix in Spanish brands.

This course examines ways of testing assumptions, and challenging the logical validity of arguments. The ability to critically question is a fundamental competency for effective project management, whether that be exploring the finer points of contracts, constructing an argument to win a bid or challenging project decisions.

In in this course, students learn how they can use their learning to make a difference. Working in collaboration with students from different disciplines, they tackle real-life complex challenges as they are faced by local communities. This is an experiential learning course where students get support and training to develop their skills in areas such as problem solving and critical data analysis, and use these skills together with their understanding of academic theories and methods to propose a solution to the challenge.

This course explores business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate sustainability. Topics include: ethical principles in business; stakeholder theory; ethics and marketplace; ethics and environment; ethics and marketing; measuring and managing a responsible business.