Business Administration

This course examines entrepreneurial and private equity finance.  It covers financial issues encountered by entrepreneurs and those active on the investing side of entrepreneurship, such as working for banks, venture capital firms, or corporate venture organizations, or anyone interacting with entrepreneurs and private equity investors.

This course examines financial literacy skills. It covers concepts that allow companies to manage and control profitability and cash and, most importantly, make good business decisions. It also explores the intricate link between financial information and capital markets, gaining insights into how these connections shape a company's valuation. 

This course provides an intensive study of financial accounting theory, concepts, principles, and practices, with a focus on advanced topics in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The primary objective of this course is to develop students’ understanding of the conceptual framework of accounting standards and the measurement and reporting requirements necessary for the preparation of financial statements. Specifically, we take an in-depth look at the accounting information system, the key components of financial statements, and the asset side of the balance sheet.  

Students gain an understanding of the theoretical concepts, principles, and assumptions underlying external financial reporting, examine how to properly apply IFRS to the preparation of financial statement, and analyze economic events disclosed in financial statements.  

Prerequisite: Principles of Accounting (251.205) 

This course examines venture capital and private equity investments. In particular, it focuses on issues surrounding the funding of entrepreneurial firms that are financed by venture capital or private equity funds. The course departs from conventional investment approaches that examine risk and return of publicly listed securities and analyzes issues associated with financing growing, innovation intensive private businesses.

This course develops students’ knowledge and understanding of international business. It provides a deep contextualization of contemporary issues and debates within international business. The course explores how the world economy is changing and how international businesses are deeply embedded in a complex web of multi-scaler, multi-form and a multi-causal series of relationships. Drawing on theoretical constructs from a variety of perspectives and disciplines, the course aids the students’ understanding of why and how businesses internationalize, and what happens as a consequence of these complex processes. The course also explains globalization, trade theory and the role businesses can play in alleviating poverty. 

This course introduces students to the principles of management accounting - the internal use of accounting information to manage organizations. It deals with the following topics: using cost accounting information as decision-making; the function of a budget as performance evaluation, and fundamental financial analysis. This course aims to equip students with the knowledge and ability to understand, analyze, and evaluate financial and non-financial accounting information.

Prerequisites: Fundamental accounting and fundamental management. 

 

This course examines the role of branding strategy in marketing and provides insight into how different branding approaches can be executed to achieve strategic outcomes. Topics include brand management, customer-based brand equity and positioning, brand resonance and the brand value chain, and the selection of brand elements. The course also covers designing marketing programs and integrated communications to build brand equity, branding in the digital era, and developing systems for measuring and managing brand equity. Additional areas include assessing customer mind-set and market performance, implementing brand architecture strategies, launching new products and brand extensions, and managing brands over time and across global markets and segments.

As the digital platform presents a new way for international expansion, developing an international digital marketing strategy has become a critical challenge for businesses. This course explores the realities and implications of electronic commerce from a marketer’s perspective and introduces a wide range of cross-border e-commerce issues, such as global cross-border trends, cross-border e-commerce practices, and e-commerce ecosystems, the challenges of traditional industry’s digital transformation, online consumer behavior and consumption patterns, omnichannel marketing and major e-commerce platforms in regional markets. In addition, the course introduces the concepts of e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce, and digital marketing practices through the case discussion on the practices of firms and product types to develop students' digital marketing planning and execution capabilities in the cross-border e-commerce marketplaces. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. This course explores market design, auctions, negotiation strategies, and behavioral economics with a focus on real-world applications and practical experiments. Students gain insights into how markets function, learn negotiation techniques, and analyze human behavior in economic decision-making through hands-on experiments and class discussions. At the course completion, they are able to confront real-world business challenges with confidence and insight, armed with a robust skill set that combines theory, practice, and the science of human behavior.

Students learn about different auction types, their theoretical foundations, and practical implementations. Negotiations, another crucial component of market interactions, involve discussions to reach mutually acceptable agreements. The course covers various negotiation techniques and strategies to improve outcomes. Understanding market design, auctions, and negotiations is crucial for ensuring efficient and fair resource allocation, making strategic business decisions, and developing effective negotiation skills. Behavioral economics provides insights into human decision-making, helping to predict and influence behavior in market settings. This knowledge is vital for professionals in business and economics, policymakers, and individuals aiming to improve their negotiation skills and influence market dynamics. By the end of the course, students possess a robust skill set combining theory, practical applications, and behavioral insights, enabling them to confidently tackle real-world business challenges.

Topics covered in the lessons include: market design, auction theory, applications of auction theory, negotiation and bargaining, behavioral economics, cognitive biases and heuristics, behavioral economics in market design, real world applications and case studies. Prerequisite Knowledge: To successfully complete this course, students should have a foundational understanding of microeconomics, including concepts such as supply and demand, market equilibrium, and basic game theory. Prior coursework in introductory economics or business studies will help in grasping the more advanced topics covered in market design, auctions, and negotiation strategies. Additionally, an interest in behavioral economics and a willingness to engage in hands-on experiments and class discussions will enhance the learning experience.

This course studies factors that drive entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process. The course starts by exploring the process dynamics of entrepreneurial activity.  Then explores the origins of entrepreneurial opportunity, reviewing how entrepreneurs screen and develop the opportunities that they discover, and unravel how entrepreneurs seek to appropriate the returns from their enterprising behavior and benefit from or contribute to entrepreneurial networks and ecosystems. Focus is placed on new venture gestation: the initial stages of the process that may result in a new company to emerge. Throughout the course, explore how entrepreneurs not only rely on generic business management principles, but also how they cope with the uncertainty, risk, scarcity of time, capital and other resources that is inherent to all entrepreneurial venturing. Prerequisites SSC1005 Introduction to Psychology or SSC1029 Sociological Perspectives or SSC1027 Principles of Economics or a first-year undergraduate business course.