Business Administration

In this course, students address the wider business and project management issues that affect the technological and engineering environment. Some of these issues include the business environment; principles of strategic management; portfolio, program, and project management; quality and control; organizational structure; cultural issues; and governance of project-based organizations and international projects.

This course looks into current environmental and social sustainability topics in business. The course considers the topics from a global perspective and visits points specific to Japan, and helps students assess environmental and social sustainability concepts independently from the perspective of businesses and consumers.

In this class, students learn about the characteristics of social ventures that are driven by a dual mission: a strong social, societal and/or ecological purpose alongside their economic mission. The class invites students to reflect how social and economic purpose can be aligned in their ventures and how their own personal values can drive the various blocks of a venture creation process. To reflect and build upon the individual set of values, we are using the method 'Theory U’ by Otto Scharmer. To that end, students learn about, discuss, and reflect upon social and economic purpose during ideation, team building and business modelling. This knowledge is applied to a business idea that supports both the social and economic mission of the founding team.

The course covers commodities markets with a primary focus on agriculture, metals and minerals and energy and chemicals. It focuses on fundamental concepts and terminology necessary for understanding commodity production, transportation, economics and marketing. Students learn about trading technology trends and innovation and look into sustainability challenges and legal aspects.

This course explores how sustainability and social justice have evolved from isolated considerations to interrelated frameworks that jointly influence policy decisions. Discussions focus on understanding sustainable development through the diverse worldviews of local communities, businesses, and governments in emerging markets. The course not only examines sustainability from ecological and economic perspectives but also incorporates ethical and social considerations, particularly issues of intergenerational fairness and justice. The course specifically discusses and contrasts the concept of sustainability for social justice within the operations of both local and multinational corporations in emerging markets. It frames these discussions in the context of the unintended impacts that business investments can have on biodiversity, human rights, and global value chains. Special attention is given to the challenges businesses face in mitigating and adapting to climate change within their operations. The course provides the knowledge and tools needed to navigate the intricacies of sustainability, with a special emphasis on human rights, biodiversity, and global value chains in emerging markets. Supported by academic theory and real-world case studies, the course adopts a holistic, social-sciences perspective on current sustainability concepts. This comprehensive approach facilitates the design and evaluation of governmental and corporate policies and practices to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable future.

This course introduces students to key concepts and techniques used in operations management, and their practical applications. The course covers a range of topics related to manufacturing and service operations such as operations strategy, sustainability, process design and analysis, supply chains, inventory management, lean operations, and quality control.

This course delves into distinct strategies for strategizing, supervising, and structuring marketing within the hospitality & tourism sector. It sheds light on the pivotal choices that marketers encounter when involved in tourism enterprises, with a particular emphasis on two key aspects: conducting marketing research and devising marketing strategies tailored to the needs of tourism organizations.

This course introduces students to social science theories, research, and application related to understanding human behavior in the workplace. This course considers "the people side" of business and management. Topics include personality and performance, managerial decision-making, motivating others, fairness in organizations, the multicultural workplace, power and influence, the adaptive leader, and team leadership.

The course focuses on the structure and dynamics of a variety of networks (e.g., the World Wide Web, online social networks, collaboration networks). It uncovers the network foundations of innovation, information diffusion, cultural fads, financial crises, and viral marketing. Special emphasis is placed on the hub-dominated "scale-free"" networks and the "small-world" networks showing the "six degree of separation" phenomenon. The course combines current research on social networks with contributions from relevant organizational and sociological literature.

This course guides students through the “exciting nightmare” of taking an idea or a technology to market, growing the venture, and securing a successful exit. Although grounded in rigorous theory, the focus of the course is highly practical and class participation is actively encouraged. No prior knowledge of the subject is required but students should be interested in the creation of wealth and the commercialization of technology.