Compulsory course materials include not only the contents of the lectures and practical sessions, but also the chapters of the reference books that are indicated for each topic. Please note that the referenced OpenStax books are open access (freely available online). The assigned chapters provide background reading; not all content within the chapters will be covered in detail, and key concepts will be further explained during lectures (magistrale) and practical sessions (reduced class). Moreover, students will be expected to have a knowledge of the economic, political and social context in accordance with their status of university students, based on the press or other information media.
PART I. INTRODUCTION
1) The current business environment
1.1) Globalization
1.2) Digitalization
1.3) Diversity
1.4) Sustainability
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 1: Understanding Economic Systems and Business
Supplemental Readings:
- PF Chapter 1: Introduction to Finance
- PF Chapter 3: Economic Foundations: Money and Rates
2) Corporate social responsibility
2.1) Towards shareholders
2.2) Towards clients
2.3) Towards employees
2.4) Towards lenders
2.5) Environmental responsibility
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 2: Making Ethical Decisions and Managing a Socially Responsible Business
PART II. FIRM STRATEGY
3) General strategy
3.1) Industry analysis
3.2) Internal analysis: resources and capabilities
3.3) Business strategies
3.4) Corporate strategies
Primary Readings:
- PM Chapter 8: Strategic Analysis: Understanding a Firm¿s Competitive Environment
- PM Chapter 9: The Strategic Management Process: Achieving and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
4) Marketing strategy
4.1) Identifying the target market
4.2) Positioning
4.3) Consumer behavior
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 11: Creating Products and Pricing Strategies to Meet Customers' Needs
5) Production strategies
5.1) Production concepts
- Break-even point and operational leverage
- Productivity and costs
- Economies of scale
- Costs and benefits of inventories
- Flexibility
5.2) Production strategies
- Mass production
- Flexible production
- Just in time production
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 10: Achieving World-Class Operations Management
PART III. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
6) Financial analysis
6.1) Accounting information: financial information in the balance sheet and income statement
6.2) Economic and financial analysis of the firm
- Accounting ratios
- Economic and financial return
- Leverage: operational, financial and total
- Working capital
- Production to invoice lead time
Primary Readings:
- PF Chapter 5: Financial Statements
- PF Chapter 6: Measures of Financial Health
Supplemental Readings:
- PF Chapter 4: Accrual Accounting Process
- IB Chapter 14: Using Financial Information and Accounting
7) Investment decisions
7.1) Characterizing an investment project
7.2) Payback
7.3) The time value of money
7.4) Net present value and internal rate of return
Primary Readings:
- PF Chapter 7: Time Value of Money I: Single Payment Value
- PF Chapter 16: How Companies Think about Investing
Supplemental Readings:
- PF Chapter 8: Time Value of Money II: Equal Multiple Payments
- PF Chapter 9: Time Value of Money III: Unequal Multiple Payment Values
- PF Chapter 15: How to Think about Investing
8) Financing
8.1) Debt financing
8.2) Equity financing
8.3) Capital structure
Primary Readings:
- PF Chapter 17: How Firms Raise Capital
Supplemental Readings:
- IB Chapter 16: Understanding Financial Management and Securities Markets
PART IV. ORGANIZATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
9) Organizational structure
9.1) Elements of structure
- Chain of command
- Scope of control
- Line and staff
9.2) Horizontal and vertical coordination
9.3) Departmentation criteria
9.4) Types of structures
- Functional
- Multidivisional
- Matrix
- Horizontal
- Modular
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 7: Designing Organizational Structures
Supplemental Readings:
- PF Chapter 2: Corporate Structure and Governance
- PM Chapter 10: Organizational Structure and Change
10) Human resource management
10.1) Internal labor markets
10.2) High performance work practices
10.3) Externalization
10.4) The role of the legal framework
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 8: Managing Human Resources and Labor Relations
Supplemental Readings:
- PM Chapter 11: Human Resource Management
PART V. PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
11) Production decisions
11.1) Location
11.2) Capacity
11.3) Plant layout
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 10: Achieving World-Class Operations Management
12) Production control
12.1) Productivity control
12.2) Quality control
12.3) Inventory control
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 10: Achieving World-Class Operations Management
PART VI. MARKETING DECISIONS
13) Product and price
13.1) Product attributes
13.2) Price setting
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 11: Creating Products and Pricing Strategies to Meet Customers' Needs
14) Product distribution and promotion
14.1) Distribution
- Distribution channels: direct, one level, several levels
- Market coverage: intensive, selective and exclusive distribution
- Characteristics of retailers
- Services of wholesalers
14.2) Promotion
- Advertising
- Personal sale
- Sales promotion
- Social networks
Primary Readings:
- IB Chapter 12: Distributing and Promoting Products and Services
Bibliographic References:
- IB: OpenStax. (2018). Introduction to Business. https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-business
- PF: OpenStax. (2022). Principles of Finance. https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-finance
- PM: OpenStax. (2019). Principles of Management. https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-management
Book Key:
IB = OpenStax "Introduction to Business"
PF = OpenStax "Principles of Finance"
PM = OpenStax "Principles of Management"
