BUSINESS ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT OF THE FIRM-1

The course is a core one within the degree program in Business Administration and Management. The goal of the course is to provide a basic understanding of how firms are structured and managed. The course will stress the economic logic underlying the main strategic and organizational decisions faced by firms. The course provides a review of business, management, and organization as an area of theoretical development as well as a field of practice. It comprises classical management theories and modern approaches to organization and business practices.
The main blocks of the course are the economic foundations of strategic and organization choices (cost functions, the vertical structure of the firm, analysis of competition), contemporary theories of the firm, and how motivation and information factors affect the structuring of organizations and management policies.
The course includes elements of organizational design and strategic management. The main objective of the course is to present modern concepts of management to the students and to help them in developing skills in the analysis of business organizations both in terms of their internal functioning and interaction with the environment. There is a strong emphasis on internationalization processes and international firms.

1. Knowledge and understanding. Students are expected to acquire knowledge of the fundamental concepts of business economics and management and to understand how they explain key choices of the firm, in the domains of organization, strategy and management policies (e.g. incentives).
2. Applying knowledge and understanding. Students will develop a capability to apply basic concepts to specific examples, often based on in-depth case studies, and to reason critically on the assumptions underlying such concepts and the limits of their applicability.
3. Judgmental capabilities. Students will learn to compare critically alternative explanations of basic organizational and managerial phenomena, and to develop their own analysis and suggest solutions in case studies.
4. Communication abilities. Students will learn to communicate with groups through in-class groupwork opportunities and to discuss their ideas with a broader audience in the classroom.
5. Learning abilities. The course will enhance the ability of students to make a critical use of textbooks, to look into integrative readings, and to integrate different forms of learning, in particular integrating text-based learning with case studies discussion.

Students are expected to have achieved the learning objectives and to have passed (propaedeutic subjects) the exams of "Principles of Management and International Accounting - 1" and "Principles of Management and International Accounting - 2". In particular, students should be familiar with concepts an methods related to basic management and financial accounting (cost terms and concepts, budget and budgeting process, etc.).

PART I – Anna Moretti
1. Basic principles: costs, profitability, demand and revenues (Economics primer)
- Cost functions
- Long-run vs. short-run cost functions
- Sunk vs. avoidable costs
- Economic vs. accounting costs
- The price elasticity of demand
- Total revenue and marginal revenue functions
2. Economies of scale, scope, learning curves (Ch. 2)
- Definitions
- Special sources of Economies
- Complementarities and strategic fit
- Sources of Diseconomies
- Diversification
3. Make versus buy (Ch. 3)
- Upstream, downstream
- Defining boundaries
- Reasons to "buy"
- Reasons to "make"
4. Integration and alternatives (Ch. 4)
- Governance
- Making the integration decision
5. Competitors and Competition (Ch. 5)
- Competitor identification and market definition
- Measuring market structure
- Market structure and competition
6. Entry and exit (Ch. 6)
- Basic concepts
- Entry-deterring strategies
- Entering new markets

David Dranove, David Besanko, Mark Shanley, Scott Schaefer (2017). Economics of Strategy, 7th Edition International Student Version, Wiley, ISBN: 9781119378761
Chapters: Economics primer (pp.8-25), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The exam will be written, with fifteen multiple choices. Questions will ascertain the knowledge of the basic concepts presented in the course, the capability to apply them to examples, and the critical understanding of such concepts. A student scores +1 point for every correct answer and loses -0.25 for every wrong answer. It is possible to earn additional points on the exam evaluation. The specific procedures will be explained at the beginning of the course and detailed on the Moodle page.

written

A. Scores in the range of 18-22 will be assigned based on:
- Sufficient knowledge and understanding applied in reference to the course curriculum;
- Limited ability to apply knowledge by forming independent judgments;
- Adequate communication skills, especially concerning the use of specific language related to the business management areas;
B. Scores in the range of 23-26 will be assigned based on:
- Fair knowledge and understanding applied about the course curriculum;
- Fair ability to apply knowledge by forming independent judgments;
- Fair communication skills, especially concerning the use of specific language related to the business management areas;
C. Scores in the range of 27-30 will be assigned based on:
- Good or excellent knowledge and understanding applied about the course curriculum;
- Good or excellent ability to apply knowledge by forming independent judgments;
- Fully appropriate communication skills, especially concerning the use of specific language related to the business management areas;
D. Distinction will be awarded based on excellent knowledge and understanding applied to the curriculum, exceptional judgment, and communication skills.

The course will be based on classroom teaching, with all material used during classes made available to students through the Moodle platform.
During classroom hours there will be activities of case studies discussion, used to apply theoretical concepts presented during the week's classes to empirical cases.
Additional readings and materials will be available to students on the course Moodle page.

Exam Registration
Only registered students will be able to take the exam.

Accessibility, disability, and inclusion
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning disabilities.

Ca 'Foscari complies with Italian law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support and accommodation services available to students with disabilities. This includes students with motor, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999) and with specific learning disabilities (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodation (e.g. alternative tests, readers, take notes or interpreters) contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disable@unive.it

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development