90237 - Laboratory Of International Business Strategy

Learning outcomes

On completion of this course, students will be able to analyse the strategic processes of an international company, including the way in which business and corporate strategy is formulated, and the basic tools and techniques used to assess a company’s performance and its strategic positioning. The course is applied-oriented. The analysis will be carried out through a combination of lectures, classes in the computer lab, and presentation of case studies, and students will learn how to manage big quantity of data and extract compact information to support a firm’s strategy. At the end of the course students are expected to understand and critically analyse all implications of a company’s international business strategy.

Course contents

Theory

1) Business Strategy

Business definition

Internal analysis

External analisys

Competitive advantage

SWOT analisys and critical factors of success

Basics of merges & acquisitions

2) Corporate Accounting

Basics of balance sheets

Balance sheets modifications due to firm actions

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

Economic peformance indicators

Basics of costs and break-even point

International Accouting Stadards (only hints)

From Corporate Accouting to Corporate Finance (only hints)

Applications

Real corporate data will be analysed using MS Excel, to find numbers that shape strategy. Students will learn how to manage big quantity of data and extract compact information to support a strategy (pivoting, filtering, vlookup, primary keys, graphs on contribution margins, fixed costs covering, break-even points).

Readings/Bibliography

Grant / Contemporary Strategy Analysis, Wiley, 2016 (9th edition).

Anthony, Breitner / Essentials of Accounting Review, 2012 (11th edition) or 2006 (9th edition).

Weygandt, Kimmel, Kieso / Financial & Managerial Accounting, Wiley, 2015 (2nd edition).

Jelen, Alexander / Pivot Table Data Crunching Excel 2016, Que Publishing, 2015 (2nd edition).

Teaching methods

Lectures in class and practical applications in laboratory.

Important note: up to 20 Erasmus students can be accepted, the criteria will be "first come, first served".

COVID update:

Lectures take place both on Microsoft Teams, at the online lectures link, and in class (simultaneously).

Students attending via Teams are supposed to connect in time to the lectures and are responsible of the following:

• Having a computer firmly connected to the power network and (possibly via cable) to the Internet with a working camera and a working microphone;
• Having Microsoft Office installed (Unibo provides a free copy to its students, to get it they are required to connect to www.office.com and login with their Unibo credentials).

Assessment methods

The course mark is either pass or fail.

The following information may change, based on the decisions of the University based on the COVID situation.

Final test consists in an Excel full data processing task, to be carried on at the PC, on real corporate data to determine margins, sales, costs and profits, one excercise on Accouting and a few open theory questions on Strategy.

COVID update:

Final tests take place on Microsoft Teams, the link will be automatically sent by mail to the students that applied on Almaesami.

Students are supposed to connect 15 minutes before the official start, for identification and troublshooting, and are responsible of the following:

• Having a computer firmly connected to the power network and (possibily via cable) to the Internet with a working camera and a working microphone (also, an ID showing a picture must be at hand, to be identified);
• Having Microsoft Office installed (Unibo provides a free copy to its students, to get it students are required to connect to www.office.com and login with their Unibo credentials);
• Having all the above mentioned softwares, plus a tool to convert a word into a pdf (PDFCreator can be downloaded for free here: https://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator/download) ready to work, running and tested;
  
• Applying in time on AlmaEsami to book the final test (no students will be accepted if out of the list, unless a specific agreement has been taken, with specified reasons).

When the application deadline on AlmaEsami is met, the Professor will send a mail to all the students that applied on AlmaEsami for that test date, sharing a folder where the datasets and the test files will be available, plus additional instructions, if needed. Students will have to check themselves their ability to upload and download files from that shared folder and inform the Professor with a mail in case something is wrong, so that issues are solved BEFORE the date of the test.

Teaching tools

Blackboard, slides, PCs.

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Bergamaschi