MSc in International Business and Management

This course concentrates on the economic foundations of management by developing tools to analyze key issues of the industry (Microeconomics) and general economic environment (Macroeconomics) of a company. The first part, Microeconomics, analyses consumer behavior, producer pricing and production decisions under different market structures. The second part, Macroeconomics, studies the operation of the entire economy, analyzing topics such as the determination of aggregate output, employment, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and other macro variables

With the aim of evaluating corporate financial performance and making financially rational decisions, this course introduces students to financial accounting, reporting and analysis. This module aims to develop awareness in students of the way in which accounting is embedded in a particular socio-economic, political and cultural context and challenges the perception that accounting is a purely technical, uninterested and neutral practice. Within this framework, the module seeks to provide students with a broad introduction to the need for external accounting systems, the principles explicit and implicit within such systems, and the strengths and weaknesses in such systems. 

For a successful career in business, professionals should possess sufficient quantitative skills to help them make informed decisions backed by data analysis and statistical inferences. The course aims to introduce, in an intuitive and rigorous way, the fundamental statistical tools of decision theory under uncertainty. Topics covered include basic statistical principles, probability distributions, inferential statistics (confidence intervals hypothesis testing) and regression. The course combines the theoretical concepts and reasoning with practical examples to help students master the quantitative methods of modern business management. The course also includes an introduction to Excel’s data analysis tool and basic functions.

This course analyzes the major investing and financing decisions made by an international firm. Topics covered include analysis of financial information for managerial decisions, valuation of corporate securities, financing decisions and cost of capital, company valuation, and long-term investing decisions.The students will learn and practice essential skills related to the successful development of a financial plan. After the completion of this course students are expected to be able to conduct financial analysis of major business decisions

The purpose of the workshop is to address the question ‘what is the skill of writing?’.  According to the American writer Edwin Schlossberg, “the skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think”.  The workshop explores this statement.  This exploration and subsequent understanding is of paramount importance for any business activity, since much of the communication in the business world takes place in writing, usually within tight deadlines, ranging from short, simple e-mails to long, rich documents.  The salient gain of the participants from the workshop is the understanding of different modes and purposes of writing, as well as of different types and purposes of documents.  The main topics covered during the workshop include: the requirements of different types of documents, such as reports, case studies, research papers and proposals, proper referencing, and the research process.

‘What is a successful presentation and how is it achieved?’  ‘What does our audience see and hear during a presentation?’  This workshop aims to provide participants with knowledge on the techniques and tools needed for a successful presentation.  Presentations are means of communication in the business world.  This communication may have several aims: to describe, to explain, to clarify, to persuade.  During the workshop, participants learn how to capture the audience’s attention and how to communicate efficiently and confidently without ‘stage fear’.  Some of the topics covered during the workshop are: structuring an effective presentation, using verbal and non-verbal communication during the presentation, using audio-visual aids, dealing with questions.  A special feature of the workshop is that participants have the opportunity to see themselves presenting both at the beginning of the workshop and at the end, as the first and last presentations they make are video-taped.

The course provides an overview of the core areas of management theory and organizational behaviour with a special emphasis on issues of organizational structures, culture and values, employee motivation and job design, leadership and power, group processes as well as organizational learning and knowledge management. It will help participants understand the complex relation between individuals, groups and organizations and will introduce the concepts and the tools for effective management of the human capital. It will also help them understand how they can become change catalysts by performing their leadership role as managers; how they can manage knowledge; how they can inspire people to put extra effort for achieving the organizational vision and for outstanding performance and results. Through case studies, videos and discussion, students will have the opportunity to exercise their critical thinking and build people management skills by applying organizational theory to a broad range of organizational types, settings, and challenges.

This course aims to provide students with an introduction to the “marketing way” of thinking about the world around us, the tools utilized by today’s marketing professionals, and the likely outcomes of marketing efforts. Specific goals for this course are to develop a critical understanding of the role of marketing within a firm, develop a critical undersetting of the marketing as a way of thinking and as a process, familiarize with the most important marketing tools, use core marketing concepts to evaluate marketing situations, and analyze and assess complex marketing problems

This course deals with the analysis and creation of business and corporate strategy as well as practices for growth of a small firm or even a large multinational corporation. Business strategy formulates the set of objectives and policies that define how a firm positions itself to gain competitive advantage and increase returns for its shareholders. Two questions are of importance, then: “Where should we compete in” and “How should we compete?” In answering these questions, we formulate a plan on a) understanding the firm’s external environment in terms of industry-level competition and the institutional idiosyncrasies characterizing the context of a country and b) screening and diagnosing the firm’s internal resources and capabilities. Further, we look at issues of effective implementation of business and corporate strategies, such as identifying and implementing relevant business models, applying and combining product and market diversification strategy, gaining insights on the increasingly important role of innovation management, and familiarizing ourselves with the contextual, strategic and operational issues of corporate governance. The course offers students the opportunity to work in teams and develop unique case studies for well-known entrepreneurial firms.

In today’s globalized, interconnected and rapidly changing world, multinational enterprises’ human capital should be properly informed and equipped with the required skills and knowledge in order to, first, cope with the ongoing challenges they face due to increasing competition, and second, be prepared to leverage potential opportunities arising from the international context. In this course, we will introduce the core theories of International Business and Trade and explain what motivates firms to internationalize. We will then embark upon our journey to explore how multinational enterprises formulate and implement their international strategy. This includes strategies for analyzing and entering foreign markets, the formation of strategic alliances and networks and the process of designing and controlling international organizations. Finally, we will explain how the dynamics of internationalization have changed due to the emergence of the 4^th industrial revolution and the rise of digitalization. A unique feature on this journey is the participation of all students in the most well-known global competition dedicated to international business, called X-Culture. Students are assigned to global virtual teams where they are invited to work with international students who study in universities across the globe. Students, working in teams, will be presented with an international business challenge (real case) and will be given about two months to develop a solution. Overall, the International Business capstone course offers both theoretical and practical knowledge as well as international experience to all students.

This course delves into the transformative impact of digital technologies on businesses, exploring questions about how innovation disrupts markets, economies, and business models. Students will examine the implications for leadership, organizational structures, and management practices in the face of rapid technological change. The course emphasizes the significance of sound strategy and effective implementation in leveraging technological opportunities. It aims to cultivate a forward-thinking mindset by addressing key issues such as the reconfiguration of organizations, digital transformation, and the evolving role of management in the knowledge economy. Learning objectives encompass fostering awareness of digital possibilities, understanding digital disruption mechanisms, exploring new business models, and developing leadership strategies for navigating digital challenges. The course also tackles organizational structures, ethical considerations, and broader responsibilities in the context of radical technological change. Overall, it aims to equip students with the skills to identify opportunities and drive results in the dynamic landscape of digital business.

The objective of this course is to teach student teams how to “road test” their Lean Start-up Models by carrying out a full feasibility analysis. Using the “Business Plan Road Test” model, teams will develop research plans to investigate industry and market domains, at both micro and macro levels. They will also engage firmly with the internal elements of their venture, considering formally the competences, social and human capital, and motivational aspirations of their entrepreneurial team. After carrying out detailed secondary and primary market research, student teams will assess the financial, strategic, operational and marketing feasibility of their concepts, enhancing still further their business models.

This course examines the impact of technological advancements, economic factors, changing demographic patterns and shifting societal norms on the organization of work. Developments related to the aforementioned factors are discussed, as well as their repercussions on the labour market, competencies in demand and emerging working models / forms of work. The scope of intervention of alternative stakeholders (institutions, organizations, individuals) in ensuring decent and sustainable work is contemplated. The strategic role of Human Resources is emphasized in terms of:

• designing and implementing organizational interventions that enhance the organization’s adaptability to the environment
• leveraging traditional and emerging forms of employment
• developing learning and development programs that support the workforce through transitions

The aim of the course is to develop increased awareness and fluency on the aforementioned issues. This aim is to be achieved through a synthesis of theoretical insights, practical examples and the co-creation of knowledge through independent search of relevant resources and group discussions. 

Production and Operations management can be defined broadly as the process steps that fulfil the production and delivery of “goods”, where “goods” include both material products and intangible services that offer some utility to the end consumer and the overall process subsumes all stages required to transform a product from a rough idea in a brainstorming meeting to the end customer offering. This course focuses on managerial decisions in production and operations and their interrelationships with the other functional areas of the firm. Major areas of study include the design of productive systems, strategic planning, and operations planning and control. Specific topics cover the areas of process and job design, facility planning, capacity planning, distribution planning, inventory management and production planning and control.

The course discusses the concepts and tools needed to understand and apply accounting information in optimizing managerial decisions, corporate planning and control. It focuses on the application of cost management, pricing, customer profitability analysis, budgeting, variance analysis, for effective decision making. Upon completion of the course students will develop an understanding of the importance of management accounting systems in helping corporations pursue their strategic objectives. They will also be able to apply management accounting techniques as well as understand their limitations in planning and control.

Understanding the ethical basis of human behaviour is of fundamental importance for building commitment to organizational goals and for imparting integrity and a sense of the common good in organizational members. The course examines a broad array of matters relating to ethics, including: individual and organizational obstacles to ethics; ethics information processing methods and judging theories; an action-learning framework for ethics leadership; adversarial win-lose ethics methods; integrative win-win ethics methods; dialogic transcendent ethics method; reflection and developing personal and contingency ethics leadership approaches; developing on ethics leadership action-learning plan. The course focuses also on sustainability, corporate social responsibility and corporate accountability with further emphasis placed on business strategies that aim to create long term value and a positive environmental, social and economic impact. Actionable knowledge is achieved by applying theory in real life situations through critical analysis and debating on prominent cases and in class discussions on current trends and developments on sustainable business activities.

The objective of this  intensive workshop is to  introduce the theories and practices required to master the post start-up phase of entrepreneurship, focusing on survival techniques, growth strategies, and modern approaches such as pivoting, and co-opetition. Exit options, and dealing with entrepreneurial failure, will also be covered. The emphasis on the workshop is on combining the latest theory with mini-cases, class exercises, and other forms of real life example. It is anticipated that the content of this class will form an additional conceptual underpinning for the Entrepreneurship Team Field Project.

In the wide sense of the term, negotiating with others (both partners and rivals) is a necessary feature of all managerial jobs. In this course students are introduced into the fundamentals of effective negotiations: how to think strategically, what tactics to engage in, and what goals to aim at. The objective of this course is to improve participants’ ability to avoid traps in negotiations and help them see their range of rational options (and their ramifications) in particular situations. The course is designed to provide participants a conceptual framework for preparing and conducting negotiation, and to give them some experience in using this framework.

The Dissertation is an independent research project that allows students to explore a topic of personal interest within a faculty member’s area of expertise. Throughout the process, students will develop essential research skills, including designing a detailed research plan, conducting a comprehensive literature review, identifying key research questions, and transforming them into empirical inquiries. They will learn to justify and apply appropriate research methodologies, analyze financial or social data, and synthesize their findings into a well-structured report. The final dissertation will include a literature review, research questions, methodology justification, data analysis, and a discussion of findings in relation to existing research and methodological considerations.

This course aims to provide students with theoretical stimuli and practical support, as to enhance the experience of participating in a real-life work environment. The main component of the course’s design is a 3-month internship, where students have the opportunity to apply the knowledge, skills and competencies gained during their studies. The internship will be complemented by (a) academic insights on themes related to the future of work, employability and career development and (b) a structured supervision process that encourages students to establish connections between management theory and practice through a guided, reflexive process. The course will examine the impact of technological advancements, economic factors, changing demographic patterns and shifting societal norms to the organization of work. It will also establish connections between the workplace of the future and emerging debates in employability and career development. Requirements for learning and development in the digital era will be critically evaluated with particular reference to the effectiveness of available learning models and methods. The value and relevance of responsible management and its manifestations in practice will also be highlighted, along with the role of the reflexive practitioner, i.e. the practitioner who is critically aware of the impact of his or her assumptions, values and behaviors on the workplace and the wider community.