Econometric Methods for Business Research I
The objective of the course is to provide an introduction to models and techniques that are useful to conduct business research. The goal is to enable executives to competently apply the methods and to assess the empirical validity of the assumptions to conduct inference. The course will discuss concepts from probability and statistics, estimation and inference in the multiple linear regression model, functional forms, as well as qualitative choice models and time series models. Several applications will be discussed in class to demonstrate the relevance of these techniques to marketing, management, accounting, and finance.

Foundations of Leadership Theory and Competency
The objective of this course is to provide executives with the knowledge and skills to understand the multidisciplinary academic field of leadership. Through a systematic study, executives will examine the major theories and empirical research used to lead and manage people, teams, and organizations. It aims to help executives develop critical leadership skills through understanding, critical appreciation, and application of the theories, tools, and techniques of historical and contemporary management thought. Be it known that individual, team, organizational, community and societal success is largely determined by the ability of individuals to lead and follow in complex situations with integrity, authenticity, ethics, and a pragmatic sense of community, societal and global understanding. Given the search for this understanding is both elusive and complex, the instructor will primarily focus on a rich and multi-faceted understanding of leadership, emergent leadership theory and practice, and the formulation of one’s own personal stance on the theory and practice of leadership.

Research Design and Methodology
In this seminar, executives learn how to design and execute research that produces quantitative data for analysis. The seminar introduces the executives to methodologies such as experiments, field studies, and surveys, along with their possibilities and limitations. The selection of methods is presented in the larger context of the overall research process, which includes conception, design, and execution. In this context, executives learn how to progress from theoretical research questions to scientifically rigorous research designs and how to interpret the results of their studies. Executives will be exposed to foundational readings in Research Methods, as well as recent research studies using quantitative methods. With the knowledge gained from these sources and their application in a semester-long project, executives will develop a strong understanding of how to design sound empirical studies and how to produce academically rigorous and practically relevant research.

Qualitative Methods in Business Research
This course is designed as an introductory seminar on qualitative research as it is used in the field of business. The course balances the acquisition of basic knowledge about the conduct of qualitative research with the application of that knowledge to business research. The balance is reflected in the reading material, which consists of basic texts and exemplary studies from leading business research journals. The course introduces the student to various qualitative research approaches, with a focus on case study research, action research, ethnographic research, and grounded theory.

The course covers several data collection techniques that are widely used in qualitative research, such as interviews, participant observation, focus groups, fieldwork, and using internet communications and social media. Executives are introduced to data coding, memo writing, theoretical sampling, data presentation, and the use of qualitative data analysis software. Perspectives on what it means to draw conclusions and build theory from qualitative data are explored. Executives will be given the opportunity to apply what they have learned in project work. The course concludes with some guidance on how to write and publish qualitative research.

Econometric Methods for Business Research II
This is a course on multivariate statistical methods for econometricians and empirical researchers in other business disciplines. We begin with descriptive statistics (graphical and numerical summaries) for multivariate data, and review the basics of matrix algebra. We then develop some probability theory for random vectors and matrices (specifically the multivariate normal and related distributions), which gives us a foundation for inference about one, two, or many mean vectors (MANOVA). We then move on to exploratory and inferential multivariate methods including: discrimination and classification, canonical correlation, principal component analysis, factor analysis, clustering and multidimensional scaling. The emphasis throughout will be on the application of statistical methods to real data from marketing, management, accounting and finance.

Technology-Driven Organizational Change
The main aim of this research seminar is to gain a broad understanding of how Information Technology is transforming contemporary organizations. We will utilize readings from a variety of sources – recent research articles, selections from relevant books and cases – to explore both the strategic and business value implications of IT. Specifically, on the strategic side of the ledger, we will investigate how firms are leveraging business and IT strategies to enhance value for customers as well as the evolution of business and technical platforms that enable these transformations. The business implications theme will focus on IT investment value pathways, IT Governance, IT Risk Management among other areas. A secondary but a critical objective of the course will be to introduce executives to additional research methods that will complement the concepts they have learned in the first year of the program. The course will provide a brief overview of Social Network Analysis, Machine Learning, and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) among others. Please note that these methods are introduced as a way of studying the primary topics in the course. For example, fsQCA will be introduced when studying how “IT can help organizations build a strategic advantage in turbulent environments” (El Sawy et al., 2010). Machine Learning concepts will be introduced when studying the impact of Big Data.

Three courses are offered each term.

Competition Analysis and Regulation
The objective of this course is to twofold. First, the course aims at understanding how market structure shapes a firm’s competitive behavior and its impact on prices and consumer welfare. A second objective is to identify the relevant policy tools for each type of market structure. The center of attention will be firms’ strategic behavior, and the emphasis will be on how the competition, economic environment, and structure of demand shape firms’ decisions. Ultimately, the goal is to address the question of firm and market regulation, showing that different situations call for different policies. The course will consist of a mix of theoretical and practical applications using case studies. Executives will learn how to use basic game theory to analyze competition and see the similarities or disparities between different types of markets. The course will also offer the opportunity to put microeconomics “in practice” by studying how consumer behavior and firms’ decisions can shape economic outcomes. Emphasis will be placed on how economic theory can help to analyze and lead to a deeper understanding of market competition. The course will also devote a great amount of time to study and discussion of various regulatory policies by considering both theoretical approaches to market regulation and case studies.

Understanding the Consumer Journey
Advertising Age recently declared: “The Customer Journey Officer is the new CMO.” Defined as the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with a company and brand, a clear and actionable understanding of the customer journey is increasingly essential to success in today’s marketplace. This course focuses on a conceptual understanding of the customer journey, not from the perspective of the brand or company, as is typically the case in the business world, but from the perspective of the consumer her or himself. The core premise of the course is that the customer journey can be most meaningfully understood as a problem-solving process, and it works through each step of this process, with the goal of engendering novel and useful ways of thinking about, and ultimately harnessing this journey for business success.

International Corporate Finance and Governance
The primary objective of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and analyze the relationships among corporate financial policy, corporate governance, and international financial markets to create shareholder value. In this context, the course will focus on raising capital overseas via cross-listings, investing capital through cross-border mergers and acquisitions, raising/investing international venture capital and conducting IPOs, payout/repurchase decisions around the world, and understanding how corporate governance mechanisms at the firm- and country-levels might potentially curb management misappropriation and/or dominant investors’ ability to expropriate minority investors (through excessive perquisites and compensation, overinvestment, cronyism, self-dealing, diversion of corporate resources for personal consumption, and outright theft). In short, the course will examine investment, financing, and payout decisions in the international context. Students will gain a strong understanding on how foreign firms raise and invest capital; how and why foreign firms cross-list in the U.S.; how foreign firms grow through international venture financing and cross-border mergers; how firm- and country-level corporate governance can impact corporate performance; and why many countries around the world are moving to mandate best corporate governance practices.

Ideation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship
This course introduces and explores the fundamental building-blocks and concepts of entrepreneurship: Innovation, conceptual thinking as developed through an “ideation” process, validated by such technology supported resources as: analytics, crowd sourcing, crowd funding social analytics. Executives will review and apply current research and the latest studies in this emerging field. Executives will develop a strategic foundation that will facilitate their deployment in related areas of research and development. Instructors will present a mix of cutting-edge empirical findings and knowledge and student will apply this knowledge in active, practical research application based exercises. The course requires both online and class participation in a wide range of related topics and their application. While the course is designed for executives with technical or non-technical backgrounds it requires preparation and continuous active participation.

Management of Innovation
Innovation, the successful introduction of a new device, method, or material, is acknowledged to be the most important driver of competitive success in many industries and has crucial impact for societal and economic development. Interest in management of innovation has traditionally centered on firm-internal aspects, such as the organization of internal innovation processes, activities and collaborators and how to deal with the dynamics stemming from industrial or technological changes. In recent years, however, there has been a surge in interest among scholars and practitioners in methods, tools and approaches that allow firms to tap firm-external sources and (social) networks to fill their innovation pipelines. The emergence of this phenomenon has given rise to novel and promising research agendas for the years to come and has been associated with labels such as open and user innovation, crowd sourcing and open source. In acknowledgement of this development, the aim of this class is to provide executives with an advanced understanding of the management of innovation and covers a broad range of literature from foundational theories to most recent research in the field. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the course will reflect the theoretical underpinnings of management of innovation in related research streams such as organization theory, management science, organizational economics, psychology and sociology to tackle the different levels of analysis of innovation: on the individual, the group, organizational and the industry level. The course will thereby address particularly the challenges, research questions and (practical) implications related to product and service innovation with substantial elements of technological change.

Human Capital and the Triple Bottom Line
The objective of this course is to provide executives with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and analyze the relationship between organizational productivity and human capital variables. In this context, human capital is conceptualized as the knowledge, skills, ability, and personal characteristics that drive employee behavior. Organizational productivity is conceptualized broadly as the “triple bottom line” – the interconnectedness of economic, social, and environmental performance. The instructor will present a mix of cutting-edge empirical findings and knowledge gleaned from practical applications of organizational behavior and talent management research. Executives will gain a strong understanding of how organizational-level variables relate to (and motivate) employees’ responsible behaviors; how to select, train, and lead for individual productivity and responsibility; and how to use people-based analytics to improve organizational productivity.

Understanding the Employee and the Customers as Users of Technology
In this seminar, executives will review key studies on the impact of technology on individual users as a way to better understand employee and consumer behavior. The course highlights a number of theories and empirical research methods for identifying and understanding key issues for users of technology that are important to most businesses. The instructor will present a mix of cutting-edge empirical findings and knowledge gleaned from established and emerging theories in information systems, psychology, and marketing research. Executives will gain a strong understanding of how the interaction of users with technology impacts the way they work, both individually and in groups, and how they manage processes and other employees in an organization. Executives will also learn about the different ways in which technology continuously defines and changes consumer behavior.

Information-Based Strategies
The field of strategy is constantly evolving as the competitive environment facing firms’ changes. One of the most significant changes has been the dramatically falling costs and increasing speeds and volumes of transmitting and processing of information. This ongoing phenomenon is changing the structure of entire industries and is altering the profitable opportunities available to many firms. The ability to target profitable market segments and to identify individual customers is reducing the value of scale-based operations and the strategic advantage of large firms with existing market share. The ability to monitor the performance of business units abroad, without regard to distance or time zones, is increasing the value of cooperative partnerships. This is leading to greater reliance upon outsourcing, benefiting manufacturing as well as many service industries. At the same time, the impact of information technology on the transparency and efficiency of securities markets is destroying the profits of entire segments of financial services. All aspects of the firm – production, service, sales, marketing, and strategy – are affected. The increase in information available to firms, and the increasing variety of strategies available for the use of information – from dynamic repricing to online distribution, from labor productivity enhancements to labor arbitrage, and automation and outsourcing – requires a revision of strategic decision-making models in an increasingly digital age. Clearly, some firms will win and others will lose; nearly all will have to change. And yet, fundamental laws of economics have not been repealed. How can previous economic theory, and previous experience with rapid technological change, provide insights for the development of sound, information-based strategies? To answer this question, the course integrates recent experience in the impact of information technology upon diverse industries with relevant theory.

Marketing Communications Strategy
The design of effective marketing communications strategies must be based on a careful consideration of (a) how target customers process information and (b) the firm’s objectives and performance expectations. Current research in both of those factors will be studied and analyzed for insights into best practices