Strategic Management Seminar
This course critically reviews theory and research in the field of strategic management. The scope
of the course is comprehensive, encompassing the following domains: strategic content, strategic
processes, top executives, and corporate governance. Emphasis is placed on empirical study of
strategic issues. The course is intended primarily for doctoral students who expect to conduct
research in strategic management or related areas (e.g., organizational behavior, marketing
strategy, corporate finance and organization theory). Topics include the following:
• Overview and origins of strategic management
• Conceptualizing and operationalizing strategy
• Industrial Organization/Economics view of strategy
• Resource-based view of strategy
• Schumpeterian/Dynamic view of strategy
• Learning and Knowledge-Based view of strategy
• Corporate-Level Strategy: Product-Market Diversification
• Corporate-Level Strategy: Altering the Scope of the Firm
• International Strategy
• Top Executives and the Upper-Echelons Perspective
• Governance and Agency Theory
• Strategy and Organizational Design
• Strategic Processes: Organizational and Human Limits
• Strategic Processes: Goals and Decision-Making
STRATEGIC PLANNING SYSTEMS (3 credits)
This seminar focuses on the theory and practice of planning for organizations. Subsystems that
make up a corporate strategic planning system are discussed. Emphasis is placed on reviewing
current literature in the field to identify and develop preliminary definitions of research
possibilities that are of topical relevance and of special interest to students.
• Defining the organizational vision
• Mission or concept of business
• Determining long-term objectives
• Developing organizational strategies
• Implementing strategies
SEMINAR IN COMPETITIVE STRATEGY (3 credits)
This course draws on a growing body of theoretical and empirical research which examines
relationships between an organization’s environment, its strategy, and performance outcomes.
Particular emphasis is also placed on understanding corporate strategy—which has the following
defining question: "What businesses should the firm compete in, and how should resources be
allocated across those businesses?"•
• Theoretical concepts of the environment and their empirical counterparts
• Market definitions
• Strategic alliances
• Competitive intelligence and information flows
• Competitive rivalry
• Industry evolution
• Environmental analysis
• Business level competitive dynamics
• Value creation
• Scope
• Strategy execution
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SEMINAR (3 credits)
This doctoral seminar focuses on the multiple theoretical perspectives that form the foundation
of understanding international management. It provides a critical examination of economic,
strategic management, political, psychological, sociological, and organizational behavior theories
that explain international operations of companies. The following topics are to be covered in the
seminar:
• The multinational enterprise
• FDI theories
• Culture and international business
• International politics
• International trade
• International financial markets and institutions
• Multinational strategy
• Organizational structures for international business
• International production strategies
• International marketing strategies
• International human resource management strategy
• International financial management
• Multinational impacts on home and host countries
• Political risk assessment
• Ethics, social responsibility and international business
BUSINESS AND SOCIETY (3 credits)
This doctoral seminar in sustainability is appropriate for developing sensitivity in students about
how organizations can thrive in today’s difficult environment, in terms of satisfying the “triple
bottom-line”. The central thrust of this seminar is that while organizations must perform
financially they also need to address their social and environmental impacts in order to be viable
in the long term. The following topics are to be covered in the seminar:
• Operation of the global market economy
• The corporation
• Stakeholder theory
• The concept of value
• Business ethics
• Corporate philanthropy
• Social responsibility
• Environmental management
• Issues in sustainability
MICROECONOMIC THEORY (3 credits)
The course provides an introduction to microeconomics at the advanced level. The goal is to
provide an examination of the microeconomic foundations of finance. Some of the main topics
covered are:
• Utility theory and consumer demand
• Duality
• Competitive firm and properties of competitive equilibrium
• Pricing in perfect and imperfect markets
• Inter-temporal choice
• Risk and uncertainty
• Welfare change measurements
MACROECONOMICS (3 credits)
This course focuses on macroeconomic analysis at an advanced level. It provides an
understanding of the macroeconomics underlying the study of finance. Some of the main topics
covered are:
• Review of the AD-AS model
• Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH) and applications
• Neoclassical growth model
• Real Business-Cycle (RBC) theory
• Investment and consumption
• Use of the Classical and Keynesian models to examine inflation, unemployment, fiscal and
monetary policy, and the open economy.
ASSET PRICING THEORY (3 credits)
This course presents a detailed analysis of static and dynamic models of asset pricing. The focus
is on determinants of financial asset prices from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Students
will develop a fundamental knowledge of asset pricing as well as key analytic tools and
modelling skills. They will be exposed to state-of-the-art research. Main topics examined
include:
• Asset valuation
• Single period and dynamic asset pricing models
• Dynamic consumption based models
• Dynamic household portfolio choice
• Term structure models
• Single and multi-period asset pricing
• Options, forwards and futures
• Production and asset prices
• Recent developments in asset pricing
• International asset pricing
PORTFOLIO THEORY (3 credits)
The course is designed to familiarize students with issues related to portfolio theory at a more
advanced level than is covered in general investment courses. A wide range of topics will be
covered including the following:
• Classical mean-variance portfolio theory
• Decision-making under uncertainty
• Asset pricing models
• Tactical asset allocation and
• Volatility trading
INTERNATIONAL FINANCE (3 credits)
This course focuses on international financial management. Particular attention is paid to
understanding theoretical and empirical bases underlying managerial practice. Topics include:
• Theory of foreign exchange
• Management of foreign exchange exposure
• Market integration
• Foreign direct investment decisions
• Multinational capital budgeting
• Trends in international banking
• Balance of payments
• International risk
FINANCIAL ECONOMICS (3 credits)
The course provides a rigorous study of the theoretical foundations of modern financial
economics. The course will cover the central themes of modern finance including:
• Investment decisions under uncertainty, discounting, and risk aversion
• Stochastic dominance
• Mean-Variance portfolio analysis
• Capital market equilibrium
• Asset valuation
• Arbitrage pricing theory
• Option pricing
• State- contingent claims
• Dynamic asset pricing
• Optimal consumption/investment policies and asset pricing
• Incomplete markets