example description subjects Business and Management

BACHELOR DEGREE OF BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
Branch Social and Legal Sciences
Duration Four academic years
ECTS credits 240 basic subjects: 60; compulsory subjects: 120; optional subjects: 30; internships: 24; end-of-degree project/dissertation: 6.
Topics ECTS Mathematics (18 ECTS); Economics (36 ECTS); Business Administration (78 ECTS); Financial (30 ECTS); Political/Law/Culture (18ECTS); Statics (12ECTS); Work placement or internships (24ECTS); end-of-degree project (6ECTS)
Languages Spanish and Catalan.
Timetables Full time dedication to studies.
Presentation
The degree in Business Management and Administration provides knowledge of economics and the skills necessary to work in management in various areas of work in business in any of the fields in which they work - financial, commercial, human resources management, etc., in both multinationals and small and medium-sized firms. The graduates will be able to manage projects within organizations and adapt to complex and changing economic, socio-political and technological environments.
Description of the course
Basic and compulsory subjects are taught in the first year of the degree course. These include Mathematics, Introduction to Game Theory, Introduction to Economics, Introduction to Company Law and Introduction to Financial Accounting, and are fundamental to knowledge of economics and business. Various areas are covered in more depth in the second year, including microeconomics, macroeconomics, probability, accounting analysis and statistics. In the third and fourth year, students must take a total of 120 credits in both compulsory subjects in the business area (Commercial Management, Financial Management, Strategic Management and Human Resources, among others) as well as optional subjects in the various economics and business areas.
The structure of the course in the final two years is designed to facilitate the mobility for the students.

Description of subjects
MATHEMATICS (18ECTS)
Mathematic I & II (12ECTS)
Mathematics I is conceived as an introductory course on basic concepts. It is the first of a sequence of two mathematics courses to be taken during the first year. The student begins to acquire competences to tackle situations that require a formal mathematical treatment. During the course, the use of mathematical language and the acquisition of an adequate working method are enforced, which are especially useful for the modelling of economic situations. In particular, the fundamental aspects of mathematical calculus for functions of one real variable (with optimization) and of linear algebra commonly used in economics are developed. Thus, it is a course that provides the basic mathematical tools to be used in modelling problems in economics and business.

Mathematics II is the last in a sequence of mathematics courses to be taken during the first year of studies in economics and business. Having been introduced to mathematical calculus in Mathematics 1 as well as the basic concepts of optimization of a function of a single variable, students will now extend these ideas to functions of two variables. The particular properties of two-variable functions will be treated, as well as the theory and practice of finding their optimum values, either maxima or minima as the case may be. Furthermore, optimization of such functions with equality or inequality constraints is treated. Thus, this course provides the basic mathematical tools for obtaining optimal values of economic functions, which is a fundamental objective in economics and business practice and research.

Mathematic of financial organization (6ECTS)
This course is designed so that the student understands the two main concepts of financial mathematics, namely, discounting and accumulation, as well as various interest or time value mechanisms. The student obtains in-depth knowledge of calculation of the value of annuities and perpetuities with constant or varying payments. Finally, this knowledge is applied to the concepts of loans, debts and bonds as well as NPV, IRR and APR calculations.
ECONOMICS (36ECTS)
Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics I (6ECTS)
The course provides fundamental knowledge of macroeconomic theory: representation and analysis of the overall performance of an economy. It will help you understand how those interactions result in important economic aggregates, how those economic aggregates determine and influence each other, and how they simultaneously affect many households, firms and markets of a country or a set of countries. We will therefore study economic aggregates such as a country’s income per capita and economic growth, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and the balance of payments. Furthermore we are going to analyze how economic policy, both monetary and fiscal, affects these economic aggregates.
The course aims at introducing you to the main economic questions that economies as a whole face, and to acquire knowledge and competences that will be the fundamentals for your learning of Economic Theory in more advance and specialized courses.
Macroeconomics II (6ECTS)
Analysis of the evolution of the main macroeconomic variables (GDP, interest rate, exchange rate, inflation, unemployment rate, etc.) in the short-run and in the long-run. Models will be used in order to study the relationship between variables and macroeconomic policies.
The methods that were presented in Introduction to Macroeconomics will be extended and applied to the analysis of contemporary macroeconomic issues such as expectations, exchange rates, debt, inflation, recessions, monetary and fiscal policy.
Microeconomics
Microeconomics I (6ECTS)
On this course you will learn about economic principles, first by participating directly in experiments and subsequently by studying the related economic theory and its applications. You can observe economic principles in action while participating in economic experiments. After each experiment, after collecting and working on your data, we will present the economic theories designed to explain the principles you have discovered in the laboratory and its applications. This process enables you to appreciate economic theory's ability to simplify the economic world in which we live.
Microeconomics II (6ECTS)
This course covers various microeconomic issues. Initially, we introduce the basic theory of non-cooperative games. Then, we analyze the behavior of firms in different market structures (Monopoly and Oligopoly). Finally, we analyze the choice of an agent in an environment with uncertainty and asymmetric information.
Principles of applied economics (6ECTS)
Students in this course will be instructed on the experimental method and its applications, and will have to design, perform and analyze economics experiments.
The course will be conceptually divided in two parts. During the first part will show you how economists use the laboratory tools. For that purpose we will focus on some particular series of experiments in markets and industrial organization, bargaining, public goods, coordination, learning, neuroeconomics and individual decision-making.
In the second part, the students will have to replicate and analyze one published experiment. The presentation of the experiment in class should include a motivation, a complete description of the related literature and a careful comparative analysis of the results obtained in class.
World economy (6ECTS)
This course provides an analysis of the theories of international trade, the labor movement (migration), the movement of firms (FDI) and trade in intermediate goods (outsourcing). It also analyzes trade policy and the operation of the main instruments of this policy. The first part of the course presents business models that explain why countries trade and what gains from trade. Some of the models examined include the Ricardian model and the Heckscher-Ohlin and the new trade theories based on economies of scale and imperfect competition and outsourcing of goods and services. The second part of the course deals with trade policy. Specifically, it discusses the implementation of tariffs and import quotas and export subsidies, in perfect competition as a market structure with imperfect competition. We study the effect of these instruments on the welfare of the countries involved. Finally, the course ends with a discussion of international trade agreements and their implications in areas such as the volume of trade, labor rights and the environment.
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Organizational behavior (6ECTS)
The core objectives of this course are a) to provide an opportunity for you to define your personal project and what you are going to do in the next few months / years to grow as an individual; b) to have you discover things about you that will help you achieve your personal development goals; c) to have you see your social world and other people differently—to change what you notice and think about and how you apprehend the world around you—and d) to also change what you do as you navigate through that world.
We will discuss a set of core theoretical concepts that form the foundation of social and cognitive psychology as scientific fields. You will have a chance to put the theory into practice through assignments, case discussions and project assignments. I will ask you to reflect on how the scientific knowledge discussed in class can be put into practice in your own life, to help you achieve your development goals. If you have engaged the course material enough on a regular basis during the quarter, you will notice that how you see others and how they see you will have changed substantially.
This course outline describes everything I can think of that is relevant to the course and its requirements and logistics. Please read it carefully and use it as a guide to what we will be doing.
Business decision techniques
The area of quantitative methods for decision making uses the scientific method as the basis to research and help make decisions on complex problems of the organizations. The purpose of this course is to equip the participants with the relevant tools and techniques for applications in solving managerial problems.
The methodology of the course is based on a science that offer to the decision maker different quantitative methodologies in order to make decisions. The objective of the course is to learn the fundamental concepts, the quantitative models, up to date solution techniques in problem solving and complex decision making. During the course we will see how to apply these techniques in different areas of an organization, such as marketing, production and operations, logistics, finance, etc. Emphasis will be made on practical and real world applications.
Company organizational (6ECTS)
The course provides a comprehensive analytical framework aimed at understanding the behavior of economic actors. The following key issues are addressed within the context of economic activities: What is the firm? Why does the firm exist? What motivates the individual when making economic decisions? What are the main problems encountered in economic transactions? How does one solve these problems?
The main objective of the course is to provide students with sufficient understanding of the subject to allow them to apply theoretical models to any economic reality.
Students are expected to read beforehand the compulsory class material, prepare the different case studies and exercises, and participate actively in class debates.
Operations management (6ECTS)
Operations Management (OM) is one of the key functional areas in any organization or company that deals with the production of goods and services. These activities take place in all companies, either public or private. OM is concerned with managing the processes that transform inputs (materials, labor, energy, customers) into outputs (goods and services). Everything we wear, eat, use, read or play with, has been produced, and an operations manager organized its production. This course is concerned with the tasks, issues and decisions of those operations managers who have made the services and products on which we all depend.
The OM field faces many challenges that are consequence of globalization, new product proliferation, technology advances, and integration with other functional areas of the company (marketing, finances, etc.).
In this course we are going to study the main concepts, tools and quantitative models that companies use to manage their Operations. We are going to do so from a very practical standpoint, studying business cases and solving exercises

Market research and applications (6ECTS)
This course examines the main concepts and theories of Organizational Economics at an intermediate level within an integrated framework.
Its goal is to give students a set of tools to help them analyze business problems, take business decisions (especially those related to human resource management), and better understand the business environment.
The course is organized into three blocks:
Individual behavior in business and markets.
The structure and management of individual and divisional incentives.
The interaction between organizations and their environment, not only economic but also political and institutional.
Human resources management
In many industries, the personnel – or the Human Resources – of an organization is one of the most vital factors shaping its success or failure. Decisions that involve selection, training, job assignments, and, in some cases, separation of employees have crucial consequences for businesses. These consequences do not only involve financial gains or losses and have legal implications but also affect individuals and their motivation and ability to be productive and satisfied persons. Effectively managing and leveraging a company’s Human Resources thus requires an appreciation of how Human Resource decisions are shaped by and shape individuals’ motivation, well-being, productivity, and sense of identification with the organization they work for. This course offers the latest psychological perspectives on the main challenges in Human Resource and Personnel
Management; starting with an individual’s entry into an organization all the way until her exit. By the end of the class, you will have a deep understanding and basic hands-on experience with regard to hiring, compensation, motivation and well-being, organizational exit, and many more HR practices in light of the empirical evidence that supports or discourages their use.

Marketing
The fundamentals of marketing
Contemporary approaches to business emphasize the importance of adopting a customer focus. Marketing, in particular, begins and ends with the consumer – from determining consumer needs to ensuring customer satisfaction. The primary goal of this course is to enhance your understanding of consumer behavior. It provides a specialization within the marketing module, studying the psychology of the consumer.
This includes both intuitive and some non-intuitive ideas about behavior. In this course, we will train your intuition, so that you can think more accurately about how consumers perceive and respond to market events. Many of the psychological insights are particularly useful for strategy, brand positioning, and marketing communication decisions.

Strategic marketing management
Marketing is a way of thinking about business. The success of an organization depends on the success of its marketing activities. The role of Marketing management in organizations is: to identify and measure the needs and wants of consumers, to determine the targets the business can serve, to decide on the appropriate products and services to serve these markets, and to determine the optimal pricing, promotion and distribution strategies to be implemented.
In this course we will complement the basic concepts studied in the first course on Marketing Management I (Dirección Comercial I). This second course is managerially oriented, focusing on the strategic decisions available for the managers to approach the targeted segments and deliver value to the final consumers. The first part of the course (topics 1-4) analyze the decisions taken by the firm at the strategic level: market segmentation, positioning strategies, product-life-cycle management, and international strategies. The topic 5 studies the Marketing Plan. The last four topics analyze the managerial strategies for the different marketing tools available to the brand managers: product, line, branding, pricing, communication and distribution.

Strategic management
Strategy involves the coordination and integration of the efforts within the different functional areas of an organization for dealing with an uncertain future. This comprises formulating a business strategy for each individual unit of the firm, formulating a corporate strategy, and implementing these strategies. Strategy formulation involves understanding the business the firm is in, determining how to position the strategic unit within this business environment, and developing the capabilities to compete, but also to cooperate, in this environment. Strategy at the same time coordinates and integrates the individual functional strategies such as manufacturing, marketing, innovation, sales, and finance.
Quality management
Basic knowledge subject, with distinctive features and practical operation as a management tool. Explanation about the historical process, economic and social which has led to the actual concept of Quality Management, justifying the different stages which can be identified.
Develop the principles according the Quality Management and presents in the direct and practical application way. Provides the necessary skills to know how to do a significant data collection, diagnosis, analyze and submit appropriate proposal for the correct implantation of the Quality Management Company.
Management accounting
The basic objective of the subject is to understand the procedures used by companies to calculate the cost of the products and services they offer in order to make the right decisions.
Cost accounting is of strategic importance in an increasingly competitive environment.
The subject has been adapted to the European credits system, as laid down in the European Higher Education Area. With this in mind, a set of skills students need to acquire in order to pass the subject have been drawn up.
Classroom hours have been reduced to create more time for active learning on the part of the student. This means students are involved on an ongoing basis in the subject as it develops by means of continuous assessment and personal study of he works listed in the bibliography. More importance has been given to team work and communications ability, both oral and written, since these are two key skills in the career development of Business Sciences graduates.

Financial management I: investment
The course intends to raise necessary tools for decision-making in business investment. Students will study in depth the criteria regarding classical valuation and selection of investment (NPV, IRR and VFN). Venture capital projects will be introduced and necessary valuation measurements will be further provided.
Financial management II: finance
These courses deal with the two main challenges faced by the financial management of a company: the investment decision, concerning the use of company resources in productive projects, and the funding decision, or of capital structure, which examines how to obtain the money needed to finance the investments. If FM I focused on the analysis of the investment decisions, FM II will focus on the financing decisions.
We first review the basic concepts already studied in FM I: the NPV and the IRR; the notion of risk to address the relationship between risk and profitability, enabling us to reach the CAPM formula, the main tool of valuation of assets; the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Then, we should study in detail the methods of financing the company or, in other words, the capital structure. We will investigate the different types of debt financing, contrasting them with the rights and obligations arising from financing via equity (shares). The course will also study the interaction of the company with its shareholders and will provide an introduction to the financial markets.

FINANCIAL
Accounting
Introduction to accounting
This system of information is applicable to different types of organizations. The central axis of the subject is the understanding and the elaboration of an accounting cycle that starts from the book-keeping of basic transactions of the company to the final elaboration of a balance sheet and a profit and loss account which corresponding to the entrepreneurial activity in a given period of time.
The knowledge and the correct application of accounting rules and valuation criteria complete the necessary requeriments to achieve knowledge and the basic capacities for the professional future development of the student.
Financial accounting
This course is the one following “Introduction to Financial Accounting” course. This is being held during the third quart of first course. The basic aim is to provide a good foundation to think in accounting terms as to know the Spanish accounting law. The student at the end of the course must know how to elaborate the principal financial information in a company according with Spanish law.
Analysis of financial statements
After an introduction of the goals of the course we make a reminding of the basics of financial statements. Afterwards, it is an analysis of the balance sheet, the incomestatement, profitability and working capital. Then, we study sector data analysis, analysis of financial statements and international analysis. We also discuss the effect of inflation on the financial statements and finally we present the integral analysis of financial statements. Each of the topics will be covered in depth with practical examples that make the theoretical concepts understandable.
Fundamentals of financial markets
The subject deals with forwards, futures, swaps and options.
By the end of the course, students will have a good knowledge of how these products work, how they are used, how they are priced, and how financial institutions hedge their risk positions through them. The derivatives market has grown exponentially through the last years, not only for hedging but also for speculative purposes.
Nowadays, the right use and comprehension of these financial instruments is crucial in order to understand the evolution of financial markets around the world.
Taxation
A factor that also has a high importance and we should know and analyze in order to optimize the economic management, is the fiscal framework that the business activity will use.
An adequate knowledge and study of taxation, allows, for example, to reduce or to optimize the impact of tax burdens, such as the Corporation Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades), or deferral, whether to cut the fiscal cost of the company, always aiming to prevent erroneous behaviors which may lead to sanctions in business caused by the misapplication of tax law.
This course provides students with a perspective from which they will understand that corporate management and directors consists of a cluster of factors that affects taxation, sometimes very significantly, giving an overview of the tax system and explaining the main taxes that can affect an economic activity.
Similarly, we will analyze the effects that can create whichever the formula chosen to develop an economic activity, we study the main differences between the entrepreneur as an individual and the employer as a legal entity, and the consequences arising from the fact take one way or another about direct taxes, the Income Tax of Individuals (Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas, hereinafter IRPF) and Corporation Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades). We will also examine what effects may result from economic double taxation when dividends by corporations to individuals.
POLITICAL / CULTURE / SOCIETY/ LAW
Citizenship
The object and purpose of the subject is how the student obtains the Ethical Commitment and the responsibility with the society as citizen and professional.
Commercial law
The subject "Introduction to Business Law" is given in two terms. Its teaching corresponds to two different departments (Philosophy of Law and Civil Law).
Although the final note of the subject will be only one, the professors/responsible of the teaching of each terms will structure its part of the subject according to the demands of the matter that have to explain. It will be necessary to surpass each one of the blocks of the subject with a minimum of 5 points to approve it. For this reason, the educational plan is structured in two blocks, corresponding to the two parts of the subject. The first block designated Legal Theory corresponds with the first teaching term of the subject.
Company sociology
In this course the basic objective is show the analysis of economic phenomena, emphasizing class relations and modernity as a philosophical concept. The relationship between capitalism and modernity is a salient use, the “new economic sociology” where the concept of embeddedness, which states that economics relations between individuals or firms take place within existing social relations (and are thus structured by these relations as well as the greater social structures of which those relations are a part).
STATISTICS
Statistics I & II
Statistics is designed as a basic module for students, structured over two consecutive terms. The first term mainly covers Probability and the second Statistics. The course follows on from Data Analysis, which students will have studied in their first year.
The subject aims to give students a solid base of theoretical knowledge and the capacity to apply it practically. Other statistical and econometric techniques will be added further on in the course.
In Probability, students will be introduced to the subject’s basic concepts, which will be helpful not only for the Statistics course that follows, but also for many other areas in the study of economics and management. The basic models of discrete and continuous probability will also be introduced.
In Statistics, the basic concepts of statistical inference will be covered, starting with sampling distributions and univariate data modelling, confidence intervals and hypothesis contrast. Basic comparative contrast will be followed by the study of simple linear regression.

OTHERS
Studies in the framework of mobility agreements I & II (18 ECTS)
Students can only be enrolled in this subject when participating in mobility programs and prior authorization of the mobility coordinator.

Bachelor's degree final project
End of Degree Final Project is a course where a paper is prepared and delivered in order to evaluate the use of the competences needed to achieve the degree. It consists of independent work performed within a specific course, in order to prepare a paper, based on themes agreed with the professors tutoring in the course.
The End of Degree has to be completed within the academic calendar of the quarter where the course is programmed.

Work placement
“Business Internship” subject is for students to put into practice what they have learned in the various subjects they have taken during their studies in the Faculty.
But in some cases it is not necessary to do it, for example: when the student already has more than one year of business experience they are exempt from the internship.