Student guide Facoltà di Economia A.A. 2010/11

Beyond the market environment, around a firm there exists its non-market environment: regulation, politics, activists, and so on. Managers without an adequate understanding of these subjects can prepare an unbalanced business strategy, with potentially harsh consequences for the operation of their enterprises.

 

The objective of this course is to understand the East Asia as a market as well as a production center. In the course, the term East Asia is used to indicate all countries in Southeast Asia and China (People’s Republic of China), Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan (Republic of China.) This coverage of the territories of the East Asia, except for Taiwan, corresponds to the commonly used term of ASEAN+3, which has been driven by Asia-wide economic integration since the co-operation between ASEAN and its three dialogue partners (China, Japan and South Korea) under the ASEAN Plus Three Process in 1997.

Any business enterprise that is to function in East Asia as a producer/distributer/purchaser/ exporter/importer is operating in a current market environment as well as in its non-market environment such as natural and geopolitic environment, culture, history and traditions of both economic and non-economic, regulation, regional and international politics, etc. We will start the course by briefly reviewing the first three aspects of the non-market environment to help construct long-run business strategies to efficiently and adequately operate in the region. The course then introduces students to the East Asian economies and markets.

In the final part of the course we see the concepts and tools prepared and commonly used in the economics, marketing and finance that are necessary and useful for building business strategies. We then examine the motives/objectives and performances of overseas direct investment by Japanese large firms in order to learn a lesson from their experiences in their East Asian operations. The course concludes by studying a corporation’s marketing strategy in East Asia.

Outline:

1.         Background Information on the East Asia (4 hours)

2.         Concepts/Tools from Economics, Business and Finance (8 hours):

·         Strategy Building Process

·         Value Added and Economic Growth

·         Financial Modeling

·         Cost Structure and Break-Even-Point Analysis

·         Supply Chains and Value Additivity (Designing/Production/Marketing/Post-Sales Activities)

·         Financing Opportunities

·         Industry Sector Analysis

·         Currency Exchange Rate and Risk

·         Hedging Currency Risk by Futures Trading/Forward Contracts

·         Shock Cases (Asian Currency Crisis 1997/ World Financial Crisis 2008)

·         Overseas Direct Investment by Objectives: Japan’s Case (2 hours)

·         Case Study: Business Strategy of an European and/or Japanese Corporation (2 hours)

 

 

 

The objective of this part of the course is to examine the environmental foundations of the political economy. Two dimensions will be explored: how economists and political economists theorise economic inteactions with the environment; and how environmental problems emerge and are managed within the political economy.

Particularly the focus will be on: political economy of environmental regulation; economic analysis of the processes through wich political decisions regarding environmental regulation are made, principally within the context in Italy, in Europe and in the United States; the global politics of sustainable development; the role of insurance in facing the consequences of natural catastrophes; the economic problems connected with the climate change phenomenon with particular attention to the mitigation and adaptation strategies.

1.         Definition of Corporate Citizenship and practical cases

2.         Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility and practical cases

3.         Ethical Firms and Business Ethics

4.         Environmental Self Regulation of the firms

5.         Efficiency of Judicial System and the effects on firms activity

6.         Compliance Programme for Antitrust issues

7.         Green Technologies as a firm choice. Which incentives?

Students can do the research individually or in group of 2 or 3, the research has to be of 10 pages each (12 font, 1.5 lines): 1 student 10 pages, 2 students 20, 3 students 30

To receive the total credits for the course, students must attend the class and/or prepare the course printed materials, as well as successfully complete an assignment and a final examination.

The weighting of each course component is: 33% the first part by Prof. Adachi Tomohiko; 33% the second part by prof. Donatella Porrini; 33% the students reearch and presentation activities.

The course printed materials will be distributed during the class and will be avaible on request.