Student guide Faculty of Engineering A.Y. 2010/11

Students will acquire a fundamental grounding in the economic management of business firms. More specifically, the course covers the methods for analysing and evaluating business performance and the decision support tools used over both a short term and long term perspective.

1. INTRODUCTION
The firm: definition, purposes, legal framework.
2. PART I: THE FIRM
a) External configuration.
- External configuration. Sector and competition analysis.
- Strategic decisions.
- Competitive differentials: at the level of individual business units, at the level of the business portfolio.
- Global competition models.
b) The internal configuration - Activities of the firm.
3. PART II: ECONOMIC METHODS AND BUSINESS DECISIONS
a) External accounting.
- Structure and purposes of the balance sheet; the Statement of Assets; the Profit and Loss Account
- Balance sheet reclassification; Analysis and indexes.
b) Internal accounting.
- Purposes of internal accounting; Fundamental ideas relating to costs and the classification of costs.
- Traditional methods for determining the costs of a product (job order costing, process costing, operation costing). Unconventional methods for determining the costs of a product (Activity Based Costing).
c) Analysis tools for enterprise decision support.
- Long term decisions; Principal investment evaluation criteria.
- Short term decisions: break-even analysis; mix decisions; make or buy decisions.

The evaluation will consist of a written and an oral examination.

Reference textbooks:
Azzone G., Bertelé U., L'impresa Sistemi di governo. Valutazione e controllo, Etaslibri.
Further reading:
Grant R.M., L'analisi strategica nella gestione aziendale, Il Mulino, Bologna.
Azzone G., Bertelé U., Valutare l'innovazione, Etaslibri.