ECN7515 Business Model Innovation to Compete in the Digital Economy

3 Elective Credits

Recent surveys to Top Management Teams show that business model innovation is at the forefront of their thoughts and challenges, both in startups and established companies. This course provides the tools to design and operate innovative business models.

The tools to be learned should help students understand how to think about business model innovation, respond to the entry of disruptive business models, and decide whether the company should operate single or multiple business models. We also analyze business model transformation and innovation in entrepreneurial organizations and how these organizations can use business model innovation to challenge established companies even in mature industries.

Examples of questions to be asked in the course are: How can a startup disrupt industries such as dairy, pharmaceutical, retail, financial, wine, and biotechnology? What are the fundamental issues to consider when designing business models that require different customer groups simultaneously? How to build sustainable models? What are the conditions to implement a business model innovation in an organization? How can the simultaneous operation of more than one business model promote a hard-to-imitate competitive advantage?

Regardless of your intended career path, understanding business models is essential. In investment banking or private equity, you need to understand the "engine" (i.e., the business model) that produces profits. In consulting, you need to solve organizational problems, which is very hard without understanding how the business model works. In industry, regardless of the company, economic sector, and position, you need to understand the context in which you operate and how your actions fit into the firm's policies, assets, and decision-making. In entrepreneurship, business model innovation is a powerful tool to succeed.

Prerequisites: None

ECN7575 Business Models, Competitiveness, and the Changing European Environment
3 Elective Abroad CreditsProgram fee is paid to Glavin Office - program fee includes: accommodations, breakfast, ground transportation, program planned meals and cultural excursions. Not included: tuition, international flight, single room supplement (additional $500), visa costs, additional meals and personal expenses.

ECN 7575 explores competitive and strategic dimensions of companies doing business in the European Union (EU) in the context of EU competitiveness, institutions, policies, history and culture. This course studies ways that companies organize and define core competencies to build successful global brands. It further examines emerging trends, opportunities, and challenges for business and business creation in Italy and in the EU. ECN7575 explores how companies adapt and take advantage of business model disruptions, such as changes in technology and EU regulation, in light of current market dynamics. This course is grounded in economic fundamentals of relevant market definition, competitiveness in different geographies, firm behavior and performance, and provides students with opportunities to evaluate how companies position themselves for success in global markets based on their business model and strategic choices.

ECN 7575 is divided into two parts: two on-campus lectures (WebEx available for Blended Learning students) and a week-long site visit to Italy. In Italy, students will visit 5-6 companies to study challenges and opportunities they are facing in the context of the EU, its institutions, and global competition. Past company visits include among others: Amazon, PayPal, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Ducati, Ermenegildo Zegna, Armani, Eataly, Brembo and DHL. In addition, several faculty from Bocconi University will offer lectures and case discussions pertaining to the current developments in the EU and the European Competitiveness court and relate them to relevant company visits. Applications discussed will also include luxury brand management, integrated supply chains, and consequences of specific business model choices for valuation, revenue potential, and brand equity objectives. Last but not least, several activities are planned that will allow students to engage in and embrace Italian history and culture. Past excursions include a night at La Scala, a guided tour of Milan, a viewing of Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper, and attending a soccer game at San Siro.

Prerequisites: ECN7200, ECN7201, ECN7500 or ECN7505

ECN7520 Economic and Financial Forecasting

3 Credits If you have taken and passed QTM9501, you cannot register for ECN7520, as these two courses are equivalent

Do you anticipate making or evaluating economic and business forecasts in your career? This _hands-on_ course provides students a comprehensive introduction to the field of forecasting and econometrics. It covers three main areas of forecasting: basic statistical methods, structural models, and time series models. Throughout the course we will focus on applied examples and use software to forecast key economic and business measures of performance (such as asset pricing, investment risk, interest rates, unemployment rates, industry level and firm level sales, revenues and other variables) while learning to assess the strengths and weaknesses of these forecasts.

These techniques can improve corporate financial planning, marketing, sales forecasts, production planning, and many other decisions where better predictions in light of uncertainty can reduce costs, raise profits and lead to better decision-making.

Prerequisites: None

ECN7500 Economic Analysis for Business Decisions
3 Elective CreditsIf you have taken and passed ECN7200 you cannot register for ECN7500 as these two courses are equivalent

Running a successful business requires decision-making that is informed by an understanding of the market environment in which the firm operates. Business leaders and entrepreneurs need analytical skills and the ability to anticipate market dynamics if they are going to manage for growth. Economic Analysis for Business Decisions provides students strategic and tactical competencies such as: sizing market demand, identifying market opportunities, differentiating products and services effectively, strategic pricing, cost modeling, determining optimal firm size and identifying sources of market power. With these competencies in hand, students will then develop the ability to determine the best competitive strategies based on a clear understanding of an industry's structure and behavior, and the firm's advantages within the larger market. Students will use game theory to model strategic behavior, consider the firm's responsibilities and the government's role in correcting market failures, and will leave the course with an ability to create business models that will grow stakeholder value.

Prerequisites: None

ECN6300 Economic Analytics
3 Blended CreditsThis course provides a framework for systematic analysis of consumer and firm's choices in light of global market dynamics to create and capture value, given the firm's and industry's market structure.

This course can be broken down across three phases:

- Foundation: Economic data sources for business; economics theories and models related to analytics in business (e.g. maximization of consumer utility/satisfaction; consumer and firm behavior).
- Intermediate: Linear and non-linear models in the context of business applications (e.g. elasticity and demand; marginal productivity; sales simulation; quantifying impacts of government policies on business); Association and Causality; logit and multinomial logit for multiple outcomes (e.g. predicting choices of different brands; predicting market shares of different products).
- Advanced: Time series (AR, MA, ARMA and ARIMA), exponential smoothing, and trend models (e.g. their applications in sales and revenue forecasting, human resource and customer service); how to present economics findings for business purposes.

ECN7550 Business Strategy and Game Theory
3 Elective CreditsThis course makes extensive use of Game Theory (in addition to applied economics and other emerging strategic models) to provide a systematic and rigorous approach for formulating winning strategies for creating and capturing value in the context of interdependence and uncertainty. This course will empower you with the knowledge and skills to frame the strategic questions for data analysis and turn data into strategic insight and foresight for agile startups as well as for large corporations. Case studies are used to illustrate successful application of strategies. The teaching method utilizes simulations, gaming, and practical, case-based discussions. Topics include: threats and opportunities in the supply chain, the dynamics of pricing rivalry, entry decisions/entry deterrence, mergers and acquisitions, strategic commitment, negotiating, bidding, and managing innovation for sustaining competitive advantage. Antitrust issues are also addressed.

Prerequisites: ECN7200 or ECN7500

ECN6111 Entrepreneurial Economics

(MSEL Core Course)

This course applies economic theory to decisions faced by entrepreneurs such as pricing, investment, data usage, and ethics. A primary focus of this course will be on using data to improve strategic decision making. Students will be encouraged to think about the strategic implications of decisions and to use both theory and data to support, validate, and revise decisions as needed. Entrepreneurial leaders are challenged in the global marketplace to effectively communicate not only the results of analysis but the rationale for decisions. Through both individual and group work, students will conduct market analysis and present the results while also interacting with their peers to provide constructive practical critiques.

ECN7510 Financial and Macroeconomics Data Analysis
3 Elective CreditsThere are numerous challenges to competently modeling/forecasting financial and macroeconomic variables. Basic statistical analysis may yield misleading results for various reasons including time-varying volatility, structural change, and outliers. Time series data is also often "non-stationary" which, if not addressed, can lead to spurious regression or "nonsense correlations". Analysis of "big data" meanwhile can promote model selection bias where the effects in the final model are overstated. Moreover, the relationship of cause and effect between variables is often two-way, where both variables affect each other. In this class, you will learn several methods to address these problems including: cointegration (to address non-stationarity), vector autoregression (to allow for interdependence between variables), and a machine learning algorithm to conduct unbiased model selection from "big data" while addressing outliers and structural change.

Prerequisites: None

ECN7555 Health Care: Markets, Analytics and Strategies
(Formerly Health Economics)
3 Elective CreditsHealth care costs account for 18% of U.S. GDP, which is one reason the health care industry is abundant with job openings and entrepreneurship opportunities! This is especially true in the Boston area, which has become a global leader in the health care and life sciences industries. This course follows a hands-on, two-pronged approach to solve real-world problems.

- Prong #1 focuses on the market and organizational structures of major stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, health care tech companies, insurers, hospitals, physicians, patients, and government.

- Prong #2 uses empirical methods, such as big data, survey, Pay-for-Performance, and Health Technology Assessment, to analyze these stakeholders' challenges, assess business opportunities, and design evidence-based strategies. In addition, you will learn SAS, a highly demanded analytical skill on the job market.

For students interested in health care and life science industries, this course will provide you with the tools and knowledge needed for evidence-based, expert-level opinions. For students interested in in analytics, the methods used in health care analyses are applicable, transferrable, and relevant to a host of other industries and functions, such as marketing and finance.

Prerequisites: None

ECN7580 Independent Research

1.5-3 CreditsIndependent research is available for all academic divisions. Registration is manual for students through Graduate Programs and Student Affairs.

Independent Research provides an opportunity to conduct in-depth research in areas of a student's own specific interest. Students may undertake Independent Research for academic credit with the approval of a student-selected faculty advisor, the appropriate division chair, and Graduate Programs and Student Affairs. Please note that a student is responsible for recruiting a faculty advisor through the student's own initiative and obtain the advisor's prior consent/commitment before applying for an independent research project. Authorization for such a project requires submission of a formal proposal written in accordance with standards set forth by the Graduate School. The research project normally carries 1.5 or 3 credits.

For more information and a proposal outline please visit: http://www.babson.edu/Academics/graduate/mba/Pages/independent-research.aspx