Postgraduate Course: Business Economics and Management Science (CMSE11092)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 15 |
ECTS Credits | 7.5 |
| Summary | This course is designed to introduce students to the main topics in the field of Business Economics and Management Science. The first part of this course places special focus on the factors that influence the firms¿ economic environment, which, in turn, determines the level, growth and sustainability of profits. These include consumer demand, technology and costs, competition, entry, pricing strategies, and government regulations. The second part of this course focuses on the science behind decision-making, covering a wide range of quantitative methods typically employed to that end, such as forecasting and optimization.
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| Course description |
The course objectives are to give students both knowledge and understanding of selected key concepts in business economics and management science and the knowledge to understand when these concepts may be useful to make decisions. The basic skills to implement these techniques will also be developed.
The knowledge and skills developed in this course are essential for an understanding of very important factors which impinge substantially on business decisions and for making decisions to optimise profit when faced with particular constraints: the manager¿s basic problem. This knowledge and these skills are not taught elsewhere in the course and complement other courses. They will provide deeper understanding of some of the concepts discussed elsewhere and will develop particular ways of thinking and of analysing decisions which will complement those covered in other courses.
Syllabus
Demand, supply, and the Market
Technology and Costs
Market Structure, Conduct, and Performance
Pricing Strategies
Game Theory and Strategic Behaviour
Reading Week
The nature of Management science
Linear Programming
Decision Analysis
Forecasting
Project management
Student Learning Experience
The weekly lectures will explore core concepts of economics such as demand, costs, competitive strategy, and also strategic entry deterrence policies and vertical integration strategy. Real-life examples will be discussed in class. The lectures will also explore key concepts in Management Science such as decision analysis, inventory planning, linear planning and project management.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | For Business School PG students only, or by special permission of the School. Please contact the course secretary. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically evaluate the determinants of the demand for a product or service and of the costs of an enterprise, and the roles of competition and entry in determining prices.
- Critically evaluate the factors to be considered when managers decide on the vertical boundaries of an enterprise.
- Understand and apply different types of management decision models and techniques available for their solution.
- Understand the role of model building methods in management decision making and apply these methods to relevant problems.
- Assemble literature to synthesise and evaluate economic thinking or to discover some primary information about organisations so as to apply economic ideas to decisions they make.
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Reading List
Baye, M. Managerial Economics and Business Strategy. McGraw Hill. (7th ed)
Anderson, D.R. Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A. and Wisniewski, M. (2009). An Introduction to Management Science: Quantitative Approaches to Decision Making. South Western
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
After completing this course, students should be able to:
use certain economic principles to recommend decisions to managers;
apply relevant economic principles to certain decisions faced by mangers;
possess the ability to evaluate certain opposing economics ideas, approaches, methods and theories;
evaluate certain decisions that managers make in the light of economic principles and models;
appreciate the role of model building methods as an aid to management decision making;
identify situations in which model building methods can be applied in the management decision process
analyse the demand conditions, cost conditions, competitive conditions facing an organisation and the desirability of vertically intergating the organisation and the entry conditions into the industry;
build and solve certain types of model;
interpret the solution to a model
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| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course is assessed in two forms. The first is a course assignment. You will be required to complete an assignment on either a Business Economics topic or on a Management Science topic. The mark attained for the assignment will have a weighting of 30% in the calculation of your overall mark for the course. The second form of assessment is a degree examination which will have a weighting of 70%. This is a two hour exam which will be divided into two sections. Section A will be on Business Economics and Section B will be on Management Science. Each Section will contain 3 questions. You will be asked to attempt one question from Section A, one question from Section B and one additional question from either Section A or from Section B. |
| Keywords | MGMT-BEMS |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Daniel Black
Tel: (0131 6)51 1491
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Peter Newcombe
Tel: (0131 6)51 3013
Email: |
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