Code:

BERMASC001

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Managerial Economics

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. G. Hendrikse

Contact person:

Prof. dr. G. Hendrikse

Coordinator:

Prof. dr. G. Hendrikse

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

The goal is to make the students familiar with the topics at the frontiers of the field of managerial economics.

Course contents:

The course covers the following themes in the field of Managerial Economics: Compensation, Property rights theory, Relational contracts, Access, Rent seeking, Complementarity, Limited cognition, Hierarchy of control, Codes in Organizations.

Examination:

Homework assignments and Paper

Literature:

Classic articles in the field of managerial Economics

Additional Information:

Managerial economic applies economic theory and methods to business and administrative decision making in business disciplines like management accounting / control, human resource management, internal organization, corporate finance, law and economics, logistics, marketing, and strategy.

Code:

BERMASC004

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Managerial Decision Making and Decision Support with Applications in Marketing

Short name:

MDM&DS

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. ir. B. Wierenga, prof. dr. J. Eliashberg

Contact person:

Annette Bartels (secretary)

Coordinator:

Prof. dr. ir. B. Wierenga

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

The participants will become familiar with the major concepts, theories and current research, relevant for the study of decision making in management. Nowadays, a wide variety of support technologies is available to help managers make better decisions, and the participants will get insight in the principles and the effectiveness of these technologies under different conditions

The second part of the course will provide the participants with in-depth insights about decision making and the use of models in the area of new product development, which is important for the management of innovation.

Marketing decision making is chosen as the application domain, but the content of the course is also very relevant to other areas of managerial decision making.

Course contents:

First part of the course (Prof. Wierenga)

Topics:

Second part of the course (Prof. Eliashberg)

Decision making in new product development (innovation)

The following topics will be treated:

Examination:

Two assignments (for both parts of the course)

Literature:

Reader

Additional information:

During class sessions papers will be presented and discussed by the course participants. Also, the participants will have to do two assignments.

Code:

BERMASC005

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Real Options and Private Equity

Short name:

Real Options and Private Equity

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. J.T.J. Smit

Coordinator:

Myra Lissenberg-van der Pennen

Faculty:

ESE

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

seminar, 5 hours per week

Goal:

The course is intended for students who specialise in corporate finance and want to learn the latest developments in company valuation and strategy. This course follows a problem-solving approach that synthesizes principles from real options theory, game theory, and strategy for the valuation of private acquisitions.

Course contents:

Private Equity is a long-term commitment in the financing of firms that are not traded in public financial markets.

Broadly defined, private equity can be divided into two important categories: venture capital - the equity participation in young companies that are not yet mature enough to be traded in financial markets - and leveraged buyouts, or acquisitions of firms financed with a higher proportion of debt.

In this seminar we explore new valuation techniques and illustrate these techniques in a wide variety of examples, ranging from going-private transactions, auctions, to buy-and-build acquisition strategies. Students are expected to present pieces of the literature or case applications, ask questions, and express their ideas in class discussions.

Examination:

On the basis of assignments, participation and presentations

Literature:

Han T.J. Smit and Lenos Trigeorgis, Strategic Investment Real Options and Games, Princeton Universtity Press, 2004, 472 pages. ISBN: 0-691-01039-0.

Articles will be announced at the start of the lecture.

Additional Information:

There will be a maximum number of participants (10).

Code:

BERMASC006

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Advanced Asset Pricing

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. H.J.W.G. Kole, dr. M. Szymanowska, prof. dr. M.J.C.M. Verbeek

Faculty:

ESE / RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Course contents:

The aim of this course is to provide a profound and state-of-the-art insight into asset pricing, both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. The field of asset pricing aims to explain the prices of financial assets such as stocks, fixed income instruments and derivative securities. The field is highly relevant for research in financial economics, because asset pricing models form the basis for any study in investments and are also fundamental to many financial management applications such as capital budgeting, risk management, portfolio selection and performance evaluation.

Building on the general pricing kernel framework laid out by Cochrane (2005), this course goes into more details of the advances in the field in the last 10 to 15 years. The course is set up in a seminar-style with presentations and discussions centred on different topics in the field. We will study the advances in factor models after Fama & French (JF 1992, JFE 1993) and Carhart (JF 1997), such as the liquidity factor of Pastor & Stambaugh (JPE 2003) and the idiosyncratic volatility factor of Ang et al. (JF 2006). A second field of interest is formed by extensions of utility-based models, such as habit formation models (Campbell and Cochrane, JPE, 1999) and polynomial pricing kernels (Harvey and Siddique, JF 2000; Dittmar, JF 2002). The third subfield we consider comprises advances in consumption-based models (Jagannathan and Wang, JF, 2007; Parker and Julliard, JPE, 2005) and production-based models (Cochrane, JPE, 1996, Li et al. JB 2005).

Examination:

Presentations and written essay.

Literature:

Journal articles, t.b.a.

Additional Information:

This course is a follow-up of the course Asset Pricing FEM11008. You need to have passed the FEM11008 course (or the Quantitative Finance companion course FEM21003), taught in the fall period to enrol in this course.

Code:

BERMASC007

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

The theory of corporate finance

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. M.A. Rosellón, dr. J.P.M. Suijs

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

Familiarize students with the main literature and areas of investigation in corporate finance, research techniques and recent developments

Course contents:

Refresher: game theory;

Valuation: certainty and uncertainty (martingale valuation);

Capital structure: classic theory and modern approaches (security design, financial contracting);

Hedging and derivatives;

Dividends and signalling;

Restructurings: M&A, going public, going private;

Law and finance.

Voluntary disclosure.

Disclosure and cost of capital.

Valuation models.

Examination:

to be announced

Literature:

The course will be based on classroom material, surveys of literature and key papers.

These are helpful textbooks:

Copeland, Weston and Shastri, Financial Theory and Corporate Policy, 4^th Edition, is a good basis (the course will be more advanced though).

De Matos, Theoretical Foundations of Corporate Finance, covers several topics in a unified way and will be helpful.

Code:

BERMASC008

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

ERIM/CentER Workshop on Information Management Research

Short name:

Information Management Research

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. ir. H.W.G.M. van Heck (ERIM, RSM), dr ir. O. Koppius (ERIM, RSM), prof. dr. P. Ribbers (CentER, Tilburg University), dr. ir. B. Bettonvil, dr. A. Rutkowski (CentER, Tilburg University)

Contact person:

Prof. dr. ir. H.W.G.M. van Heck

Coordinator:

Prof. dr. ir. H.W.G.M. van Heck, prof. dr. P. Ribbers

Faculty:

ERIM / CentER

Number of lectures:

6

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

This course is intended for PhD students in the field of information management (IM) and information systems. The main objective of this course is to improve the PhD research process and research plan of each of the participants.

Improving the PhD research plan will be achieved by:

Course contents:

The following topics will be addressed:

- Overview of theories and concepts in information management

- Overview empirical and design oriented research in information management

- Quantitative research in information management

- Qualitative research in information management

- Managing your PhD project in information management

Interaction and active participation will be emphasized by assignments and presentations. At the end participants have to hand in and present their (improved) PhD research plan.

Examination:

Assignments, Quality Research Proposal, Quality Presentation

Literature:

Reader Information Management Research

Additional information:

Entry requirements:

The course especially aims at Ph.D. researchers in the field of information management and information systems. All students have studied the basic literature on information management (Laudon & Laudon). Students have followed the course Research Methodology or the course Methodology of Research and Design with success. Students who did not follow one of the two research methodology courses, have to prove to the course directors an equivalent level of research methodology by submitting an detailed overview of the followed research methodology courses

Code:

BERMASC009

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Advanced Topics of Research in Strategy

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. ing. F.A.J. van den Bosch;, dr. J.J.P. Jansen

Coordinator:

Dr. J.J.P. Jansen, www.rsm.nl/jjansen

Contact person

Carolien Heintjes (cheintjes@rsm.nl)

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

This advanced course aims to introduce a number of advanced topics of research in Strategy and to relate the insights acquired to the intended PhD research of the participants being in Strategy or in other fields like Marketing or Organisation.

Course contents:

As Strategy is an integrative discipline, it is important to acquire insights of a number of promising advanced topics. The topics selected will, therefore, be introduced and discussed from an integrative perspective addressing the relationship between these topics and e.g. single disciplinary approaches. Examples of topics are:

The participants will be introduced to leading edge and inspiring publications in the top journals. Active researchers will be invited to reflect on the critical comments provided by the participants on their paper.

Assignment:

Participants are invited to write a conceptual paper based on the style guide and authors instruction of the Academy of Management on how two of the topics discussed may contribute to the further understanding of the intended PhD research and vice versa, how the intended PhD research may contribute to the two topics selected by the participant.

Literature:

Selected number of publications in top journals including a few introductory readings.

Code:

BERMASC010

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Empirical Corporate Finance

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. A. de Jong, dr. J. Suijs

Contact person:

Prof. dr. A. de Jong

Coordinator:

Prof. dr. A. de Jong

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

Overview of the empirical corporate finance literature and introduction into empirical financial accounting research. Ability to understand and critically evaluate empirical studies and to conduct an empirical study.

Course contents:

This advanced course in corporate finance and financial accounting starts with an introduction into the prevailing topics in the literature and the tools applied in empirical studies. A set of empirical studies will be discussed in the lectures, in which finance and accounting theories are tested; applications are included of the most important empirical methods in finance and accounting. We discuss topics like capital structure choice, dividend policy and share repurchases, risk management, corporate governance, M&A and disclosure policies.

Examination:

Students are required to write and present an empirical paper in the area of corporate finance or financial reporting.

Literature:

Collection of papers from finance and accounting journals.

Code:

BERMASC011

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Marketing Models

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. D. Fok, prof. dr. P.H. Franses, dr. R. Paap

Contact person:

Dr. D. Fok

Coordinator:

Dr. D.Fok

Faculty:

ESE

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

At the end of this course, students will have a good understanding of most common models applied in the marketing literature. They will be able to interpret statistical results in relevant marketing terms.

Course contents:

In the first three lectures we review some of the most important statistical techniques for marketing research. We reconsider the linear regression model, parameter estimation and parameter interpretation. These topics will be discussed in the context of marketing models. After this introduction, we discuss some more advanced modelling topics. In turn, we consider measuring dynamic effects of marketing actions, modelling discrete choices, capturing unobserved differences between observations (heterogeneity) and finally modelling diffusion processes. In general, we spend two lectures on each of these topics. In the first lecture the basic theory will be discussed. In the second lecture we consider more applied topics. These applied topics are usually based on published papers in one of the major marketing journals (Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science). Students will have to actively participate in these lectures by presenting and discussing the papers.

Examination:

Essay

Literature:

Lecture notes, slides and journal articles.

Background literature:

Franses and Paap (2001), Quantitative Models in Marketing Research, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Code:

BERMASC012

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Advanced Topics in Organization Theory

Short name:

AOT

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens

Contact person:

Dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens

Coordinator:

Dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

The goal of this course is to provide students with an advanced working knowledge of organization theory (OT). Upon completion, students should be able to: (a) understand the intellectual history of the field; (b) recognize how their own work relates and contributes to OT; and (c) craft a convincing argumentative structure for a conceptual or empirical article in a major OT journal.

Course contents:

The following topics are covered in this course in 10 consecutive weeks: (1) introduction to OT; (2) bureaucracy theory; (3) structural contingency theory; (4) agency theory; (5) transaction cost theory; (6) resource dependence theory; (7) institutional theory; (8) behavioral theory of the firm; (9) organizational ecology; (10) student presentations. These topics address the main questions in OT, such as: Why do firms exist? Why are firms structured as they are? What is the role of myth and ceremony in organizational life? How can organizations manage their external dependencies? How does our perspective change when we switch from the organizational to the population level?

Assignment:

The course is organized as a seminar, implying that your cooperation and willingness to actively participate in the sessions will ensure that we jointly create the best possible learning environment. The grading of this course reflects this culture and pedagogy: (a) contribution to the intellectual climate in the classroom (25%); (b) small point-counterpoint summary presentations of the readings (25%); (c) concise written assignment in support of the discussion (25%); and (d) an oral exam (25%) or written referee report (25%).

Literature:

The literature for this course will consist of carefully selected articles and book chapters. The materials will include seminal OT contributions, as well as more recent exemplary articles. The materials are made available via a dedicated BlackBoard site.

Additional Information:

A prerequisite for this course is BERMFC003 (Management Foundations). Students who wish to participate in this course but do not meet this entry requirement are kindly invited to contact the instructor in advance.

Code:

BERMASC013

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Multi Agent Systems Research

Short name:

MAS Research

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. W. Ketter, prof. dr. ir. H.W.G.M. van Heck

Contact person:

Dr. W. Ketter

Coordinator:

Dr. W. Ketter

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

Workshop style – 3 full days at the beginning and 2 full days at the end

Hours per lecture:

4

Goal:

Expose students to the state of the art in research on multi-agent systems to gather information and facilitate decision making in business and economic environments. The course is designed to help students to develop and deepen their own research ideas and proposals.

Course contents:

This course is designed to familiarize Research Master’s and PhD students with a wide variety of issues in the domain of multi-agents systems. The study of agents presents a unique opportunity to integrate results from many diverse areas of research, such as artificial intelligence, behavioral science, computer science, economics, information systems, operations research, and software engineering. Thus the aim of this course is to expose students to the state of the art in research on multi-agent systems to gather information and to facilitate decision making in business and economic environments. In addition to providing students with knowledge in the area of multi-agents systems, students will get familiarized with the methods and paradigms used in the area. The course is designed to help students to develop and deepen their own research ideas.

Modern business networks and markets are highly dynamic and exhibit a high degree of uncertainty. Under these conditions business managers are routinely faced with complex strategic, tactical, and operational decisions; decisions ranging from the macroscopic (i.e. which markets should we enter and when?) to the microscopic (i.e. which products should be packed on which pallet?). Also customers are faced with multi attribute decisions, such as from whom can I book a travel under certain constraints (money, time, quality, etc)? Within this workshop we investigate how learning agents may be designed to support humans in these decision making processes. We define learning agents as software entities that carry out some set of operations on behalf of a user or another program with some degree of independence

or autonomy, improve their performance from experience and in so doing employ some knowledge or representation of the user’s goals or needs.

This workshop provides a broad introduction to autonomous agents with an emphasis on multiagent systems. Topics include:

Agent architectures and modeling

Inter-agent communication and trust

Collective intelligence and cognitive collaboration

Teamwork and distributed rational decision making

Mechanism design and auctions

Multiagent learning

The second main emphasis of the workshop lies on applications of multi-agent system to gathering information and facilitate decision making. Topics may include:

· Supply-chain management

o Procurement, Production, Sales agents

· Electronic markets

o Auction markets (Flower auctions, eBay, …)

o Recommender agents (Shop bots, Dell, ...)

· Transportation

o Dynamic fleet management

· Mobile telecommunication

o Call routing and billing

Assignment:

Contribute to the discussion of the assigned articles

Present papers to the rest of the class

Write a original research proposal due at the end of the course

Literature:

· Academic articles

· Recommended reading: "Multiagent systems. A modern approach to Distributed Artificial Intelligence." edited by Gerhard Weiss. The MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 0262731312

Code:

BERMASC014

Study year:

2007 – 2008

Long name:

Applied microeconomics: Organizations and Incentives

Short name:

Organizations and Incentives

ECTS:

3

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. D. Yermack, Ph.D.

Contact person:

Ingolf Dittmann

Coordinator:

Ingolf Dittmann

Faculty:

ESE

Number of lectures:

6

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

Students will study topics organizational design, focusing upon the relations between managers, lenders, share owners, employees, and other groups. Classes will explore the strengths and weaknesses of important papers in these areas, while also identifying opportunities for doctoral research. The material will be presented in an interdisciplinary framework, integrating issues arising in economics, finance, accounting, and law.

Course contents:

Major topics will include agency costs, the theory of the firm, executive compensation, spinoffs and related corporate restructurings, financial distress, and insider trading. Lectures will focus on published academic papers but will also highlight the importance of the course topics in real-world business settings. Evaluation will be based upon a written take-home exam which will include data exercises and written critiques of research papers drawn from relevant areas.

Assignment:

to be announced

Literature:

A collection of leading theoretical and empirical papers in economics and finance.

Code:

BERMAMC001

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Advanced Qualitative Methods

Short name:

AQM

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens

Contact person:

Dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens

Coordinator:

Dr. P.P.M.A.R. Heugens

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

The goal of this course is to equip students with the intellectual baggage necessary for the design, execution, and publication of truly excellent qualitative research studies.

Course contents:

The following topics are covered in this course in 10 consecutive weeks: (1) qualitative “versus” quantitative research; (2) measurement and operationalization in qualitative research settings; (3) data collection: interviews, documents, observation, data bases, and more; (4) data analysis: data reduction, causal inference, and qualitative data analysis software (NVivo, Atlas.ti, UCINET, QCA); (5) paper proposal presentations; (6) case study methods; (7) grounded theory methods; (8) ethnography and action research; (9) content analytical methods and discourse analysis; and (10) final paper presentations.

Assignment:

Central to this course is that students learn how to work with real qualitative data and how to integrate it into publishable research papers. Students whom have collected qualitative data of their own are free to use it; for others several qualitative data sets will be made available. Students are also expected to get acquainted with and learn how to use qualitative data analysis programs, such as NVivo, (www.qsrinternational.com), Atlas.ti (www.atlasti.de), fs/QCA (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cragin/fsQCA/), or UCINET (www.analytictech.com). The grade components for this course are: (1) a paper proposal presentation in week 5 (20%); (2) a final paper presentation in week 10 (20%); a concise qualitative research paper (60%).

Literature:

The literature for this course will consist of carefully selected articles and book chapters, made available through a dedicated BlackBoard site. The materials will include original methodological contributions, as well as exemplary applied research articles.

Additional Information:

A prerequisite for this course is BERMMC002 (Research Methodology and Measurement). Students who wish to participate in this course but do not meet this entry requirement are kindly invited to contact the instructor in advance.

Code:

BERMAMC002

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Advanced Statistical Methods

Short name:

Advanced Statistical Methods

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. P. J. F. Groenen, dr. A. J. Koning

Contact person:

Dr. A. J. Koning

Faculty:

ESE

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

2 + 1

Goal:

Being able to apply the selected advanced statistical methods in practical situations, and being able to interpret the results.

Course contents:

This course builds on the Statistical Methods course. It extends to more advanced statistical multivariate analysis techniques and their application in business and economics. A selection of the following techniques will be treated: confirmatory factor analysis, structural equations models (Lisrel), logistic regression, multi-level models, (multiple) correspondence analysis, and unfolding. Much attention is given to the application and the interpretation of the techniques in empirical research in economics and business. Students apply the techniques using specialized software. It is assumed that the students have followed the Statistical Methods course.

Examination:

Assignment and oral examination

Literature:

Selected chapters of Lattin, J., Carroll, J.D. & Green, P.E. (2003), Analyzing Multivariate Data, Brooks/Cole, Thompson Learning and selected papers.

Additional information:

Prerequisite for this course is BERMMC004 Statistical Methods.

Code:

BERMAMC003

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Advanced Survey Methods

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Dr. A. Hak

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

The objective of this intensive 5-week course is to provide students with the skills to design, conduct and publish excellent survey research, i.e. research in which data are collected from a population (or a sample) of individuals, households or businesses by means of a standardized questionnaire. This is an advanced course in which it is assumed that students are familiar with the basics of survey research. Students must pass a test of this basic knowledge in the first session of this course.

Course contents:

This course gives hands-on instruction about how to design and conduct a survey. Sources of sampling error as well as non-sampling error and their remedies are discussed. Special attention will be given to designing and conducting business surveys.

The main topics covered are:

This course will not deal with issues of statistical analysis.

Examination:

Students must hand in an assignment every week to demonstrate their understanding of important aspects of the survey research process, and write a final overall paper (to be handed in after the course). This final paper will be graded.

Literature:

Robert M. Groves et al. (2004), Survey methodology. Wiley (ISBN 0-471-48348-6)

Additional Information:

Please note: This is a 5-week course. The required effort is 1 ECTS (28 hours) per week.

Code:

BERMAMC004

Study year:

2007-2008

Long name:

Behavioural Decision Theory

Short name:

BDT

ECTS:

5

Language:

English

Lecturer(s):

Prof. dr. S. van Osselaer

Faculty:

RSM Erasmus University

Number of lectures:

10

Hours per lecture:

3

Goal:

This course is designed to familiarize Research Master’s and Ph.D. students with a wide variety of issues in the domain of behavioural decision theory. The aim is to expose students from various areas of specialisation to experimental research on how people (e.g., managers, consumers, investors,...) make decisions. In addition to providing students with basic knowledge in various areas of behavioural decision theory, students will also get acquainted with the methods and paradigms used in the area. The course will also be designed to help students develop their own research ideas.

Students will be evaluated based on their participation in class (30% of the total class grade, includes presentations of papers in class), on one original research proposal (30%), and on a closed-book exam at the end of the course (40%).

A typical class will consist of a discussion of that day's readings. Our focus will not be on detecting flaws in previous research but rather on integrating and creatively extending it. Consequently, students will need to think deeply about the assigned papers.

Course contents:

I plan to address the following topics:

- Expected utility theory and prospect theory

- Heuristics and biases

- Comparisons and regret

- Framing and fairness

- Dual Processes and consciousness

- Decisions over time and self-control

- The role of emotion in decision making

- The role of learning and memory in decision making

- Neurological bases of decision making

- Rationality and remediation, free choice

(Some of these topics may change)

Examination:

- Contribute to the discussion of the assigned papers

- Present a papers to the rest of the class

- Write a research proposal due at the end of the course

- Closed-book exam at the end of the course testing your knowledge of papers discussed

Literature:

Academic articles