BSc in Business Administration and Sociology

Introduction to Economic Sociology

The objective of this course is to introduce to key concepts of Economic Sociology. We study markets and firms in changing environments and societies: How do markets work? What do firms do and how are they organised? How do firms and markets interact with each other?
We ask these questions because markets are constructed by firms and other actors such as the state. They are embedded within social and political structures. Such relations as well as interactions within and between firms are of interest to Economic Sociology and are at the centre of the course.
We deepen the understanding of concepts and theories by applying them to contemporary and historical cases and challenges in order to better understand complex phenomena and the effects of business decisions, and to discuss posisble solutions to such challenges. During the workshops and in the exam (together with FST) we focus on „big“ social, economic, human, and environmental challenges and analyse the role that companies play.

We work together in groups in class and at home to take advantage of different educational backgrounds and previous experience.

This course also introduces students to different types of academic texts, and how to read and understand them, and includes academic writing exercises (finding literature and referencing, structuring an argumentation).

Learning Objectives

On completion of the two courses Fundamentals of Social Theory and Introduction to Economic Sociology, the student should be able

ECTS

7.5

Research Design and Quantitative Methods 1

This course is the first in our multi-course research methods sequence for undergraduate students. The aim of the course is to introduce students to research design and methods for analyzing and visualizing quantitative data.

Included in the course is the 1st year project. Drawing on learnings from the course, students will be asked to formulate a research question, operationalize theoretical concepts from the 1st year Bsc Soc syllabus, select appropriate data, apply relevant quantitative methods, and reflect critically on their findings.

Readings and practical exercises will introduce students to the research process and quantitative data analysis. The first part of the course focuses on developing a research question and an appropriate quantitative research design to answer the question. Students are also introduced to the basics of the R statistical language and how to use R to collect, clean, reshape, and aggregate data, and describe relationships between variables.

In the second part of the course, students will (1) obtain an understanding of basic statistical methods, (2) learn how to use quantitative research designs to evaluate economic and social processes in organizations and society, and (3) be enabled to apply quantitative research methods for their own research projects.  

The topics that we will cover in this course include selecting research questions and appropriate quantitative research designs, the data-generating process, and its implications for analyses and answering the research question. Moreover, the course will cover the operationalization of concepts, measurement, sampling and probability distributions, descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency, uncertainty, hypothesis testing and inference, bivariate, and multivariate linear regression analysis, how to differentiate correlation from causation, and sampling bias.

The approach throughout the course is hands-on and data-driven. Students learn how to analyze data using practical exercises with real-world data in R, the statistical programming language that will be used for exercises and assignments. Finally, the course will guide students on how to document the research process and report results from quantitative analysis in an accessible and transparent manner.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

ECTS

15

Business, Politics and Society

Aim of the course:
This course provides students with the analytical tools and empirical knowledge to understand and analyze interactions between business, politics and society across social settings and levels of governance.

Description of the course:

The course combines political sociology and political economy to explore the relationship between business, governments, and civil society in different social and societal settings. It places business knowledge in a broader societal context. Students are introduced to basic concepts, analytical tools, and empirical knowledge from the fields of political sociology and political economy to identify and analyze the interaction between business, politics and society. The course is structured in four streams: state & market (I); authority & governance (II); regulation & governance (III); and transnational governance (IV). Each stream interrogates how conflict and cohesion condition the governance of the political economy. The course draws on case studies of current issues, including populism, race and racism, economic crises, science and innovation, and global health.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Consumer Culture and Marketing

Course Content and Aims

This course will introduce undergraduate students to the principles of marketing management, to socio-theoretical perspectives on the consumption process, and to how marketing management can successfully create solutions to the various challenges of the consumption process (NN3 and 4).

The course starts with a block of meetings that will show how managerial marketing strategy identifies and attempts to shape consumer attitudes and behaviours in order to create goods and services in a manner that is both financially, socially and environmentally sustainable (NN 7). A key aspect of the course will be the discussion of various sociological and cultural approaches to the understanding of consumer markets, consumer behaviour and the active role of consumers in co-creating contemporary markets, which is what marketing management needs to take into consideration (NN4).

In the following block, the managerial views will thus be juxtaposed with socio-theoretical approaches to consumption, namely consumer culture theory (CCT), critical theory and consumers as active co-creators of value, Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical approach to taste and symbolic consumption, and approaches associated with the Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) tradition that interprets markets as performed by theory and by agencements of human and non-human actors (NN1).

The final block introduces basic principles of qualitative consumer research as a key managerial method that helps develop responses to changes in society and culture. In this block, students will leave the classroom and conduct a field trip to observe a daily consumption practice in situ. This exercise is designed to enhance students’ problem-solving capacity by helping them put into practice the theoretical insights they gained during the previous meetings. Further, the exercise enables students to develop skills that lead to the creation of more sustainable business solutions in a competitive market environment. After the field observation, students will meet for an additional studio-based workshop to discuss their insights, interpretations, and proposals, as well as their understanding of the quality of the data they gathered (NN2).

Learning Objectives

Having successfully completed the course, students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Electives / Exchange / Internship (30 ECTS)

In the 5th semester, you can take electives at CBS or other universities, go on exchange or do an internship in a company.

Bachelor Project

The bachelor project is the final and major independent piece of work on the BSc Soc programme, in which students demonstrate the capabilities they have developed over three years of undergraduate study, based on cross-disciplinary teaching in business economics, sociology, and social theory, as well as recurring interdisciplinary projects.

The objectives and requirements of the bachelor project extend those of the first and second year projects. The requirements are more rigorous than for the earlier projects particularly with regard to the definition of the research question, the use of academic literature, theory, methods and empirical data. Students are expected to engage with relevant issues in business and society, to improve the understanding of organisational or societal challenges and to reflect on solutions to the defined problems.

The project work culminates in a thesis that demonstrates the student’s ability to formulate a relevant problem, to conduct a systematic and valid analysis supported by a theoretical and methodological framework related to the broad field of Business Administration and Sociology, and critically reflect on the empirical data, theories and methods used, and the results of the thesis.

The overarching theme of the bachelor project is Business Administration and Sociology.

The project should be designed as a research project based on empirical data (which may also be literature). The problem formulation and research question should be relevant to central themes of the BSc Soc programme.

For more information see the Bachelor Project Manual

Guided by the research question, the project can draw on knowledge from all three years of study.

Learning Objectives

The student should be able to:

ECTS

15

Fundamentals of Social Theory

Aim

The course is the first in a series of three courses on Social Theory. It will introduce to key concepts and ideas of social theory. It will primarily do so by outlining the processes that have shaped modern societies and how they were analyzed by the first generation of sociologists. At the center are fundamental dichotomies, problems, and key concepts developed by classical social theorists that continue to inform contemporary social science. The course will explore in more detail social phenomena such as civilization, urbanization, capitalism, industrialization, new technology and democratization with a view to deepening the understanding of ‘modernity’ in a Western context.
 

Objectives

Students who complete this course will have a broad grasp of main ideas and concepts of social theory and an overall historical perspective on the landmarks and mechanisms of social transformations. They will have developed and practiced the skills of learning, analyzing and evaluating evidence and arguments by way of reading, discussing and writing. The course should provide them with a firm background and framework for the study of more specific areas of sociology taught in the subsequent parts of the Degree.

Learning Objectives

On completion of the two courses Fundamentals of Social Theory and Introduction to Economic Sociology, the student should be able

ECTS

7.5

Financial Accounting and Reporting and its Institutional Context

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to financial accounting and reporting. Students will learn how to prepare, read and interpret corporate financial statements. They will also gain a solid understanding of the theories and practices behind these statements. The course is focused principally on IFRS accounting techniques but supplemented with a social and institutional understanding of accounting and financial reporting. 

Throughout the different sessions, students acquire general business knowledge by analyzing the financial statements of diverse companies. The course focuses on companies with different institutional backgrounds, ensuring broader economic context coverage. Analyzing financial data and assessing its quality aims to stimulate students' curiosity about ambiguities in accounting and develop a high degree of analytical and critical thinking. A part of the course covers ethical dilemmas and the role of business in solving such humanity challenges as environmental threats, social problems, and sustainable development.

We apply an inclusive view on the role of business, going beyond a mere focus on profit maximization and considering the ESG impact going from local communities to the global.

Nordic Nine

Accounting is the language of business that measures, summarizes and communicates business information to various stakeholders. The objective of financial accounting is to provide information that is useful to decision making of existing and potential investors, creditors and other stakeholders. Given that the practice of accounting is supported by several qualitative characteristics such as relevance, faithful representation, comparability, verifiability, timeliness, and understandability with the overall purpose of producing useful information to the users of reporting, this course will develop your skills in the domain of several Nordic Nines (NN1, NN2, NN5, NN6 and NN7).

#1 You have deep business knowledge placed in a broad context

#2 You are analytical with data and curious about ambiguity

#5 You understand ethical dilemmas and have the leadership values to overcome them

#6 You are critical when thinking and constructive when collaborating

#7 You produce prosperity and protect the prosperity of next generations

Learning Objectives

On completion of this course, students should have acquired a basic understanding of core theory and practices in accounting. Specifically, students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Qualitative Methods

Generally speaking, when you want to know something about human beings, the university sorts researchers into two big piles – those who count and do math (quantitative researchers), and those who talk and care about meaning (qualitative researchers). This split, however, is a harmful fiction. There aren’t any “counting” methods that don’t make some sort of assessment of significance; and there are no meaning methods that don’t enumerate as part of their argument for validity. More to the point, there are no good questions you can ask about humans that wouldn’t require both counting and assertions of meaning.

So, if the quantitative/qualitative split is more a bureaucratic convenience than any sort of real comment on the operation of the human science, what are we left with? The very short answer is “specific objects of analysis.” That is to say, specific things that researchers assume exist out in the world and then allow them to do research. Sociologists tend to assume that there is some sort of thing like society out there in the world that they can know about. Similarly, anthropologists tend to act like there is something out there in the world like culture that they can know about. Each discipline has a sort of presupposition about the world, and then has developed methods that allow them to know about it.

This course will take culture and society as it’s starting points and introduce you to a few methods (interviewing methods, observational methods, library research) that allow you to answer questions human culture and human society. In addition to these methods, this course will teach you about designing research, analyzing data, and reporting on what you have learned.

Each class session will be divided in half and will start with a workshop on the previous week’s topic, and then a lecture on a new topic.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course the student should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Advanced Economic Sociology

The objective of this course is to provide the student with (1) knowledge about how the organising of different activities in both the private and the public sectors is viewed and analysed from an economic sociology perspective and how economic sociology can help us understand and deal with big societal challenges in conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity, and (2) skills to analyse the contextual factors that influence different kinds of market interactions and economic actions, which result in differences in the relations between social groups, companies and political actors.   

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Quantitative Methods 2

The course introduces students to quantitative methods at an intermediate level. An initial focus of the course is to introduce students to the theoretical concepts behind causal inference. Next, the course focuses on how to design research to identify the causal effects of policy choices as well as impact / program evaluations (both public and private). The course includes a more advanced treatment of regression analysis and introductions to more advanced research methods. Students will learn how to design research and analyze data to better make evidence based decisions (NN2 & NN3).

The course consists of a mix of lectures and applied statistical analysis and exercises in lab sessions. Students are expected to participate actively during lectures and exercises. For the exercises, students will be given short assignments, similar to case studies. In these assignments, the students will work in groups to apply one of the covered methods and estimate the causal effect of a policy or other treatment. The group work will help students to practice critical thinking and collaborating constructively (NN6). In the exercise classes, students are expected to discuss their approaches to each problem. We will then go over the solution together. This will allow students to receive feedback on their own work, while also seeing the correct solution.

The aim of this course is to provide students with both theoretical and practical knowledge about quantitative methods such as multivariate OLS, panel data methods, and other identification strategies for causal inference at an intermediate and advanced level. The course will enable the student to be analytical with data (NN2) and further develop the knowledge and skills achieved in the RDQM course.

Students will learn to understand the fundamental principles behind each of the statistical tools covered in the course and will be able to apply these to specific research problems.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to

ECTS

7.5

Introduction to Organisational Sociology

The study of organizations is an interdisciplinary field drawing upon disciplines such as sociology, economics, psychology, management studies and political science. This reflects the role organizations play in modern societies. Organizations such as trade unions, companies, universities or public administration permeate all aspects of public and private life and shape our everyday life. The primary focus of this course is on the sociological dimension of organizational analysis. We will examine and discuss the development, relevance and impact of organizations. In order to do so, we draw upon classical and contemporary organizational sociology. The main objectives of this course are therefore to first provide the student with a basic sociological knowledge about organizational structure, purpose and functioning. We secondly will examine specific organizational phenomena such as power, conflict or organizational change, and the ways in which organizations handle their everyday operations by attending to these. Based on this knowledge and drawing upon case studies of different types of organizations, students will thirdly acquire the skills to identify and analyse how various types of activities are organized in the private and the public sector.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Digital Sociology

As contemporary society is increasingly relying on digital devices, apps, platforms, infrastructures, and AI algorithms, there is hardly a domain of organizational and societal living that is not impacted by digitalization.

Digital technology is shaped by commercial, political, and cultural conditions that give rise to novel forms of interaction, agency, and organization. At the same time, existing societal and corporate power structures and divides may be reproduced or overturned.

In this course, students will critically engage with digitalization as a sociological phenomenon. Sociological concepts are applied to enable the investigation, management, and transformation of digital society with business. For this purpose, in the course, we will discuss important challenges of digitalization for sociological inquiry and organisational practice within the context of key social domains, including social roles and gender, organization and platform strategy, surveillance capitalism and public discourse, to name but only a few examples.

Learning Objectives

ECTS

7.5

Theories of Modern Society

Modern society presents a complex environment for private, public, and third sector organisations. Increasingly, established social hierarchies are challenged, leading to new forms of freedom and domination, just as earlier power relations continue to be in effect under new conditions. Simultaneously, different spheres in society – science, politics, art, education, religion – seem to become increasingly autonomous and increasingly intertwined.

Unlike many other disciplines, sociology has not established a dominant paradigm for understanding these developments and the social, human, and other challenges they raise. Instead, the most influential sociological theorists rely on different basic assumptions and methodological approaches for understanding modern society.

This course introduces five key sociological theorists that have had lasting influence on sociology and its many sub-disciplines. During the course, we will uncover the basic assumptions, key concepts, and central arguments of the theorists. We will focus on ways that these perspectives have been applied to fields relevant to private, public, and third sector organisations, and more broadly examine how the theories shed important light on changing constellations of economic, political, and social actors as well as on the social, human, and environmental consequences of their activities. 

Students will have the opportunity to apply the theoretical perspectives to contemporary cases in a collaborative manner. 

The course builds on the theories that were introduced during Fundamentals of Social Theory.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Philosophy of Science

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Theories of Contemporary Society

Aim of the course

The aim of this course is that the student acquires knowledge of the most important ways to conceptualise and examine the interactions between individuals, organisations and society, which are currently developing in social theory. 
 

Course description
It is widely acknowledged that modern society has undergone a series of profound transformations since World War II. The media landscape has changed, so have production patterns, modes of organization, networks of communication etc. pp. While most sociologists would agree that much has changed, there is little agreement as to how to theorise these transformations and their implications. The aim of this course is to make students acquainted with a range of influential positions that analyse how modern society has changed throughout the twentieth century, and how it is developing at the beginning of the twenty-first.
 

While the course builds on Theories of Modern Society (TMS), the theoretical perspectives it presents tend to aim more at a diagnosis of the present than at formulating grand theories of modern society and all its spheres, systems or institutions. Although the theoretical ambitions of the perspectives under scrutiny here may thus be lower than was the case in TMS, their analytical capacities may well be higher. The more targeted observations of specific societal trends and dynamics allow for more thorough discussions of key societal processes and their social, political and economic implications.

The diagnostic emphasis entails that the course is preoccupied with a processual view, i.e. with the changes that have taken place and that are taking place in the structure and the ongoing ordering and disordering of modern or ‘late modern’ society. These societal processes will be discussed with respect to their social, political and economic implications. The course is organized thematically.
 

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Managerial Economics

The student is given a basic introduction and understanding of the Managerial Economics subject area. Managerial Economics refers to the application of economic theory, data analysis and decision science to examine, how an organization can achieve its objectives most efficiently.

The application of economic theory and approaches in businesses is placed in a broader context during the course. This is both within a certain market structure and in a broader societal context, where various factors that affect organizations’ economics and their related decision-making are included.

Finishing the course, the students should be able to apply economic theory using the Managerial Economics method for decision-making in organizations. Emphasis is among other placed on the students' understanding of the Managerial Economics method and training in the application of economic theory, their selective use of data as well as the understanding of necessary assumptions that form the basis for a possible solution, interpretation and conclusion.

Thus, the course also emphasizes the use of data and in turn elevates the student’s analytical skills. In that way, the course also creates an emerging curiosity regarding the ambiguity and the limitations and possibilities of economic modelling.

During the course’s exercises, the students are encouraged to collaborate to support their own and fellow students’ learning.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of this course, the student will have acquired a basic understanding of economic theories seen from a managerial economics perspective, focusing on the individual organization. The student should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Macroeconomics

This course offers an introduction to macroeconomics. Macroeconomics aims to understand the evolution of aggregate outcomes, and especially the effects of policy decisions on those outcomes. In this course, we start by defining and describing the empirical behavior of key macroeconomic outcomes (output, unemployment and inflation). Next, we develop a theoretical framework (the IS-LM and the IS-LM-PC) to understand how those macroeconomic outcomes are determined in equilibrium, both in the short and medium runs, and how they interact with each other. That will involve studying how the goods, the financial and the labor markets operate, and how they relate to each other. Last, we will study the effect of fiscal and monetary policy tools on macroeconomic outcomes. Throughout the course, we will discuss specific historical episodes to help us articulate the theoretical framework in real-world contexts, and to describe the tradeoffs faced by policymakers.

Learning Objectives

ECTS

7.5

Corporate Finance

This course provides a broad overview of corporate finance covering the main tools that financial managers use to analyze investment and financing decisions.

The first set of lectures will be devoted to introducing students to the goals pursued by corporations and to the financial side of their operations. Subsequently, we will be reviewing some of the accounting concepts that represent an essential background in this field, and we will introduce the concept of “time value of money”, which will be a key building block in developing our theory of asset pricing. The same paradigm will also be applied to the valuation of the streams of cash flows that firms generate through their investment projects, which will ultimately lead us to the formulation of a method for making investment decisions.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5