BSc in Business Administration and Service Management

Method 1. Philosophy of science and qualitative methods

Course objective:
The primary objective of the course is to present central qualitative methods and theoretical concepts that are required to carry out empirical business research, and to train the student’s capability of discussing and assessing these.

Course content:
The initial part of the course will introduce the students to basic concepts that regard theory of science and knowledge production within social science research. This part aims to establish an awareness of the concerns and possibilities that different approaches to studying the social science may contain.

The remaining part of the course focuses on central qualitative methods, used in business studies. In the class the students are exposed to four central methodological techniques: participant observation, interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis. The course aims to train the student’s ability to use and combine these techniques in a competent manner, and thus to enhance their analytic abilities.

The course will be organised in 10x2 lectures and 5x2 workshops to enable the students to apply and train the different methods and topics of the course.
 

The last of the 5 workshops will give the students an opportunity to try out the steps of the research project process and will last app. 1½ day. It is optional for the students to participate.

Learning Objectives

ECTS

7.5

Managerial Economics

The objective of this course is to provide the student with a thorough understanding of microeconomics applied to the problem of managerial decision-making. The first step in achieving this objective is to understand how to model economic behavior. The student will learn how a manager chooses production inputs based on marginal productivity, prices, and various other economic variables. The student will learn to develop an economic model through the use of algebra and basic calculus. The student will gain a feel for the art of choosing assumptions to set up and solve a meaningful problem. The second step in achieving the objective is to build an understanding of the many economic problems. The student will examine economic problems in consumer theory, production, technology, cost analysis, profit analysis, and market interactions. When the foundations of the course have been established the key concepts are applied in more complex settings like market structures, game theory, competition, pricing, and other managerial decision making models relevant to the service industry.

  
20 x Lecturing (L1-L20)
The course consists of 20 lectures (L1-L20) each of 3 x 45 minutes. The lectures will explore the core areas of the theory requiring a considerable amount of self-study. It is advisable with 4-6 hours of preparation for each lecture.
 
8x Active workshops (W1- W8)
Workshops (W1-W8) consist of 6 x 45 min each. The workshops consist of theoretical and empirical problems and cases. They are part of the curriculum. Naturally these active learning and feedback sessions will correspond to the content and headlines of the previous lectures. The workshops are very important for the learning process. The workshops can be solved individually or in groups.

3 x Technical workshops

These workshops focus on updating and developing technical skills necessary to complete the course. There will be a workshop on mathematics for economics during the beginning of the course, usually scheduled on a saturday, and workshops on optimization with MS Excel. These workshops are extremely important in order to possess the skills necessary to get optimal learning out of the course and do well in the exam.

Learning Objectives

To be awarded the highest mark (12), the student, with no or just a few insignificant shortcomings, must fulfill the following learning objectives:

ECTS

15

Financial Accounting

The course includes the following sessions which aim at laying the foundation for a solid understanding of financial accounting and reporting practices:

1. Purpose/function of accounting, presentation of financial statements
2. Double-entry bookkeeping technique
3. Accrual accounting
4. Internal control, cash and receivables
5. Inventory and merchandizing operations
6. PPE and intangibles
7. Current and long-term liabilities
8. Equity and investments
9. Cash flow statement
10. Financial statement analysis

Throughout  the different sessions, students acquire general business knowledge by analyzing financial statements of internationally operating companies with different backgrounds (service and product companies from different countries) with the aim of assessing the firm’s financial position and performance in light of the broader economic context.

The tasks of analysing financial data and assessing whether certain accounting regulations and practices meet the (intended) purpose of financial accounting aim at stimulating students’ curiosity about ambiguities in accounting and at helping students to develop a high degree of analytical and critical thinking.

Constructive collaboration is encouraged by group tasks.

Learning Objectives

After having completed the course students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Corporate Finance

The course covers the core aspects finance focusing on corporate applications in the international environment. It covers the basic theories of interest rates, valuation of streams of cash flows, and pricing of risk, and it draws practical implications for capital structure, project valuation, financing, and risk management. The course provides a financial background in finance for a professional career based on the bachelor degree as well as for further academic studie

The participants are introduced to methodological and practical concepts in modern corporate finance using various pedagogical methods. The course design is aimed at reflecting finance in today’s digital world, for example by supplementary readings and discussions of practical applications of the course material and real-life dilemmas face by modern corporations. Overall this should provide participants with experience in implementing financial concepts and providing concrete financial recommendations in modern corporations.

Learning Objectives

With Corporate Finance Theory as context the student is expected to be able to: • Identify, explain, discuss and apply the core concepts, models and methods • Calculate, interpret and compare financial statistics, prices, returns and costs • Elaborate, present and discuss solutions for financial decision problems

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.

Management Control Systems

The aim of the course is to provide the student with both theoretical understanding and practical skills of management control systems and management accounting practices.

Management control systems are perceived as a mechanism to increase the likelihood for an organization to 1) achieve its objectives and 2) utilize resources efficiently when implementing strategies. Included in this section is also introduction to basic concepts and calculations in cost accounting.

Additionally, the management control system can become an early warning system for feeding back information to the strategic planning and control system. Alternatives to traditional management accounting are introduced. However, the main focus is on financial results control systems going from planning and budgeting models to balanced scorecards. This includes introduction  to concepts and calculations in cost accounting.

The student will learn to integrate performance measurement, evaluation, and incentives as part of a management control system so as to be able to influence an organization to actions and behavior that will increase goal congruence and achievement of objectives. The course also deals with important management control roles and ethical issues faced by managers and employees.

The course contains the following elements:

• Management control alternatives (results controls, action controls, and people controls)
• Design criteria for management control systems including analysis of control tightness and cost vs. benefit
• Financial result control systems used in for-profit organizations including

                       • Decentralizing in financial responsibility centers

                       • Allocating resources effectively with the use of transfer prices
                       • Planning and budgeting processes
                       • Determining financial performance measures and targets

• Non-financial perfomance measures
• Designing performance dependent reward systems
• Performance measurement issues and their effects on financial results control systems, most notably the problems of Myopia and Uncontrollable Factors.
• Strategic performance measurement issues with particular focus on the Balanced Scorecard, including non financial performance measures
• Corporate control roles and the organization of Corporate Governance
• Management control related ethical issues

Learning Objectives

After having completed the course the students should be able to a) describe the theories and models that are taught in the course (as described in the course content and its elements) b) Apply the theories and models of the course in case study settings by: 1) Identifying and explaining management accounting issues and management control issues 2) Discuss aspects of the management control systems and management accounting practices 3) Recommend courses of action for management with respect to their management accounting practices and control systems.

ECTS

7.5

Service Management Foundations

The course presents key concepts and foundations of one of the following fields: (1) tourism and hospitality, (2) arts and culture, and (3) service innovation. Each field represents the study focus for one of the three specializations in the SEM program. The course provides a succinct yet comprehensive introduction to each specialization and field of study, by giving a general overview of service industries and their development. The course discusses the importance of services in the context of each field of study (see 1, 2, 3 above).

Learning Objectives

In order to be awarded the highest grade (12) the student would have to fulfill the following course objectives:

ECTS

7.5

Method 2. Statistics and quantitative methods

The course addresses established statistical methods for representing and analyzing quantitative data, primarily survey data. The focus will be on selecting and applying the methods that are appropriate for a given type of data. Students will learn how phenomena can be measured and analyzed statistically, how to report  the results of their analysis, and what kind of conclusions statistical research can lead to. 

The main modules composing the course are:

• Probability

• Confidence intervals and hypothesis testing

• Tests of hypotheses about means and proportions

• Tests of association between categorical variables

• Correlation analysis
• Regression analysis

Students will learn how to perform statistical analyses in Microsoft Excel.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Macroeconomics

This course offers a general introduction to macroeconomics. We ask questions such as, ‘What determines production, unemployment and inflation in the short and medium run?’ To answer this, we develop an analytical framework based on equilibrium conditions in three markets: the goods market, the financial market and the labour market. This framework is also used to analyze questions like, ‘What is the scope for a government to stabilise the economy using fiscal and monetary policy?’ Moreover, issues related to the open economy are addressed, such as capital mobility, exchange rates, balance of payments etc.

The following issues are addressed in the course:
• Demand for goods
• Demand for money
• Labour market
• Inflation and unemployment
• Fiscal and monetary policy
• The open economy
• Financial markets and expectations

Learning Objectives

Course aim: The purpose of the course is to give students an understanding of (i) movements in the economy over the business cycle, (ii) macroeconomic stabilisation policy (monetary and fiscal) in closed and open economies, and (iii) basic aspects of financial markets and expectations.

ECTS

7.5

Strategy in a Service Perspective

The course provides an introduction to the core ideas of strategic management, value creation and appropriation, performance and (sustainable) competitive advantage. The content of the course is built around a standard textbook (see curriculum below) and a number of research articles and cases. The starting point and the running theme of the course is value creation and appropriation. Other topics include the analysis of the firm environment, internal resources, strategic factor markets, the relationship between value appropriation by different stakeholders and the observed firm performance, the main processes within the firm, etc. Throughout the course, the theoretical models are applied to service firms and the particular challenges raised by services.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students should:

ECTS

7.5

Bachelor Project

A Project Guideline is published during the second quarter of the fall semester on CBS learn. It supplements the Program Regulations and serves as a teaching aid for the Bachelor Project. The Guideline provides detailed information about Project requirements and deadlines, as well as practical suggestions and advice regarding the Project experience and proper use of a Project Adviser (supervisor).

The initial period and crucial steps in the work process are supported by instructions, explanations, brief lectures and text via CBS Canvas. The blended learning material will be available in January 2019. For reflections and discussion about the process, the instructions and suggestions on CBS learn. The students are invited to an Introduction lecture and three workshops together with the project coordinator meet beginning early February 2019 [students, for example, get an overview of the process, the development of research questions, reflect upon the research strategy and learn how to engage with the supervisor].

Learning Objectives

ECTS

15

Introduction to Management Studies

The aim of this course is to provide a holistic understanding of the business firm, its development and managerial decisions throughout the organizational life-cycle by integrating economic theory of the firm and behavioural economics. The course also seeks to further the understanding of how we judge prospects and make decisions. Theories and models that assume we are fully rational (“the economic man”) are compared with theories that assume we are bounded rational and biased. Hence, we focus on two analytical levels – the individual decision-maker and the firm – and two theoretical assumptions – the model of the efficient decision-maker/firm and explanations of why we deviate from the norm of rationality and efficiency.

Students will be introduced to 5 core themes within the field of management studies:

1) The organizational biography of the firm
2) The horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm
3) Corporate governance
4) Business unit and corporate strategy

5) Appropriation strategies and innovation activities

In the first theme on the organizational biography of the firm we will try to understand the transformations that take place in the organization of the firm as the firm grows and gets older. On one hand we study the structures and processes and on the other hand will try to understand the differences between entrepreneurial and managerial decision making.

In the theme on the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm (related to
outsourcing, cooperation, integration and diversification) we discuss some of the factors and forces that from an economic perspective determine the size, growth of the firm and changes within a firm. We also discuss motives and managerial decision making in relations to growth through e.g. acquisitions.

In the third theme we focus on the “agency problem” and corporate governance. We view the firm as a bundle of contractural relationships and analyse how conflicts of interests are handled between shareholders and top management and between management and employees.

In the fourth theme on business unit and corporate strategy we present some basic strategy models and discuss the role of long-term planning and organizational self-control. While some models focus on the external environment of the firm - the industry - others focus on the internal environment of the firm - its resources and capabilities.

The final theme target appropriation strategies and the impact on innovation performance and organizational forms. 

Learning Objectives

ECTS

7.5

Profile course: 1st Year Project (7.5 ECTS)

General description of the 1st Year Project
The theme of "sustainable services" explores relationships between sustainability - a defining concept of our society in the XXI century and a powerful factor in market dynamics - and services, as dominat sectors in global and national economies. As part of framework conditions, sustainability redefines businesses' competitiveness and success, offering vast oportunities for development and innovation. At the same time, sustainability is a service that individuals and organizations can offer to society at large, and can be examined through the lenses of service management.

Courses under this theme, will provide more specific knowledge about and examples of sustainable services, in order to inform and encourage student's own explorations of these relationships through their 1st year project.

Culture and Tourism: Sustainable Management of Culture and Tourism Services
This course aims to equip students with the tools, concepts, and theories needed to navigate the unique challenges that arise in the sustainable management of culture and tourism industries. By integrating knowledge from various domains, including people management, corporate social responsibility, event and destination management, the course provides a comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in delivering sustainable cultural and tourism experiences. Students will explore the evolving landscape of the tourism and creative industries and the management of cultural institutions, delving into the intricate demands and challenges associated with sustainability planning, developing, and delivering tourism and cultural services. The course also highlights the shared challenges these sectors face, such as managing the creativity of specialized professionals and frontline employees and dealing with uncertain, politically influenced external environments shaped by shifting consumer tastes, crises and economic policies. By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of the managerial strategies needed to overcome the complexities of the culture and tourism sectors, ensuring they are well-prepared to address current industry trends and future challenges.

Managing Digital Services: Contemporary Issues in Digital Services
The courses introduce the students to the topics and issues that researchers and practitioners face and that consumers and managers of digital services are experiencing about digital services. The course will look at issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the increasing role it plays in our lives, but we will also investigate how digital technology affects existing business services (i.e., fintech, legaltech). What is the long-term effect of increased digitalization on existing industries and services? Which new industries will emerge? How does digitalization affect how we produce and consume services, and our buying behavior?

Common to these themes is the role of sustainability, how do we ensure that contemporary and new digital services are sustainable for businesses, consumers and society at large? What does sustainability mean in a digital setting?

Learning objectives:

•    Understand and recognize contemporary issues in digital services
•    Relate sustainability to digital services
•    Select and apply relevant theories and models to analyze contemporary issues in digital services
•    Explain how digital technologies affect the service industries
 

Service Innovation: Sustainability and Service Innovation
The specificity of service organizations demands that business leaders pay special attention to organizational conditions, resources and competences needed for good quality services, along with concerns for profitability and longevity. Furthermore, thriving as a business in the Anthropocene Era demands that leaders navigate and respond adequately to grand societal challenges such as climate change, digitalization, economic inequality and discrimination (to mention a few). This course provides students with a deeper understanding of these challenges by exploring and analysing how sustainable service organizations navigate tensions created by demands for sustainability and profitability, collaboration and competition, stability and renewal. Through a mix of lectures, case discussions and group work, the course fosters a critical understanding of innovation in the context of services, exploring strengths and limitations encountered by leaders of large businesses, social enterprises, small start-ups and public agencies. The course will lead to the 1st year project, where students are expected to present service ideas, provide arguments for their relevance as examples of innovation and reflect on the contribution they bring to sustainability.

Themes to be discussed during the course:

•    Service innovation in a social context
•    Responsible and sustainable innovation
•    Green transition – social challenges and implications

7.5

Organisational Behavior

This course will provide students with a fundamental understanding of the characteristics and behavior of groups and organizations. Students will be acquainted with contemporary perspectives on how organizations act and how organizations impact the actions of organizational members and vice versa. Modernist, symbolic-interpretive, critical and postmodern perspectives on organizations are presented, and it is expected that by the end of the course, students are not just familiar with differences between these perspectives, but also can see the strengths and weaknesses of the various perspectives.
 
The course will offer specific emphasis on organizational issues in the context of tourism and hospitality. It will examine group dynamics and processes, culture, leadership, power, and organizational structure, as well as how the organizational context and environment influences on the organization. Throughout the course students will explore relations between individuals (employees, managers, leaders), formal and informal groups, organizations, industries and the wider organizational context.
 
A range of teaching methods and course materials will help us introduce important approaches, concepts, and frameworks, and apply those to different types of organizations operating in diverse sectors and geographies. The course will also highlight particularities of organizational behavior in the specific case of tourism and hospitality, through a range of examples from around the world.
 
The course will allow students (1) to develop an ability to analyze, comprehend, and explain important aspects and determinants of behavior in organizations, and 2) to apply theories and approaches from the course in a practical way to competently and strategically address problems, envision and achieve organizational change, and learn what it takes to be more effective and engaging leaders and managers, especially in the context of tourism and hospitality.

Academic progression:

This course runs in the 3^rd semester of the program, and complements with an organizational perspective the previous management courses from the 1rst and 2^nd semesters. Acknowledging that management is a process that takes place within and across organizations, this course on organizational behavior brings forward important aspects about behavioral dynamics of groups and of organizations, complementing the focus of management courses on decision-making processes and efficiency.

This course complements as well the other courses in the 3^rd semester on control and accounting systems, on financial accounting, and on strategy in service perspective. An effective control, accounting and financial systems require organizations that are able to deliver, and for that it is fundamental to understand organizational behavior issues associated to the relations between the individuals and groups that form the organization, and its external context. Likewise, delivering the value creation and competitive market performance suggested in the strategy course of the 3^rd semester requires also an organization that is able to function in that direction. The behavior of individuals and groups within the organization is fundamental to achieve the strategic goals set up for the firm.

Learning Objectives

After taking this course, the students should be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Profile course (7.5)

Public Regulations

The legal framework more and more influences the reality of cross-border business in the tourism and hospitality sector. This course aims at providing students with the basic theoretical knowledge and practical skills useful for analysing the dynamics and consequences of the interaction between business and public regulations.

The course provides a number of legal parameters and tools for students of international service management, based for the most part in rules found at EU level. In the first half of the course general EU internal market law, competition and public procurement law and data protection will be covered. In the second half we will focus instead in specific business areas and the public regulations applicable to them, looking into the constraints these impose.

The relationship between theory and practice will be achieved by integrating the knowledge provided in the course to specific cases of real corporations or sectors. Through its learning activities and assessment this course enhances competencies of problem solving, teamwork, writing up and presenting ideas, coordination of project activities and application of knowledge to practice.

Learning Objectives

After completing the course, the students will be able to:

ECTS

7.5

Marketing and Service Management Operations (7.5 ECTS)

The course is currently under development.

Profile course (7.5 ECTS)

Culture and Tourism: The Economics of Culture and Tourism 
This course will apply economic theories and methods to the cultural sector and the tourism sector. The course will show how economic theory can be used to analyze important economic problems in these sectors, both from a macro and a micro perspective. The course will introduce the economics of the public sector and welfare economics, including theoretical concepts such as market failures, externalities, public goods and common goods. Methods such as cost-benefit, economic impact studies and contingent valuation methods will be introduced and applied to study important economic problems, such the economic importance of culture and tourism in in local and regional development, cultural tourism, the economic impact of big events, sustainable cultural and economic development taking future generation into account, the non-market values of arts and culture, and the negative externalities of over-tourism.

Managing Digital Services: Gamification
Gamification introduces game mechanics into nongame contexts such as employee training, business' intranet, marketing or services to increase engagement and participation of users. The concept has existed for over a decade and plays an increasingly central role when dealing with digital services. Yet, it is still poorly understood by most and underutilized in practice. 
The course will dive into the concepts and logic of gamification and relate it to service management. What is the potential, what are the challenges, how does it affect how we manage digital services? How to create the right balance between the game and non-game elements. Courses such as strategy, organizational behavior and operations are related to the course.

Learning objectives:
•    Understand and recognize gamification in service management
•    Select and apply relevant theories and models to analyze gamification
•    Identify challenges and potential in applying gamification to service management

Service Innovation: Co-creation, Adoption and Diffusion of Service Innovations
Success or failure of service innovations relies greatly on the ability of managers to understand and involve end-users in value creation. Furthermore, durable success of innovations depends on how well they are adopted by markets and how their diffusion evolves over time. This course takes a point of departure in user-driven perspectives on innovation and provides students with concepts and methods to understand the dynamic relationship between service businesses and customers, which continues beyond the point of consumption. Presented with theoretical and practical approaches that emphasize user involvement, students will learn and analyse organizational and contextual conditions that facilitate or hinder innovation success.  

Themes to be discussed during the course: 
•    Innovation adoption and diffusion 
•    User-driven innovation 
•    Digital consumption & service innovation

7.5

Profile course: 2nd Year Project (7.5 ECTS)

General description of the 2nd Year Project
Entrepreneurship involves starting and managing new ventures and is essential to our economy and society. It is an activity that transcends gender, ethnicity, and age. For service management, entrepreneurship is equally relevant for all three profiles. The term is firmly rooted in the creation of new ideas, products and services and is an important source of wealth at regional and national levels, by creating new companies and introducing new ideas. For this reason, entrepreneurship is regarded as an important activity by governments seeking to support the creation of businesses and workplaces. The concept of entrepreneurship has recently developed to include social and cultural ventures, greatly expanding and enriching our understanding of what entrepreneurship is. In addition to being an activity, it is seen and understood as a way of thinking and seeing the world, we talk about concepts such as entrepreneurial orientation. The second-year project revolves around entrepreneurship in combination with other courses from your profile. The idea is to create a project rooted in entrepreneurship based on tourism and culture, service innovation or managing digital services, involving learnings from the entire second year. To support the process of writing the second-year project, we have a series of lectures on profile-specific topics and methodology.

Culture and Tourism: Entrepreneurship in Culture and Tourism
The course provides the students with the theoretical and conceptual frameworks to discuss, analyse and manage cultural entrepreneurship and tourism business. It provides competences to formulate and develop entrepreneurial processes and to apply these to empirical cases within the interrelated fields of tourism, arts and culture. The course introduces four approaches to tourism business and cultural entrepreneurship: 1) tourism businesses as social entrepreneurship, 2) cultural entrepreneurship as managerially driven endeavours to change and renew cultural institutions as tourist destinations, 3) tourism and cultural entrepreneurship as politically and economically driven endeavours to initiate and support urban and regional development and 4) cultural entrepreneurship as socially driven endeavours to advocate community identity and increase diversity in artistic and cultural expressions. The course links these approaches to globalisation with a specific focus on new social media and technologies, cultural and identity studies, and the opportunities offered by a global economy. In terms of pedagogics, the course requires the students to initiate, organise and assess tourism business and cultural projects.

Managing Digital Services: Digital Entrepreneurship
The modern tradition of studying and working with entrepreneurship has grown from an analogue understanding of business rooted in traditional production and services. Today, the advancement of digital technologies allows for a new type of entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship ranging from digital services such as search engines, software, social media and streaming services over powerful components that make up the backbone of AI engines to the very same AI engines and games. Digital entrepreneurship ranges from modest one-person companies to fast-growing digital giants reaching the coveted 1 trillion USD company value. Yet, our understanding of what digital entrepreneurship is lacking. This course explores differences and similarities between digital and analogue entrepreneurship
From here, we tune in on central topics in digital entrepreneurship, such as scaling, funding, managing the accelerated pace in development and rapid growth when digital services take off. We explore the newest literature and look at the latest practices and cases.

Learning objectives:
•    Understand and recognize digital entrepreneurship in service management
•    Identify challenges and solutions in working with digital entrepreneurship
•    Select and apply relevant theories and models to analyze contemporary issues in digital entrepreneurship

Service Innovation: Entrepreneurship & Service Innovation
Entrepreneurship means putting novel ideas into practice and build a business around it. Simple as it may sound, entrepreneurial journeys are fragile, as entrepreneurs face numerous challenges when trying to create new markets for their products and services during technological, managerial and demographic transitions. To succeed, entrepreneurs must build effective organizations that are capable of meeting customers’ needs and of anticipating and responding to emergent demands. The course provides students with conceptual frameworks and practical knowledge to reflect critically on conditions for entrepreneurial success with specific emphasis on the leadership dimension of service innovation. The course combines theoretical knowledge and case studies that can be used as inspiration and provide tools to be applied in developing entrepreneurial business plans. The course will end with the 2nd year project, where students are expected to develop and present entrepreneurial plans around ideas for service development and provide arguments for their business relevance.

Themes to be discussed during the course: 
•    Entrepreneurship & service business models
•    Creating competences for service innovation

7.5