Field Study (MECN-498-0) Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.
Competitive Strategy and Industrial Structure (MECN-441-0) This course studies competitive strategy: interactions between firms in concentrated industries. The focus is on strategies for softening price competition and on how industry fundamentals influence the effectiveness of those various strategies. Topics include product positioning, product proliferation, dynamic aspects of pricing, price discrimination strategies (e.g., coupons and loyalty programs), entry into an industry, and responding to entry attempts. A common theme is that the success or failure of a strategy often depends on how your competitors will respond. As a result, what may be a winning strategy for a monopolist can sometimes backfire in an oligopoly. The course will mix lectures and case studies, as well as both qualitative and quantitative components. Evaluation will be primarily based on homework assignments, exams (a final and a midterm), and a term paper that will be written in teams.
Microeconomic Analysis (MECN-430-0) 1Ys: This course is either waived during the admissions process or completed during the Summer term.
Among the topics this core course addresses are economic analysis and optimal decisions, consumer choice and the demand for products, production functions and cost curves, market structures and strategic interactions, and pricing and non-price concepts. Cases and problems are used to understand economic tools and their potential for solving real-world problems.
Business Analytics (DECS-440-0) Analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. This course begins by providing students with an analytics toolkit, reinforcing basic probability and statistics while emphasizing the value and pitfalls of reasoning with data. Then the course extends the statistical techniques to allow for the exploration of relations between variables, primarily through multivariate regression. In addition to learning basic regression skills, including modeling and estimation, students will deepen their understanding of hypothesis testing and how to make inferences and predictions from data. Students will also learn new principles such as identification and robustness. The course has an intense focus on managerially relevant applications, cases, and interpretations, with an emphasis on connections among analytical tools, data, and business decision-making.
Business Analytics II (DECS-431-0) This sequel to DECS-430 extends the statistical techniques learned in that course to allow for the exploration of relationships between variables, primarily through multivariate regression. In addition to learning basic regression skills, including modeling and estimation, students will deepen their understanding of hypothesis testing and how to make inferences and predictions from data. Students will also learn new principles such as identification and robustness. The course has an intense focus on managerial relevant applications, cases and interpretations.
Business Analytics I (DECS-430-5) This course was formerly known as DECS 430-A/DECS 430-B
Analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. This course will provide students with an analytics toolkit, reinforcing basic probability and statistics while throughout emphasizing the value and pitfalls of reasoning with data. Applications will focus on connections among analytical tools, data, and business decision-making.