LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide first-year students a basic knowledge of the principles and logics underpinning the operations of businesses. In particular, you will examine the nature and roles of businesses and their administration, as economic entities producing goods and services for the market.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Business Administration course aims at providing the first-year students with a solid basic knowledge of the principles and logics underpinning the operations of businesses. In particular, the course intends to:

• Examine the conditions for the origins and development of businesses
• Clarify the concepts of operations continuity and management’s objective of value creation
• Explain the necessary conditions to achieve and maintain the economic and financial stability of the business
• Deepen the double-entry bookkeeping methodology and its application to register main business operations
• Understand the profitability and financial needs of a business.

By the end of this course, students will acquire competence in the main issues of business administration, such as:

• the calculation of the net profit of the year and the invested capital, as well as the meaning of equity value.
• the double-entry bookkeeping and its application for recording main operations in accounting
• the company’s profitability, its financial needs and related financial resources.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and comprehension: students will acquire solid knowledge and factual ability to explain the logics of business operations, including a focus on the nature and activities of businesses, as systematic economic entities that generate wealth and require economic and financial stability to stay viable.

Ability to apply knowledge: Students will be able to apply their acquired knowledge to understand and solve simple and more complex problems concerning business management, organisation and accounting, especially in consideration of the company’s financial and economic stability.

Critical judgment: Students will be able to apply the acquired knowledge using their own judgment and critical reasoning, both theoretically and practically.

Learning capability: Students will develop appropriate learning capabilities that will support their independent learning of other subject in business administration, accounting and management, especially in their future job positions.

TEACHING METHODS

The course entails:

• lectures aiming at providing an overview of financial and business concepts and the functioning of the accounting and information system
• tutorials to apply specific knowledge in practice

In the learning activities, students may be supported by digital apps that allow for self-assessment.

It is available on Aulaweb.

If face-to-face lectures are not possible, further information will be available on Aulaweb.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

• The business operations as the main study objects of Business Administration as a scientific discipline.
• The business and its distinctive role in the economic and financial system. The value creation process.
• Business administration and its main operations: financing, investments, production, sales. The economic and financial effects of operations. Profit generation and financial and economic stability of the business.
• The invested capital and the net profit of the year. The principle of accrual accounting.
• The double-entry bookkeeping methodology and accounting entries of the main business operations: purchase, sales, fixed assets acquisition, etc…
• Elements of the invested capital and the net profit. The problem of accounting estimates.
• The profitability and its determinants. The equity value.
• Nature of the costs and their relations with the business
• Financial needs, their determinants and coverage. Financial stability.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Selected chapters from the textbook:

Marchi L., Introduzione all’economia aziendale, Giappichelli, Torino

A list of the chapters that are covered in the final exam is provided on Aulaweb.

Additional materials are uploaded on Aulaweb at the beginning of and during the semester.