OVERVIEW

Business Administration is a core unit in the 3-year degree which addresses the principles and logics underpinning the operations of businesses. This is the first unit in the business studies area that first-year students take on in their degree

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to introduce and discuss the fundamental features of an economic organization, with specific reference to the company. The course provides several basic notions enabling students to understand how companies operate. The specific focus will be on the conditions for going concern and on the principles and the techniques of double-entry bookkeeping system.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Business Administration unit 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 unit 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 unit, 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.

Capability of learning to learn: organize and evaluate your own learning, manage your career

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

PREREQUISITES

None.

TEACHING METHODS

The unit makes use of the following teaching methodologies:

• face-to-face lectures aiming at working on knowledge and comprehension of financial and business concepts and the functioning of the accounting and information system;
• face-to-face tutorials to develop the capability to apply knowledge, critical thinking and the capacity of learning to learn.

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities  and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Professor Serena Scotto (scotto@economia.unige.it), the Department’s disability liaison.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The unit develops along these content lines:

• 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

Marchi, L. (a cura di) (2021). Introduzione all'economia aziendale. Giappichelli.

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

The textbook will be also available in the e-book version.

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

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

First semester

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The final exam is a written exam to assess the student’s theoretical and practical learning. It is the same assessment both for attending and non-attending students. The final exam is a mix of practical and theoretical questions in the form of exercises, open questions and multiple-choice questions.

During the semester when the course is taught, the final exam can be replaced – if offered by the course coordinator – by in-course assessments. The dates, modes and contents of these in-course assessments will be communicated via AulaWeb during the semester. The students who did not take or did not pass the in-course assessments, are free to undertake the full written exam in the official exam sessions.

More details on the exams will be communicated to the students at the beginning of the semester via AulaWeb and during the first lecture.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam aims at ascertain that the student is capable to effectively explain the nature of the business and its dynamics, and to apply theoretical concepts to solve problems regarding the preservation of the economic and financial stability of the businesses.