Management (MGMT)
MGMT 0001 Principles of Management
Organizations emerge because individuals can't (or don't want to) accomplish their goals alone. Management is the art and science of helping individuals achieve their goals together. Managers in an organization determine where their organization is going and how it gets there. More formally, managers formulate strategies and implement those strategies. This 0.5 credit unit course provides a framework for understanding the opportunities and challenges involved in formulating and implementing strategies. We examine multiple aspects of how managers address their environments, strategy, structure, culture, tasks, people, and outputs, and how managerial decisions made in these various domains interrelate. The course will help you begin to understand and analyze how managers can formulate and implement strategies effectively. Please note that this 0.5 CU course does not fulfil the Wharton MGMT 1010 requirement
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 0004 Work, Power, and Inequality
From the immigrant shirtwaist sewers' strike of 1909 to the 2021 union declaration by engineers Google, MGMT004 examines imbalances of power in the workplace and responses to perceived abuses of employer power. We investigate, via an exploration of government regulations and an examination of movements like #MeToo, how government and firm-level human capital policies shape workforce inequalities of race and gender. Throughout the course, we compare the United States with other countries to assess how national institutions influence both productivity and profitability (for firms) and fairness and stability (for workers).
Fall, Spring, and Summer Terms
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 1010 Introduction To Management
We all spend much of our lives in organizations. Most of us are born in organizations, educated in organizations, and work in organizations. Organizations emerge because individuals can't (or don't want to) accomplish their goals alone. Management is the art and science of helping individuals achieve their goals together. Managers in an organization determine where their organization is going and how it gets there. More formally, managers formulate strategies and implement those strategies. This course provides a framework for understanding the opportunities and challenges involved in formulating and implementing strategies by taking a "system" view of organizations,which means that we examine multiple aspects of how managers address their environments, strategy, structure, culture, tasks, people, and outputs, and how managerial decisions made in these various domains interrelate. The course will help you to understand and analyze how managers can formulate and implement strategies effectively. It will be particularly valuable if you are interested in management consulting, investment analysis, or entrepreneurship - but it will help you to better understand and be a more effective contributor to any organizations you join, whether they are large, established firms or startups. This course must be taken for a grade.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
MGMT 1110 Multinational Management
Most successful firms go global in some way; why do they go global, and how do they navigate across international borders? This is the question at the core of multinational management. In this course, you will learn about topics such as how firms choose where and how to invest abroad, how shifts in the political economy landscape affect firm strategy, and how firms respond to restrictions on the movement of both physical and human capital across borders. The class utilizes economics and global strategy frameworks to provide students with an understanding of how to formulate multinational firm strategy. Fulfills the Global Economy, Business, and Society requirement. This course has a mandatory attendance policy.
Prerequisite: WH 1010 OR MGMT 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 1170 Global Growth of Emerging Firms
Emerging firms are a critical element of economic growth, and a key source of gains in innovation and social welfare. This course is designed to depart from the U.S.-centric conversation on startups - with its outsized focus on Silicon Valley - and train a critical eye on some of the unique innovations emerging from new regional hotspots across the globe, with a particular focus on developing and emerging economies. We will discuss the challenges faced by founders in different global contexts, the components of a robust institutional ecosystem, and the ways in which creative solutions may flourish in response to local problems. Along the way, students will gain a virtual view into global startup communities, and personalized insights from firm founders operating around the world - from Bogota to Nairobi to Jakarta. The course will be structured in three primary parts. The first and longest section will discuss the Key Challenges for emerging firm growth across the globe, such as access to talent and resources, political risk, and legal institutions. The second section will highlight particularly active areas of Context-Driven Innovation that are thriving in various regions, such as financial technology, mobile health products, and clean energy. The final section will train Regional Spotlights on different geographic areas in turn, so that we may focus on the challenges and opportunities specific to various parts of the world.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 1980 Special Topics in Management
Courses offered of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Effectiveness, etc.).
Fall or Spring
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 7990
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 2050 Multinational Corporate Strategies
This course focuses on the creation of competitive advantage in the multinational firm. It examines the nature of global competition by exploring the characteristics of global versus non-global industries and firms. We also explore different types of international strategy and structure and examine the specific challenges of managing in multiple countries and markets. Finally, we consider the strategic allocation of resources along the value chain and the role of strategic alliances as a crucial element of an effective global strategy.
Spring
Prerequisite: MGMT 1010 AND MGMT 1110 AND WH 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2080 Globalization and International Political Economy
Managing Globalization and Anti-Globalization provides students with a solid foundation in the economic history of globalization and anti-globalization, the institutions that manage the global economy, and the current challenges these institutions are facing. Students in this class will develop their own worldview about the powerful forces shaping today's international political economy and build a solid foundation for understanding the future of organizational strategy. The first half of the course focuses on the historical trajectory of globalization and learning about the institutions that seek to manage it. The second half of the course explores how institutions manage present-day global governance challenges ranging from global migration, the rise of populist anti-globalization movements, the collapse of communism, and global inequality, to disruptive technologies such as bitcoin. Format: Lectures and discussion structured to encourage maximum student participation. Requirements: midterm and final exam, a final course paper of 10-20 pages and short reaction papers dealing with the readings for the week. Supplemental activities include map quizzes, small group projects, and current events analysis.
Spring
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2090 The Political Environment of the Multinational Firm
The share of executives, board members, and investment managers who consider climate risk, racial justice and other ESG issues as well as stakeholder’s opinions of the firm to be material to their business decisions has risen dramatically. If this business case for engagement with stakeholders on ESG issues can be demonstrated to mainstream investors, pools of capital can be mobilized to harness grand societal challenges. However, executives, board members, and investment managers are actually growing less confident in the ESG data available to guide capital allocations and strategic decisions. ESG scores have been demonstrated to be unreliable, incomplete and biased and often lean on outdated and/or incomplete information obtained through voluntary unaudited disclosure. This course provides students the latest tools to assess and map stakeholder opinions as well as integrate them into financial valuation. It also offers behavioral skills critical for stakeholder engagement including trust building, strategic communications and shaping organizational culture. In short, it prepares students to engage in Corporate Diplomacy (i.e., to influence external stakeholders’ opinions of the acceptability of a company’s operations at a moment in time and to convince internal stakeholders to adapt their behaviors, systems and outputs` when necessary to support an organizational mission).
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2110 Competitive Strategy
This is an advanced course in competitive strategy. The course will apply the tools of industrial organization economics and game theory to examine the strategic decisions that managers make. We will examine those decisions concerning pricing, capacity investment, advertising, new product introductions, and research and development. Emphasis will be placed on the strategic interaction among rival sellers. In particular we will look at the various methods of entry deterrence and strategic commitment. The course will attempt to integrate traditional economic models with case study materials. In addition to prerequisites, some knowledge of microeconomics is suggested. The course will be discussion oriented and based largely on case materials and mini-lectures.
Fall
Prerequisite: WH 1010 AND MGMT 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2120 Social Entrepreneurship
This is a course on creating a business to attack a social problem and thereby accomplish both social impact and financial sustainability. For this course, social entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship used to profitably confront social problems. This definition therefore views social entrepreneurship as a distinct alternative to public sector initiatives. The basic thesis is that many social problems, if looked at through an entrepreneurial lens, create opportunity for someone to launch a venture that generates profits by alleviating that social problem. This sets in motion a virtuous cycle - the entrepreneur is incented to generate more profits and in so doing, the more the profits made, the more the problem is alleviated. Even if it is not possible to eventually create a profit-making enterprise, the process of striving to do so can lead to a resource-lean not-for-profit entity. Creating a profitable social entrepreneurship venture is by no means a simple challenge. Cross-listed with MGMT 812.
Fall
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 8120
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2130 Entrepreneurship through Acquisition
The objective of this course is to study the process of entrepreneurship through the acquisition of existing operating businesses. We will study this process through a series of lectures, assigned readings, case studies, and a final project which will follow the acquisition process. Freshmen require instructor's permission.
Prerequisite: FNCE 1000 AND ACCT 1010
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2140 Market Dynamics and Technical Change
The course is designed to meet the needs of future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. There is definitely an overlap in content with other courses in intermediate microeconomics, or managerial economics. Nevertheless, the treatment is sufficiently distinctive to make it complementary to those other treatments for a student who is particularly interested in economic change, or is otherwise interested in acquiring a broader view of economics.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2230 Business Strategy
This course encourages students to analyze the problems of managing the total enterprise in the domestic and international setting. The focus is on the competitive strategy of the firm, examining issues central to its long- and short-term competitive position. Students act in the roles of key decision-makers or their advisors and solve problems related to the development or maintenance of the competitive advantage of the firm in a given market. The first module of the course develops an understanding of key strategic frameworks using theoretical readings and case-based discussions. Students will learn concepts and tools for analyzing the competitive environment, strategic position and firm-specific capabilities in order to understand the sources of a firm's competitive advantage. In addition, students will address corporate strategy issues such as the economic logic and administrative challenges associated with diversification choices about horizontal and vertical integration. The second module will be conducted as a multi-session, computer-based simulation in which students will have the opportunity to apply the concepts and tools from module 1 to make strategic decisions. The goal of the course is for students to develop an analytical tool kit for understanding strategic issues and to enrich their appreciation for the thought processes essential to incisive strategic analysis. This course offers students the opportunity to develop a general management perspective by combining their knowledge of specific functional areas with an appreciation for the requirements posed by the need to integrate all functions into a coherent whole. Students will develop skills in structuring and solving complex business problems. In addition to prerequisites, enrollment is limited to seniors and juniors that have completed introductory courses in finance, marketing, and accounting.
Prerequisite: WH 1010 AND MGMT 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2240 Leading Diversity in Organizations
People in the workplace are constantly interacting with peers, managers, and customers with very different backgrounds and experiences. When harnessed effectively, these differences can be the catalyst for creative breakthroughs and the pathway to team and organizational learning and effectiveness; but when misunderstood, these differences can challenge employees' values, performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse organizational settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across difference, discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, opportunity, inclusion,creativity and innovation and organizational effectiveness. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, guest speakers from organizations, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. By the end of this course, you should be able to: 1)Evaluate the aspects of yo ur identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and how they interact and engage with you in organizations 2)Explain how issues of power, privilege, discrimination, bias, equality, and equity influence opportunity and effectiveness in organizations 3)Propose ways to make relationships across difference in organizations more effective 4)Describe current perspectives on the relationships among diversity, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in organizations 5)Analyze a company's current approach to leading diversity and use content from this course to propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness in that company.
Fall or Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2250 Value Creation and Value Capture in American Business History
This course examines how the kind of firms in which most Wharton students will spend the next stage of their careers came to be as they are today. At a superficial level, the course's objectives are descriptive and narrative. But history, considered thoughtfully and critically, is never just description and a narrative and the course's deeper purpose is to give students some idea of how to think about the future evolution of firms and industries. In this the course is as much an applied strategy course as it is a historical survey. The course considers the development of the business enterprise as an economic institution. It also covers the evolution of competition and strategy, marketing institutions, some aspects of the history of operations management, and corporate finance. Issues arising in these different management disciplines are considered in part for the purpose of showing off their interrelationships. Questions of how value can be created and captured at the enterprise level form the core of the perspective. The course's focus is on American developments, since many of the innovations took place here, but there is scope for comparison with Japan and the leading European economies if there is student interest. Chronologically the course runs from Franklin's days through the early twenty-first century. The individual classes proceed through discussion of actual business decisions and performance in a series of challenging and otherwise interesting moments in the evolution of the American business environment. The materials are unusual for the Wharton School--they are not just often case-like but wherever possible draw on documents contemporary to the decisions such as correspondence, internal memoranda, minutes of meetings, old newspaper and magazine stories, and eyewitness accounts. The objective in this is to give students as minimally mediated access as is feasible to what the embedded actors knew and thought. The materials require thoughtful preparation. Weekly short writing assignments during the first twelve weeks of the term develop students' skill in turning such preparation into crisp analytical prose. (This will be valuable to most ex-students in the early phases of their post-Wharton careers.) The course as a process is much more focused on the students than many and the most productive experience of it demands that the students both engage with the materials when they prepare and then take an active role in the class discussion. The largest single element in the grading is a substantial term paper on a topic agreeable to both the student and the instructor. (To everyone's surprise, the lack of easy access
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 7140
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2290 Intellectual Property Strategy for the Innovation-Driven Enterprise
Announcing the first iPhone at Macworld 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously boasted: "And boy, have we patented it!" How, and to what extent, do patents and intellectual property really provide competitive advantage for innovative technology companies? What makes an IP asset strategically powerful? How do patents impact, and even drive, major corporate decisions including M&A, venture funding and exits, and entry into new markets? In this course, students will learn to critically analyze and answer these questions, gaining insights they can leverage in their future roles as innovation industry executives, entrepreneurs, strategist and investors. The course includes three major units. In Unit 1, Patents and Innovation Value, we examine closely the relationship between competitive advantage, value proposition, and intellectual property (particularly patents). We will apply our understanding of that relationship to critique and sharpen patent strategy to protect examples of cutting-edge technologies. In Unit 2, Patent Leverage and the Corporate Playbook, we study theory and examples of how intellectual property leverage strategically informs corporate transactions and decisions, for established companies as well as for start-ups. In unit 3, Limits and Alternatives to Patents, we confront the recent legal trend toward reigning in the power and scope of patents. We also consider the growing importance of data as a proprietary technology asset, and discuss options for adapting intellectual property strategy appropriately. Throughout, students will learn and practice applying the concepts we learn to decision-making in examples based on innovative real-world technologies and businesses.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2300 Entrepreneurship
How do you take a good idea and turn it into a successful venture? Whether you plan to become a founder, investor, mentor, partner, or early employee of a startup company, this course will take you through the entire journey of new venture creation and development. MGMT 230 is a project-based survey course designed to provide an overview of the entrepreneurial process and give you practical hands-on experience with new venture development. You and a team will have the chance to ideate, test, and develop a pitch for an early-stage startup by incorporating material from class lectures, simulations, labs, and class discussions. By the end of the course, you will have a better understanding of what it takes to create a successful startup, as well as proven techniques for identifying and testing new market opportunities, acquiring resources, bringing new products and services to market, scaling, and exiting new ventures.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2310 Entrepreneurship Launchpad
This advanced course on entrepreneurship focuses on taking your venture from a good idea to a fundable business. Participants need to come to the class with a validated idea that they are committed to pursuing commercially. The course is entirely oriented toward applying concepts and frameworks to advance your venture and provides practical guidance for testing the product or service, forming the entity, establishing partnerships, and engaging with investors. Students must have successfully completed MGMT 801 before enrolling (or obtain the permission of the instructor). Format: Highly interactive Requirements: Class participation, interim assignments.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 8310
Prerequisite: MGMT 8010
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 2320 Business Model Innovation Strategy
Business Model Innovation Strategy is a half semester MBA elective course which centers on the conceptualization, design, analysis and implementation of novel business models by incumbent and by new venture leaders as well as on the organizational challenges associated with a business model innovation strategy. Students will be introduced to a framework for developing and implementing a new business model. The framework will be brought to life through a combination of lectures, in-class exercises, numerous illustrations and case discussions.
Fall
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 8320
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2330 Strategies and Practices of Family-Controlled Companies
This course is designed for those persons who desire to understand the distinct strategies and practices of family-controlled companies and family wealth creation. It will focus on stakeholder decision making; financial and resource driven options for long-run competitiveness, organizational structures, management team issues; strategic planning from a resource-based perspective; transition planning for the corporate entity, family dynamics and communication issues; and leadership empowerment. The course is intended for those who plan to consult or provide professional services to family-controlled companies and for those planning a career in a family firm. The class is structured around topical lectures with frequent utilization of case studies requiring active class participation, as well as on-site and off-site project work time. Submission of several written case studies, and a term project are required. Open to Wharton undergraduate & MBA students, as well as Penn graduate students. Format: The class is structured around topical lectures with frequent utilization of case studies. There will be in-class discussion, as well as on-site and off-site project work time.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 8330
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2370 Management of Technology
The course is designed to meet the needs of the future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. In addition to prerequisites, this course is exclusively reserved for Management and Technology students.
Spring
Prerequisite: WH 1010 AND MGMT 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2380 Organizational Behavior
Management 238 is an organizational behavior course, examining individual, interpersonal, and group effectiveness at work. Topics range from decision- making, motivation, and personality to networks, influence, helping, leadership, teamwork, and organizational culture. The learning method is heavily experiential, with a focus on applying key principles to the human side of management in role-play exercises, simulations, a mini-TED talk, and group projects in local organizations. Other Information: This course is open to juniors and seniors across Penn. This course also has a first-day mandatory attendance policy.
Fall
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2410 Knowledge for Social Impact: Analyzing Current Issues & Approaches
Inequality. Poverty. Racism. Climate change. COVID. Violence. Crime. And so much more. The list of societal challenges in the United States and around the globe is daunting. Like many other students, you may hope to make a positive difference in the world. But, where and how? This course is designed to help you begin to answer this question. We will meet with for-profit and nonprofit leaders working to make a difference, drawing lessons from their successes, failures, evolution, and resilience. We will read and discuss rigorous social science research that ensures that we move from hunches to facts, from simplistic and ineffective solutions to systems knowledge. We will investigate impact measurement strategies, asking “What is feasible and beneficial to monitor and measure, and why?” And, we will take a deep dive into two of the complex societal challenges facing the US States today: (1) barriers to college access, completion, and post-college employment; and (2) barriers to employment following incarceration.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2420 Corporate Goverance, Executive Compsenation and the Board
This course examines the relationships between corporate managers, the boards of directors charged with overseeing them, and investors. We'll review the responsibilities of the board, including financial statement approval, CEO performance assessment, executive compensation, and succession planning. While boards are legally bound to represent the interests of equity investors, in the course of carrying out this role they are often called on to respond to the needs of numerous other stakeholders, including customers, employees, government and society at large. With global brands at risk and mistakes instantly transmitted via Internet and social media, the reputational stakes are very high. The course is a combination of lecture, guest lecture, discussion, case analysis, and in-class research workshops. We will review some of the theory underlying modern governance practice, drawing from theories and evidence provided by research across diverse fields, including finance, sociology, and organization and management theory. We'll study specific situations where boards and management teams faced governance challenges, and assess the strategies used to deal with them. Finally, we'll examine the ways in which governance arrangements and external stakeholder involvement in governance affects corporate social behavior and global citizenship.
Prerequisite: WH 1010 AND MGMT 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2430 Work and Technology: Choices and Outcomes
That technology affects work is a commonplace - but we accept technology’s impact too readily as inevitable and unchangeable. This 0.5 CU course challenges the mindset of technological determinism and explores what choice points are available to managers implementing new technologies as well as the engineers who design them. • Module 1: “Technology and Its Impact on Jobs and Skills” considers which technologies deserve the characterization of “revolutionary” due to their capacity to change entire organizations – and even societies — vs. those that only substitute narrowly for past technologies. We’ll examine past anxieties related to automation and evaluate the extent to which the “worst-case” scenarios about employment loss have or have not come to pass – and evaluate claims of “this time it’s different”. • Module 2: “Intelligent Technologies: How Will They Affect Work and Organizations?” explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing core “managing people” activities (e.g., hiring and performance appraisal) – plus shifting the locus of management away from human bosses and into algorithms. We’ll examine controversies around “gig work”, i.e., the positives of worker schedule flexibility vs. the negatives of algorithmic control. We’ll also consider the metaverse and its potential for unleashing human creativity and fostering richer and more nuanced virtual communication - as well as providing organizations with new ways to monitor and control. • Module 3: “Technology and Policy” examines three policy issues. First, how can we inject more ethical criteria into the development of artificial intelligence and algorithms affecting work? Second, what are the pros and cons of “universal basic income”, whose premise is that technological change will soon lead to an unprecedented amount of job elimination? Third, how does “technology make us dumber”? How can we avoid the obsolescence of critical human skills? Take this course to be ready to manage the strategic and analytic issues involving the design and implementation of technology at work - and for a preview of your own future work life. Requirements include: class participation; in-class quizzes; interviewing someone you know to ask how technology has affected their work life; and the “In Hindsight” group assignment looking back on past scares about a particular technology’s impact on work - and what actually happened.
Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2480 How to be the Boss
Despite the press accounts about the "gig" economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that about 92 percent of the people working in the US are employees who are supervised by someone. That figure has remained roughly the same for decades. The term "supervisor" is sometimes used for the first-level of supervision in an organization, but in fact that role - and indeed the title ? goes all the way up to the very top of any employer organization. Even CEO's are the supervisor of their direct reports. When people talk about their "boss," they almost always are referring to the person who supervises them. Stepping into a supervisor position is challenging, exceptionally so the first time. Thattime comes relatively soon for Wharton grads. Undergrads pursuing consulting jobs typically find themselves supervising new hires by their third year, those working for corporations find themselves in those roles even sooner. Roughly three-quarters of our MBA students report that they had been required to supervise subordinates after college and before arriving here. In this class, we examine the role of the supervisor and the unique tasks associated with performing that role. We pay special attention to the unique challenges of taking on that role for the first time.
Not Offered Every Year
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2490 Mergers and Acquisitions
This interactive, applied, and case-based course explores the various modes of corporate development available to managers to drive firm growth and change, including alliances, outsourcing, corporate venturing, and particularly mergers and acquisitions. The objectives are three-fold: (1) to arm the student with a set of tools to facilitate the selection of the appropriate growth strategy in a given situation; (2) to provide insights as to how to manage partnerships like alliances, outsourcing, and corporate venturing; and, (3) to develop a comprehensive framework for executing M&As, from initiation to implementation. The emphasis is on strategic and operational aspects of these transactions, rather than financial considerations. Please note that you must fulfill the prerequisites in order to enroll in this class.
Fall
Prerequisite: WH 1010 AND MGMT 1010
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2510 Consulting to Growth Companies
This course offers students a unique opportunity to develop consulting skills and entrepreneurial expertise by working as consultants to thriving entrepreneurial ventures in the Philadelphia area. This capstone course combines both fieldwork and class work and allows students to apply knowledge and skills acquired through other course work to real world issues that must be addressed by operating companies. An understanding of characteristics producing rapid entrepreneurial growth and skills related to effective communications and management of a business relationship are emphasized. Team term consulting assignment, lectures, case analysis, and small group discussions.
Fall
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2640 Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Management
This course focuses on venture capital management issues in the context of a high-growth potential start-up company. The course is motivated by rapid increases in both the supply of and demand for private equity over the past two decades. The topic is addressed from two distinct perspectives: issues that relate to the demand for private equity and venture capital (the entrepreneur's perspective) on the one hand, and issues that relate to the supply of capital (the investor's perspective) on the other. As well, we will address management issues that relate to how the VC and the entrepreneur work together once an investment has been made, compensation issues, and governance issues in the privately held venture capital backed company. Format: Case/discussion format, supplemented by lectures and guest speakers.
Fall
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2650 Culture of Technology: Culture & Institutions of the Tech Sector--Bridging Research and Practice
Academics, students and practitioners alike are fascinated by the culture of tech sector - its people, practices, and organization. In this course we explore this sector using a combination of research papers, press coverage, and practitioner involvement. Each class session will be devoted to discussion of a single research article, during which we will be joined via state-of-the-art videoconferencing by a Wharton alum from the tech sector whose expertise is relevant to the paper topic. Therefore, the learning objectives half-credit course are to: 1) understand the managerial, organizational, and regional institutions that characterize the tech sector, with particular emphasis on the case of Silicon Valley 2)Bridge research and practice by critical analysis of academic research papers in conjunction with practitioner input 3) Forge connections with tech sector practitioners, particularly with our west coast alumni base.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2670 Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation
Building a new firm around technology innovation can mean different choices and challenges for entrepreneurs. The goals and outcomes of technology entrepreneurship vary as much as the innovations that inspire them. MGMT 267 will take you through the questions that entrepreneurs should address as they go from a technology innovation idea to founding and funding a tech startup. The course will appeal to individuals who have a desire to become technology entrepreneurs at some stage of their career, as well as others interested in the startup ecosystem such as investors, early employees, other professional service providers, etc. Through a combination of individual and team work, you will examine what is different when technology is at the core of an entrepreneurial opportunity and how to move a technology-based venture forward.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2720 Power and Politics in Organizations
"If you want to test a (person's) character, give (him/her) power." These famous words articulate one of the many tensions of exercising power. Regardless of whether you have an appetite for power or disdain it, power and politics are likely to play an important role in your career. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to concepts that are useful for understanding, analyzing, and developing your political skill. But beyond discovering ways to extend your own power in organizations, we will also uncover lessons about ways in which power and politics can blind you, and how to navigate situations in which you are up against powerful people. Using a range of scholarly articles, cases, exercises, assessments and simulations, we will extract a variety of lessons relevant to your role in organizations. Topics include diagnosing power in organizations, building coalitions, change management, understanding networks, coping with intolerable bosses and incivility, and downsizing. Students will be expected to engage in field research for their coursework and final paper, and the course requires that students submit assignments for almost every class session. Organizations are inherently political arenas that require social astuteness, and an understanding of the "rules of the game." This course is designed for students aiming to develop their leadership, general management and career skills through a better understanding of power and politics, and relates to other courses on these topics in the Management department.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 2750 Comparative Capitalism
While we often debate capitalism as a system, the nature of capitalist economies differ from country to country and rarely match up to the ideal. Why do these differences arise? Is there a pure form of capitalism? What is the nature of capitalism in advanced and emerging economies? Why are capitalist economies often embedded in other social systems? Why do some economies grow faster than others? How do international institutions and interdependencies affect national capitalist institutions? How are the strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) influenced by their country of origin? And how is the nature of capitalism changing today? This course provides insight into these questions as it explores the nature of capitalism around the world, with specific reference to Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, China, Hungary, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Israel, Argentina, and the advanced OECD countries. Students will leave this class with understanding key differences in how capitalist economies are organized and competition over the future of the world economy.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 8750
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2760 Cultivating Judgment Skills: Forecasting in Business Politics
This course will explore the diverse ways in which scholars and practitioners have defined "good judgment." And it will introduce students to practical tools for assessing and improving judgment, with special emphasis on probabilistic reasoning. Students will have the opportunity both to fine-tune their personal judgment skills as well as to master and then weave together insights from several bodies of scientific knowledge, including frequentist and Bayesian statistics, psychological work on judgment and choice, group dynamics, organizational behavior and political science (key concepts discussed in Tetlock's (2015) book "Superforecasting"). We will focus on bottom-line accuracy in sizing up real world problems. Class work will be primarily exercises, including working as an individual and in teams. You will have opportunities to forecast on a wide range of political, business, and macro-economic questions, which we will use as feedback tools to help you calibrate your judgment. Assessments include a weekly concept test and a final group presentation aimed to help you improve your judgment. The goal is to launch you on the lifelong process of learning how much trust you should place in your judgments of trustworthiness.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2870 Global Management of Digital Businesses
Digital businesses enable users to communicate, interact, share, and engage in transactions. They enable individuals to shop, work, play, and learn, and they offer companies new ways of organizing their value chains, reaching customers, collecting and analyzing information, and creating value. This half-semester, 0.5-cu class deals with the international expansion of businesses through the use of digital technologies. The focus is on the tension between the eminent scalability facilitated by digital technologies and the ruggedness of the international landscape, shaped as it is by demographics, consumer preferences, culture, regulatory structures, and network effects operating at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The class covers both companies launched as digital businesses and traditional companies undergoing a digital transformation. Topics include industry dynamics, the impact of network effects, the sequence of foreign market entry, regulatory risk, strategic interaction, and global versus local strategies for both new digital businesses and established firms undergoing digital transformation. While there are no specific requirements, knowledge of the fundamental concepts of competitive strategy and global strategy is essential to follow this class. Students will learn through interactive class discussions, team-based exercises, and self-made short videos to pitch novel new ideas about digital businesses.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 2880 Managing and Competing in China
The business environment in China is characterized by both uncertainty and complexity. On the one hand, it is changing fast; on the other hand, it is influenced by deep-rooted political, economic, and cultural forces that exhibit tremendous inertia. This course will help students--as potential managers, entrepreneurs, and investors--gain the knoweledge and analytical skills necessary to compete effectively in China. We will discuss various types of firms in the Chinese economy--from large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to newly minted Internet giants, from prominent multinational companies (MNCs) to virtually anonymous local suppliers--and the unique institutions in which these firms operate. Such discussions will also help managers whose firms compete or collaborate with Chinese firms on the global stage. We will use a combination of lectures, cases, debates, and role play in class. You will also have the opportunity to apply your learning to real business scenarios.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 7880
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2910 Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: LGST 2910, OIDD 2910
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2920 Advanced Negotiation
This course is designed to teach negotiation principles and to enable students to develop their negotiation skills. This course assumes familiarity with the basic negotiation concepts covered in the prerequisite for this course: Negotiations. In this course, we extend the study and practice of negotiations and we develop a deeper understanding for how specific aspects of the negotiation process (e.g., emotions, deadlines, trust violations) impact outcomes. Through course lectures, readings, and case exercises, students will develop a rich framework for thinking about the negotiation process and acquire tools for guiding the negotiation process.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: LGST 2920, OIDD 2920
Prerequisite: LGST 2910 OR OIDD 2910 OR MGMT 2910
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2930 People Analytics
This course examines the use of data to understand and improve how people are managed in organizations. People really are organizations' most important asset, providing the critical link in converting strategy and capital into value. Yet throughout most of our history, most organizations have relied on long-standing traditions, hear-say, political expedience, prejudice and gut instinct to make decisions about how those people should be managed. Recent years have seen a growing movement to bring more science to how we manage people. In some cases, that means ensuring that whatever practices and approaches we adopt are backed up by solid evidence as to their effectiveness. Often, organizations will seek to go further, analyzing their own data to identify problems and learn what is working and what is not in their own context. This course applies the insights of the people analytics movement to help students become better managers and more critical analysts within their organizations. The course aims to develop students in three specific ways. First, it will provide students with an up-to-the-minute grounding in current evidence about managing people, providing a knowledge base that can ensure that their future management is guided by best practices. Second, we will develop the skills and understanding necessary to be thoughtful, critical consumers of evidence on people management, allowing them to make the most of the analysis available to them as they make people decisions. Third, we will provide guidance and practice in conducting people analytics, preparing students to gather data of their own, and making them more skilled analysts. We will pursue these goals through a mixture of lecture, case discussion, and hands on exploration of a variety of data sets.
Spring
Also Offered As: OIDD 2930
1 Course Unit
MGMT 2940 Understanding Careers & Managerial Labor Markets
The class will examine a variety of aspects of careers. The first few sessions explore the basic building blocks of the career, outlining our knowledge on the different orientations that individuals take to their careers, how approaches to the career change as people get older, and how different kinds of job moves within and across firms advance careers. We will complement academic research by also hearing from an experienced executive who can talk about the issues that she dealt with as her career unfolded, and how she approached major decisions. The second part of the course explores in more detail the social resources that affect careers. Much research has examined how the structure of social networks affect success in the workplace and access to job. We will review this evidence with an eye to understanding how effective relationships can be developed. We will also examine some of the most critical relationships for shaping careers - those involving mentors and sponsors. The third section of the course then examines a number of the most important and difficult issues affecting modern careers. We explore one of the most difficult transitions that forms part of many careers, moving into management from an individual contributor role. We will also explore important social psychological conditions and strategies that allow individuals to persist and succeed in their career pursuit, especially in the face of obstacles, such as career setbacks and employer rejections. We then turn to issues of gender and careers. There is much evidence on the particular challenges that have faced women managers and executives in moving up the corporate ladder. We examine that evidence and discuss possible responses by managers and by organizations. We also discuss how individuals and organizations can manage the challenges of balancing work and personal life throughout the career.
Fall or Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 3010 Teamwork and Interpersonal Influence
Organizations emerge because individuals cannot (or do not want to) accomplish their goals alone. Likewise, employees pursue projects in teams and other small units because there is strength in numbers. For example, over 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies use teams to accomplish their goals. As such, collaboration - in relationships and in teams - is the building block of organizational effectiveness. In addition, most of your work each day will occur in a social context, and it will require you to influence others, and be influenced by, others. In this course we will use the latest evidence from the science of organizations to understand key tactics that can help you work more effectively with others and better influence and lead them as you strive to attain shared goals. We will cover topics such as team coordination, team decision making, interpersonal influence, leader effectiveness, and ethics. This course is the third module of the four-module set that comprises the Wharton Leadership Journey. MGMT 301 assumes exposure to MGMT 101 content. As of Fall 2022 MGMT 101 will become a formal prerequisite for the class.
Fall or Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 3530 Wharton Field Challenge FLCP
Do you want to make a real difference in the lives of a student? Do you want to set kids on a path to becoming financially literate? Do you want to learn leadership skills in the classroom? Here at the Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP) we are able to create an experience that achieves all three. We partner with various public schools around the West Philadelphia area and teach concepts integral to financial literacy. We teach a wide range of grades from middle school to high school, and work with students to help them learn how to be financially responsible. In addition to teaching in neighboring high schools, we also have group class meetings run by Professor Keith Weigelt on Mondays from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM. We learn about the disparity of wealth and how to best address it while also learning teaching techniques, classroom strategies, and overall basic financial literacy. A basic understanding of personal financial literacy is required.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 3880 Venture Acceleration Lab
This Lab emphasizes experiential learning in evaluating and contributing to “live” startup ventures. The goal of the Lab is to accelerate the development of ventures by providing a structured curricular setting in which mentors with industry expertise as operators and investors provide guidance to full-time venture founders. Undergraduate and MBA students learn through witnessing these interactions and through helping ventures structure their value creation and capture strategies. The latter is facilitated via instructor-led classes on focused venture development concepts. This unique Lab therefore brings together communities which rarely mix: startup founders, enrolled students as potential venture “joiners” and consultants, venture mentors, and technical/academic specialists.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 8880
Prerequisite: MGMT 2300 OR MGMT 2670
1 Course Unit
MGMT 3980 Managing and Motivating Talent
People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult, asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-winning authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people. Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change the your organization's architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization. This course can also only be applied towards unrestricted electives at the undergraduate level.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 7980
0.25 Course Units
MGMT 4010 Growing Social Impact
This course seeks to address a gap at the core of contemporary entrepreneurship: despite a growing desire to pursue prosocial goals and affect positive change in the world, most founders have little understanding of how to measure, manage, and scale their impact. This creates the risk that financial goals will play an outsized role in decision-making, particularly as the venture scales, leading founders to drift away from social impact aims - or to pursue goals that fail to deliver on their intended impacts. MGMT 401 fulfils the Wharton capstone requirement with a hands-on approach to addressing these issues. Students will work hand-in-hand with the founding teams of pre-selected startups from the Wharton venture community to develop a strategy for measuring social impact, and ensuring fidelity to social goals as the venture goes to market and begins to scale. Projects will be group-based, and will ask students to integrate learnings on social enterprise, impact measurement, and impact investing, with prior coursework on entrepreneurship, social impact, business ethics, leadership, team dynamics, and venture finance. Students will leave the class with a deeper appreciation of the potential for business to be a force for good in the world, and the difficulties that this can pose during the founding and growth stages of a new business. The class will be of value to students who are interested in creating socially impactful businesses, as well as to those who want to work in the ecosystem that supports such ventures (e.g., consulting, or impact investing).
Prerequisite: MGMT 1010 AND WH 1010 AND WH 2010 AND MGMT 3010
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 4020 Service Learning Client Project
MGMT 4020 builds on the foundation established by the pre-requisites in the Leadership Journey. As seniors, you will draw on the self-awareness you acquired in WH1010, the speaking skills you practiced in WH2010, and the teamwork and interpersonal skills you honed in MGMT3010. Moreover, MGMT 4020 serves as a capstone course by giving you the opportunity to work with a robust nonprofit and in order to frame the problems and address the challenges your host organization faces; in the process, you will use your creative and critical thinking skills, apply what you have learned, and reflect on your growth and development through iterative feedback and constructive coaching. As a highly experiential course, MGMT 4020 is relatively unstructured, giving you ample opportunity to demonstrate leadership by providing direction and teamwork by pulling together to deliver results for your host. MGMT 4020 will enable you to draw on your Wharton undergraduate education and apply what you have learned in a way that promises to provide real impact for your host organization and a meaningful and memorable experience for you. It is only open to Wharton seniors. In short, MGMT 4020 gives Wharton seniors the opportunity to: - Engage in a service learning and experiential course - Demonstrate leadership and work as a team on a real, host engagement - Think creatively, critically, and practically for the benefit of your host - Refine your interpersonal communication and presentation skills - Heighten your self-awareness through feedback and reflection.
Spring
Prerequisite: MGMT 1010 AND WH 1010 AND WH 2010 AND MGMT 3010
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 4090 Huntsman Capstone Study
The objective of the capstone study is to provide participants with the opportunity to integrate the knowledge gained in various courses Huntsman students take in Wharton and the College in a focused application to a specific project. The project would have sufficient breadth and depth to require participants to draw upon multiple analytical perspectives, theoretical lenses, and stocks of empirical data to collaboratively develop distinctive insights in relation to a given problem. The end product is a paper summarizing the research/application journey of the students, as well as a group presentation highlighting key findings as well as their theoretical and practical implications. Prerequisite: This course is only open to students in the Huntsman Program.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 4180 The India Startup Ecosystem
The objective of OIDD/MGMT 418 and the Wharton India Fellows program is to introduce Penn juniors to the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem in India through a course covering topics in entrepreneurship, innovation, venture capital and technology in India and then matching students to a specific short-term project with a Bangalore-based early-stage startup or rapidly scaling company. Students will complete preliminary work on the project assignment during the course, and then travel as a group to Bangalore with the instructor for a two week immersion in the company to which they have been assigned for their entrepreneurship project. Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship will cover airfare and lodging expenses for students selected as Wharton India Fellows for the duration of the 2 week immersion in India. For more information: https://entrepreneurship.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-india-fellows/
Also Offered As: OIDD 4180
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 6100 Foundations of Teamwork and Leadership
MGMT 610 is the first core course in the MBA Program and it cannot be waived. The first week of the fall term (in August) is dedicated to this formative and foundational experience. This course focuses on developing students' knowledge and skill set for teamwork and leadership. It is meant to be an intense immersion experience that draws strongly on the pedagogy of the Wharton Teamwork and Leadership Simulation, a team-based, highly interactive simulation that was custom-designed specifically to allow students to experience the core concepts they learn in this class. The three goals of this course are for students to learn: 1. Leadership behaviors: how to enact the skills that contribute to a team's effective performance. 2. Team dynamics: how to be an effective team member, as well as how to best design work teams; 3. Organizational awareness: understanding organizational culture. Format: A custom-designed Wharton-only simulation is paired with course sessions to deliver a unique learning experience. Classes will include experiental learning combined with debriefings, lectures, readings, class discussion and personal and group performance feedback. This course reflects the realities that informal leadership occurs in teams on an ongoing basis, that being a good team player is a part of leadership, and that many of one's early experiences with leadership will occur while working on teams. Because of the team-based nature of this course, and time intensive nature of this experience, attendance is mandatory for ALL five sessions of this class.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 6110 Managing Established Enterprises
This course is about managing large enterprises that face the strategic challenge of being the incumbent in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to balance the forces of inertia and change. The firms of interest in this course tend to operate in a wide range of markets and segments, frequently on a global basis, and need to constantly deploy their resources to fend off challenges from new entrants and technologies that threaten their established positions. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of established firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 6120 Management of Emerging Enterprises
This course is about managing during the early stages of an enterprise, when the firm faces the strategic challenge of being a new entrant in the market and the organizational challenge of needing to scale rapidly. The enterprises of interest in this course have moved past the purely entrepreneurial phase and need to systematically formalize strategies and organizational processes to reach maturity and stability, but they still lack the resources of a mature firm. The class is organized around three distinct but related topics that managers of emerging firms must consider: strategy, human and social capital, and global strategy.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 6130 Managing the Enterprise
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
MGMT 6240 Leading Diversity in Organizations
People in the workplace are constantly interacting with peers, managers, and customers with very different backgrounds and experiences. When harnessed effectively, these differences can be the catalyst for creative breakthroughs and the pathway to team and organizational learning and effectiveness; but when misunderstood, these differences can challenge employees' values, performance, workplace relationships, and team effectiveness. This course is designed to help students navigate diverse organizational settings more effectively and improve their ability to work within and lead diverse teams and organizations. It also offers students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking on topics such as identity, relationships across difference, discrimination and bias, equality, and equity in organizations and society and how they relate to organizational issues of power, privilege, opportunity, inclusion,creativity and innovation and organizational effectiveness. Class sessions will be experiential and discussion-based. Readings, self-reflection, guest speakers from organizations, case studies and a final project will also be emphasized. By the end of this course, you should be able to: 1)Evaluate the aspects of yo ur identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and how they interact and engage with you in organizations 2)Explain how issues of power, privilege, discrimination, bias, equality, and equity influence opportunity and effectiveness in organizations 3)Propose ways to make relationships across difference in organizations more effective 4)Describe current perspectives on the relationships among diversity, inclusion, creativity, and innovation in organizations 5)Analyze a company's current approach to leading diversity and use content from this course to propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness in that company.
Not Offered Every Year
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 6250 Corporate Governance, Executive Compensation and the Board
This course examines the relationships between corporate managers, the boards of directors charged with overseeing them, and investors. We'll review the responsibilities of the board, including financial statement approval, CEO performance assessment, executive compensation, and succession planning. While boards are legally bound to represent the interests of equity investors, in the course of carrying out this role they are often called on to respond to the needs of numerous other stakeholders, including customers, employees, government and society at large. With global brands at risk and mistakes instantly transmitted via Internet and social media, the reputational stakes are very high. The course is a combination of lecture, guest lecture, discussion, case analysis and in-class research workshops. We will review some of the theory underlying modern governance practice, drawing from theories and evidence provided by research across diverse fields, including finance, sociology, and organization and management theory. We'll study specific situations where boards and management teams faced governance challenges, and assess the strategies used to deal with them. Finally, we'll examine the ways in which governance arrangements and external stakeholder involvement in governance affects corporate social behaviorand global citizenship.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 6560 Global Immersion Program
The Global Immersion Program is a pass/fail, 0.5 credit course that is designed to provide students with an in-depth exposure to international business practices and first-hand insights into a foreign culture. In past years, programs were offered in India, the Middle East, China, South America, Southeast, Asia, and Africa. The program offers students the opportunity to learn about a foreign business environment by way of academic lectures and a multi-week study tour, allowing students to visit with corporate and government officials, network with alumni, and take cultural excursions.
Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 6710 Executive Leadership
Leaders mobilize resources toward valued goals. In this course, the focus is on growing the student's capacity as a leader in all parts of life. The purpose is to learn practical and customized lessons about how to improve performance and results at work, at home, in the community, and in the private self (mind, body, spirit) by finding mutual value among these four domains. The core idea is that leadership is about making a difference in all aspects of one's life. This course offers students the opportunity to practice the skills needed to do so, now and in the future. Students learn and apply key leadership principles and actively explore what it means for them to be real (to act with authenticity by clarifying what's important), to be whole (to act with integrity by respecting the whole person), and to be innovative (to act with creativity by experimenting with how things get done). This course is only available to WEMBA students.
Spring
1 Course Unit
MGMT 6900 Managerial Decision Making
The course is built around lectures reviewing multiple empirical studies, class discussion,and a few cases. Depending on the instructor, grading is determined by some combination of short written assignments, tests, class participation and a final project (see each instructor's syllabus for details).
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: OIDD 6900
1 Course Unit
MGMT 6910 Negotiations
This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills. Cross-listed with MGMT 6910/OIDD 6910/LGST 8060. Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulation/role play, and video demonstrations. Materials: Textbook and course pack.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: LGST 8060, OIDD 6910
1 Course Unit
MGMT 6920 Advanced Topics Negotiation
This is a course the builds on the basic Negotiation course. In this course, we explore a wide range of negotiation topics from crisis and hostage negotiations, to the role of emotions including anxiety, envy and anger in negotiations, to backlash effects for women in negotiations, and the role of alcohol in negotiations. We will survey many aspects of current negotiation research, discuss historic negotiation cases, and students will participate in role-play exercises. Many of the role play exercises will involve multi-party negotiations and afford opportunities to hone skills in team-based negotiations.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: LGST 6920, OIDD 6920
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7010 Strategy and Competitive Advantage
This course is concerned with strategy issues at the business unit level. Its focus is on the question of how firms can create and sustain a competitive advantage. A central part of the course deals with concepts that have been developed around the notions of complementarities and fit. Other topics covered in the course include the creation of competitive advantage through commitment, competitor analysis, different organizational responses to environmental changes, modularity, and increasing returns. An important feature of the course is a term-length project in which groups of students work on firm analyses that require the application of the course concepts.
Prerequisite: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7110 Competitive Strategy and Industrial Structure
This is a course in analyzing competitive interactions. The course emphasizes a vision of strategy in which each competitor simultaneously chooses its strategy, taking into account the strategies of its opponents. Crucial to this vision is the anticipation of the moves of your opponent and, in particular, the expectation that your opponent is (almost) as smart as you are. Equal attention will be given to the development of techniques for analyzing competitive interactions and to the application of those techniques. Game theory and the economics of industrial organization provide the basis for the theoretical constructs developed in the course. Topics that will be explored include: market failures and profitability, competitive bidding, signaling, entry deterrence, agenda setting, regulations, and price wars.
Fall
1 Course Unit
MGMT 7120 Managing Strategic Partnerships
This course explores the management of strategic partnerships between firms, which have surged in recent years in response to globalization, technological evolution, deregulation, shortened product life cycles, and intensified competition. Today's alliances drive corporate growth and change, and vary greatly in terms of partner type, commitment, equity investment, degree of control, between scale, and scope. They range from bilateral arrangements to ecosystems to outsourcing, often blurring traditional organizational boundaries and leading to the creation of globally distributed enterprises. In view of these contemporary developments, the objectives of the course are two-fold: (1) to arm you with a set of tools to facilitate the selection of an appropriate alliance strategy in a given situation; and, (2) to provide you with frameworks to help the initiate and implement different kinds of partnerships. The emphasis lies on strategic and organizational aspects in the formation and management of these transactions, rather than financial considerations. Alternative growth strategies to strategic alliances (e.g., acquisitions), the impact of these partnerships on competition within an industry, and regulatory constraints will also be discussed. In terms of its pedagogical approach, this is designed to be an interactive, applied, case-based course with accompanying conceptual readings to help structure your thinking. Given the nature of the course, we will also apply the lessons from the cases to understand the challenges and implications of relevant recent and on-going deals. In addition, guest speakers with experience in investment banking, consulting, and industry will be invited to share their perspectives. A group project is intended to give you the opportunity to apply your learning from the course to a context that is most interesting and relevant to you.
Not Offered Every Year
Prerequisite: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7140 Value Creation and Value Capture in American Business History
This course examines how the kind of firms in which most Wharton students will spend the next stage of their careers came to be as they are today. At a superficial level, the course's objectives are descriptive and narrative. But history, considered thoughtfully and critically, is never just description and a narrative and the course's deeper purpose is to give students some idea of how to think about the future evolution of firms and industries. In this the course is as much an applied strategy course as it is a historical survey. The course considers the development of the business enterprise as an economic institution. It also covers the evolution of competition and strategy, marketing institutions, some aspects of the history of operations management, and corporate finance. Issues arising in these different management disciplines are considered in part for the purpose of showing off their interrelationships. Questions of how value can be created and captured at the enterprise level form the core of the perspective. The course's focus is on American developments, since many of the innovations took place here, but there is scope for comparison with Japan and the leading European economies if there is student interest. Chronologically the course runs from Franklin's days through the early twenty-first century. The individual classes proceed through discussion of actual business decisions and performance in a series of challenging and otherwise interesting moments in the evolution of the American business environment. The materials are unusual for the Wharton School--they are not just often case-like but wherever possible draw on documents contemporary to the decisions such as correspondence, internal memoranda, minutes of meetings, old newspaper and magazine stories, and eyewitness accounts. The objective in this is to give students as minimally mediated access as is feasible to what the embedded actors knew and thought. The materials require thoughtful preparation. Weekly short writing assignments during the first twelve weeks of the term develop students' skill in turning such preparation into crisp analytical prose. (This will be valuable to most ex-students in the early phases of their post-Wharton careers.) The course as a process is much more focused on the students than many and the most productive experience of it demands that the students both engage with the materials when they prepare and then take an active role in the class discussion. The largest single element in the grading is a substantial term paper on a topic agreeable to both the student and the instructor. (To everyone's surprise, the lack of easy access
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2250
1 Course Unit
MGMT 7150 Political Environment of the Multinational Firm
All successful firms go global. This course provides a broad introduction to international business. You will learn about who loses and who gains from trade, what are the effects of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional trading blocs, and NAFTA. The course then turns to the international financial architecture, focusing on exchange rate risk. We then move to multinational firm strategies, including a discussion of the reasons for why firms choose to do business globally through trade or FDI, international tax strategy, joint ventures, technology transfer, different ways to be a multinational firm, and ethical dilemmas. The class is a mix of lectures and cases that allow students to synthesize the extensive materials on multinational management, international institutions, economic policies, and politics with a goal towards formulating multinational firm strategy.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7170 Deals: The Economic Structure of Transactions
This course focuses on the role of professionals, including lawyers of all types (corporate, tax, securities, etc.), direct private equity investors, corporate business development officers, and investment bankers, in creating value through transaction engineering. The overall goal of the course is to explore how private parties could order their commercial interactions, to develop a theory of how they ought to do this, and to gain a thorough understanding of how business deals are actually done. The course is offered in springtime terms only. The long first half of the course is devoted to analyzing impediments to transacting, including asymmetric information, exogenous risk and uncertainty, difficulties intrinsic to contracting over time, enforceability, and various forms of strategic behavior, all with a view to understanding the logic of the variety of techniques used to ameliorate them and more broadly to create distributable value through transaction structuring. These Part I classes are accompanied by exercises of various sorts. In the second part of the course, student teams apply the conceptual tools and techniques developed in the first half to analyzing the fine detail of a series of recently completed and interestingly complex transactions. Each team is given access to the original documents implementing their deal. A week of class time is devoted to each transaction. In the first (Monday) session, the student teams present their deal to the class, laying out strategic motivations, analyzing key structuring moves, and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of proceeding in the way the participants did. In the second, on the Wednesday, one or (usually) more of the professionals who worked on it will present the deal from the participant perspective, address the always interesting process questions, and take questions from the class. The requirements for the class are regular attendance, active participation in class discussions, a series of homework assignments and a short individual paper in Part I, the group presentation project and a group memorandum from each deal team on what there was to be learned from the Wednesday presentation their week in Part II, and a six-hour take-home exam.
1 Course Unit
MGMT 7200 Corporate Diplomacy
The share of executives, board members, and investment managers who consider climate risk, racial justice and other ESG issues as well as stakeholder’s opinions of the firm to be material to their business decisions has risen dramatically. If this business case for engagement with stakeholders on ESG issues can be demonstrated to mainstream investors, pools of capital can be mobilized to harness grand societal challenges. However, executives, board members, and investment managers are actually growing less confident in the ESG data available to guide capital allocations and strategic decisions. ESG scores have been demonstrated to be unreliable, incomplete and biased and often lean on outdated and/or incomplete information obtained through voluntary unaudited disclosure. This course provides students the latest tools to assess and map stakeholder opinions as well as integrate them into financial valuation. It also offers behavioral skills critical for stakeholder engagement including trust building, strategic communications and shaping organizational culture. In short, it prepares students to engage in Corporate Diplomacy (i.e., to influence external stakeholders’ opinions of the acceptability of a company’s operations at a moment in time and to convince internal stakeholders to adapt their behaviors, systems and outputs` when necessary to support an organizational mission).
0.5,1 Course Unit
MGMT 7210 Corporate Development: Mergers and Acquisitions
This interactive, applied, and case-based course explores the various modes of corporate development available to managers to drive firm growth and change, including alliances, outsourcing, corporate venturing, and particularly mergers and acquisitions. The objectives are three-fold: (1) to arm the student with a set of tools to facilitate the selection of the appropriate growth strategy in a given situation; (2) to provide insights as to how to manage partnerships like alliances, outsourcing, and corporate venturing; and, (3) to develop a comprehensive framework for executing M&As, from initiation to implementation. The emphasis is on strategic and operational aspects of these transactions, rather than financial considerations. Please note that you must fulfill the prerequisites in order to enroll in this class.
Fall or Spring
Prerequisite: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7230 Strategy and Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability issues are one of the defining problems of our time. While governments and NGOs will have to play important roles, without active involvement of businesses it will be impossible to make sufficient progress on these issues. Globalization and Digitization have been two major disruptive developments that organizations have faced (and are still facing). ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues are the latest large-scale development that will shape companies’ futures. This course will focus on the “E” of ESG. As with any large change, environmental sustainability poses significant business challenges but also tremendous opportunities. We will study these issues both from the perspective of incumbent firms that have to adapt their business practices and from firms (incumbents and new start-ups) that will take advantage of the new opportunities that are being created.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7290 Intellectual Property Strategy for the Innovation-Driven Enterprise
Announcing the first iPhone at Macworld 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously boasted: "And boy, have we patented it!" How, and to what extent, do patents and intellectual property really provide competitive advantage for innovative technology companies? What makes an IP asset strategically powerful? How do patents impact, and even drive, major corporate decisions including M&A, venture funding and exits, and entry into new markets? In this course, students will learn to critically analyze and answer these questions, gaining insights they can leverage in their future roles as innovation industry executives, entrepreneurs, strategist and investors. The course includes three major units. In Unit 1, Patents and Innovation Value, we examine closely the relationship between competitive advantage, value proposition, and intellectual property (particularly patents). We will apply our understanding of that relationship to critique and sharpen patent strategy to protect examples of cutting-edge technologies. In Unit 2, Patent Leverage and the Corporate Playbook, we study theory and examples of how intellectual property leverage strategically informs corporate transactions and decisions, for established companies as well as for start-ups. In unit 3, Limits and Alternatives to Patents, we confront the recent legal trend toward reigning in the power and scope of patents. We also consider the growing importance of data as a proprietary technology asset, and discuss options for adapting intellectual property strategy appropriately. Throughout, students will learn and practice applying the concepts we learn to decision-making in examples based on innovative real-world technologies and businesses.
Also Offered As: LGST 7290
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7310 Technology Strategy
The course is designed to meet the needs of future managers, entrepreneurs, consultants and investors who must analyze and develop business strategies in technology-based industries. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models and frameworks to help navigate the complexity and dynamism in such industries. This is not a course in new product development or in using information technology to improve business processes and offerings. We will take a perspective of both established and emerging firms competing through technological innovations, and study the key strategic drivers of value creation and appropriation in the context of business ecosystems. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and readings. The cases are drawn primarily from technology-based industries. Note, however, that the case discussions are mainly based on strategic (not technical) issues. Hence, a technical background is not required for fruitful participation.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7430 Work and Technology: Choices and Outcomes
This course is situated at the intersection of technological and social/human issues involving work. The first module “Technology and Its Impact on Jobs and Skills” considers the types of technologies whose impact concerns us and probes which deserve the characterization of “revolutionary”. We’ll examine past anxieties related to automation and evaluate the extent to which the “worst-case” scenarios about, for example, employment loss have or have not come to pass. In the process, we’ll sharpen our lens for which technological changes have effects on entire organizations rather than simply individual jobs. The second module “Intelligent Technologies: How Will They Affect Work and Organizations?” explores how these technologies are changing the structure, performance, and experience of work amid changes in how organizations are managing people. We consider how these technologies provide managers new ways to enact control and to induce commitment – and how workers (both employees and contractors) react. In the third module “Technology and Policy” we will examine the ethics of algorithms and artificial intelligence, proposals for a “universal basic income” (UBI) premised on the idea that technological change will lead to an unprecedented amount of job displacement, and the premise that “technology makes us dumber” by taking tasks away that have helped humans maintain a certain level of competence. Take this course to be ready to manage the strategic and analytic issues involving the design and implementation of technology at work - and if you want a glimpse into the future of your own work life. Students will be evaluated on class participation, in-class quizzes, written work and a group assignment.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7480 How to Be the Boss
Despite the press accounts about the "gig" economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that about 92 percent of the people working in the US are employees who are supervised by someone. That figure has remained roughly the same for decades. The term "supervisor" is sometimes used for the first-level of supervision in an organization, but in fact that role - and indeed the title - goes all the way up to the very top of any employer organization. Even CEO's are the supervisor of their direct reports. When people talk about their "boss," they are almost always referring to the person who supervises them. Supervisors are the central actors in accomplishing work tasks, especially in projects where they also have autonomy over what is done and how it is done. They have an extraordinary amount of power and influence over their direct reports and considerable responsibility toward them. There is considerable truth to the aphorism that people quit bosses, not organizations, as employee dissatisfaction with supervisors rates as one of the leading causes of turnover. There is little doubt that a bad boss can make the life of a subordinate miserable, while a good boss can do the opposite, i.e. improving job design to make work more motivating, providing support during difficult periods of learning new tasks and facing performance pressures, helping chart a career path, and mentoring in organizational realities. Being a supervisor is not the same as leading a team of peers. Supervisors have formal authority over subordinates that we never have with peers. Supervisors also have decisions they cannot delegate, and are personally accountable for them. Stepping into a supervisor position is challenging, especially so when it comes with a promotion in the same organization having to manage direct reports who were peers. In this class, we examine the role of the supervisor and the unique tasks associated with performing that role.
Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7510 Strategic Management of Human Assets
Successful firms often excel in the capability of employing and deploying human assets (resources) to achieve the effective implementation of business strategy. To understand this capability, this course will address two central themes: 1) How to think systematically and strategically about various aspects of managing the organization's human assets; and 2) What really needs to be done to implement these policies and achieve competitive advantage. In order to think "systematically" about this topic for any particular organization, we will consider the bundles of work practices and human resources processes that make up the overall system for managing people and evaluate whether these are internally consistent and aligned ("internal fit"). To think "strategically," we will then assess the relationship between practices/processes of managing people and the firm's strategy and strategic context, e.g. industry structure, competitive landscape, political, social, and economic environment -- for evidence of external fit. By paying attention to implementation, we will recognize that although many organizations recognize the importance of managing the workforce effectively (and even "know" what approaches have been effective elsewhere), firms and managers very often fail to implement these approaches. The course is organized in four sections: 1) Setting out basic frameworks for viewing the strategic management of human assets as a source of competitive advantage for firms; 2) Comparing and contrasting four different approaches to organizing human assets: "Control", "Commitment" model, "Talent" model, and "Collaborative", 3) Addressing the "make" vs. "buy" decision for human assets, i.e. when to upgrade the internal skills of existing employees (including promotion from within) in order to boost capabilities and compete in new areas vs. when to hire people who already have the necessary skills, via external hires and/or hiring individuals on contract; and 4) Analyzing the relationships among culture, HR systems, and organization change when faced with strategic shifts; leadership crises; rapid growth, and global expansion. The strategic management of human assets is only one source of competitive advantage. Yet many managers recognize (and many successful organizations embody) the reality that the competitive edge gained from the newest technology, the latest marketing strategy, or the most creative product design may be relatively short-lived as competitors rush to imitate and follow.
Prerequisite: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7650 Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Management: Practices and Institutions of Silicon Valley
This elective half-semester course will highlight venture capital and entrepreneurship in general and will explore selected aspects of this industry, including: industry trends and dynamics in Silicon Valley and the South of Market area (SOMA) of San Francisco; the recent emergence of alternative sources of startup financing, including incubators/accelerators and crowdfunding platforms, angel groups and stage-agnostic institutional investors; business and operational aspects of early stage companies in transition to mezzanine-level stages of growth; and company "exits," including both initial public offerings and merger/sale transactions. MGMT765 and MGMT804 cover separate issues within the same general industry and are not redundant. This course addresses issues faced by later stage VC backed firms, while MGMT804 centers on early stage, pre-revenue startups. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. The format of this course relies heavily on site visits and recognized leaders within the Bay Area to bring forth on-the-ground perspectives of a changing and important industry. While MGMT804 is not a prerequisite, the two courses are complementary.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7720 Power and Politics in Organizations
"If you want to test a (person's) character, give (him/her) power." These famous words articulate one of the many tensions of exercising power. Regardless of whether you have an appetite for power or disdain it, power and politics are likely to play an important role in your career. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to concepts that are useful for understanding, analyzing, and developing your political skill. But beyond discovering ways to extend your own power in organizations, we will also uncover lessons about ways in which power and politics can blind you, and how to navigate situations in which you are up against powerful people. Using a range of scholarly articles, cases, exercises, assessments and simulations, we will extract a variety of lessons relevant to your role in organizations. Topics include diagnosing power in organizations, building coalitions, change management, understanding networks, coping with intolerable bosses and incivility, and downsizing. Students will be expected to engage in field research for their coursework and final paper, and the course requires that students submit assignments for almost every class session. Thematically, this course highlights how your relationships with organizational stakeholders and an understanding of the organizational context are crucial to successfully navigating the political terrain of oganizations. Organizations are inherently political arenas that require social astuteness, and an understanding of the "rules of the game." This course is designed for students aiming to develop their leadership, general management and career skills through a better understanding of power and politics, and relates to other courses on these topics in the Management department.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7730 Managing Organizational Change
This course focuses on the nature and process of organization change, and how to be successful as a leader, implementer, and recipient of change. It emphasizes the forces for change, the change implementation process, the skills of successful change leaders, and the behavioral theories and management practices of how individuals and organizations change. All of this will help you to better diagnose, orchestrate, and implement the change agendas of organizations. After the initial session that introduces many of the topics and discussions of the course, Module 1 presents the foundations of successful transformations. The goal here is for you to get an understanding for how these major types of transformations unfold, how the motivation for change affects the type of transformation, how well the changes were instituted, sources of resistance, and how leaders are involved in the whole endeavor. Module II focuses on applications to learn the ingredients for successful change management and implement concepts from Module 1. We will start with a merger integration implementation. Next, we you will make a series of decisions to manage recipients of change by focusing on downsizing and privatization. Finally, you will test your implementation acumen in a real world-based simulation. Module III has two parts. The first is designed to expand your insights and apply them to the experiences of early career professionals who initiate, drive, and experience change as members of larger organizations or as startup founders. The course ends on how to build organizations that have the capacity to successfully change. To teach this course I use cases, simulations, and readings that integrate findings from academic research with practitioner experiences and insights. Importantly, the value of the class is maximized when you integrate your own experiences, and I am excited in anticipation of the discussions and debates we will have.
Prerequisite: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7820 Strategic Implementation
Much more is known about strategy formulation than its implementation, yet valid, sensible strategies often fail because of problems on the implementation side. This course provides you with tools to turn good strategy into successful reality. It covers the choices, structure, and conditions that enable the successful attainment of strategic objectives. Students learn from rigorous academic research on successful implementation, as well as a series of seasoned business leaders who will visit to share their own experience from the front lines.
Prerequisite: MGMT 6110 OR MGMT 6120
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7840 Managerial Economics and Game Theory
The purpose of this course is to develop students' abilities to apply game theory to decision making. Development of the tools of game theory and the application of those tools is emphasized. Game theory has become an important tool for managers and consultants in analyzing and implementing tactical as well as strategic actions. This course will primarily focus on examples useful for developing competitive strategy in the private sector (pricing and product strategy, capacity choices, contracting and negotiating, signaling and bluffing, takeover strategy, etc.). Game theory can also be used to address problems relevant to a firm's organizational strategy (e.g., internal incentives and information flow within a firm) and to a firm's non-market environment (e.g., strategic trade policies, litigation and regulation strategy). Recommended background in intermediate microeconomics or equivalent. It is expected that the student has been introduced to some basic game theory. There will be a quick review of the basics and some recommended supplemental readings for those who have little or no background in game theory.
Prerequisite: MGEC 6110
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7860 Reforming Mass Incarceration and the Role of Business
This half-semester course introduces current and future leaders to mass incarceration in the U.S., and its effect on employment and entrepreneurship prospects for formerly incarcerated people. We will explore both the challenges of our correctional system as well as potential solutions. For example, over 600,000 people return home from U.S. prisons each year. For most, the return is short-lived as two-thirds are re-incarcerated within three years of release. We will consider many of the reasons why this occurs, including research indicating that the lack of employment opportunities is a major contributor. We will also hear from those directly impacted by the justice system. By the end of the course, you will be among the more educated leaders not just on mass incarceration, but on how to think about ways that the business community can contribute to the success of those impacted by the criminal justice system. This course will also serve as a pre-requisite for a follow-up experiential course where we will teach business skills and financial acumen justice-impacted people, as well as help with their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7870 Global Management of Digital Businesses
Digital businesses enable users to communicate, interact, share, and engage in transactions. They enable individuals to shop, work, play, and learn, and they offer companies new ways of organizing their value chains, reaching customers, collecting and analyzing information, and creating value. This half-semester, 0.5-cu class deals with the international expansion of businesses through the use of digital technologies. The focus is on the tension between the eminent scalability facilitated by digital technologies and the ruggedness of the international landscape, shaped as it is by demographics, consumer preferences, culture, regulatory structures, and network effects operating at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The class covers both companies launched as digital businesses and traditional companies undergoing a digital transformation. Topics include industry dynamics, the impact of network effects, the sequence of foreign market entry, regulatory risk, strategic interaction, and global versus local strategies for both new digital businesses and established firms undergoing digital transformation. While there are no specific requirements, knowledge of the fundamental concepts of competitive strategy and global strategy is essential to follow this class. Students will learn through interactive class discussions, team-based exercises, and self-made short videos to pitch novel new ideas about digital businesses.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 7880 Managing and Competing in China
The business environment in China is characterized by both uncertainty and complexity. On the one hand, it is changing fast; on the other hand, it is influenced by deep-rooted political, economic, and cultural forces that exhibit tremendous inertia. This course will help students--as potential managers, entrepreneurs, and investors--gain the knoweledge and analytical skills necessary to compete effectively in China. We will discuss various types of firms in the Chinese economy--from large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to newly minted Internet giants, from prominent multinational companies (MNCs) to virtually anonymous local suppliers--and the unique institutions in which these firms operate. Such discussions will also help managers whose firms compete or collaborate with Chinese firms on the global stage. We will use a combination of lectures, cases, debates, and role play in class. You will also have the opportunity to apply your learning to real business scenarios.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2880
1 Course Unit
MGMT 7930 People Analytics
This course examines the use of data to improve how people are managed within organizations. Recent years have seen a growing movement to bring more science to how we manage people. In some cases, that means ensuring that whatever practices and approaches we adopt are backed up by solid evidence as to their effectiveness. Often, organizations will seek to go further, analyzing their own data to identify problems and learn what is working and what is not in their own context. This course applies the insights of the people analytics movement to help students become better managers and more critical analysts within their organizations. The course aims to develop students in three specific ways. First, it provides students with an up-to-the-minute grounding in current evidence about managing people, providing a knowledge base that can ensure that their future management is guided by best practices. Second, it develops the skills and understanding necessary to be thoughtful, critical consumers of evidence on people management, allowing them to make the most of the analysis available to them as they make people decisions. Third, it provides guidance and practice in conducting people analytics, preparing students to gather data of their own, and making them more skilled analysts. The course addresses these topics through a mixture of lecture, case discussion, and hands on exploration of a variety of data sets.
Also Offered As: OIDD 7930
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7940 Understanding Careers and Executive Labor Markets
This course examines the structure of executive careers in order to help understand how those careers can be managed most effectively. By drawing on extensive economic, sociological and psychological research on careers, we will examine such questions as when executives should move on to the next job or evenchange fields altogether, and what are effective means of finding jobs, achieving promotions, managing networks, and achieving work-life balance. The first few sessions of the course explore the basic building blocks of the career, outlining our knowledge on the different orientations that individuals take to their careers, how approaches to the career change as people get older, and how different kinds of job moves within and across firms advance careers. The second part of the course explores in more detail the social resources that affect careers, notably social networks and relationships with mentors. The third section of the course then examines a number of the most important and difficult issues affecting modern careers, including making successful transitions, the effects of gender on careers, work life balance, and international careers.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 7980 Managing and Motivating Talent
People are the most valuable asset of any business, but they are also the most unpredictable, and the most difficult, asset to manage. And although managing people well is critical to the health of any organization, most managers don't get the training they need to make good management decisions. Now, award-winning authors and renowned management Professors Mike Useem and Peter Cappelli of the Wharton School have designed this course to introduce you to the key elements of managing people. Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change the your organization's architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization. This course can also only be applied towards unrestricted electives at the undergraduate level.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 3980
0.25 Course Units
MGMT 7990 Special Topics in MGMT
Courses offered of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Business, etc.).
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 1980
0.25-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8010 Entrepreneurship
MGMT 801 is the foundation coures in the Entrepeurial Management program. The purpose of this course is to explore the many dimensions of new venture creation and growth. While most of the examples in class will be drawn from new venture formation, the principles also apply to entrepreneurship in corporate settings and to non-profit entrepreneurship. We will be concerned with content and process questions as well as with formulation and implementation issues that relate to conceptualizing, developing, and managing successful new ventures. The emphasis in this course is on applying and synthesizing concepts and techniques from functional areas of strategic management, finance, accounting, managerial economics, marketing, operations management, and organizational behavior in the context of new venture development. The class serves as both a stand alone class and as a preparatory course to those interested in writing and venture implementation (the subject of the semester-long course, MGMT 806). Format: Lectures and case discussions
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8020 Change, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Designed for students with a serious interest in entrepreneurship, this course will provide you with an advanced theoretical foundation and a set of practical tools for the management of startups and entrepreneurial teams in fast-changing and innovative environments. Building on the skills of MGMT 801, every class session is built around an experience where you have to put learning into practice, including the award-winning Looking Glass entrepreneurial simulation, role-playing exercises, and a variety of other games and simulations. The goal is to constantly challenge you to deal with entrepreneurial or innovative experiences, as you learn to navigate complex and changing environments on the fly, applying what you learned to a variety of scenarios. MGMT 802 is built to be challenging and will require a desire to deal with ambiguous and shifting circumstances. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. Format: Lectures, discussion, interim reports, class participation, readings report, and presentations, and an innovation assessment in PowerPoint format.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8040 Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Management
This elective half-semester course focuses on venture capital management issues in the context of the typical high-growth potential early stage start-up company. The course is fundamentally pragmatic in its outlook. It will cover seven principal areas relevant to the privately held high-growth start-up which include: commentary on the venture capital industry generally, as well as a discussion of the typical venture fund structure and related venture capital objectives and investment strategies; common organizational issues encountered in the formation of a venture backed start-up, including issues relating to initial capitalization, intellectual property and early stage equity arrangements; valuation methodologies that form the basis of the negotiation between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist in anticipation of a venture investment; the challenges of fundraising, financing strategies and the importance of the business plan and the typical dynamics that play out between VC and entrepreneur. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course. typical investment terms found in the term sheet and the dynamics of negotiation between the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist; compensation practices in a venture capital backed company; and corporate governance in the context of a privately-held, venture capital-backed start-up company and the typical dynamics that play out between VC and entrepreneur in an insider-led, "down round" financing.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8060 Venture Implementation
This advanced course on entrepreneurship focuses on developing a validated opportunity or concept into a venture that is ready for seed financing and/or launching the product or service. Participants in this course must previously have developed a validated opportunity, either in a previous course or through independent efforts. Students may participate as a team of up to three people. Ideally, participants are committed to pursuing their opportunity commercially, or at least to seriously explore that possibility. The course provides a practical guidance for developing the product or service, forming the entity, raising capital building the team, establishing partnerships, and sourcing professional services. After completing the course, you will be "pitch ready" - whether submitting to campus venture competitions or to outside investors. Most coursework is focused on applying concepts and frameworks to project tasks in developing the venture. Students must have successfully completed MGMT 8010 before enrolling in this course (or obtain the permission of the instructor). Format: Highly interactive Requirements: Class participation, interim assignments.
Prerequisite: MGMT 8010
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8090 Private Equity in Emerging Markets
This course investigates the private equity industry in emerging markets. The goal of the course is to give students a realistic understanding of the roles, responsibilities and analytical skills required of market practitioners, as well as the tensions that arise between various stakeholders, including government officials, investors, entrepreneurs and the press. The underlying premise is that the basic rules for private equity in those countries are similar to the rules in more industrialized countries, but market participants face a broader range of issues in areas such as valuations, governance, legal structures, contract enforcement and regulatory transparency. To provide students with a practical grasp of the issues, classes will be a mix of lectures, expert guest speakers and business cases. Cases will highlight the challenges and tasks at each stage of the investment cycle, such as structuring and launching a new fund, originating new deals, conducting due diligence, creating value, monitoring the performance of portfolio companies and exiting. Each class will focus on a specific topic, ranging from the basics of how and why private equity funds operate to complex issues such as fund governance and adding value to family firms.
Prerequisite: FNCE 6110
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8110 Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition
MGMT 811 focuses on the theoretical, strategic, analytics, and practical issues of acquiring a business. Topics include: locating a business, due diligence, reviewing and analyzing data, valuation, raising capital/financing the deal, search funds, structuring the acquisition, letters of intent, contracts/asset purchase agreements, integrating the target, acquisition growth strategies, and transitioning/exiting the acquisition. Format: The class consists of lectures, in-class discussions of cases, assigned readings, homework problems, case studies, and a group or individual project. It is recommended students take MGMT 801 before enrolling in this course.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8120 Social Entrepreneurship
This is a course on creating a business to attack a social problem and thereby accomplish both social impact and financial sustainability. For this course, social entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship used to profitably confront social problems. This definition therefore views social entrepreneurship as a distinct alternative to public sector initiatives. The basic thesis is that many social problems, if looked at through an entrepreneurial lens, create opportunity for someone to launch a venture that generates profits by alleviating that social problem. This sets in motion a virtuous cycle - the entrepreneur is incented to generate more profits and in so doing, the more the profits made, the more the problem is alleviated. Even if it is not possible to eventually create a profit-making enterprise, the process of striving to do so can lead to a resource-lean not-for-profit entity. Creating a profitable social entrepreneurship venture is by no means a simple challenge. Cross-listed with MGMT 212.
Fall
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2120
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8140 Search Fund Entrepreneurship
The objective of this course is to study the path to entrepreneurship through the acquisition of an existing operating business using the Search Fund private equity model. We will study the process through a series of lectures, guest presentations, assigned readings, case studies, and a final project.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8150 Sports Business Management
This course examines various business disciplines as they apply to the sports industry. The course provides the student with an overview of the business of the intercollegiate, Olympic and professional sports enterprises. In addition, the course investigates the business related issues encountered by managers of sports organizations and covers how business principles can be applied to effectively address these issues. This course is crosslisted with MGMT8150.
Fall or Spring
Also Offered As: LGST 8090
0.5,1 Course Unit
MGMT 8160 Building Human Assets in Entrepreneurial Ventures
The success of entrepreneurial endeavors depends, even more so than in larger more bureaucratic organizations, on the ability to locate and manage talent effectively. Specifically, on the need to find the right people and keep them engaged in working on the organization's goals. We focus in this course on leading, building, and maintaining human assets in start-up and small, growing operations. The course is designed with several key components, these are: conceptual and practical readings relevant to the topic; case studies illustratng key concepts and issues; lecture on practical application and examples; and lastly every class will also feature a presentation by and conversation with an outside expert whose work is relevant to guiding or advising start-ups and fast-growing small firms. We will focus on the following objectives: identifying the talent needed to initiate and sustain an entrepreneurial endeavor; structuring human resource policies and corporate culture to prepare for and facilitate firm growth; assessing the human aspects of valuing entrepreneurial companies; and responding to conflict and organizational threats within nascent firms. This course will apply recent research from strategic human resource management, personnel economics and organizational behavior to the practical issues of building and managing human assets in new ventures.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8170 Global Growth of Emerging Firms
Emerging firms are a critical element of economic growth, and a key source of gains in innovation and social welfare. This course is designed to depart from the U.S.-centric conversation on startups - with its outsized focus on Silicon Valley - and train a critical eye on some of the unique innovations emerging from new regional hotspots across the globe, with a particular focus on developing and emerging economies. We will discuss the challenges faced by founders in different global contexts, the components of a robust institutional ecosystem, and the ways in which creative solutions may flourish in response to local problems. Along the way, students will gain a virtual view into global startup communities, and personalized insights from firm founders operating around the world - from Bogota to Nairobi to Jakarta. The course will be structured in three primary parts. The first and longest section will discuss the Key Challenges for emerging firm growth across the globe, such as access to talent and resources, political risk, and legal institutions. The second section will highlight particularly active areas of Context-Driven Innovation that are thriving in various regions, such as financial technology, mobile health products, and clean energy. The final section will train Regional Spotlights on different geographic areas in turn, so that we may focus on the challenges and opportunities specific to various parts of the world. This course is relevant to both U.S. and non-U.S. students, and it is expected that students will bring their own backgrounds and experiences to contribute to lively class discussions. The course will culminate with a group project done in teams of four, in which groups will give short presentations to the class.
Fall or Spring
1 Course Unit
MGMT 8310 Entrepreneurship Launchpad
This advanced course on entrepreneurship focuses on taking your venture from a good idea to a fundable business. Participants need to come to the class with a validated idea that they are committed to pursuing commercially. The course is entirely oriented toward applying concepts and frameworks to advance your venture and provides practical guidance for testing the product or service, forming the entity, establishing partnerships, and engaging with investors. Students must have successfully completed MGMT 801 before enrolling (or obtain the permission of the instructor). Format: Highly interactive Requirements: Class participation, interim assignments.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2310
Prerequisite: MGMT 8010
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8320 Business Model Innovation Strategy
Business Model Innovation Strategy is a half semester MBA elective course which centers on the conceptualization, design, analysis and implementation of novel business models by incumbent and by new venture leaders as well as on the organizational challenges associated with a business model innovation strategy. Students will be introduced to a framework for developing and implementing a new business model. The framework will be brought to life through a combination of lectures, in-class exercises, numerous illustrations and case discussions.
Fall
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2320
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8330 Strategies and Practices of Family-controlled Companies
This course is designed for those persons who desire to understand the distinct strategies and practices of family-controlled companies and family wealth creation. It will focus on stakeholder decision making; financial and resource driven options for long-run competitiveness, organizational structures, management team issues; strategic planning from a resource-based perspective; transition planning for the corporate entity, family dynamics, communication issues; and leadership empowerment. The course is intended for those who plan to consult or provide professional services to family-controlled companies and for those planning a career in a family firm. The class is structured around topical lectures with frequent utilization of case studies requiring active class participation, as well as on-site and off-site project work time. Submission of several written case studies, and a term project are required. Open to Wharton MBA and Penn graduate students.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2330
1 Course Unit
MGMT 8710 Advanced Global Strategy
This class is designed to develop world class, globally-minded managers. Many of the most important business issues of today are global in nature. Both "macro" phenomena (e.g. nationalism, protectionism, demographic change) and "micro" trends (e.g. competition within and from emerging markets, distributed talent and innovation, digitization and automation) are inherently international issues. They require firms and managers to think, innovate, and organize globally. This class offers a comprehensive set of tools to evaluate opportunities and challenges in global markets, to leverage cross-country differences to enhance innovation and performance, to manage the complexities of a business spread across multiple countries, and to win against foreign rivals. The course will focus on both the formulation and execution of global strategy, with a heavy emphasis on current events and hands on activities. Sample topics include: quantifying opportunities and risks of foreign investments; formulating and executing strategies that balance local responsiveness, global efficiency, and innovation; exploiting differences across countries to enhance innovation while protecting intellectual property; managing organizational structure, culture, and people in multinational organizations; structuring and managing cross-national and cross-cultural teams; developing a global mindset among managers and employees. This course builds on the global management portion of MGMT 611 or MGMT 612, but taking those classes is not a prerequisite for MGMT 871.
Fall
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8750 Comparative Capitalism
While we often debate capitalism as a system, the nature of capitalist economies differ from country to country and rarely match up to the ideal. Why do these differences arise? Is there a pure form of capitalism? What is the nature of capitalism in advanced and emerging economies? Why are capitalist economies often embedded in other social systems? Why do some economies grow faster than others? How do international institutions and interdependencies affect national capitalist institutions? How are the strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) influenced by their country of origin? And how is the nature of capitalism changing today? This course provides insight into these questions as it explores the nature of capitalism around the world, with specific reference to Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, China, Hungary, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Israel, Argentina, and the advanced OECD countries. Students will leave this class with understanding key differences in how capitalist economies are organized and competition over the future of the world economy.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 2750
1 Course Unit
MGMT 8880 Venture Acceleration Lab
This Lab emphasizes experiential learning in evaluating and contributing to “live” startup ventures. The goal of the Lab is to accelerate the development of ventures by providing a structured curricular setting in which mentors with industry expertise as operators and investors provide guidance to full-time venture founders. Undergraduate and MBA students learn through witnessing these interactions and through helping ventures structure their value creation and capture strategies. The latter is facilitated via instructor-led classes on focused venture development concepts. This unique Lab therefore brings together communities which rarely mix: startup founders, enrolled students as potential venture “joiners” and consultants, venture mentors, and technical/academic specialists.
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 3880
1 Course Unit
MGMT 8900 Advanced Study-Ind
Fall or Spring
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8910 Advanced Study Project - Strategic Management
Fall or Spring
Mutually Exclusive: MGMT 3910
0.25-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8920 Advanced Study Project - Collaborative Innovation Program
Business success is increasingly driven by a firm's ability to create and capture value through innovation. Thus, the processes used by firms to develop innovations, the choices they make regarding how to commercialize their innovations, the changes they make to their business models to adapt to the dynamic environment, and the strategies they use to position and build a dominate competitive position are important issues facing firms. In MGMT. 892, you will learn to address these issues through an action learning approach. MGMT. 892 is a 1.0-credit course conducted in the spirit of an independent study. By working on consulting projects for leading global companies, you will develop and then apply your knowledge about innovation management and help these firms better understand the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies and markets.
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8930 Advanced Study Project for Entrepreneurial Management
0.5-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8940 Advanced Study Project - Multinational Management
ASP topics can be individually selected by the student with the advice and consent of any instructor in the management Department. All ASP registrations require the written consent of the instructor and appropriate course and section number on the registration form. If the student has the instructor's written permission, he/she is not required to obtain written consent from the Department. Students, however, should send an email to MGMT-Courseinfo@wharton.upenn.edu to request the course and section numbers
0.25-1 Course Unit
MGMT 8960 Decision Making in the Leadership Chair
Contact the Management Department for additional information at: Courseinfo@wharton.upenn.edu. Decision making in the leadership chair is a complex task and one that is difficult to teach in a business school setting. To bridge this gap, Mr. William P. Lauder and invited executives will bring their experiences into the classroom, primarily addressing key decision they made, how they weighed their options, and what they learned from the outcomes. The framework for the class centers around two crucial aspects of decision making in the leadership chair: the need to manage many groups of stakeholders, and the need to play many roles when doing this. This course is by application only to second-year Wharton MBAs and a maximum of 48 students will be selected. A communication will be sent regarding the application details.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8970 Global Modular Course A
Special course arranged for Wharton MBA students, focused on global business, management and innovation.
Mutually Exclusive: WH 2120
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 8980 Global Modular Course B
removing WH 898 as erroneous crosslist.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9000 Economic Foundations of Management
This course examines some of the central questions in management with economic approaches as a starting point, but with an eye to links to behavioral perspectives on these same questions. Economics concerns itself with goal directed behavior of individuals interacting in a competitive context. We adopt that general orientation but recognize that goal directed action need not take the form of maximizing behavior, particularly for organizations comprised of individuals with possibly divergent interests and distinct sub-goals. Further, we treat competitive processes as playing out over meaningful periods of calendar time and, in general, not equilibrating instantaneously. A central property of firms, as with any organization, is the interdependent nature of activity within them. Thus, understanding firms as "systems" is quite important, a perspective which has important implications for understanding processes of organizational adaptation. Among the sorts of questions we explore are the following: What underlies a firm's capabilities? How does individual knowledge aggregate to form collective capabilities? What do these perspectives on firms say about the scope of a firm's activities, both horizontally (diversification) and vertically (buy-supply relationships)? As a "foundations" course, readings will cover key conceptual foundations, but also provide an arc to current work --- an "arc" that will be developed more fully in our in-class discussions.
Fall
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9180 Personnel Economics A
This is a half-semester PhD course in the Management Department that is also open to any current PhD students at Wharton. The canonical model in economics views an agent as a fully rational, atomistic individual making optimal choices under scarcity. This approach has been very powerful theoretically and empirically to explain and to predict behavior in the workplace. This model has also been enriched to accommodate other phenomena arguably affecting behavior in the workplace like the social context (e.g. peer effects, altruism, or social comparison), non-standard time preferences, loss aversion, and cognitive costs. Incorporating these ideas into the standard model can be accomplished in various ways but the real stress test for these theories is whether they predict behavior more generally (i.e. we don't just use theory to explain one choice but choices more generally) and to generate empirical predictions that can be tested using experiments. In this mini-course we start-off with a tour de force of the fundamental principal-agent model and the various behavioral extensions. The core of the course is, however, not theoretical but a practical course on how to design field experiments to test these ideas.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9190 Personnel Economics B
This is a half-semester PhD course in the Management Department that is also open to any current PhD students at Wharton. It is a continuation and builds on MGMT 918 - please see the course description for MGMT 918. As in MGMT 918 we expand on the canonical model in economics and introduce views from behavioral economics and introduce views from behavioral economics to derive novel theories with empirically testable implications on workplace behavior and individual performance in labor markets and health. In this mini-course the focus is on continuing our review of the literature but the primary aim is to work towards a project description and paper that can be developed into a PhD chapter or journal article.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9200 Seminar in Human Resources Research
The class is organized around understanding labor and work. For management students trained in social science disciplines, there is a considerable gap between what we can learn about the workplace from economics, which relies on markets and incentives for its explanations, and psychology, which relies on dispositional attributes and social interactions. Managing people is arguably the biggest topic in the social sciences each with its own subgroups: labor economists in economics, I/O and personnel psychologists in psychology and organizational behavior researches use the work place as their central research context, work and occupations and career students in sociology. For the most part, these fields talk past each other and are largely unaware of what the others are doing. We try to bridge that gap a bit in this class, although by no means do we attempt to span the range of topics represented across these quite different fields. In most contexts, the employer has considerable discretion as to the arrangements that are chosen for influencing the behavior of workers and, in turn, their outcomes and subsequent attitudes. The management practices they choose are our main focus. They drive many of the most important outcomes in society - who gets access to the most important and powerful jobs, how much income will people have and how it is distributed, whether and to what extent we have control over our lives at work, and so forth. Most of the attention still goes to employment, but it is not the only arrangement for doing work, though. We consider others, especially various forms of contracting and the gig work organized around electronic platforms. To the extent that there is a common conceptual orientation across the class, it is analysis at the organization-level, typically used for independent variables although often for outcomes and dependent variables as well, and power as a mechanism. Many of the most important and exciting topics in public discourse are in our focus, from remote work to gig work to the influence of artificial intelligence. The range of new issues to explore is enormous. A caveat: the phrase "human resources" is a contemporary business term that began as a description of the set of management practices coming out of the "great corporations" and the lifetime employment model for managing non-union employees. Many of these are within the domain of I/O and personnel psychology, such as employee selection tests, succession planning exercises, and so forth. The use of these practices has declined dramatically and are now only one approach to addressing the practical problems that lie
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9250 Seminar in Corporate Strategy
This course explores current research on corporate strategy. Over the past two decades, research in the area of corporate strategy has evolved considerably. The fundamental focus of the field has been on sources of competitive advantage at the of the firm, and the process of building and maintaining competitive advantage. In this class, we explore current research articles that best represent the development of rent-generating resources at the level of the firm. Topics addressed include the concept of strategy, research on the evolution of firm capabilities, competitive interaction, top management teams and strategy formation, and changes in firm scope through acquisitions, divestitures and alliances.
Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9260 Seminar in Strategy and Organization Design
This half-semester course examines one of the foundational questions in strategy: the role of organizational structure in both supporting and shaping strategy. As Winston Churchill famously said: "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." This course examines this proposition from two traditions, the "institutional economics" and "information processing" schools of organizational design. We will examine foundational works from both schools, such as Coase, Williamson, Simon, March, and others, and then proceed to recent work in the area. Some of the questions that we will explore in the class are: why do firms exist? What determines their boundaries? What determines formal and informal structures within firms? How does the strategic context shape the answers to these questions? How might the nature of the firm and its boundaries relate to innovation, human capital, and knowledge creation? The aim of this class is to provide students with a grounding in the fundamental questions and contributions in this area, and to spark ideas for research in their own graduate work.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9270 Technology & Innovation Strategy
This quarter-length doctoral seminar deals with major streams of management research in technology strategy and innovation. We will focus on both classical topics such as incumbents' management of technological change and industry evolution, and new emergent topics such as ecosystems and platforms. The emphasis will be on understanding the link between technologies and firms in terms of both strategy choices and performance outcomes.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9320 Proseminar in Management in Qualitative Methods
This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the methodological approaches we commonly think of as qualitative, with special emphasis on ethnography, semi- structured interviews, case studies, content analysis, and mixed-methods research. The course will cover the basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and analyzing qualitative (i.e. non-numerical) data. In the spring quarter, the course will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on the theoretical approaches to various types of qualitative research, the other focused on the practical techniques of data collection, such as identifying key informants, selecting respondents, collecting field notes and conducting interviews. In the fall semester, the course will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on the theoretical approaches on building arguments and theory from qualitative data, the other focused on the practical techniques of data collection, such as analyzing data, writing, and presenting findings. Note: This class is part of a two-part sequence which focuses on qualitative data collection and analysis. The first of this course, offered in the Spring, focuses on data collection and the second half of the course, offered the following Fall, will focus on qualitative data analysis. Each course is seven weeks long. Students may take either class independently or consecutively.
Two Term Class, Student may enter either term; credit given for either
Also Offered As: SOCI 9320
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9330 Psychological Foundations of Research in Management
This seminar-based course, with active discussion and analysis, is required of all first-year doctoral students in Management and open to other Penn students with instructor permission. The purpose of this course is to examine and understand basics in the theory and empirical research in the field of micro organizational behavior and to build an understanding of people's behavior in organizations and across organizations. The course covers a blend of classic and contemporary literature so that we can appreciate the prevailing theories and findings in various areas of organizational behavior. This course covers micro-organizational behavior, focused on topics such as influence/status, virtual teams, job design, organizational culture and socialization, identity in organizations and overall look on where the field of micro-organizational behavior is going.
Fall or Spring
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9340 Foundations of Organizational Theory
This seminar-based course, with active discussion and analysis, is required of all first-year doctoral students in Management and open to other Penn students with instructor permission. The purpose of this course is to examine and understand basics in the theory and empirical research in the field of macro organizational behavior and to build an understanding of people's behavior in organizations and across organizations. The course covers a blend of classic and contemporary literature so that we can appreciate the prevailing theories and findings in various areas of organizational behavior. This course covers macro-organizational behavior, covering the topics of organizational ecology, institutional theory, organizational status and reputation, impression management, social networks and social movements.
Fall
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9350 Network Theory and Applications
This course explores network models and their applications to organizational phenomena. By examining the structure of relations among actors, network approaches seek to explain variations in beliefs, behaviors, and outcomes. The beauty of network analysis is its underlying mathematical nature - network ideas and measures, in some cases, apply equally well at micro and macro levels of analysis. Therefore, we read and discuss articles both at the micro level (where the network actors are individuals within organizations) and at the macro level (where the network actors are organizations within larger communities) that utilize antecedents or consequences of network constructs such as small worlds, cohesion, structural equivalence, centrality, and autonomy. We begin by examining the classic problem of contagion of information and behaviors across networks, and follow by considering the various underlying models of network structure that might underlie contagion and other processes The next two sessions address a variety of mechanisms by which an actor's position in a network affects its behavior or performance. Then, the following two sessions address antecedents of network ties via the topics of network evolution and network activation. We close with a "grab bag" session of articles chosen to match class interests.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9370 Entrepreneurship Research Seminar
The seminar seeks to expose students to theoretical and empirical perspectives on entrepreneurship research. We will focus on the main questions that define the field and attempt to critically examine how, using a range of methodologies, researchers have approached these questions. As we review the literature, we will seek to identify promising research areas, which may be of interest to you in the context of your dissertation research. In addition to addressing the content of the received literature, we will examine the process of crafting research papers and getting them published in top tier journals. Towards that end we will characterize the key elements of high impact papers and review the development process of such studies. Students are expected to come fully prepared to discuss and critique the readings that are assigned to each class meeting (see details below). Each student will serve as the discussion leader for one or more of the class sessions. Discussion leaders are expected to critically review several articles, identify new insights in the research that is being reviewed and evaluate its contribution to the literature, position the articles within the literature on the subject matter, raise discussion question, and act as the discussion moderator for the class session. Each discussion leader is asked to prepare a one or two page summary of the assigned papers which includes a statement of the main research question(s), the methodology, data set if any, summary of findings, a commentary with your thoughts on the reading, and proposed discussion questions. Prior to each class, the discussion leader will meet the instructor to help plan the class meeting. Towards the end of each class meeting, each student will be asked to articulate a research question that emerged from the session and describe the research design used to investigate the issue.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9380 Seminar in Social Entrepreneurship
This half-semester course examines how social enterprise organizations emerge, attract resources, and affect society. The course will bridge micro and macro theoretical perspectives to provide insight into the unique challenges faced by social enterprises, while also showing how the study of such organizations can help to advance mainstream entrepreneurship research. Individual sessions will focus on defining social entrepreneurship, the tensions and tradeoffs that emerge in organizations that pursue social and financial goals, impact investing and other sources of finance, and the role of incubators/accelerators in supporting the development of these organizations. This is a seminar-based course with active discussion and analysis.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9390 Seminar in Entrepreneural Innovation
This quarter-length course explores key topics at the intersection of entrepreneurship and innovation. While the course primarily draws from established theory and empirics from management and economics, it will also include discussions of emerging phenomena in this rapidly evolving field. We will begin by reviewing the basic properties of ideas that uniquely shape the sources and dynamics of entrepreneurship and innovation. Subsequently, we will explore innovation-related challenges and opportunities for startups. Special focus will be placed on research application in which students design and present their own research proposal broadly in the area of entrepreneurship and innovation. Students are highly encouraged to take this course in sequence with MGMT 937.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9510 Special Topics in OB: Theories and Methods
The purpose of this half-semester course is to examine and understand theory and empirical research in the field of micro-organizational behavior and to build an understanding of people's behavior in organizations. The course covers a blend of classic and contemporary literature to appreciate the prevailing theories and findings in various areas of micro-organizational behavior. We will cover topics such as identity, diversity/inclusion, work design/proactivity, extra-role behaviors, behavioral ethics/organizational justice, and an overall look at where the field of micro-organizational behavior is heading. This is a seminar-based course with active discussion and analysis.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9520 Seminar in Macro-Organizational Behavior
Organizations are ubiquitous, and so is organization. This half-semester course explores organization theory (OT) from the 1960s through the end of the 20th century. We will examine the proliferation of organizational theories during this time period (such as contingency theory, resource dependence theory, ecological theory, and institutional theory) and understand how each theory attempts to relate structure and action over varying levels of analysis. We will determine one or two additional schools to add once we discuss your exposure in other management classes to other potential topics such as behavioral decision theory, sense-making and cognition, organizational economics, corporate governance, social networks, and the like.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9530 Seminar in Research Design
This is an introductory doctoral seminar on research methods in management. The course is designed to help you define your research interests, to strengthen your grasp of research design choices and standards, and to move you further along on the path to becoming a skilled, accomplished, engaged, and independent research scholar. We will read about, discuss, and in some cases practice: framing of research questions, writing for publication, defining and meeting research standards, and conducting experimental, archival, survey-based, and qualitative research suitable for publication in top-tier management journals.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9550 Foundations of Multinational Management
The goal of the course is to provide you with a foundation in some of the major research areas that underpin the study of Multinational Management. International Business (and the study of MNCs) is an interdisciplinary field. As such, our survey of the seminal articles in the field will span a number of different theoretical and empirical approaches (i.e., economic, managerial, organizational and institutional). Much of our seminar discussions will focus on identifying and developing interesting research questions raised by this interdisciplinary literature, which offers many opportunities for systematic empirical study.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9570 Applied Research Methods and Data Analysis in Organizational Behavior
This is a half semester course where we review and apply fundamental lessons related to empirical research (both methods and analyses) in organizational behavior. The course will focus primarily on quantitative research. We will begin by covering the link between theory and empirics as well as core concepts in methods and statistics, including causality, validity, reliability, and statistical power. We will then shift to research methods, including design, sampling, pre-registration, and data collection. A key focus will be on maximizing different forms of validity, with an emphasis on multi-method research designs. Finally, we will consider a variety of the most important analytical approaches in organizational behavior, including regression, structural equation modeling, and multi-level analyses. This is an applied methods course, which means that we will be applying the lessons directly by using statistical software to compile and analyze datasets. The course will introduce you to the broad array of methods and analyses that OB scholars are expected to master in order to consistently publish in the field’s top journals.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9600 Non-Market Strategy
This course builds on the foundational material presented in MGMT 955 with a deeper focus on current research examining institutional influences on multinational management. These include regulative supports (e.g., laws, regulations, contracts and their enforcement through litigation, arbitration of incentive compatible self-regulation) but also normative (e.g., socially shared expectations of appropriate behavior, and social exchange processes) and cognitive (e.g., creating shared identity to bridge differences in values, beliefs and framing) elements of the institutional environment. We will examine not only strategic responses in the market environment but also influence strategies of multinational and domestic firms that seek to alter the institutional environment in which they operate. We will draw not only upon the international business literature but also related literatures including political economy, sociology, law, finance, communications, institutional theory, strategic corporate social responsibility, social movements, network theory and the management of extractive industries.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9610 Special Topics in OB: Making a Contribution
This is a complement course to MGMT 951, and it has the same purpose to examine and understand basics in the theory and empirical research in the field of micro-organizational behavior and to increase our understanding of people's behavior in organizations. To do so, we will cover a blend of classic and contemporary literature so that we can appreciate the prevailing theories and findings in various areas of micro-organizational behavior. In addition, for each topic we will then try to go beyond the existing literature. We will work to increase our understanding by re-framing the research variables, altering the perspective, bringing in new theory, and comparing levels of analysis. The purpose of this course is not meant to be exhaustive, rather it covers approximately half of the organizational behavior literature. For a more complete understanding of the basics of organizational behavior it is mandatory for organizational behavior students to have taken MGMT 951 which covers the remaining topics in basic organizational behavior. However, it is not mandatory to have taken MGMT 951 before MGMT 961 as they cover different sets of topics.
Not Offered Every Year
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9620 Multinational Firms Global Economy A
This is a graduate course focusing on the empirical aspects of multinational firms and international trade. The goal of the course is to familiarize graduate students with empirical work on multinational firms in the global economy, by reviewing the recent as well as older literature on this topic. Econometrics and statistical techniques for doing empirical work in international trade will also be discussed. We will focus on a variety of issues that are related to the multinational firm, beginning with trends in multinational activity, then moving to both horizontal and vertical theories of the multinational firm. Topics over the course of the semester will include patterns in the expansion of multinational firms, horizontal and vertical multinationals; the linkages between openness to trade and investment and growth; trade orientation and firm performance; technology transfer and spillovers; innovation and productivity; immigration; labor markets and multinational firms; and global value chains. This course has a mandatory attendance policy.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9630 Multinational Firms Global Economy B
This is continuation of Multinational Firms in Global Economies (A). It is a graduate course focusing on the empirical aspects of multinational firms and international trade. The goal of the course is to familiarize graduate students with empirical work on multinational firms in the global economy, by reviewing the recent as well as older literature on this topic. Econometrics and statistical techniques for doing empirical work in international trade will also be discussed. We will focus on a variety of issues that are related to the multinational firm, beginning with trends in multinational activity, then moving to both horizontal and vertical theories of the multinational firm. Topics over the course of the semester will include patterns in the expansion of multinational firms, horizontal and vertical multinationals; the linkages between openness to trade and investment and growth; trade orientation and firm performance; technology transfer and spillovers; innovation and productivity; immigration; labor markets and multinational firms; and global value chains. This course has a mandatory attendance policy.
0.5 Course Units
MGMT 9700 Research Methods in Management
Students taking the course will be introduced to the seminal readings on a given method, have a hands-on discussion regarding their application often using a paper and dataset of the faculty member leading the discussion. The goal of the course is to make participants more informed users and reviewers of a wide variety of methodological approaches to Management research including Ordinary Least Squares, Discrete Choice, Count Models, Panel Data, Dealing with Endogeneity, Survival/failure/event history and event studies, experiments, factor analysis and structural equation modeling, hierarchical linear modeling, networks, comparative qualitative methods, coding of non-quantitative data, unstructured text and big data simulations.
0.5 Course Units