Learning objectives
General educational objective
The Economics and Business Organization course aims to introduce students to the main models and tools for business management, providing a conceptual and operational framework for understanding how companies function, as well as the conditions that govern their survival and growth. First, the course will explore the interactions between the company and its external environment, as well as the governance systems it can adopt to achieve its objectives. Then, the course will examine the sources of information used by management to assess the impact of strategic and operational decisions, addressing issues related to decision-making systems necessary to ensure alignment between decisions and objectives.
Knowledge and understanding
By the end of the course, students should possess an in-depth knowledge of the fundamental principles of business economics. Through lectures, they will gain skills in financial statement analysis, costing methods, and industrial investment evaluation.
Application of knowledge and understanding
Through practical exercises, students will learn to apply their acquired knowledge in real business contexts. They will be able to prepare, read, and analyze financial statements, calculate the cost of a product or service, and assess the feasibility of investment projects.
Independent judgment
Students should be able to critically evaluate a company’s overall performance, analyze financial data, and determine the viability of certain products or investment projects.
Communication skills
Through lectures and interactions with the instructor, students will acquire the specific terminology of business economics. By the end of the course, they should be able to communicate key content both orally and in writing, and to clearly present the results of their economic analyses and evaluations.
Learning skills
Students will be able to independently deepen their knowledge of business economics by consulting specialized texts, scientific journals, and other resources beyond the topics covered in class. This will prepare them both for entry into the workforce and for further educational pursuits.
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The Economics and Business Organization course aims to introduce students to the use of conceptual tools and operational techniques to understand and address the economic aspects of businesses. The course is divided into three main parts:
I) Financial statements: in this section, students will examine both theoretically and practically the statutory and reformulated models of financial statements. Yhe foundations for conducting an analysis of the main financial ratios will be provided.
II) Cost analysis: after introducing the concept of cost and the main classification criteria, costing methodologies (full costing and direct costing) will be explored in depth, as well as the principles underlying cost-volume-profit analysis.
III) Investment evaluation: in the final part of the course, the main financial tools for evaluating industrial investments will be presented
Full programme
PART I: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Basic accounting principles; the balance sheet and income statement; statutory financial statements; the income statement and its classifications.
PART II: COSTS
Classification of costs based on their behavior; contribution margin and the relationships between income and volume; full costing and its application; cost determination systems for job-order and process costing.
PART III: INVESTMENT EVALUATION
Investment selection; essential elements for investment evaluation; alternative methods to NPV (Net Present Value).
Bibliography
The recommended textbook for the course is “Economia e Organizzazione Aziendale" (a.a. 2020-21, Barbara Bigliardi, Create McGrawHill – ISBN 9781307678376. Additionally, every week, the instructor will provide (in PDF format and on the course page on the Elly platform) the slides presented during the lessons, the texts of the exercises completed in class along with the corresponding solutions, and other supplementary materials used in the lessons.
Teaching methods
The course employs a combination of theoretical lectures and practical exercises, alternating between traditional teaching and interactive sessions with students.
During the theoretical lectures, the main models and tools for business management will be discussed, with the aim of providing a conceptual and operational framework of how companies function, as well as the conditions governing their survival and growth. To this end, the lectures first provide a broad perspective on the company’s interactions with the external environment and the governance systems it can adopt to pursue its objectives. Subsequently, they present the sources of information used by management to evaluate the impact of the company’s strategic and operational decisions, also addressing the decision-making systems through which the company seeks to ensure alignment between decisions and objectives.
In the practical exercises, students will have the opportunity to apply the solutions to problems outlined theoretically in the lectures. In addition to regular exercises, mock exams will also be scheduled. During these mock exams, students will be asked to work completely independently (as they would in the actual exam) to solve exam questions. The mock exams will not be graded; they serve as a self-assessment tool: each student can assess their level of preparation and understand, for instance, which part of the syllabus or type of exercise they should focus on in preparation for the exam. These also serve as practice for managing time effectively during the exam.
The slides used during the lectures will be uploaded weekly to the Elly platform. To download them, students must register for the course online. The slides are considered an essential part of the course materials. Non-attending students are encouraged to regularly check the available course materials and the instructor’s communications on the Elly platform.
Lectures and exercises will take place in person. In the event of a health emergency, teaching activities may not be held in person but in alternative forms such as a hybrid mode (with a limited number of students present in the classroom and simultaneous streaming) or entirely online. Information regarding such emergency measures will be published on the website www.unipr.it.
Assessment methods and criteria
The final assessment of students' preparation consists of a written exam covering the course content, including lectures, the reference textbook, and any documents uploaded to the Elly platform during the course. The exam consists of 20 questions covering the entire syllabus, and there are no penalties for incorrect answers. The final grade will be communicated after the written exam directly on Esse3. Students are required to register for the exam exclusively online (https://unipr.esse3.cineca.it) up to 7 days before the exam date.
For students attending the course, it is also possible to take two in-course tests (the first around the course midpoint covering Part I of the syllabus, and the second near the end of the course covering Parts II and III of the syllabus) as an alternative to the final exam. The dates for the in-course tests will be set at the beginning of the course. The in-course tests will have the same structure as the final exam. The final grade for the in-course tests will be communicated to students via Elly. It is mandatory to register for the first in-course test, for which a specific registration procedure will be opened on the course's Elly page. Students will be notified by email of the opening of registration and the deadline by which to register. Only students who passed the first in-course test with a satisfactory grade will automatically qualify for the second in-course test (registration for the second test will not be required).
During the exam and in-course tests, the use of a non-programmable calculator is allowed, but phones, smartwatches, books, notes, handouts, or any other study materials are not permitted.
During the academic year, there are 7 exam sessions, divided into the following three periods: January/February and March/April, June/July, and September. Of these, 3 sessions will be held immediately following the course (January/February), and 2 in each of the remaining two periods.
Other information
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2030 agenda goals for sustainable development
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