Economic Fundamentals

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The course includes the following content:

• Basic terms of business administration
• The St. Gallen Management Model
• Types and objectives of companies
• Basics of management and external accounting (main terms, contribution margin, balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement)
• Organization and value chain (fundamentals and basic concepts of structural and process organization, procurement, production, marketing tools)
• Investments and financing (static and dynamic capital budgeting, equity vs. debt, equity measures, debt financing, credit assessment, private equity/venture capital, crowd funding)

In a business game, the processes of production companies are simulated and the effects in accounting are shown. Each company is managed by a team whose participants assume the roles and responsibilities of the functional areas.

In today's world, economic knowledge is an essential prerequisite for understanding the complex processes within our economic and social systems. Crucialis not a detailed knowledge, but rather the ability to comprehend and assess economic facts in their context. The aim of this course is to gain a basic understanding of the operational processes and functional areas of companies.

Theoretical and methodological know-how (T/M):

• Students know the basic economic concepts, basic economic models and the associated processes and targets, including key figures. They understand business terms and their application and are able to explain operational planning processes and the connections between operational functional areas (e.g. sales, production, financial planning).
• Students identify and determine legal forms of enterprises and economic activities from the different functional areas. They also understand and classify real examples and contents from the theoretical literature.
  Students create a simple balance sheet, profit and loss statement and cash flow statement. In addition, they describe key performance indicators in order to specify and evaluate goals.
• Students understand and analyze value creation processes and cash flows as well as entrepreneurial options for action, alternative strategies and variants for business processes.

Furthermore, the students receive training in their social and communicative competences (S/K) such as team leadership competence, empathy, motivational ability, negotiating ability and conversation skills, team ability/willingness to cooperate, critical ability as well as personal competences (S) such as decision-making ability, willingness to take responsibility, initiative, entrepreneurial competence, expressiveness and appearance, through the course of the business game and the discussion of the case studies.

Integrated course:

•     Lecture, discussion and free teaching talks,
•     Business game SysTeamsBusiness, reflection of the business game,
•     Group work

Final written exam, in which the theoretical basics are reproduced, arranged and applied in practical tasks.

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Main literature

• Thommen, J.-P. et al.: Allgemeine Betriebs-wirtschaftslehre,9. Auflage, Wiesbaden 2020.
• Vahs, D./Schäfer-Kunz, J.: Einführung in die Betriebswirtschaftslehre,8. Auflage, Stuttgart 2021.
• Wöhe, G./Döring, U./Brösel, G.: Einführung in die Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre, 27. Auflage, München 2020.

Further selected literature

• Becker, H. P./Peppmeier, A.: Investition und Finanzierung, 8. Aufl., Wiesbaden 2018.
• Coenenberg/Fischer/Günther: Kostenrechnung und Kostenanalyse, 9. Aufl., Stuttgart 2016.
• Coenenberg/Haller/Schultze: Jahresabschluss und Jahresabschlussanalyse, 25. Aufl., Stuttgart 2018.
• Perridon, L./Steiner, M./Rathgeber, A.: Finanzwirtschaft der Unternehmung, 17. Aufl., München 2017. 
• Rüegg-Stürm, J./Grand, S.: Das St. Galler Management-Modell, Bern 2019.
• Wagenhofer, A.: Bilanzierung und Bilanzanalyse, 14. Aufl., Wien 2019.  

In-class lecture: Attendance in the discussion rounds of the case studies and discussion of the work assignments as well as in the simulation game.