Business School

The global nature of business is indisputable. This course introduces the students to the complexity of the global environment and adopts a multi-dimensional view (cultural, economic, social, legal, political, and technological) of world economy. It promotes understanding the global environment as integrative forces affecting the success or failure of today’s businesses and fosters a global perspective. Topics may include an overview of the world economy, comparative advantage and international trade, cultural distance, FDI/ globalization theory, outsourcing and global supply chain coordination, political and country risk, the global monetary system and currency risk, legal and ethical issues, and risk management.

This course is designed to broaden student perspectives on business through experiential learning in entrepreneurship, finance, strategy and marketing, organizational behavior, and operations. By exposing students to various business disciplines and a wide range of firms and business models, we intend to accelerate student impact through an engaging, immersive experience. During onand off-site situation workshops, students will engage with practitioners to discuss business challenges and decisions in a small-group format. Students will also be matched with alumni to de-brief topics related to cases and prepare a learning portfolio as a culminating assignment. By the end of the course students will have a broader understanding of business domains, increased business fluency, and a better understanding of decision-making within a relevant business context. 

This course addresses the impact of law on business. The course covers fundamental areas of business law, such as torts, contracts, intellectual property, and legal forms of business organizations, and their effects on business decisions. Particular attention is paid to technology-based enterprises where global business issues intersect with law.

This course builds upon students’ understanding of statistics and introduces them to the concepts and methods for analyzing data to support business decision-making. Students will explore data sets using data mining and analytics techniques to create business intelligence, to be used for understanding and improving customers’ experiences, supply chain operations, product management, etc. During the course, students will develop an understanding of the uses of business data analytics and associated models for business decision-making, forecasting, and obtaining and maintaining a competitive advantage. Students will learn a comprehensive set of advanced spreadsheet skills, including how to design, build, test, and use spreadsheets for analyzing business decisions.

This course is designed for the senior student who wishes to acquire or strengthen important skills needed for organizational success. Among the subjects covered is power in organizations, what it is, and how to acquire and appropriately use it. Additionally, this course emphasizes presentation skills, organizational etiquette, cross-cultural communication, and the knowledge of current events. The student will be expected to be familiar with and use all forms of media information for both individual and group projects. The course may be counted as a 4000-level elective for BU, MGE, or MIS, or as a Free Elective for any student at WPI.