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Concordia University
Concordia University

MSc Finance, Management, Marketing, and Business Analytics and Technology Management (MSCA) Courses

Description:

The course focuses on systematic treatments of linear statistical models for regression, analysis of variance and experimental design with special emphasis on applications in business and economics. Topics include regression analysis: inference, model building, diagnostics, remedial measures and validation; single-factor and two-factor ANOVA models, and analysis of covariance. Other statistical tools for specialized applications discussed may include logistic regression, path analysis and time series regression. Case studies are employed to illustrate tools for fitting, checking, validating and interpreting linear models.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

The need to understand and interpret data is of increasing importance to managers, executives, and entrepreneurs. The goal of this course is to develop skills in applied data analysis for business decision making—there are questions in the world that we want answers to, so we design studies to collect and then analyze inherently noisy data to answer those questions. The emphasis is applied and computational, with mathematical concepts presented when needed. The course covers the most important statistical methods in micro-level management research: 1. Linear regression problems, 2. Generalized linear modeling, 3. Measurement, data reduction, and causal modeling, 4. Design and analysis of experiments, 5. Bayesian approaches.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for MSCA 602 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This seminar provides a basic understanding of the research process and a knowledge of the methods used in the design and execution of scientific research relevant to social sciences, and specifically the business context. The seminar helps students to develop skills needed to assess the feasibility and potential contribution of proposed studies, and to critically evaluate research reported by others. The application of relevant research methods is reviewed through discussions of exemplary articles published in leading journals. Cornerstone topics in this seminar include: theory construction, measurement, overview of data collection methods, reliability, as well as internal and external validity issues.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have taken MSCA 612, MSCA 613, MSCA 614 or MSCA 616 may not take this seminar for credit.

Description:

This seminar provides a basic understanding of the research process and a knowledge of the methods used in the design and execution of scientific research relevant to social sciences, and specifically the business context. The seminar helps students to develop skills needed to assess the feasibility and potential contribution of proposed studies, and to critically evaluate research reported by others. The application of relevant research methods are reviewed through discussions of exemplary articles published in leading journals. Cornerstone topics in this seminar include: theory construction, measurement, overview of data collection methods, reliability, as well as internal and external validity issues.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for MSCA 615 may not take this seminar for credit.

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

Permission of the Graduate Program Director is required.

Description:

Students are required to attend a minimum of three professional development workshops approved by the Graduate Program Director and offered in collaboration with different partners (e.g. GradProSkills). These workshops complement students' academic training and provide them with technical skills that help them succeed professionally and academically. Students must complete these workshops in the first year of the program.

Component(s):

Workshop

Notes:


  • This course is assessed on a pass/fail basis.

Description:

This course familiarizes students with the philosophy and method of qualitative research. It cultivates skills to develop relevant and feasible research questions and carry out tasks to tackle these questions. Beyond scholarly research, the course also covers applied uses of qualitative methods. Topics such as research ethics in qualitative methods, research project management, online data, presenting research findings, data collection aids, and multimethod inquiry are covered.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Qualitative Research under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course provides students with an overview of the BTM literature in a range of research areas, exposing students to classic and modern BTM literature that has been influential in the development of the field. Very early articles and more recent articles are reviewed. The main course objectives are to help students develop an understanding of the evolution of the BTM discipline and identify major research areas, including ethical issues in business technology management. The course will follow a seminar format and will focus on the discussion of assigned readings.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

The course covers essential ideas and techniques for analyzing and extracting information from large amounts of data. The course begins with the discussion of ethical issues in business analytics. It discusses both supervised and unsupervised methods, and covers topics such as dimension reduction, classification and regression trees, K-nearest neighbors, neural networks, association rules and collaborative filtering, cluster analysis, ensemble methods, boosting and bagging. Illustrations of the concepts and methods are given, and students gain practical experience in data mining with the use of popular data mining software.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

Students propose a selected research topic under the supervision of a thesis advisor. The written proposal outlines the thesis topic, its conceptual framework, potential contributions, proposed methodology and completion timeline.

Component(s):

Thesis Research

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: MSCA 694.

Description:

The written thesis requirements include the completion of an independent research-based investigation on a topic outlined in the thesis proposal.

Component(s):

Thesis Research

Description:

The MSc thesis is intended to provide candidates with an opportunity to carry out an in-depth investigation in a particular area of interest and to make a contribution to knowledge in the area. It is expected that the thesis will include a comprehensive and critical synthesis of the relevant literature and will also embody either a theoretical contribution to knowledge, a rigorous empirical investigation or both.

Component(s):

Thesis Research

MSc Finance Seminars

Each year a selection of specialized seminars will be offered on a rotating basis from those listed below.

Description:

Business recommendations ultimately come down to building a model and assessing the implied optimal action. This course will introduce students to seminal concepts on decision-making including utility theory, safety-first, optimization and stochastic dominance. Students will apply a selection of equilibrium models including No-arbitrage, Pareto and Nash using both linear algebra and calculus. In preparation for more advanced courses, this class will also introduce the concepts of information asymmetry, costly signaling, and agency theory. Time permitting, special topics in behavioral and neuro economics may be introduced.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

The need for data analysis in business only continues to grow as computational resources increase and big data becomes more commonplace. To help meet the demand for data- driven recommendations, students in this course will gain
experience cleaning and producing large structured datasets and conducting statistical analysis on such datasets. Students will use structured query language (SQL) commands to construct relevant datasets and then use these datasets to conduct meaningful analyses of relevant economic relationships. The course will make heavy use of statistical software such as SAS and/or R and will have applied assignments using conventional frequentist analysis used in Finance research. These may include univariate tests, ordinary least squares, regressions with clustered standard errors, two stage least squares, quantile regressions, event studies, categorical choice models such as Logit/Probit, and hazard rate models.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for MSCA 602 may not take this course for credit.

Component(s):

Seminar

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: MSCA 610 or equivalent.

Description:

Some problems in business analysis require less common and/or more technical approaches to develop a quantitatively derived recommendation. Building on the base of Financial Data Analytics I, students in this course will learn GARCH and ARIMA modeling as well as Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Students will also learn about certain ethical aspects of data analysis (phacking, data mining) when working with data and conducting hypothesis testing Assignments will focus on forecasting, derivative pricing and Value at Risk (VaR) and will make use of Matlab, R, and/or SAS. Time permitting, machine learning and neural nets may be introduced.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for MSCA 611 may not take this course for credit.

Component(s):

Seminar

Component(s):

Seminar

Component(s):

Seminar

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

More than one topic can be offered under this course. In such cases, the name of the topic will be indicated on the class schedule (under Topic e.g. Financial institutions).

Component(s):

Seminar

MSc Management Seminars

Each year a selection of specialized seminars will be offered on a rotating basis from those listed below.

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

Students must have completed 12 credits in the MSc program including MSCA 654 prior to enrolling. Written permission of the Graduate Program Director after a selection process is required.


Description:

Students provide in-depth consulting under the guidance of faculty. The Community Service Coordinator builds relationships with representatives of the host organizations, determines their specific needs, and develops a course outline to address them. Approved projects focus on providing a relevant service to the organization, experiential learning and three (3) credits for the students.

Component(s):

Fieldwork

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the topic Community Services Initiative under an MBA 661 number may not take this course for credit.


Description:

This seminar is designed to help students learn about theory, research, and applications in the field of human resource management, specifically with regards to the topics of: motivation, performance evaluation, financial and non-financial rewards, and employee well-being. The impact of these activities on international human resource management is also covered. Students become familiar with the dominant approaches pertaining to these topics, and reflect on how these topics are related to one another. Students also learn about how to conduct high-quality research on these topics, and how to use research to solve organizational problems.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course adopts the interactional framework of leadership, which considers that the leadership process is a function of three components: the leader, the followers, and the context. The course is structured to cover classic and emergent theories that address each of these components; though most theories focus on one of these three components, they also inform the other components in the model, either implicitly or explicitly. Implications for the practice of leadership are addressed through class discussions. An effort is made to ensure that students do not adopt a myopic view of leadership. Rather, different perspectives on the process of leadership are presented, that make radically different assumptions. Students are therefore required to identify these assumptions and develop well-articulated arguments that either support or refute these assumptions in order to develop a sophisticated view of leadership.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for this topic under a MSCA 652 number may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This seminar is designed to introduce students to the key concepts and important areas of research related to globalization, multinational corporate strategies, and organizations and management systems in both developed and developing countries. We start with an overview of international management and multinational enterprise theories followed by a discussion on important methodological issues for doing research in an international context. The impacts of national culture and national institutions of different countries on today’s global business environment are discussed as well. Specific areas such as internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, entry modes, international joint ventures, and management practices are covered. The seminar concludes by discussing future research trends in this field. A key goal is to articulate appropriate research questions, develop theoretical frameworks, design empirical strategies, and to write an academic paper using key components from this seminar.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for this topic under a MSCA 652 number may not take this course for credit.

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: MSCA 603.

Description:

This course equips students with the skills to evaluate and conduct quasiexperimental research designs in applied management settings. Topics covered include popular techniques such as multiple regression, fixed effects, difference in differences, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity. The course has an applied orientation and will focus on discussing the basic intuition behind these methods, as well as their relative strengths and weaknesses, rather than on analyzing statistical properties of estimators. The course also gives students hands-on experience working with and analyzing “Big Data” using the statistical software package Stata. As a result, students
learn to critically evaluate and develop applied management research.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course provides an overview of the diverse manifestations of contemporary entrepreneurship research. We review and critically evaluate the study of entrepreneurship across the contexts of new venture creation, family, social, sustainable, corporate, bottom of the pyramid and others. We cross levels of analysis—from individual to family, to firm, to network, to industry—and theoretical traditions. There is a strong emphasis on critical reasoning, empirical scrutiny and theoretical development. Students develop competencies in all aspects of the entrepreneurship research process, culminating with their own independent contributions to the field through a novel research paper.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for this topic under a MSCA 652 number may not take this course for credit.

Description:

More than one topic can be offered under this course. In such cases, the name of the topic will be indicated on the class schedule under Topic.

Component(s):

Seminar

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: MSCA 657.
If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the instructor is required.

Description:

This seminar is designed to present and discuss important developments in the field of strategy and organization theory. An in-depth knowledge of key topics such as corporate social responsibility, internationalization, entrepreneurship, family business, non-market strategies, networks, and other aspects of business management are the focus. Students are expected to demonstrate mastery of relevant concepts, theories, and empirical findings in strategy. By critiquing the variety of research designs and measures used to study a given concept, and by analyzing the contexts in which recent studies have
been conducted, students acquire an ability to propose research of conceptual and practical significance.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course focuses on the management consulting profession and process. The course is structured around three parallel streams and provides important concepts and ideas for the tool-kit of the management consultant involved in analytical as well as change implementation projects. The first stream of the course examines the consulting process, i.e. the five phases of a consulting project from entry to termination. The second stream focuses on core consulting skills, i.e. the skills required to operate and succeed as a management consultant. These skills are essential for any type of consulting engagement, whether one works as an external or internal consultant, and whether the client in a private sector, public, or non-profit organization. The third stream is a real world consulting project that students conduct in teams with a client firm in order to apply the tools and skills discussed in class. The course concludes by reflecting on the role of internal consultants and management consulting as a career choice.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course provides students with a basis for understanding and critically examining how to manage individuals in an organizational context. Key concepts include aspects of organizational behaviour such as leadership, motivation, work attitudes and group dynamics. Concepts central to human resource management are also addressed—individual differences and diversity, recruitment, selection, training, organizational rewards and strategic human resource management. The course introduces the current work of scholars in these areas, with reference to the classical roots of their research.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for MSCA 640 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course introduces students to advanced topics and current debates in entrepreneurship, strategic management and organization theories. First, it examines core theories and concepts of entrepreneurship and strategic management that enable entrepreneurs/managers to create new businesses and sustain competitive advantage for firms. Second, it explores how organizations manage change in their environment by examining organizational structure, inter-organizational relationships, and the institutional environment. This course provides students with a basis for understanding and critically examining complex organizations in contemporary society.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for MSCA 647 may not take this course for credit.

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously: MSCA 656. If prerequisites are not satisfied, permission of the instructor is required.

Description:

This seminar is designed to present and discuss important developments in the field of organizational behaviour. An in-depth knowledge of key topics such as teamwork, employee health, the work-life interface, leadership, decision making, and other aspects of workplace relationships are the focus. Students are expected to demonstrate mastery of relevant concepts, theories, and empirical findings in organizational behaviour.
By critiquing the variety of research designs and measures used to study a given concept, and by analyzing the contexts in which recent studies have been conducted, students develop the ability to propose research of conceptual and practical significance.

Component(s):

Seminar

MSc Marketing Seminars

Each year a selection of specialized seminars will be offered on a rotating basis from those listed below.

Description:

This course introduces students to core methods in marketing and consumer research. The course exposes students to experimental, quantitative, and qualitative research methods and motivates students to understand why and when each methodology is more suitable to use, how to conduct research based on each methodological approach, and how it is applied in marketing practice with regards to generating managerial insights and making strategic decisions. Students formulate research problems, identify appropriate method(s) for addressing research problems, design a research project, and understand how to collect and analyze data with integrity.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This seminar provides in-depth understanding of research methods used in consumer research. The course improves skills to evaluate and use these methods in addressing academic and applied research questions. Factors important for decisions in research process, such as measurement, sampling, analyses, interpretation, communication, ethics, and implications for affected stakeholders are covered.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Qualitative Research under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

The seminar focuses on the communication process between a company and its markets or other publics. In particular, it looks at how specific theories and theoretical frameworks can be used to answer specific questions related to marketing communications. Selected theories, findings, hypotheses and techniques from several disciplines are studied and evaluated in the context of developing a marketing communications program. Emphasis is given to mass communications rather than to personal communications.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course explores key theoretical frameworks of consumer psychology and behavioural decision using an interdisciplinary lens. Topics such as behavioural decision theory, hot cognition, evolutionary consumption, consumer wellbeing, and cross-cultural versus human universals in consumer behaviour are covered. Students also: 1) gain an understanding of the multitude of ways that data can be collected and analyzed when conducting consumer research; 2) Learn the theoretical, methodological, and epistemological metrics by which good science is judged, and sound scientific explanations are constructed.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Qualitative Research under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course provides an overview of the marketing literature on innovation and the marketing of innovations. The course covers topics such as the creation, diffusion, management, and marketing of innovation. Students develop academic and strategic understanding of the process of innovation, and learn how to contextualize the role of innovation in building a firm’s competitive advantage, and in society more broadly.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course focuses on pricing strategies and the literature on behavioural responses to pricing cues. It covers topics such as price presentation, different kinds of price promotion, price partitioning and bundling. The course provides students with an understanding of the issues involved in setting prices as well as the psychology underlying consumers’ perceptions of price and value.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • This course is equivalent to MSCA 672 Seminar in Pricing. Students who have received credit for MSCA 672 Seminar in Pricing may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course introduces different perspectives to strategic relationship marketing. Students develop critical thinking skills about the complexities of interdisciplinary research. Topics such as design, enhancement, co-creation of service experience, service logic, service systems, and ethics are covered. Students also enhance their communication skills, and understanding of deontology practices, and the societal responsibility of teaching and researching.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Relationship Marketing Strategy under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

Special topics in marketing are covered. The specific course description is made available prior to the registration period.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Subject matter will vary from term to term and students may take more than one of these courses, provided that course content has changed.

Description:

This course focuses on statistical models that researchers use in segmentation and positioning strategies in marketing. Students are exposed to various models (e.g., principal component analysis, factor analysis, correspondence analysis, internal and external analysis of preferences, conjoint analysis, discrete choice models and various types of cluster analysis) with hands-on data analysis through assignments.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Segmentation and Positioning in Marketing may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This specialized MSc seminar in marketing introduces students to academic research in the domain of branding. Students develop theoretical knowledge and critical evaluation skills allowing them to pursue research, managerial, or consulting careers that touch upon brand management issues.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Brand Management under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This specialized M.Sc. seminar in marketing introduces students to academic research in the domain of retailing. Students develop theoretical knowledge and critical evaluation skills allowing them to pursue research, managerial, or consulting careers that touches upon retailing issues.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Research in Retailing under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This course provides an overview of marketing literature on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The focus is on the impact of marketing decisions and consumer behaviour on consumer and public welfare and firm performance. The course covers broad societal concerns, such as environmental, social, and consumer outcomes of consumption. The course provides an overview of literature and helps students develop fundamental understanding of the research in sustainability and social responsibility in marketing.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


  • Students who have received credit for the Seminar in Sustainability in Marketing under MSCA 672 may not take this course for credit.

Description:

This seminar focuses on how marketing research supports complex decisions that benefit multiple stakeholders. Students gain skills to articulate real-world marketing problems into marketing research questions, identify and critically assess managerial, conceptual, and ethical implications of a marketing research project. Topics such as translating research questions to hypotheses, sampling principles, measurement, ethical guidelines in research and best practices are covered.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course introduces students to essential theories and frameworks in significant substantive areas of marketing. As a foundational course, this course provides students with the groundwork knowledge and analytical skills that are necessary for more specialized courses. Another course objective is to introduce students to key expertise topics within the marketing department to facilitate their supervision selection. Specifically, students critically engage with areas that constitute diverse expertise within the marketing department while getting a big-picture view of the discipline.

Component(s):

Seminar

MSc Business Analytics and Technology Management Seminars

Each year a selection of specialized seminars will be offered on a rotating basis from those listed below.

Prerequisite/Corequisite:

The following course must be completed previously or concurrently: MSCA 602 or equivalent.

Description:

The course is planned to provide students with practical knowledge of analyzing multivariate data arising in business applications and research. The multivariate methods of data analysis provide an effective approach to describe and understand structure and the relationships between variables of interest. A wide range of statistical methods most commonly used in practice is introduced. The topics covered include methods of dimensionality reduction to better visualize and understand complex data, structured approaches in studying inter-relationships between the measured variables, analysis of their dependency and various classification techniques. Extensions of the analyses of experimental designs to include multi-dimensional responses are also considered. Examples from business and other disciplines are analyzed with the extensive use of statistical software. The focus of the course is on data analysis and results interpretation rather than the mathematical theory of multivariate methods.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course investigates how organizations compete by leveraging digital technology and transformative IT strategy. The course covers topics such as strategic management of IT, digital strategy, and digital innovation and transformation. The course offers an opportunity to explore traditional and contemporary literature in IT strategy formulation and implementation. The course follows a research seminar format and includes discussion of academic as well as practitioner issues.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course provides a comprehensive foundation for designing, building, and working with databases, enabling students to understand and use commercially available database products effectively. The course examines different models of representing data with emphasis on the relational model. Topics include data modeling, database design, queries, transaction management, implementation issues, and an overview of distributed database management systems, data warehouses, databases in electronic commerce, database administration, and knowledge management. Examples are drawn from various functional and operational areas including enterprise and supply chain operations, management, and planning.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

This course covers advanced data mining concepts and algorithms for analyzing and extracting information from large amounts of data. The course covers topics such as deep neural networks, text mining, social media analytics, graphical models and Bayesian learning. In addition, the course covers advanced data visualization techniques. The course includes the discussion of theoretical concepts and analysis based on real-world data.

Component(s):

Seminar

Description:

More than one topic can be offered under this course. In such cases, the name of the topic will be indicated on the class schedule under Topic.

Component(s):

Seminar

Notes:


Description:

This course includes advanced topics in information systems design, development, and implementation. Topics include information systems development lifecycle, information systems development methodologies, information/data management, information security, and information systems deployment and implementation techniques. The course will include the discussion of theoretical concepts and analysis based on academic and practitioner literature.

Component(s):

Seminar

 
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