Economics and Management

Code:

EBE0199

Acronym:

EG

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Economics

Instance: 2016/2017 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Bioengineering

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIB	61	Syllabus	5	-	3	28	81
MIEQ	8	Syllabus	5	-	3	28	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

After approval in this course unit, the students should be able to:

1-a) Recall the definitions of the main perspectives on corporate strategy, and the concepts and structure of the analysis tools employed in each of those perspectives.
1-b) Use those concepts bottom-up in the ideation of technology based projects.
1-c) Analyze value creation in technology based projects, using those tools.

2-a) Recall the fundamentals of the time value of money, the essential structure of some of the key financial analysis tools, and the logic of their articulation in order to enable the financial analysis of investment projects.
2-b) Develop and analyze, in a rigorous way, simple financial forecasts and investment projects.

3-a) Recall the definitions of the key perspectives on operations, key objectives, and the logic for the trade-offs among them, in a supply chain context.
3-b) Use this knowledge to formulate and analyze generically operations strategies in simple supply chains.
3-c) Recall the definitions of the main concepts in systems thinking.
3-d) Identify those components in technology based systems.

4-a) Recall the definitions, classifications, assessment criteria and success ingredients of opportunities and entrepreneurship, as well as the rationale for their social and economic importance.
4-b) Recall the key building blocks for technology based products and businesses, and the factors that may limit an innovator's access to the returns from innovation.
4-c) Use these frameworks bottom-up in the ideation of technology based projects.
4-d) Use these frameworks to analyze the ability to create, deliver, and capture value, in technology based projects.

5-a) Recall the logic of the importance of enterprise and social interactions of engineering systems, and the need for systemic and interdisciplinary approaches to tackle those systems.
5-b) Identify those interactions and their importance in several engineering application domains.

At the end of the course unit, they should be able to, in a simple and introductory way, analyze of develop an engineering project beyond technology, with a wider perspective, considering multiple enterprise and social interaction issues, particularly along financial, operations, strategy, and innovation perspectives.

Learning outcomes and competences

The learning that will take place during the semester will focus on the following CDIO skills:

• 1.4 - Acquire management knowledge and develop the ability to use it to conceive, design, implement, and operate systems. All learning contributes towards developing this skill.
• 2.1 - Engineering reasoning and problem solving. Learning in the domain of technology entrepreneurship has the stronger contribution in this area, with work in the perspective of technology innovation as the utilization of knowledge to apply tools, materials, processes and techniques to develop new solutions to new problems.
• 2.3 - Systems thinking. Systems thinking is one of the learning cornerstones. It supports the integration of the diversity of economics and management issues, external and internal to the organizations. The work on the operation of supply chains addresses fundamental issues in systems thinking, namely structure, mental models, and behavior, among others.
• 2.4 - Personal skills and attributes. The learning in the are of technology entrepreneurship will be stronger contribution in this domain. We explicitly discuss issues related to the initiative and the will to take risks, the importance of perseverance and flexibility for entrepreneurs, the place for creative and critical thinking in identifying and exploring opportunities, the existence of information asymmetries and knowledge limitations, emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinary teams, and the fundamental role of time and resources management, which are particularly scarce and critical in the early stages of entrepreneurial projects.
• 2.5 - Professional skills and attitudes. All learning contributes to develop this skill. All the discussion is guided by ethics, integrity, and professional responsibility principles, and all activity is guided by requirements of a professional behavior. The contact with the enterprise contexts where engineering takes place contributes to the knowledge of the world of engineering, and for the construction of a relevant framework for career planning.
• 3.1 - Teamwork. The distributed evaluation components are teamwork. The learning in the area of technology entrepreneurship again has a strong contribution, with the explicit discussion of issues related to teamwork and its importance.
• 4.1 - External and societal context. All learning contributes to develop this skill.
• 4.2 - Enterprise and business context. All learning contributes to develop this skill.
• 4.4 - Designing. Learning in the domain of Capital Budgeting (built on foundations in Time Value of Money) has the stronger contribution for the development of this skill.
• 4.6 - Operating. Learning in the domain of Operations Management has the strongest contribution for the development of this skill, including the discussion of fundamental issues in supply chain management.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. A strategy perspective.
Definitions of strategy. The competitive-based view: industry attractiveness, five forces model, competitive positioning, value chain model. Resource-based view. Comparing and integrating frameworks.

2. A financial perspective.
2.1 Basic concepts of financial mathematics.
2.2 Capital budgeting and Analysis of Investment Projects

3. An operations perspective.

Resource, process, and competency-based views. Trade-off among objectives of operations management. Operational efficiency. Supply chain management. Systems thinking: behavior patterns, structure, mental models, and leverage points.

 

4. An innovation perspective.

Technology entrepreneurship. The challenges of technology commercialization. Technology-Product-Market linkages. Determinants of the appropriation of returns from innovation. Business models.

5. Engineering systems.
Technological solutions: volume operations and complex systems. Product and business concepts and architectures. Social functions. Enterprise and social interactions. Systems thinking. Interdisciplinary approaches. Application domains.

Mandatory literature

Apontamentos e transparências das aulas

Teaching methods and learning activities

Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
The course works in an integrated way with the Biodesign Innovation course. Jointly, the two courses have a lecture component and a project component:
- The lecture component consists of a 3-hour weekly session, and is taught through a combination of “practicals” and lectures from visiting medical device field experts. “Practicals” are didactic lectures intended to be interactive and problem based. - The project component comprises a hands-on 1-hour weekly section, consisting of mentoring and/or coaching sessions with faculty and mentors.

The set of two course units is taught by a combination of University of Porto faculty, medical device entrepreneurs, corporate executives, intellectual property attorneys, and venture capitalists. The course faculty run the coaching sessions and the mentoring sessions, meeting weekly with the team and providing feedback and guidance on the specific team project. As such, the course provides a unique opportunity to gain real world experience while still in an academic environment.

Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering
The course is independent. A weekly session of 2h will be dedicated to the presentation of the program topics, and to the detailed discussion of those topics, exercises, and the assignment. The work on the financial perspective will take place in a computer classroom, and the exercises and quizzes will be done with spreadsheet software.

Software

Beer Game with a difference
Microsoft Excel

keywords

Social sciences > Economics > Management studies
Social sciences > Economics

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	60,00
Teste	15,00
Trabalho escrito	25,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	42,00
Total:	42,00

Eligibility for exams

Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
Presence in classes according to the school's regulations.

Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering
Presence in classes according to the school's regulations and having at least 8 (in 20) points in the distributed evaluation component.

Calculation formula of final grade

Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
Evaluation will be carried out in the following manner:
• Deliverable #1 15%
• Deliverable #2 25%
• Deliverable #3 40%
• Participation in classes 10%
• Team evaluaton 10%

Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering
The final grade is given by 40% x AD + 60% x E, where:

• AD is the grade in the distributed evaluation component, which must be at least 8 (in 20) points;
• E is the grade in the final exam, which must be at leas 8 (in 20) points.

The grade of the distributed evaluation component is given by 62.5% x TP + 18.75% x MT1 + 18.75% x MT2, where:

• TP is the grade of the assignment (about operations, technology entrepreneurship and commercialization)
• MT1 is the grade of Quizz 1 (about Time Value of Money)
• MT2 is the grade of Quizz 2 (about Capital Budgeting)

The part of each component in the global final grade is the following: - TP - 5 points; MT1, MT2 - 1.5 points; E - 12 points

Examinations or Special Assignments

Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
The project will generate the following deliverables, integrated with the Biodesign Innovation deliverables:
• Deliverable #1: Product Concepts Oral Presentation and PowerPoint
• Deliverable #2: Final Oral Presentation and PowerPoint
• Deliverable #3: Final Project document: Lessons learned
The quality of the deliverables will be assessed by the faculty team. The participation in the sessions will be assessed in each session by the faculty team. There will be coaching sessions for the teams to present slides from their preesentations for discussion and review. The coaching sessions will be evaluated by the faculty team and will contribute to the participation evaluation. The peer assessments will contribute to the final grade.

Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering
During the semester the students should work on one assignments (TP) on technology entrepreneurship and commercialization, to be developed in groups of 6 students, with a deadline to be announced (first week).

During the semester, the students will have 2 quizzes:

• MT1: Quizz about Time Value of Money, in a computer, in groups of 2 students, in the class.
• MT2: Quizz about Capital Budgeting, in a computer, in groups of 2 students, in the class.

* dates to be announced in the first week.

For the students with the right to a special evaluation, the quizzes may take place in individually adjusted dates.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
Not applicable.

Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering
The students with the right to a special evaluation must take the quizzes and deliver the assignment. They are, however, excused from classes.

Classification improvement

Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
Not applicable.

Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering
The improvement of the grade of the distributed component may be done with a special individual assignment during the exam period.

Observations

Evaluation of CDIO skills:

• 1.4 - Acquire management knowledge and develop the ability to use it to conceive, design, implement, and operate systems.
  Assignments and, when applicable, quizzes and final exam evaluate knowledge acquisition and the development of the ability to use it.

 

• 2.1 - Engineering reasoning and problem solving.
  The assignments evaluates the ability to articulate a technology based business opportunity, with the identification and articulation of the problem or need to be addressed, the modeling of the components of value creation, appropriation, and delivery in the opportunity, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the various components of the opportunity, an analysis of the key uncertainty factors and how they can be tackled, the conceptualization of a technology product or service as a solution to a problem, and an analysis and synthesis of the opportunity's strengths and weaknesses. When applicable, the final exam evaluates knowledge acquisition in this domain.

• 2.3 - Systems thinking.
  When applicable, the final exam evaluates the acquisition of the fundamental concepts of systems thinking (focuses on the interactions between technology and enterprise and social issues in an engineering system). The assignments also focus on the systems perspective, as the articulation of business opportunities forces the integration of multiple interacting components in a complex system with technology, social, economic, and management aspects.

• 2.4 - Personal skills and attributes.
  When applicable, the final exam evaluates fundamental knowledge related to the relevance of personal skills and attributes. In the assignments the students will analyze the role that these issues have in technology based entrepreneurial project, and will have to use their critical thinking and time management skills.

• 2.5 - Professional skills and attitudes.
  The assignments foster the development of these skills and naturally enable its evaluation. When applicable, the final exam evaluates the acquisition of knowledge in this domain.

 

• 3.1 - Teamwork.
  When applicable, the final exam evaluates the acquisition of the fundamental concepts related to the relevance of teamwork. The assignments foster the development of these skills and naturally enable their evaluation.

 

• 4.1 - External and societal context.
  The assignment, quizzes, and final exam evaluate knowledge acquisition and the development of the ability to use it.

• 4.2 - Enterprise and business context.
  The assignments and, when applicable, the quizzes and final exam evaluate knowledge acquisition and the development of the ability to use it.

• 4.4 - Designing.
  The assignments and, when applicable, the quizzes evaluate the knowledge of some of the fundamental tools for Capital Budgeting. When applicable, the final exam evaluates knowledge acquisition and the development of the ability to use it.

• 4.6 - Operating.
  When applicable, the final exam evaluates the acquisition of fundamental Operations Management concepts. In the assignments some issues related to Operations Management will have to be tackled.

Type of evaluation
The type of evaluation presented above is applicable to the independent mode of work of the course unit, for Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering. For Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, the evaluation is distributed.

Evaluation components
The evaluation components presented above are applicable to the independent mode of work of the course unit, for Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering. For Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, the evaluation components are the following:

Name [Weight (%)]
Participation in presence [20,00]
Oral evaluationl [40,00]
Written assignment [40,00]
Total [100,00]

Occupation components
The occupation components presented above are applicable to the independent mode of work of the course unit, for Biological Engineering and Chemical Engineering. For Molecular Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, the occupation componentes are the following:

Name [Tempo (Horas)]
Autonomous study [42,00]
Total [42,00]