72661 - Measuring Management Performance

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the 'the language of business'. Managing a business is extensively involved in the planning, coordination and control of complex organisations and is increasingly the result of working within networks of organisations competing on a global scale. A knowledge of the underlying concepts of management, accounting, finance, in addition to some of their approaches and procedures, is an essential element in the education of future managers and other professionals to think in terms of performance. The underlying perspective is that management, accounting and finance are concerned with more than just computational skills. Both subjects are central to the way in which management, shareholders and various other stakeholders understand and seek to change and control the nature of organisations, as well as to how the market allocates finance to firms. The course provides an introduction to the basic concepts, methods and practices aimed at measuring the corporate performance. By the end of this course the learning outcomes in the hand of the student are: an understanding of the concept of corporate performance, basic competences in accounting, analysis/interpretation of financial statements, analysis of financial performance, knowledge of how the agro-food companies manage the relations within the agro-food system.

Course contents

The course is organised in four modules.

1)     Organization and management - This module addresses the nature and purpose of a business, what a business seeks to achieve, how it is organized, how it is managed, the role of accounting for taking decisions and measuring performance.

2)     Concept of performance and taking decision – This module addresses the use of financial and non-financial performance measures. In particular, definition of performance, performance concept according to the various environments, performance and marketing, performance among the different operations, performance within the chain, costs and break-even point, pricing and elasticity, target price and pricing strategies.

3)     Value performance within the agro-food system - This module addresses intra- and inter-organizational management issues along the food chain from a corporate, trade and institutional perspective.

4)     Budgeting and balance sheet - This module addresses the planning and budgeting practices, examines how management accounting serves the needs of short- and long-term decision making, with a special focus on capital budgeting and investment appraisal.

Prerequisites: none

Readings/Bibliography

R.D. Kay, W.M. Edwards, P.A. Duffy (2004), Farm Management, Mc Graw Hill

A. Neely (2007), Business Performance Measurement, Cambridge, 2nd edition

P. Atrill and E. Mclaney (2012), Management Accounting For Decision Makers, Pearson, 7th edition

Parts of the above books and lecture notes

Teaching methods

The course is in English and it is carried out in the class. During the lecture the teacher will provide case studies. Students will be asked to carry out a presentation of an academic paper provided by the teacher.

Assessment methods

The assessment foresees a final oral examination in English. The dates of the examination will be provided during the first of month of teaching. The final oral examination will focus on three questions to cover the whole programme developed during the lectures. The assessment will take into consideration the competences and the skills developed by the students, the appropriateness of the language used during the oral examination, and the ability to discuss the possible interactions among the different issues developed during the course. In addition, students who presents an academic paper, previously provided by the teacher, will integrate the grade obtained during the final oral examination with the grade obtained during the presentation.

Teaching tools

Slide ppt

Case study

Office hours

See the website of Antonella Samoggia