94268 - Business and Marketing

Academic Year 2021/2022

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be aware of the economic and management issus undelaying industrial innovation. The student will know the relevance of quality management She/he will learn how to understand a business plan. At the end of the course, tha students will be able: 1. to address and understand market researches; 2. to perform and understand a quality assessment according to the morst important international standards; 3. performing business plan activities.

Course contents

The CU will be made of three modules with the following contents:

(1) Business Planning

This module will introduce students to basic concepts on management and entrepreneurship. It describes and illustrates the process oriented perspective in entrepreneurship and business planning. It introduces students to key issues for a successful entrepreneurial activity: opportunity exploitation, planning and managing new ventures, management skills and sustainability. It introduces the role of finance in new venture creation

(2) Market research

1. Key issues on market research

2. Recognition of opportunities: strategies and approaches
3. Competitive intelligence: an overview

4. Rethinking market research in global competition

(3) Quality Management

1. Understanding the concept of Quality and the motivations to implement quality management systems.

2. The concepts of Quality Management, Quality Assurance and Quality Control

3. Certification vs accreditation. International Standards for Quality Management Systems: the ISO and OECD standards for Quality Systems: ISO 9000, ISO 14000, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 15189, GLP, GMP.

4. Quality Management tools and Quality Management principles common to all standards: the PDCA cycle, Quality Audits, Quality Documentation, factual decision basis, application of statistical tools.

5. Quality cost analysis.

Readings/Bibliography

Lecture notes will be available for students.

Additional bibliography:

ISO Quality system standards: ISO 9000, ISO 9001, ISO 14000, EN ISO/ICE 17025

Teaching methods

The course unit is divided in three modules taught independently at different times in the academic year.

Each module is organized in theoretical classes where main concepts are explained, as well as tutorial classes with discussion of case-study examples.

Assessment methods

Each module is assessed independently through homework assignments (20%) and a written assignment (80%).

The Curricular Unit grade will be the arithmetic mean of grades from the three modules.

Office hours

See the website of Ruben Huertas Garcia

See the website of Jaume Argerich Herreras

See the website of Isabel Maria Palma Antunes Cavaco