After successfully finishing this course, students will be able to:
* Build the necessary theoretical and practical tools to understand the effect of the digitalization on the economy, businesses and society.
* Understand business strategies concerning digital transformation.

Digitization has been gradually transforming our society over the past decades. Thereby the last decades showed a tremendous acceleration with, for example, ubiquitous access to cloud services through mobile devices via Internet, advancements in data processing by artificial intelligence, coordinated control of devices through the Internet of Things and questioning traditional institutions by blockchain technology. This development is changing the economic environment and thus the way doing business as a firm. At the core of this development are (1) new products and services that rely on progress in digital technology, and (2) changes in the informational setting in interactions between economic actors. The goal of this course is to disentangle and structure the trends in digital technology, with a focus on their functional impact on the economy (products, services and markets), as well as to disentangle and structure the toolbox of economic and business research in order to provide judgement and guidance for economic decision making. Thereby, the course provides the economic foundation of the MSc Digital Business and Economics, where the focus is on economic aspects that are of strategic relevance for firms and policy makers. While every application of digital technology has obviously its “the-devil-is-in-the-detail” challenge, we focus here on the bigger picture, on what changes we are likely to see when the dust has settled. This requires insight and oversight of major economic principles that are in place. Thereby, you will learn what are the questions to be answered, and what tools from economic and management research can be used to approach these questions.

A selection of academic articles and industry whitepapers.