Courses NonDegree Display 2019-2020

Course Description To PDF
Course title Retailing and the Supply Chain
Course code EBC4014
ECTS credits 6,5
Assessment None
Period
Period Start End Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
2 28-10-2019 20-12-2019 X X
Level Advanced
Coordinator Bram Foubert
For more information: b.foubert@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Language of instruction English
Goals
Retailers take up an extremely important position in the supply chain as they are the final business that links manufacturers to end-consumers. Retailing is where supply meets consumers’ needs, wants and whims in the most literal way. Therefore, dealing with retailing as just another link in the supply chain is an oversimplification.
This course addresses strategic and operations decisions with which retailers are confronted. Students will train their managerial and quantitative skills necessary to optimize these decisions. Throughout the course, we go beyond a sterile conceptualisation of demand and discuss in detail how a retailer’s decisions affect the end-consumer. Although most of the studied principles have wide applicability, our primary focus is on food and general merchandise retailers.
Description
Roughly, the course is split up in two main parts: “Strategic Decisions” and “Operations Decisions”. The first part addresses decisions with a long-term impact on the retailer’s success whereas the second part deals with the more tactical operations activities. In the part on strategic decisions, we study, in particular, multichannel retailing and store location decisions. In the part on operations decisions, we cover, assortment and inventory decisions, shelf space management, and finally price setting and price promotion.
Literature
Reader
Prerequisites
Courses and workload are demanding for all IB Master courses. Exchange students need to have obtained a bachelor degree with a major in Business. This course can be considered as an advanced course in terms of literature. Knowledge of statistical concepts (such as mean, variance, covariance, but also regression analysis) and experience with Excel are required. Experience with some statistical package (e.g., SPSS) may come in useful too..
An advanced level of English
Teaching methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) Presentation / Lecture / Assignment / Groupwork
Assessment methods (indicative; course manual is definitive) Final Paper / Participation / Written Exam
Evaluation in previous academic year For the complete evaluation of this course please click "here"
This course belongs to the following programmes / specialisations
Master Business Research - No specialisation Year 1 Disc- IB Supply Chain Mgmt
Master Business Research - Operations Research Year 1 Elective Course(s)
Master Business Research - Operations Research Year 2 Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Accountancy Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Controlling Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Entrepreneurship and SME Management Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Organisation: Management, Change and Consultancy Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Strategic Corporate Finance Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Strategy and Innovation Elective Course(s)
Master International Business - Supply Chain Management Compulsory Course(s)
Master International Business - Sustainable Finance Elective Course(s)
SBE Exchange Master Master Exchange Courses
SBE Non Degree Courses Master Courses