The first year of the Research in Management degree is geared to be a steppingstone towards research in management. In addition to fundamental courses in management science (marketing, organization theories, strategy, accounting), specific seminars are devoted to the study of the basic principles of research design and a wide range of techniques and methods for research. From this first year, students are invited to contribute to scientific knowledge through tutored research projects.
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 9
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 0
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the role played by accounting, accountants and auditors in our economic system.
It provides:
- an introduction to accounting and auditing: principles, issues and practices.
- and an introduction to research perspectives and controversies in the accounting and auditing fields.
Compétence à acquérir :
- General knowledge of accounting and auditing: principles, issues and practices.
- Research methods
- Critical thinking
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
Continuous assessment: Active participation in class discussions (30%)
Final assessment: Research proposal (70%)
ECTS : 0
ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
The course presents the tools and theories of management control and performance measurement (budgets, dashboards, etc.) in public and private organizations. It aims to train future researchers and professionals who are aware of the necessity to adapt management control techniques to the specificities of organizations, and who are able to discuss the design of specific control systems and to reflect on their social, financial and environmental outcomes.
The course is organised in three modules:
This course is committed to teaching through research and is based on research presentations and discussions.
Compétence à acquérir :
Understanding the main challenges of public, financial, social and environmental control and how these issues can be studied and better understood.
Being able to understand, synthesize and discuss scientific research.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
Grading Criteria:
- Continuous assessment : 30%.
- Final assignment (essay) : 70 %
ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
An Information Systems (IS) represents a strategic but often overlooked organizational asset. Moreover, IS often lie at the basis of a large spectrum of phenomena that affect organizations’ performance and survival. They are also a core resources for business and organizational transformation.
Given IS omniscience in organizational life, a specific scholarship area has been developing on the Management of Information Systems (MIS). However, this discipline remains poorly misunderstood in its diversity.
This course aims at presenting the major IS phenomena that impact organizations. It also targets the understanding from students of the diversity of theoretical lenses that can help organizations better manage their IS.
The course is structured around 4 major (but non extensive) controversies that have been attracting IS scholars’ attention so far. In addition, the course trains on basic methods that help mapping and question IS theory in professional practice.
The course targets two main pedagogical objectives:
Compétence à acquérir :
After the course the students will be capable of:
- confronting theory to empirical reality by relying on a specific example;
- mapping major theories from the IS field and evaluate their relevance to professional practice;
- using tools and techniques to map concepts and theories to better evaluate how theory can help practice.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
Through the course, each student will work on a reality check project that will focus on a specific theory/concept and a specific case.
Reality check consists of critically confronting a theoretical content with empirical reality. It aims at highlighting the insights provided by a theory, as well as its shortcomings and challenges. It can also help refine the theory.
Practically, this means the student should identify a controversy presented and detailed into the course. The student can focus on a specific theory or concept that was documented and find a way to present the theory to an IS professional or stakeholder (could be a user, manager, IS designer, technician, etc..). The student should argue one's choice (in particular the empirical reality considered). In the same vein, the students have to argue their rationale for interviewing a specific person (working in specific settings). Before interviewing, the student can already draft the limitations of the theory or concept (and review the major sources of criticism against it). For instance, the student can find the theory can be relatively generic and choose to challenge its applicability to a specific setting. When interviewing, the student needs to represent the theory in some way to the professional and ask questions to check whether the reality aligns with the predictions’ that can be induced from the model.
The controversies presented in the course can help the students identify a limitation or ongoing discussion about a specific theory. In addition, the students can also rely on the papers to read before the course to identify some ongoing criticism against IS theory in general (or against a specific theory).
The final report from this experience should take into consideration the feedback provided from the class, including: i) peergrade feedback at every step of the elaboration of the project, ii) feedback during the last course session; focused on exploratory discussion of the outputs from the interview.
Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :
Samek, M. J. 1986. “Integrating Systems into the Organization,” Information & Management (11:1), pp. 9-12.
Ciborra, C., and Hanseth, O. 1998. “From Tool to Gestell: Agendas for Managing Information Infrastructure,” Information, Technology & People (11:4), pp. 305-327.
Jeyaraj, A., and Zadeh, A. H. 2020. “Evolution of Information Systems Research: Insights from Topic Modeling,” Information & Management (57:4), p. 103207.
ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
S1: Introduction to Management Research and to the seminar (DR)
S2: Epistemology + Fundamentals of Research Design (DR)
S3: The foundations of qualitative research (AG)
S4: Interviews and Focus Groups (AG)
S5: Ethnography and Digital Qualitative Research Method (AG)
S6: Qualitative Data Analysis (AG)
S7: The foundations of quantitative methods (DR)
S8: Surveys (DR)
S9: Experiments (DR)
S10: Data analysis workshop (DR)
S11: Reporting and presenting research (DR)
S12: Research proposal presentations (DR+AG)
Compétence à acquérir :
The seminar is designed to introduce students to principles and fundamental tools of research methods most frequently used in management. We will present a range of critical topics including epistemology, research design, interviews, ethnography, survey research and experimental design.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
Evaluation will be based on:
- an individual research proposal at the end of the seminar (80%),
- and on group activities during class and active participation (20%).
Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :
Session 1
· Mishra, S. and Subudhi, R.N. (2019), Chap1: The Methodological Domain in Management Research, In Methodological Issues in Management Research: Advances, Challenges, and the Way Ahead, Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 1-10.
· Weathington, Bart L., et al. (2012), Chap1: Research and Business, In Understanding Business Research, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, pp3-22.
· Cassell, C. and Lee, B. (2010), Chap1: Introduction, In Challenges and Controversies in Management Research, Taylor & Francis Group, pp1-14.
Session 2
· della Porta, D. and Keating, M. (2008), Chap2: How Many Approaches in the Social Sciences? An Epistemological Introduction, In Approaches and methodologies in the social sciences : A pluralist perspective, Cambridge University Press, pp19-39.
· Klakegg, O. J. (2016). Chap5: Ontology and Epistemology. In Design Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management, Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 87-96.
Session 3
· Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. L. (2013). Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational research methods, 16(1), 15-31.
· Geertz Clifford (1973), The Interpretation of Cultures, NY: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers.
Session 4
· Gruen, A. and Mimoun, L, (forthcoming), Conducting consumer interviews online and offline, in 2nd Edition of the Handbook of qualitative research methods in marketing, edited by Cele Otnes and Belk, R. W., Edward Elgar Publishing.
· Kamberelis, G., Dimitriadis, G., & Welker, A. (2018). Focus group research and/in figured worlds. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research, 692-716.
Session 5
· Kozinets, R. (2019) Netnography : The Essential Guide to Qualitative Social Media, London : SAGE Publications Ltd.
· Bainotti, L., Caliandro, A., & Gandini, A. (2021). From archive cultures to ephemeral content, and back: Studying Instagram Stories with digital methods. New Media & Society, 23(12), 3656-3676.
· Caliandro, A., & Gandini, A. (2016). Qualitative research in digital environments: A research toolkit. Taylor & Francis.
Session 6
· Spiggle, S. (1994). Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data in consumer research. Journal of consumer research, 21(3), 491-503.
· Thompson, C. J. (1997). Interpreting consumers: A hermeneutical framework for deriving marketing insights from the texts of consumers’ consumption stories. Journal of marketing Research, 34(4), 438-455.
Session 7
· Weathington, Bart L., et al. (2012), Chap3: The Foundations of Research, In Understanding Business Research, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, pp41-71.
· Franklin, M. (2008), Chap13: Quantitative Analysis, In Approaches and methodologies in the social sciences : A pluralist perspective. Cambridge University Press, pp240-262.
· Eisend, M., and Kuss, A. (2019). Chap7: Hypotheses and Model for Theory Testing, In Research Methodology in Marketing, Springer, Cham, pp151-172.
Session 8
· Weathington, Bart L., et al. (2012), Chap4: An Overview of Research Methods, In Understanding Business Research, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, pp73-103.
· Aityan, S.K. (2022). Chap16: Survey Method, In Business Research Methodology, Springer, Cham, pp343-357.
Session 9
· Eisend, M., and Kuss, A. (2019). Chap8: Testing Causal Relationships
ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
S1: Introduction to marketing/ research in marketing/ the module
S2: Consumer behaviour
S3: Strategic marketing + Brand management
S4: 4Ps = Product + Price
S5: 4Ps (cont’d) = Place + Promotion
S6: International marketing + cultural marketing
S7: Marketing and society + Ethics + Sustainability
S8: Presentations
Compétence à acquérir :
This course aims at giving a general overview of the Marketing field, developing its main concepts, methodologies and practices. The main objectives are
At the end of the module, students should be able
The objectives will be achieved when you actively engage with the literature and constructively criticize the articles. This should equip you with the skills to come up with ideas that have the potential to be developed into a piece of sound research.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
The module will be assessed via
(a) A class participation mark based on the summaries’ quality and on the participation level in the seminars. (50%)
(b) A presentation of a research proposal on a chosen topic. The research proposal should be structured like a typical academic article, including an introduction/positioning, literature review, and methodology. The presentation will not require an empirical research, but will require a detailed research design. (50%)
Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :
Session 1 [to be discussed during session 2. No summary asked]:
1) Hunt, S. D. (1976). The nature and scope of marketing. Journal of marketing, 40(3), 17-28.
2) Gamble, J., Gilmore, A., McCartan-Quinn, D., & Durkan, P. (2011). The Marketing concept in the 21st century: A review of how Marketing has been defined since the 1960s. The marketing review, 11(3), 227-248.
3) Tadajewski, M. (2018) 'Critical reflections on the marketing concept and consumer sovereignty.', in The Routledge companion to critical marketing. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 196-224. Routledge companions in business, management and accounting.
Session 2 [to be discussed during session 3]:
1) Wang, X., Bendle, N. T., Mai, F., & Cotte, J. (2015). The journal of consumer research at 40: a historical analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(1), 5-18.
2) Fournier, S., (1998). Consumers and their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(March), 343-373.
Session 3 [to be discussed during session 4]:
1) Varadarajan, R. (2015). Strategic marketing, marketing strategy and market strategy. AMS review, 5, 78-90.
2) Högström, C., Gustafsson, A., & Tronvoll, B. (2015). Strategic brand management: Archetypes for managing brands through paradoxes. Journal of business research, 68(2), 391-404.
Session 4 [to be discussed during session 5]:
1) Grime, I., Diamantopoulos, A., & Smith, G. (2002). Consumer evaluations of extensions and their effects on the core brand: Key issues and research propositions. European Journal of Marketing, 36(11), 1415-1438.
2) Vanhuele, M., & Drèze, X. (2002). Measuring the price knowledge shoppers bring to the store. Journal of marketing, 66(4), 72-85.
Session 5 [to be discussed during session 6]:
1) Desmichel, P., & Kocher, B. (2020). Luxury single- versus multi-brand stores: The effect of consumers’ hedonic goals on brand comparisons. Journal of Retailing, 96(2), 203-219.
2) Batra, R., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Integrating marketing communications: New findings, new lessons, and new ideas. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 122-145.
Session 6 [to be discussed during session 7]:
1) Katsikeas, C. S., Samiee, S., & Theodosiou, M. (2006). Strategy fit and performance consequences of international marketing standardization. Strategic management journal, 27(9), 867-890.
Session 7 [for further reading. No summary asked]:
1) O’Shaughnessy, J., & O’Shaughnessy, N. J. (2002). Marketing, the consumer society and hedonism. European Journal of Marketing. Vol. 36 No. 5/6, pp. 524-547.
2) O. C. Ferrell & Linda Ferrell (2021) New directions for marketing ethics and social responsibility research, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 29:1, 13-22.
ECTS : 6
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 3
ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
The course includes 10 sessions of 3 hours, organized toward 3 key challenges that strategists face (part 1 to 3). Each session addresses one specific issue:
- S1. Introduction: strategic management, past and current issues: this session traces the main evolutions of strategy as a discipline, highlights the major challenges currently faced by companies (structuring the three parts of the course), and introduces the methodological elements for case studies.
- S2. Introduction: case study: This session allows to verify, through a simple case study, the good understanding of the classical concepts and tools of strategic analysis.
> PART 1: RETHINKING VALUE CREATION
- S3. Why and how to rethink a company's business model? This session presents various conceptions of the business model as tools to define new value creation mechanisms, and introduces the challenges related to business model innovation.
- S4. Under what conditions can an innovation create a market disruption? This session addresses "breakthrough strategies", by analyzing how an innovation (product, technology, business model, etc.) can not only destabilize the rules of the game of a market ("disruption"), but also generate a new market ("blue ocean").
- S5. How do platforms change the way value is created? This session discusses platforms as a new organizational model to challenge established firms in a sector and to propose new business models. The success factors of platforms are discussed.
- S6. Intermediate synthesis: presentation of group projects.
> PART 2: INFLUENCING AND INTERACTING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT’S ACTORS
- S7. Competition or cooperation: why and how to structure a business ecosystem? This session presents new forms and dynamics of competition, based on cooperation with networks of actors, including competitors, to form a "business ecosystem".
- S8. How can a firm shape the institutional context to its own advantage? This session shows how the institutional environment (State, regulation, etc.) conditions a firm's strategy, but also how a firm can influence this environment to its advantage ("non-market strategies" such as lobbying, etc.).
> PART 3: ORCHESTRATING STRATEGY
- S9. Governance: how to align strategy with stakeholders’ expectations? This session analyses how the legal form of an organization partly determines its strategic choices, and discusses the main governance mechanisms for aligning the strategy with the challenges of the organization’s stakeholders.
- S10. How to think about strategy in the era of major social and environmental challenges? This session addresses the social and environmental issues that now underpin the definition, planning and implementation of strategy, as well as its legitimisation by stakeholders.
Compétence à acquérir :
The objective of the strategic management course is to provide keys to understanding and analyzing these strategic situations. At the end of this course, the student will be able to:
- Know and understand the main strategic issues that companies are currently facing;
- Master essential theoretical concepts to shed light on these issues and mobilize them as a framework for analysis;
- Elaborate a structured and reflexive analysis of a company's strategic situation.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
Continuous assessment (50%)
Group project (40%): Collective work: Strategic report on a company case, analyzed through one of the course topics (30 pages max.)
Case study (10%): individual: From a corpus of press, students must analyze the strategic situation of a company by formulating a “problematic” (i.e., a question that underlines the main strategic issues that will be analyzed), then answer it through a structured and reflexive diagnosis, and conclude with recommendations.
Classroom participation (facultative): bonus/malus on the individual grade, optional, depending on the teacher’s choice
Final exam (50%): Case study: Individual exam (3h)
Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :
JOHNSON G., SCHOLES K., WHITTINGTON R., ANGWIN D., REGNER P. Exploring Corporate Strategy, Pearson, 12th edition, 2020.
CUSUMANO M.A., GAWER, A., YOFFIE B., The business of platforms: Strategy in the age of digital competition, innovation, and power, Harper Business, 2019.
ADNER R., The wide lens: A new strategy for innovation, Penguin, 2012.
ECTS : 3