Management & Marketing

Statistics (220121)  
Pre-requisite - Applied Math (000124) or 000122 Pure Math 

Statistical techniques and surveys play a vital role in every field. This has wide applications. This course intended to provide the students about the knowledge of application of statistics in real time applications. This course covers Describing Data, Different types of Probability, Various Sampling Methods, Different testing of Hypothesis, Correlation and Regression Analysis and how they can be applied in various cases.

 Mathematics for Business & Economics. (220112)
Pre-requisite -Applied Math – (000124)

The course uses mathematical ideas and models at the micro & macro levels of economics. The students should have the basics of these two subject to understand the application of mathematics into practical problems. It covers topic such as: linear & non linear equations, mathematics for finance, differentiations and the concepts of marginality in economics, integrations, matrices, and linear programming in business and related models. EXCEL and Maple software will be introduced to facilitate applications & understandings.

Entrepreneurship (803224)
Prerequisite: Nil

Course Description: This course aims to provide students with knowledge and skills to examine the job of entrepreneurs and the formulation and implementation of entrepreneurial plans and strategies. Entrepreneurs assemble resources including innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. This course helps students in exploring the wide variety of opportunities open to the entrepreneur and how to build upon them, including an overview of such essential principles as screening, market research, product development, financing, and marketing and sales strategies. The important topics covered are understanding entrepreneurship, developing a business model, feasibility analysis, leadership and teamwork, market analysis, analyzing risks and benefits, funding the start-up, entrepreneurial marketing, planning for and managing growth, and designing the organization. The course uses lectures, assignments and case studies to provide students with knowledge and skills on how to be successful entrepreneurs.

Business Fundamentals (800111)
Pre-requisite – Nil

This course provides students with fundamentals of business organizations and procedures to acquaint them with management principles, business terminology, types of business organizations and their control. It aims to give an understanding of how business works within an economic system. The course includes the following major topics – Managing within the Dynamic Business Environment: Taking Risks and Making Profits, How Economics Affects Business: The Creation and Distribution of Wealth, Demonstrating Ethical Behavior and Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship and Starting a Small Business, Management, Leadership, and Employee Empowerment, Human Resource Management: Finding and Keeping the Best Employees, Marketing: Building Customer Relationships, Understanding how companies implement product, pricing, promotion and distribution activities, Understanding Financial Information and Accounting, Financial Management. The course uses lectures, assignments and case studies to familiarize students with the fundamentals of business.

Principles of Management (803121)
Pre-requisite – Business Fundamentals (800111)

This course introduces students to world of management. The course aims to introduce and explain the process of management. It examines the subject from both the theoretical and practical perspectives whereby students are able to relate to the subject of management as applicable in our daily lives and more relevantly as applicable in the fast changing dynamic business world of today. The major topics include – functions of management, management skills, the environment, goals, plans, strategy, decision making, organization structure, human resource management, organizational control, leadership, motivation, communication, working in teams. Students will gain an understanding of the role of management in developing and sustaining effective and efficient organizations, through class interaction, local examples and international case studies and readings.

Principles of Marketing (805122)
Prerequisite: Nil
Math for IST (400113)

This course provides students with an overview of Marketing. It aims to set out the basic principles of Marketing and their application in decision making by corporate Marketing Managers. The course includes the following major topics – functions of marketing, the marketing mix, ethics and social responsibility in marketing, online marketing, marketing planning, market and marketing research, consumer behavior, product life cycle, brand equity, distribution, promotional mix and strategies, personal selling, pricing objectives and strategies, global marketing. Students will get an understanding of the importance of marketing in all kinds of organizations, through readings, local examples and international case analysis and class interaction.

Strategy (803211)
Pre-requisite – Principles of Management (803121)

This course by integrating strategy theory and strategy practice aims to provide students with an insight into strategic management as practiced by global market leaders, thereby helping students to acquire strategy making competence and to think strategically. The course includes the following major topics - modern strategic management theories and practices including world – class organization, the guerilla view of competitive advantage, the traditional concepts of strategic management such as competitive advantage, SWOT analysis, corporate growth, and strategy implementation, the role of resources and distinctive capabilities in gaining competitive advantage, strategic management in small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures and in not-for-profit organizations. Students will get an understanding of how internal and external analyses are done and how corporate, business and functional strategies are developed that result in sustainable competitive advantage, through readings, case analysis and class interaction.

Managerial Decision Analysis (803221)
Prerequisite: - Statistics (220121)

The aim of this course is to help students to develop their managerial decision making skills using various information technology based quantitative techniques This course covers topics such as: formulations and applications of linear programming cases, sensitivity analysis, the art of modeling with spreadsheets, transportation and assignment problems, optimization and minimization models, program evaluation and review techniques (PERT) and critical path methods (CPM), integer programming, non-linear programming, and inventory management. The combination of theoretical lectures, lab applications and solving numerous exercises will enhance skills and analytical ability of students.

Human Resource Management (803311)
Prerequisite - Principles of Management (803121)

This course aims to provide students with knowledge and skills to examine the formulation and implementation of human resources policy at the strategic level. It explores the major aspects of how an organization deals with its people; how it acquires them, uses them, rewards them, and separates them. The topics include: strategic aspects of human resource management, formulating a corporate human resource strategy, the external global environment for human resources in the context of current global crisis, human resources planning and implementation system, job analysis, recruitment, selection and retention, job design and orientation training and development, performance appraisal and strategies for effective performance appraisal, strategic compensation system, productivity improvement and benefit plans. Most of the student’s learning will come from case analysis and readings on Human Resource management – strategy and practices and through class interaction.

Total Quality Management (803421)
Pre-requisite – Principles of Management (803121)/ Statistics (101212)

This course will provide the student with the underlying principles and techniques of Total Quality Management (TQM) with emphasis on their application to technical organizations. Students will develop a working knowledge of the best practices in Quality and Process Management. Students will learn to view quality from a variety of functional perspectives and in the process, gain a better understanding of the problems associated with improving quality, also quality tools utilized in service and international /environment. The course aims to impart knowledge on the quality management process and key quality management activities. Specifically it aims to: Compare and contrast the various tools used in quality management, comprehend the concepts of customer’s value, discuss the emerging tendencies toward global competitiveness, understand different perspectives on quality, comprehend six-sigma management and its tools. Demonstrate how to design quality into product and services, describe the importance of developing a strategic plan for Total Quality Management and discuss the importance of “benchmarking”, as a means of identifying the choice of markets Contents: Scope and purpose of quality management; process and product quality; quality assurance and standards; quality planning; quality control (requirements, formal and informal quality control procedures, quality control development and/or improvement, initiating quality control policies); software quality control; the quality compromise; quality assurance (process based quality, practical based quality); quality standards (importance of standards, process and product standards, problems of standards, development of standards); quality attributes; quality measures; quality reviews, CQI (continous quality improvement, 5S. The course uses lectures, assignments and case studies to familiarize students with the Total Quality Management.

Consumer Behavior (805222)
Pre-requisite – Principles of Marketing (805122)

This course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform consumer analyses that can be used for understanding markets and developing effective marketing strategies. The study of Consumer Behavior attempts to explain the answers to Who does, what, when, where, and how, with respect to the Choice, Purchase, and Use of a product and WHY do they do it the way they do? The course includes the following major topics –role of Consumer behavior, Consumer affect and cognition, affective and cognitive systems, means-end chain of product knowledge, consumer-product relationship, factors influencing attention and comprehension, Multiattribute Attitude Model, theory of reasoned action, problem solving processes in purchase decisions, Overt consumer behavior, Classical and operant conditioning, Segmentation process, the Wheel of consumer analysis and the Communication and persuasion processes. Students will gain an understanding of the importance of the consumer behavior process through lectures, case discussions, and readings.

Strategic Marketing (805321)
Pre-requisite - Strategy (803211)

This course provides students with an overview of the concepts and processes in designing and implementing market-driven strategies. It aims to examine the process of strategic marketing as it helps organizations in developing superior customer value, leverage their distinctive capabilities, and respond rapidly to diversity and change in the market place through effective marketing strategies that help in gaining and sustaining competitive edge. The course includes the following major topics – market driven strategies, the strategic marketing process, preparing the marketing plan, market vision, market opportunities, strategic market segmentation, targeting and positioning, strategic alliances, customer value analysis, strategic brand management, distribution, pricing and promotion strategies, sales force strategies, strategy implementation, and the strategic marketing audit. Students will discuss various case studies as the course progresses.

E- Marketing (805411)
Pre-requisite – Principles of Marketing (805122)

This course provides students with an overview of Electronic Marketing. It provides a framework for understanding the forces driving the internet revolution in marketing and retailing and examines the opportunities and challenges that they have created. The course includes the following major topics - Electronic Marketing Resources, SWOT analysis-marketing planning - marketing implementation, the virtual retailer, The P’s in the e -marketing plan, Selection of prospect groups, formulating the marketing plan and budget, Marketing Implementation, Consumer tracking strategies, data warehouse, segmentation, Online awareness, Netiquette, database design, customer communications, Ethics. Students will gain an understanding of how alternate business process models are expanding the options available for effective and efficient marketing of a variety of products, through class and laboratory interaction, case studies and readings.

MM Graduation Project (803419)
Pre-requisite – Business Research Methods (803324)

This course provides students with concepts and applications related to conduction and execution of the graduation project. The course consists of selecting a suitable research title topic, preparing of introduction outlining the theme of the study through pertinent literature, preparing need and significance of the study justifying the reasons for embarking on such a study, provide selected pertinent literature to build a theme, development of research model/conceptual motivation – a schematic diagram, development of research questions/objectives/hypotheses pertinent to the selected topic, laying out a detailed proposed methodology including several aspects such as research design, research location, types of data, target respondents, sampling technique/tools used, collection tool/sources of data collection, mode of data collection, use of statistical tools/analyses for the study etc. The students will practically involve in executing the project through collecting pertinent literature for the study, collecting pertinent data to provide results/solutions to the selected problem, analyses of data through statistical tools/other analyses in order to provide pertinent results, use of full referencing techniques pertinent to the study using either Harvard/APA/IEEE methods, preparation of a project report of several chapters such as introduction, review of literature, research methodology, data analyses and interpretation and summary of findings and conclusions. The course provides students with a practical exposure of applying the concepts learnt through different courses in to real life scenario through preparing graduation projects.

Operations Management (803322)
Pre-requisite –Principles of Management (803121)

This unit aims to survey the field of operations in the services and manufacturing sectors. It provides fundamental coverage from the strategies of designing a product or service, through the processes and systems of making and delivering the product, and controlling the operations. The course includes the following major topics - The conversion process, Operations strategy, Qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods, forecast errors, Product and service design activities, capacity planning process, facilities layouts, Methods study, work measurement, efficiency indices, site planning and design process, quality management, quality assurance and quality control, Supply Chain Management, inventory management systems, MRP process, ERP, JIT. Students will get an understanding of the important tools and principles that underlie the utilization of assets in the production process, through readings, case analysis and class interaction.

Business Ethics (907222)
Prerequisite: nil

The course aims to develop a framework on which professional and ethical issues can be analyzed, and create an awareness of various views of ethical issues as well as professionals ethical rights and responsibilities. The era of continuous growth for organizations is now being hindered by current events and trends. This has forced a re-thinking about the rules that govern business. Mounting concerns over failing markets, declining resources, growing insecurity, social polarisation and a changing climate suggest that a “business as usual’ approach to the future will be increasingly out of step with what is required for a safe and stable global order. This course aims to analyze this changing context and explore how business can adapt responsibly and reasonably to the demands of the future. The primary aim then is to make students understand how to meet this future consciously and creatively and with an enhanced capacity to engage their own ethical values in constructive ways. Among the issues to be covered are businesses’ responsibilities to employees, employees’ responsibilities to employers, honesty in business, business and the environment, international business, and the role of professional standards.

International Business Strategy (803413)
Pre-requisite - Strategy (803211)

This unit aims to introduce students to strategic decision making by senior managers of Multi National Companies.(MNCs). It addresses the most challenging task faced by MNCs – how to deal with globalization and the resulting need for globally integrated strategies. It shows how MNC managers evaluate the different elements of strategy to be globalised. The course includes the following major topics – core business strategy, industry globalization drivers, global market participation, global products and services, global competitive moves, regional strategy, and global strategy analysis. Student will gain an understanding of how strategies are made involving varied operations and locations, through class interaction, case analysis and readings.

Business Project Management (803416)
Pre-requisite -  Principles of Management (803121), Principles of Marketing (805122) and Business Finance (809212).

Proper management is essential for the efficient execution and completion of projects. This course gives an explanation of the project management process that leads to the development of a solid project plan. The process is applicable to programs and projects in such diverse fields as finance, research and development, engineering, biotechnology and construction. Discussions include the functional, project and matrix environments in which project managers work. Emphasis is on practical tools and techniques—such as Work Breakdown Structure, Network Diagrams and Critical Path Method—that are used in the preparation of a project plan. This course provides building blocks for more advanced topics such as planning and controlling, and risk management. This course will provide the student with the underlying principles and techniques of project management. Students will learn how to identify and schedule project resources, create project flow charts, produce critical path planning and evaluation reports. Important issues of staff selection and team management are also covered. The course uses lectures, assignments and case studies to familiarize students with the Project Management.

Product and Brand Management (805212)
Pre-requisite – Consumer behavior (805122)

Product and brand management involves the design, and implementation of marketing programs and activities to build, measure, and manage brand equity. This unit provides comprehensive theoretical foundation with numerous techniques and practical insights for making better day-to-day and long term brand decisions, thus improving the long-term profitability of specific brand strategies. This course includes the following major topics – brand equity, brand awareness, brand building, the strategic brand management process, brand positioning, brand elements, product, price, channel and promotion strategies, the brand value chain, program and market multipliers, brand equity measurement systems, branding strategies, revitalizing and retiring brands, global brand equity and positioning. Students will get an understanding of how brands are managed to create value for the organization and its stakeholders, through readings, case analysis and class interaction.

International Management (803414)
Pre-requisite -  Principles of Management – (803121)

This course provides students with an overview of Multinational Management. It aims to examine how multinational entities sustain and renew their competitive advantages in an interdependent global economy. The course includes the following major topics – globalization, global standards, national, business and occupational cultures, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, global-local dilemma, the value chain, competitive advantage, distinctive competencies, organizational structures, Choosing international partners, e-commerce strategies, IHRM, international communication styles, negotiation, motivation theories, Leadership behaviors etc. Students will get an understanding of international environmental forces, their influence on the operations of a firm and its management, through readings, case analysis and class interaction.

Business to Business Marketing (805415)
Pre-requisite – Strategic Marketing (805122)

This course provides students with an overview of B2B Marketing. It aims to examine the environment of business marketing and business markets where the challenges and opportunities are different from those presented by consumer markets. The course includes the following major topics - the marketing mix for B2B products, B2B market environment, the Product Life Cycle and Technology Adoption Life Cycle, organizational buyer’s decision process, the buying center, Growth share matrix, attractiveness strength matrix, sources of competition, Analytical and discovery approaches to segmentation, Strategic and tactical purposes of pricing, Economic utility, channel design, and the promotion mix. Students will gain an understanding of the how business products create value for the customer and the customer’s customer, through class interaction, case studies and readings.

Global Marketing (805223)
Pre-requisite – Principles of Marketing (805122)

This unit aims to provide both the theory and application of global marketing. It covers the full spectrum of international marketing, from startup operations to the formation of virtual alliances from a truly global perspective. It aims to provide the basis to analyze, select, and evaluate the decisions concerning whether a firm should internationalize, which markets it should consider entering, how it could enter these markets, the design of the global marketing program, and how it can implement and coordinate its global marketing program. The course includes the following major topics – acculturation, self reference criteria, international market characteristics, global marketing research, change agents in the internationalization process, exporting, franchising, licensing, product adaptation, pricing decisions, counter trade, international communication models, international negotiation, global channels of distribution, strategic planning, foreign direct investments, global product management, global promotion programs. Students will gain an understanding of the how leading multinational corporations market their products in an ever increasing competitive market, through class interaction, case studies and readings.

Business Research Methods (803324)
Pre-requisite –Statistics (101212)

This course aims at offering the basic and advanced concepts and applications of research methods meant for business students. The course reveals the systematic way to conduct a professional business research with the practical exposure of different business research methods. The course hand holds the students to learn the each steps of research process with in depth focus on understanding the nuances and intricacies of conducting successful professional business research to obtain desired results. The course highlights and elaborates the state-of-the art tools and techniques in modern business research in order to provide updated knowledge and skills which each business student ought to be proficient with.

Organisational Behavior (803312)
Prerequisite: Principles of Management (803121)

Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. This course aims to introduce behavioral science concepts to students. Students will understand the behavior of people in organizations by examining areas such as leadership, group dynamics, conflict resolution, and motivation. The important topics covered are group dynamics, group decision making and problem solving, personality, individual decision making, making business plans, conflict resolution, motivation, leadership, organization culture, value attitudes and behavior. The course uses lectures, assignments and case studies to provide students with knowledge of the factors influencing the behavior of organizational members.

Business Law (909423)
Pre-requisite – Principles of Management (803121)

This unit introduces students to the legal system particularly as applicable in Oman. It considers the historical and legal factors which influenced its development and the key institutions and processes which have resulted. It considers the impact of Omani law and legal system on the country’s citizens and their laws. The unit introduces students to legal method: legal reasoning and statutory interpretation. Students will also work individually and collaboratively to develop academic literacy’s, including writing and referencing in an academic legal context. It introduces students to the legal aspects of doing business. It covers such major topics as law and ethics, business entities, torts, contracts, product liability & warranties, consumer protection, property and intellectual property, restrictive trade practices, agency and employment, business crimes, and dispute resolution. This course provides an introduction to commercial law fundamentals, relevant to business professions. The course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to if needed, pursue further and more specific studies in the law discipline. The course uses lectures, assignments and case studies to familiarize students with the Business Law.