Course descriptions

The aim of this course is to provide an understanding of how selling is critical to the success of marketing. The course will promote critical thinking skills as well as practical selling skills needed in a competitive marketplace. Course topics include, among others, selling principles and techniques, understanding of the tasks and roles of the sales manager, the management of sales professionals within an organization, developing and applying effective persuasive communications, creating a vision, developing and implementing a sales-team strategy, structuring sales-force, designing and assigning territories, recruiting, training, motivation and evaluating salespeople, methods of compensation, and forecasting sales. The emphasis will be on ways the sales-force can be molded to build long-lasting relationships with customers through the systematic analysis and solution of customers’ problems.

This course provides insights into how to create profitable brand strategies by building, measuring, and managing brand equity. The focus of the course will be at the level of the brand and the discussions will pertain to issues involved in the development and implementation of brand strategies. The course provides students with a valuable perspective, and a common denominator to interpret the potential effects and trade-offs of various strategies and tactics for their brands. In addition, the course gives students the skills and tools required to understand the different elements of a branding strategy. Students will also be able to view brands as strategic assets owned by a firm and learn how to leverage the brand to meet the overall corporate objective of a firm.

Marketing management problems, techniques and strategies needed to apply the marketing concept to the world marketplace. Understanding a country’s cultural and environmental impact on the marketing plan is emphasized, as well as competing in markets of various cultures. Worldwide consumerism, economic and social development, the spread of multinational corporations, business ethics, and current economic and marketing issues are examined.

Digital advertising is the tactic of leveraging the internet and its properties to deliver promotional ads to consumers on various channels. Unlike traditional advertising, digital advertising is more universal and flexible, enabling marketers to tell the story about their brand on the channels that their buyers frequent, using text, images, video, and more. Digital advertising can be part of the "digital noise" and part of an ongoing conversation that the brand has with its customers. Digital ads are everywhere. With digital advertising continuing to gain momentum, it is more vital than ever before to make it an integral part of the marketer's holistic marketing mix. The contents of this course can teach you how to reach larger audiences in a way that is real-time and increasingly personal, more effectively.

This course explores the impending revolution in web analytics in the era of big data. The focus will be on topics such as the Internet of Things, various social media, viral marketing, and Geo-location tracking. Students will investigate how web analytics can take a greater role in business decision- making in the future. Specifically, students will gain an understanding of the strategic and operational aspects of web analytics tools and technologies, how Web analytics can influence and create new marketing levers, and how new marketing levers impact customer relationships, brand response, and potentially, sales.

Applications of stochastic, deterministic, and simulation techniques to decision areas, such as market potential, product diversification, physical distribution alternatives, retail location, media selection, and market exposure. Quantitative and computerized methods are used heavily to enhance decision making in marketing, especially the selection, allocation, budgeting, and forecasting of marketing resources.

This course is a study of the nature of the business-to-business (organizational) marketplace concentrating on those aspects that differentiate it from consumer markets. The major focus of the course is marketing strategy, starting with an analysis of market wants and segments, concepts of pricing, distribution arrangements, and buyer/seller relations. In this last area, consideration will be given to service, personal selling, sales promotion, and advertising, as found in the organizational marketplace. At all times, emphasis is given to relating business-to-business marketing strategy to basic concepts in underlying business disciplines. Lectures and case discussions are used heavily in the course.

Special Topics in Marketing

This capstone course offers you the opportunity to apply your academic experience to conduct an experiential learning project in a designated field and apply your education in a practical manner. Students will work in teams on a single project for one partner organization. This experience will help students enhance their skills in oral and written communication, apply the knowledge acquired during the program to solve business problems involving actual data in a realistic setting, manage team dynamics, and develop a fundamental understanding of all practical aspects of Marketing program of study. This course is suitable for senior students only. The course content is updated regularly to take into account the latest marketing techniques and practices.

Marketing Internship

This advance marketing course deals with analyzing the major marketing decisions facing the firm, such as the level, mix allocation, and strategy of marketing efforts. Specific decision areas examined are market determination, pricing physical distribution, product policy, promotion, and channel management. Also examined are competitive, political, legal and social factors that may affect decision making process.

Designed for students with no prior course work in the field of marketing. A wide spectrum of marketing institutions and activities is covered. The impact of marketing on the total firm, the economy, and society in general is assessed. The course is intended to develop and organize the fundamental marketing concepts necessary to an analytical study of consumer behavior, the economic environment, and four managerial aspects of marketing. The acquisition and utilization of marketing research data for problem solving is stressed. Relation and integration of basic marketing knowledge to the successful development of sound marketing policy, planning, and strategy is developed.

An examination of the information technology that provides a basis for electronic commerce and its application in a variety of sectors and industries. Also included is coverage of the tools, skills and business concepts that surround the emergence of electronic commerce and the consequences of applying this technology to various commercial processes. Other topics are security, privacy, intellectual property rights, authentication, and legal liabilities.

An analysis of the socio-psychological foundations of consumer behavior including personality differences, needs and wants, status symbols, social change and mobility, fads and fashions. Consumer spending and saving habits, product preferences, leisure-time patterns, shopping behavior and motivation research are also examined for their impact on advertising, selling and marketing management.

This course is about the marketing challenges in an entrepreneurial firm. Successful execution of an entrepreneurial idea requires a sound marketing plan. In this course, we will investigate how marketing tools can enable entrepreneurs to realize the full potential of their ideas. The course involves research on the industry, marketing, and market, which are used to define a target market and market segmentation. It also involves developing a marketing budget, researching media platforms and determining promotional material costs. Finally, the marketing strategy describes marketing goals and objectives in a unified plan. Students will actively research and apply each component to their own business ventures, which will culminate in the development of a marketing plan.

This course offers a broad approach to marketing research as a model for acquiring, retrieving, and analyzing decision-making information, including market measurement, evaluation of sales and cost effectiveness, sales forecasting and primary marketing research studies aimed at solving specific problems. Emphasis is placed also on building a theoretical and analytical framework to provide flexibility in the design of marketing experiments and in judging recent research innovations.

Topics in Marketing

Marketing is evolving from an art to a science. Many firms have extensive information about consumers’ choices and how they react to marketing campaigns, but few firms have the expertise to intelligently act on such information. The goal of this course is to provide you with the skills needed to make intelligent use of marketing data and analytics to make business recommendations and decisions. This course also provides students with the background needed to begin working in a marketing analytics position within a corporation, a consulting firm, or a marketing research firm. The course employs a combination of lectures, articles, and “hands-on” exercises. By the end of the course, you will be able to walk into any company and help make data-driven marketing decisions.

This course is an examination of the concepts, theorems and problems which are fundamental to an understanding of economic decision making. Emphasis is on the real-life examples of fundamental concepts and application of quantitative methods to the solution of individual decision-making problems of households, firms and industries.

This is an introductory course in macroeconomics. The course is designed to introduce students to the essential concepts of macroeconomics. The approach is both analytical and policy oriented. Macroeconomics looks at the big picture of the economy. The course focuses on understanding the main macroeconomic problems, such as recession, inflation, and unemployment. In addition, the course analyses how fiscal and monetary policies can be used to influence macroeconomic performance and long-term growth.

Kuwait Economy will address the economic issues surrounding Kuwait. International trade, energy economics, cartels, optimal extraction rates, the Central Bank of Kuwait, and foreign investment issues are some of the topics that will be discussed. The class will draw on Kuwait’s rich history for examples and classroom discussions. Students are required to have taken introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics previously.

?This course is projected to help students understand the connections between money, financial markets, the banking sector and the macro-economy. How are interest rates determined and behave? How does the Federal Reserve (and central banks in general) conduct monetary policy? The course dedicates specific attention to the banking sector with an emphasis on their function, position, and importance in financial markets. Topics will include the role of the Federal Reserve as a lender of last resort during the recent, and previous, financial crises, unconventional monetary policy tools such as quantitative easing and forward guidance. We will often begin class with a discussion of current macro-financial market events in the context of our course coverage.

This course will provide an analytical framework for the understanding of the reasons for international trade in products and services. Students will learn to identify the determinants and patterns of international trade, and the effects on exchange rates of international capital flows in a free global market economy. The course will cover the role of international institutions in the development of international trade, financial markets, and economic growth. Students will be introduced to policies that distort international trade and prevent the development of comparative advantage, specialization and economic development.

This course is a survey of economic growth as applied to developed and developing countries. The course will include an analysis of development policies with emphasis on case studies.

International Energy Markets develops the basic economic foundations, technical and institutional knowledge necessary to formulate and implement sound economic, business and governmental policy decisions as they relate to international energy industries and institutions. This course will assist the student in understanding international energy markets, pricing, policies, and profits. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the energy markets from a producing country’s point of view.

We are living in an explosive era of readily available Big Data and statistics. Billions of users of cell phones, internet, GPS and medical devices generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data every day. The demand for analysts that can untangle and generate creative applications from this deluge of new data has never been higher across all walks of life. The course is designed to provide an understanding of fundamental concepts of data analysis and to use statistical and probabilistic thinking in the context of the modern business world. Particular emphasis will be placed on applying the theory to practical, real-world examples to enhance skills as an analyst, manager and observer of the world in general.

This course is an introduction to the applications of economics as a science and a profession. The course introduces students to the skills and tools that make economics an attractive and enjoyable field as an overview of economic data and current debates. The course builds on the knowledge that the student acquired in the principles classes and applies it to a variety of economic issues around the globe.

This course is an examination of the concepts, theorems and problems which are fundamental to an understanding of economic decision making. Emphasis is on the real-life examples of fundamental concepts and application of quantitative methods to the solution of individual decision making problems of households, firms and industries.

This course applies microeconomic analysis to specific business decisions. Managerial economics welds together microeconomic theory and the insights of management science in a decision-making format. This course concerns both theory and practice. Emphasis will be placed on demand analysis and estimation, production and cost analysis under different market conditions, and business and economic forecasting.

Natural Resource Economics considers the efficient and equitable use of society’s scarce natural resources. Natural resources include minerals, oil, fish, water and environmental systems. Natural resource use will be considered from three perspectives: the market allocation of natural resources, efficient and equitable allocations, and government attempts to achieve a more efficient and equitable allocation. The course will study in detail when the market is, and is not, capable of efficiently allocating natural resources.

The course will cover the following topics: construction of statistical models, especially the use of statistical tools and techniques such as chi-square tests of independence, analysis of variance, simple and multiple linear regressions and correlation, and the use of extrapolating methods such moving average and exponential smoothing.

Econometrics is concerned with how to use statistical methods and procedures for economic data. Econometrics techniques have been increasingly used in macroeconomics and applied microeconomics. It is concerned with estimating relationships, testing theories, and evaluating and forecasting impacts of business decisions. This course is designed to provide the students with sufficient knowledge of statistics and econometrics to be able to evaluate and interpret econometrics research that use basic linear regression methods. After completion of this course, students should be able to perform tasks of data collection, modeling of econometrics relationships, estimating and testing of the model, and interpreting and using the estimation results.

This course will cover special topics in Economics that are not covered in other Economics courses.

Managerial economics is a branch of economics that applies microeconomics analysis to business decisions. To effectively manage a company, the manager needs to have a good understanding of market mechanisms, consumer behavior, production decisions, costs, competition strategies and internal organization. We will gradually develop these economic concepts and show how they can be applied to managerial decisions. The analysis and principles that we learn in this course will serve as a building blocks for the understanding of other business subjects such as accounting, marketing, corporate finance and human resource management.

This course is designed to have a through understanding of the role of money and banks in the broader economy and the unique role of banks in the financial system. We aim to translate the jargon of money and banking in to plain language. We will shine a light on banking, reveal how central banks operate monetary policy and why they sometimes pursue different approaches in tackling the recent challenges. This course focuses on the interest rates, role of money in the economy, banking industry, central banking monetary theory , the theory that relates changes in the quantity of money to changes in the aggregate economic activity and the price level, how banks play a crucial role in the economy, why financial crises occur, policy responses to those crises and lessons learned associated with recent financial crises. Students will master the fundamentals of the monetary theory and its relevance to policy making.

The main purpose of this course is to help students meet the demand for econometrics and forecasting methods required by employers and decision-makers. Special emphasis will be given to time-series models used in business and economic forecasting and the practical application of the procedures discussed through the use of computer exercises. Example of topics are: forecasting with regression models, heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional, auto-correlation and time-series models, and causality analysis. The course is taught in a computer lab with a two hour lecture and a one hour tutorial per week. The most up to date software will be utilized and details will be given in the course outlines.

Focuses on energy resource valuation, economic incentives, and institutional arrangements that allow us to analyze energy's use as a natural resource and provide the means to develop effective decision tools useful for policy planning and decision making in the energy market place.

Topics in Economics

Advanced Topics in Economics

The course introduces students to the principles, concepts and practices of corporate financial management, and the theories and applications underlying the financial decision making process. The major topics covered include financial statement analysis, risk and returns, time value of money, valuation of stocks and bonds, capital structure and its cost, and capital budgeting.

Corporate Finance focuses on financial decision-making and its impact on the economic value of the firm. The course provides practical applications and is based on modern financial theory, with an emphasis on valuation and risk management. The course focuses on four major parts in corporate finance. Part one: risk and the required rate of return. This part examines cost of capital. Part two: long term investment decisions. This part examines capital budgeting techniques, capital budgeting cash flows, risk and refinement in capital budgeting. Part three: Long-term financial decisions. This part examines leverage and capital structure, in addition to payout policy. Part four: Short-term financial decision. This part examines working capital and current asset management, in addition to current liabilities management. Throughout the topics covered, this course reviews the ethical and financial implications of business decisions and their impact on the value of the firm.

?This course provides students with a thorough understanding of the application of quantitative models in finance. While the finance theory is briefly reviewed, the majority of course consists of hands-on application of modeling, examination of different approaches to building financial models. The course emphasizes on the use of real financial data and familiarizes students with various sources and uses of financial data. The course covers various financial information sources as well as technologies as they relate to the modeling applications. It also utilizes various financial functions in Excel.

This course is an introductory investment course that focuses on practical applications as well as analytical aspects of investment theories. This course provides an overview about the investment background, introduces the developments in investment theory, the investment evaluation principles and practices. More precisely, this course overviews the investment process, asset allocation decision, global market investment decision. Also, it provides the basic knowledge about securities markets, security market indexes, and capital market efficiency. In addition, this course presents an introduction to portfolio management, asset pricing models and multifactor models of risk and return, keeping in mind the ethical dimensions in making the investment decisions.

?This course is developed to provide students with detailed understanding of identifying financial risks facing financial institutions, namely interest rate risk, market risk, credit risk (individual loan risk and loan portfolio and concentration risk), off-balance sheet risk, foreign exchange risk, and country and liquidity risks. The course will focus on the impact made on firms' profitability and owners' equity.

Real Estate is a multi-faceted field, encompassing both an operating industry and a broad category of investments. It has its institutional features, jargon, and investment structure. This course provides a broad overview of the real estate field. This co covers the fundamentals of real estate investments including the wide range of instruments for financing, investing, controlling risk available in today's financial markets, organizations, structuring of real estate securitization and participant the market. It requires the application of financial and economic analysis.

The purpose of the course is to introduce financial thinking, tools and techniques adapted to the realm of entrepreneurship. The course introduces the theories, knowledge and financial tools an entrepreneur and investment banker require to start, build and harvest a successful venture. The course will include how and when to interact with financial institutions and regulatory agencies to take a venture to its potential and provide the return and liquidity to its shareholders.

This course establishes the ability to read banks' financial statements, discuss the different bank accounts, and represent the basics of banks' ratio analysis. Besides, this course describes the potential risks banks face in their daily operations, and the types of exposures they deal while giving more emphasis on the credit risk by representing the assets- liability management (gap management) concept. Also, this course provides an application of financial management concepts to the liquidity management, investment portfolio analysis, capital budgeting, and capital structure decision-making process required by a commercial and Islamic bank to perform its financial intermediation role within the financial system's institutional, regulatory, and competitive environment effectively.

The course shall assist students in understanding the wide range of instruments for financing, investing and controlling risk available in today's financial markets. The course also involves learning about participants in financial markets. governments and financial business and households. In addition, applying financial and economic models and theories to evaluate various securities and portfolios shall take place along with covering the organizations and the structuring of capital markets and financial operations.

This is an introductory course to Islamic Banking and Finance. Here, a historical background of Islamic Banking and Finance is discussed alongside the mechanics of Islamic financing and investment tools; rules and regulations governing Islamic financial contracts; Islamic mode of financing; Islamic financial instruments, risk, uncertainty (gharar), interest (riba). A comparative analysis will be made between conventional and Islamic banking & finance to critically explore the problems, challenges and prospects of Islamic banking and finance industry. This exposure will help our students understand the application of Shariah principles in banking & finance operations, products and services. In addition, the Islamic business ethics will be discussed at an introductory level in a setting where students take active participation to share their knowledge, views and experiences.

This course will equip our students with practical understanding of Islamic banking and finance such as Islamic law of contracts, Islamic banking activities, corporate governance in Islamic financial institutions, Islamic asset and fund management, Islamic bond market (Sukuk) and Islamic insurance (Takaful). This course will involve discussions regarding the mobilization of funds in the light of various prohibitions as well as how these funds are channeled in conformity with Islamic law (Sharia). This course will enable our students to develop intellectual capacity to critically analyze the various aspects of Sharia principles related to financial products and services offered by Islamic financial institutions alongside Islamic business ethics. According to Islamic business ethics, ethics governs all aspects of life, and it preaches that ethics provides essential support for maximizing long-term business value. This course will prepare our students to succeed in the Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) exam from Securities and Investment Institute, UK..