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Business Economics

Code: 103744 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2502904 Hotel Management FB 1

Contact

Name:
Eduardo Cesar Rodes Mayor
Email:
eduardo.rodes@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

None.


Objectives and Contextualisation

This course is the first of those included in the Hotel Management Degree in the area of business management and management. The course begins with the concept, elements and classes of firms. Next, the managerial tasks and its functions are studied. The aspects related to the business strategy are discussed below and are developed from strategic analysis (both internal and external) and strategic typologies (both at the competitive level and at the corporate level). Throughout the course emphasis is placed on the companies or organizations that are related to the various hotel activities. Likewise, the theoretical contents are combined with various practical activities.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

 

1. Understand the fundamental aspects related to the company and the management function, with special emphasis on the various hotel companies.

 

2. Know and understand the concepts and techniques related to the strategic management of the company and its application to the hotel management.

 

3. Entrepreneurship and innovation. In order to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of the students, work will be discussed and discussed on the entrepreneurial orientation in the framework of the managerial function and the business strategy. Likewise, during the course, a practical case will be analyzed that deals with the creation and development of a company of the tourist sector. Finally, the realization of the work on a real hotel business by the students will include the analysis of its creation and subsequent evolution.


Competences

  • Be able to search efficiently for the necessary information.
  • Define and apply the management of different types of organisation in the hotel and catering sector.
  • Demonstrate ethical behaviour is social relations and the ability to adapt to different intercultural situations.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the basic principles of accommodation and catering in all their dimensions, departments, activities and areas in the context of the tourist sector.
  • Demonstrate responsible behaviour towards the environmental, social and cultural surroundings.
  • Develop a capacity for independent learning.
  • Identify and apply the elements that govern activity in the hotel and catering sectors, their interaction in the environment and their impact in the different business subsystems in the sector.
  • Manage and organise time.
  • Manage communication techniques at all levels.
  • Plan and manage activities based on quality and sustainability.
  • Plan, organise and coordinate work teams creating synergies and knowing how to put yourself in the place of others when negotiating and managing conflicts.
  • Work in teams.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Be able to search efficiently for the necessary information.
  2. Define, identify and apply the strategies, structures and processes related to human resources in hotel and catering companies.
  3. Demonstrate ethical behaviour is social relations and the ability to adapt to different intercultural situations.
  4. Demonstrate responsible behaviour towards the environmental, social and cultural surroundings.
  5. Develop a capacity for independent learning.
  6. Distinguish, identify and apply the concepts of strategic management to the products of hotel and catering companies.
  7. Identify the theoretical and conceptual basis of the strategy of the tourist business.
  8. Manage and organise time.
  9. Manage communication techniques at all levels.
  10. Plan and manage activities based on quality and sustainability.
  11. Plan, organise and coordinate work teams creating synergies and knowing how to put yourself in the place of others when negotiating and managing conflicts.
  12. Work in teams.

Content

1. The firm.

1.1. Concept of company

1.2. Elements and functions of the company. The creation of value and profitability.

1.3. Classes of companies. The hotel companies.

 

2. The managerial function.

2.1. Concept and address classes.

2.2. Fundamental management tasks

2.3. Management and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship from a gender perspective

 

3. The strategy of the company.

3.1. Concept and elements of the strategy.

3.2. Different levels of the strategy.

3.3. The process of formulating the strategy.

 

4. Internal analysis.

4.1. Functional analysis.

4.2. The value chain

4.3. Analysis of resources and capabilities.

4.4. Financial resources and investment decisions.

 

5. Analysis of the environment.

5.1. Analysis of the general environment.

5.2. Analysis of the specific and operational environment.

5.3. Social environment and current trends in hotel companies.

 

6. Competitive strategies.

6.1. Nature and sources of competitive advantage and positioning.

6.2. Generic competitive strategies.

6.3. Strategies according to the life cycle of the sector.

 

7. Corporate strategies.

7.1. Strategic development directions.

7.2. Diversification strategies and vertical integration.

7.3. Internationalization and cooperation strategies.

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Case discussions and answers 10 0.4 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Homework presentations 1 0.04 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11
Lectures 35 1.4 3, 4, 6, 7, 9
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring 10 0.4 1, 7
Type: Autonomous      
Case solving activities 4 0.16 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12
Homework solving 25 1 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12
Study 58 2.32 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12

Teaching language: Spanish

During the course, the theoretical classes (master classes) will be combined with the practical sessions (practical cases), during which the participation and teamwork will be encouraged by the students. Likewise, the students will have to carry out a group work on a real hospitality company, in which framework a fieldwork and an in-class presentation of the most relevant contents will be carried out.

TEACHING PLAN 

WEEK

TOPIC

METHOD

HOURS

1, 2

The Firm

Master class and case studies

1, 2

3, 4

The managerial function

Master class and case studies

3, 4

5, 6

Firm's strategy

Master class and case studies, tutorials

5, 6

7, 8

Internal analisis

Master class and case studies

7, 8

9, 10

External analysis

Master class and case studies

9, 10

11, 12

Competitive strategies

Master class and case studies

11, 12

13, 14

Corporate strategies

Master class and case studies, tutorials

13, 14

15

Group work

Presentations

15

 

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Analysis of a company 25 1 0.04 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11
Case discussions and class participation 15 4 0.16 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12
Exam Part 1 30 1 0.04 2, 6, 7, 8
Exam Part 2 30 1 0.04 6, 7, 8

The evaluation of the subject will be carried out by two written exams (each one counts 30% of the final grade), as well as by carrying out and the oral presentation in class the analysis of a hotel company (25%) and by the discussion of practical cases throughout the course (15%). A sine qua non condition to obtain accreditation for the subject: it will be necessary to have passed (with a grade greater than or equal to 5) both the exams and the analysis of the company.

Single evaluation.

If you do not follow the continuous evaluation or suspend it on the official dates established, a single evaluation may be carried out. This evaluation will be perfomed by a written exam with two parts (each one countss 30% of the final mark), as well as by carrying out and presenting the analysis work of a hotel company (40%).

Re-evaluation.

It is aimed at students who have obtained a grade equal to or greater than 3.5 and less than 5 in the single evaluation. The qualification of this re-evaluation will not exceed 5 as the final grade in the subject. The modality of the reassessment exam will be defined by the professors of the subject.

The re-evaluation of the students who have opted for a single evaluation system will be the same as that of the rest of the students and to take the re-evaluation, it will be necessary that they have obtained at least a 3.5 in the set of evidences of the single evaluation.

The grade for the subject will be NOT EVALUABLE when the student attends less than half of the assessment activities and/or does not attend the final exam.

 


Bibliography

Teaching material in digital format  will be available in the Virtual Campus and in the following books:

Besanko, David, David Dranove, Mark Shanley and Scott Shaefer (2017), Economics of Strategy, 7.ª Ed. John Wiley and Sons, Nueva York

Brealy, Richard and Myers, Stephen (2020): Principios de Finanzas Corporativas. McGraw-Hill.

Enz, Cathy (2009) Hospitality Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases, 2da. Ed.,John Wiley and Sons, Nueva Jersey.

Grant, Robert M. (2022): Contemporary Strategy analysis. Editorial Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Martín Rojo, Inmaculada (2020): Dirección y gestión de empresas del sector turístico. 6ª Edición. Ediciones Pirámide, Madrid.

Veciana, José Mª. (1999): Función directiva. Servicio de Publicaciones de la UAB, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès).


Software

Spreadsheet (MS Office Excel) 


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 3 Spanish first semester morning-mixed