WISO100541 Fundamentals of business economics

Type
course with continuous assessment
Semester hours
4
Lecturer (assistant)
Vögl, Jana , Hesse, Maximilian , Gronalt, Manfred
Organisation
Production and Logistics
Offered in
Wintersemester 2026/27
Languages of instruction
Deutsch
Content

Company and Its Environment

- Needs, goods and factors of production
- Economic principle
- Economic units
- Economic framework conditions
- Stakeholder groups and the contractual model of the firm
- Value creation, value chain and the operational revenue process
- Accounting
- Management
- Organization
- Human resources and employment relationships
- Classification of companies
- Corporate objectives
- Productivity and economic efficiency
- Ratio analysis / DuPont scheme
- Companies, environment and sustainability: rebound effect
- Legal forms of companies
- Shares and share prices
- Business combinations
- Business administration as a science

Planning and Operations Management

- Concept of planning and decision problems
- Phases of planning, planning horizons and management
- SWOT analysis
- Network planning
- Capacity planning
- Trade-off between costs and time
- Controlling
- Models, model building and model-based planning
- Linear optimization model
- Knapsack problem
- Production program planning
- Transportation problem
- Multi-period production program planning
- Machine scheduling

Decision Theory

- Decision theory
- Decision-making under certainty, risk and uncertainty
- Decision-making methods, e.g. expected value, standard deviation, semi-variance, Hurwicz rule, Laplace rule, regret rule
- Multiple-objective problems and conflicting objectives
- Utility value analysis

Logistics

- Fundamentals and areas of logistics
- Materials logistics
- Warehousing and storage costs
- Supply Chain Management
- Key performance indicators
- Material requirements planning
- ABC analysis and XYZ analysis
- Forecasting (e.g. moving average, exponential smoothing, Holt method, Holt-Winters method, linear regression)
- Order quantity / lot-sizing planning – Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)

Financing

- Concept of financing
- Forms of financing (debt financing and internal financing)
- Cash flow
- Financial planning, strategic and short-term
- Leverage effect

Investment

- Concept of investment
- Investment appraisal
- Investment decision-making process
- Evaluation of individual investments – static and dynamic methods (e.g. break-even analysis, profitability comparison, payback period, net present value and annuity method)
- Uncertainty of data
- Economic useful life
Previous knowledge expected

Mathematical and statistical knowledge at high school graduation level (Matura/A-levels)
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

After completing the course, students will be able to:
•name and describe the essential legal forms, fundamental functions and goals of businesses,
•compare these with the requirements of ecological and social sustainability,
•develop basic concepts for sustainable business management and corporate value creation,
•understand fundamental business decision-making situations and planning problems,
•independently formulate and solve simple business planning models
•explain and present business administration content.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.