MBA Online

Graduate School of Business Sciences at University of Tsukuba

Marketing & Strategic Management (MS)

This program aims to have students identify business issues by themselves, systematically analyze them based on available data and logics in order to derive solutions, and apply the analyses to business. To meet this goal, Marketing students learn an approach to understanding the market structure and marketing process from a scientific viewpoint in order to analyze the factors required for sustained expansion of businesses from several perspectives. In the Strategic Management category, students are taught a theoretical and empirical analysis approach to organizational and strategic patterns enabling high performance in such corporate behaviors as business strategy, organizational innovation, R&D, product development, innovation, human resource development, and human resource management (HRM). Students are expected to enhance their ability to discover and resolve business issues by acquiring a broader knowledge of associated disciplines while placing importance on their specialty.
[Example Research Subjects]
Environmental Awareness of Japanese, U.S. and European Consumers, and Marketing Strategy
Analysis of the Creative Effects of TV Advertising
Roles of Customer Retention and Accounts for Settlement in the Retail Banking Sector
Research on the Communication Effects of Opt-In Mails
Research on a Chain of Innovative Leadership
Impacts of Career-Mindedness and Career Network on Career Choices
Construction of an Intensive Adaptive Strategy Model - Through an Analysis of EDA and the Semiconductor Industry
Success Factors for Alliances for Technology Development among General Contractors
Product Development in the Early Period of the Plasma TV Industry
Research on the Growth Process of Startup Technology Companies

Faculty of Economic at The University of Tokyo

4201: Regulatory Economics
Winter Matsumura & Kanemoto
This course introduces students to economic analysis of regulation, including both economic and social regulation. The main goal is to familialize students with the important topics in regulation policies today, and put students in a position to do their own policy analysis in this area. The course begins with an extensive discussion of economic theories necessary to understand regulatory policies.

ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy

[Term 4] Brand Management (S. Akutsu) (2009/Term 3&4 (Spring&Summer))

This is an advanced marketing elective course that focuses on the development and implementation of brand management. Managers in charge of a brand(s) face many challenges, such as (1) developing brand strategies that synthesize internal resources and competitive strategy, (2) clarifying brand philosophies, (3) generating and motivating brand identities, (4) understanding the brand images of key customers in depth, (5) communicating brand identities effectively with customers, (6) designing a comprehensive brand architecture, (7) developing and implementing brand building programs, (8) evaluating brand’s value conceptually and quantitatively, and (9) managing brands over time and across cultures.

The goal of this course is to provide students with concepts, theories, models, and methods that will help resolve these challenges. It is complementary to the database-marketing elective as it places more emphasis on concepts and theories, while the database-marketing course stresses empirical methods and quantitative data analysis.
Course Structure

In the first class, the course overview is provided. Fundamental questions concerning brand are discussed such as (1) what is brand, (2) why it is important, (3) to whom it is important, (4) when it is important, (5) where it is important, how to build it, and who should be in charge. Guidelines for the group project are also provided.

Thereafter, the course is structured in three modules. The first module introduces key concepts and models of brand management. In particular, it closely examines different conceptualizations of brand equity and brand identity. Insights and implications each conceptualization conveys, as well as other related concepts, are discussed. A variety of measurement models and scales of brand equity are also introduced.

The second module covers the basic models of brand strategy and branding, as well as their relationships with organizational capabilities and market opportunities. Organizational capabilities of brand building are identified and their roles are discussed. Akutsu and Ishida’s Context Branding Model is introduced as a frame of branding that has been developed and proven in the Japanese and other overseas markets.

The third module covers brand portfolio strategy and other advanced topics of brand strategy and branding. David A. Aaker’s Brand Portfolio Model is introduced and its relation to Context Branding Model is discussed. Other topics include branding nations and branding in Asia.
Teaching Method

While this course consists primarily of case discussions, lectures, videos, and guest speaker sessions are combined to effectively teach both theory and practice. Due to the nature of this advanced elective course, students are expected to enthusiastically prepare for and participate in the class. Students have an opportunity to present the outcome of their group project in a later session.

Marketing

The Marketing Department continuously strives to achieve excellence in research. The faculty members are renowned for high-quality, cutting-edge research, publishing their work in the top international marketing journals, such as Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) and Marketing Science (MS). The Marketing faculty is ranked seventh in the world in terms of the number of papers published in JMR and JCR in 2000-2006 (ahead of Berkeley, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, INSEAD, MIT, Stanford and Yale).

The goal of the PhD program is to develop outstanding scholars who are able to secure academic jobs at top international universities and to become first-rate contributors to marketing knowledge.

Our program provides solid training in the theory and methods of various subfields of marketing such as consumer behavior and marketing models. Apart from gaining in-depth knowledge, students gain hands-on experience in the research process from the very early stages of the program.

The faculty is highly committed to the PhD program. State-of-the art courses are offered on themes such as information processing, behavioral game theory, experimental designs, judgment and decision making, choice modeling, and analytical marketing science. These courses and the research training are very demanding but at the same time highly rewarding.

A well-equipped behavioral lab and many opportunities for research collaboration with the faculty contribute to the learning experience. In addition, students benefit from two research centers housed in the Marketing Department – the Center for Experimental Business Research and the Center for Marketing and Distribution. Some of our students have published papers in top research journals. The program offers students a very good intellectual environment and enables them to become outstanding researchers. One recent graduate was selected for the Marketing Science Institute’s Young Scholar Program, one of the highest accolades a young researcher in the field can receive.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

In 1998 two of the world’s leading universities united with a common goal: to foster a new network of leaders with global insights and local sensitivities.

The Kellogg–HKUST Executive MBA program is the result of this joint venture.

From the beginning, strict parameters were established to assure the success of the program. Students are required to be mature senior executives able to demonstrate academic and real world business achievement.

Faculty is handpicked for their ability to constantly stimulate, inspire and challenge their sophisticated students.

The program was designed to take the students out of their comfort zones and into new areas of thinking that spanned both industry and vocation.

In the intervening years, more than 500 executives have graduated from the program.

Individually they are blazing new trails in world trade, taking multinational companies to new heights and creating wealth for the benefit of us all.

Collectively they represent the best and brightest of Asia’s managerial and entrepreneurial talent.

We call them The World Class.

The School of Management of Shenzhen University was established in June 1997, consisting of the Department of Management, the Department of Public Administration and the Department of Soft-science£¬and now it has expaned to 5 departments. They are Dept. of Business Management, Dept. of Human Resource Management, Dept of Information and System Management, Dept of Public Administration and Dept of Marketing.

The school has 83 faculty members, among whom, 17 are professors and 42 are associate professors. Presently, the school has 190 postgraduate students, 2631 full-time undergraduates, 125 international cooperation students and over 4000 part-time students.

The school is honored with one Guangdong provincial level key discipline¡ªPublic Administration, one branded major of Guangdong¡ªBusiness Administration, one provincial institute for humanity and social science¡ªThe Institute for contemporary Chinese politics and the first pilot approved by the Degree Committee of China’s State Council among local institutions¡ªthe MBA program. The goal of the school is trying to meet the needs of social development in the 21st century and efforts are being made to become one of China¡¯s top schools of management in both teaching and academic research.