Syllabus for Business in Networks

Decisions and guidelines

The course is offered to exchange students.

Learning outcomes

The course aims to introduce students to networks for the description and analysis of business activities. The course deals with the network perspective which highlights the complex dependencies that exist between companies through their interaction. Central to the course is to increase the students' understanding of different development and change processes in business networks. In addition, the perspective is extended to include other counterparts important for the company's development in the network, e.g. national and international NGOs and financial institutions.

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

• account for key concepts and relations in relevant theories on business networks
• apply appropriate theories to describe and analyse business networks
• perform descriptions and analyses of business networks to identify development and change processes
• demonstrate the ability to distinguish relevant information for the description and analysis of business networks as well as development and change processes
• demonstrate the ability to identify and include relevant actors in the descriptions and analyses of business networks as well as development and change processes
• demonstrate the ability to describe business networks and development and change processes in text and speech
• evaluate other students' analyses of network development and change processes
• lead and participate in group work

Content

The course introduces the students to business networks as a perspective for describing, understanding and explaining business activities. The course presents various key theories, concepts and relations that are used to describe and analyse business networks as well as development and change processes in networks. During the course, sales and purchasing issues are dealt with in relation to customer and supplier relationships, but also the influence of relationships with other key players, nationally and internationally are discussed. The course makes extensive use of cases as part of teaching and as a basis for the students' descriptions and analyses.

Instruction

Instruction takes the form of lectures, compulsory case and literature seminars, written group and individual assignments, online testing and oral presentations. The course is taught in English.

Assessment

The student will get one single grade, equivalent to 7.5 credits.

Course examination includes written and oral assignments as well as a written exam. Examination includes both individual and team work elements. The course consists of obligatory parts. The grade for the entire course is based on an assessment of all parts of the examination.

Grading criteria are presented in the study guide that applies to the course section. The following grades will be used, pass with distinction (VG), pass (G) and fail (U). Examinations handed in late will not be assessed except under special circumstances. Any remaining supplemental work must be handed in by the deadline specified in the study guide.

For students who have not received a passing grade for the course, the entire course (including all examinations) will have to be redone during subsequent course sections.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating or plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating or plagiarism are reported to the Vice-Chancellor, which may issue a formal warning to the student or suspend the student from studies for a certain period.

NOTE: Only completed courses can count toward a degree.