GBUS 8424 - Games and Auctions

This course aims to sharpen the participants’ strategic thinking. It examines competitive situations from a diverse range of corporate activities in which performance depends on the interactions between a multiplicity of decision makers, including customers, suppliers, competitors, employees, managers, investors, and regulators. Students will develop a tool set for perceiving, analyzing, and shaping these interactions. Most of the tools have first been developed in economic game theory. Many key insights from game theory are intuitively compelling and fit literally on the back of an envelope. The course therefore emphasizes concepts and qualitative reasoning, rather than quantitative techniques. Case studies from different functional areas serve to provide students with a store of strategic insights and, under the guidance of analytical tools, to condition sound intuitive thinking that will carry over to new, unfamiliar problems. Computer simulations enable hands-on decision making and provide feedback on the effectiveness of personal rules of thumb for competitive interactions.

Credits: 1.5