Economic Security and Risk Management in Digital Economy

This course will mainly focus on:

• digitalization and organizational behavior: virtual teams, leadership and conflict management;
• managing employees in distant virtual contexts (HRM implications);
• novel forms of digital organizing;
• organizing the platform: roles, specialization and coordination;
• organizing the digital democracy: e-Governance and transparency;
• the dark side of digitalization: environmental and social unsustainable practices;
• the organizational limits of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0.

• introduction to privacy;
• introduction to personal data markets and surveillance capitalism;
• introduction to the privacy laws (incl. GDPR and global data sharing agreements);
• identify basic security risks for software-based systems;
• assess basic security risks for software-based systems;
• understand security-related interdependencies;
• plan basic security measures for software-based systems.

Planned learning outcomes:

Students will get an overview of the multiple dimensions of privacy as these become relevant in digital markets and specifically personal data markets. They will get an overview of the legal instruments protecting privacy in Europe and worldwide.

During the program, students will acquire and strengthen the analytical competencies necessary to support management decision-making. Students will be immersed in the specifics of the company’s business processes to develop a system of analytical indicators and methods for calculating them. This course provides a microeconomic view of digital markets, with a special focus on digital platform business models with intermediaries, covering the following topics: economics of digital platforms; competition, transaction costs and prices in digital markets; coordination and participation in digital markets.

Students will be able to analyze the company’s financial situation and financial results based on financial statements, as well as work with management information to analyze the effectiveness of operational and investment activities.

Digital platforms are widely observed in modern economies. These are inter-organizational information systems that match buyers and sellers directly in retail (Amazon, Alibaba) and social media (Facebook) to name a few. There is plenty of evidence of how the platforms, thanks largely to technology, shift companies from conventional economy to the digital economy, where companies are able to better utilize their capital assets, reduce idle capacities and get more work.

For companies platforms trigger and coordinate inter-firm collaborations, which create ecosystems, here companies cooperate for value creation and compete for value capture. For workers, the platforms create conditions for decentralized work and coordination of their freelancing activities. To thrive and prosper in the digital economy the new generation of managers and entrepreneurs need a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of value creation underpinning the samples of existing digital platforms and abilities to visualize to plan their integration into new platforms.

Drawing from cases from a variety of business sectors, students will analyze the barriers, benefits and opportunities of joining the platform business from existing theoretical and practical perspectives, such as two-sided networks, information asymmetry, value chains and system dynamics. Students will interact with major firms that has enabled platform strategies and learn how to use a set of frameworks and tools to analyze existing platform businesses and to develop strategies to launch new ones.

Global risks can jeopardize the functioning, stability, and prosperity of communities, companies, and organizations, and pose existential threats. The aim of this course is to provide students with the methods and tools that put them in a position to work on a broad scope of risks, to be operational when confronting new threats outside known and conventional risks, and to be of value for a large array of companies and organizations.

Students will acquire tools in econometrics and empirical analysis combined with strong skills in using large data sets needed to perform quantitative analyses and projections of risk scenarios. They will also learn economic techniques in cost-benefit analysis, actuarial science and risk management that they need as risk professionals and economists forecasting, analyzing, evaluating risks and uncertain scenarios.

This course is designed for students from all academic and professional backgrounds, including those new to project management or agile principles. In this course, we focus on learning techniques, methodologies, and frameworks within the field of project management, with an application of agile principles using the Scrum methodology.

Coping with constant change has become the norm in today’s global organizations, which must continually adapt to ever-evolving environments and challenges. This course comprehensively explores agile techniques and methodologies, equipping participants with the skills, knowledge, and tools needed to ensure successful project outcomes, timely delivery, and enhanced team efficiency.

Throughout this course, students distinguish between agile and waterfall project management methodologies, gaining insights into when to apply each approach effectively. Additionally, they evaluate how agile methodology can effectively respond to evolving stakeholder requirements. Participants develop essential project management competencies and best practices to lead agile project teams and deliver solutions with maximum effectiveness.

The course delves deep into agile project management principles and practices, covering topics such as self-organizing teams, roles in project management, adaptive planning, value-driven delivery, stakeholder engagement, issue detection and resolution, sprint execution, and retrospective analysis.

Current industry trends and best practices are also explored through case studies, providing participants with a holistic view of the field. In team-based settings, participants apply the Scrum framework to understand the agile methodology’s execution better. Regardless of prior project management experience, this course is designed to breathe life into agile principles by enabling hands-on practice of essential skills and facilitation techniques within a collaborative team environment.

This is an entry-level course requiring no prior knowledge of project management, agile, or technical or software experience. 

The transformation to sustainable and just societies needs contributions from everyone – from activists demanding change, to visionaries experimenting to create new solutions and imagine a better future, historians learning from the past, scientists creating new insights and informing debates, entrepreneurs creating new business models for circular and sharing economies, to dedicated public servants working to steer governments towards sustainable decisions. All these perspectives and insights matter, and are topics of discussion and exploration in this course’s program.

This course examines key areas of communication, engaging with critical perspectives on social, economic and cultural relations across diverse spheres of modern life. It takes an interdisciplinary and theory-driven approach, comparing the claims and contribution of selected key approaches of communication in order to understand and critique the symbolic and material power of communication media.

With a substantive focus on the shifts from mass to networked media and from national to globalised communication processes, the course offers a selective introduction to key approaches in communication. It examines a series of critical perspectives, drawing on current research debates and contemporary issues in the field of media and communications and beyond. The course is team taught by active researchers in the field of media and communications and aims to enable students to develop their critical understanding of the communication processes central to the contemporary media and communications environment.

In addition, this course reveals the cultural features of Russia, its traditions, and the nuances of the Russian language, which means that the course introduces students to the national flavor.