Courses

• GSM MF 794: Stochastic Optimal Control and Investment
  Classical problems for optimal control (Merton?s problem, etc.), the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, the connection between asset pricing and free-boundary problems for PDEs, optimal exercise of American-style derivatives, optimal investment decisions, valuation of real options, policy intervention, Pontryagin?s principle of maximum, and applications to some macroeconomic models.
• GSM MF 795: Stochastic Methods of Mathematical Finance II
  This course focuses on developing the necessary tools from stochastic calculus to be applied in the mathematical theory of finance. Topics include: stochastic integration, equivalent changes of probability, fundamental theorems of finance, stochastic differential equations, pricing and hedging of contingent claims, short-rate models, introduction to American options, and changes of numeraire.
• GSM MF 796: Computational Methods of Mathematical Finance
  This course develops algorithmic and numerical schemes that are used in practice for pricing and hedging financial derivative products. Focus is given on Monte-Carlo simulation methods (generation of random variables, exact simulation of stochastic processes, discretization schemes for pricing and hedging of contingent claims, variance reduction techniques, and estimation of sensitivities with respect to model parameters), model calibration to market data, and estimation of model parameters.
• GSM MF 820: Quantitative Strategies and Algorithmic Trading
  In an increasing era of computerized trading, quantitative strategies are handling an ever greater share of market trading. This course details the use of quantitative methods in the development and implementation of trading strategies in the equity and debt markets with focus on both the market-making and proprietary trader perspectives. Both end-of-day and intraday strategies will be discussed with emphasis on the development, back testing methodology, and performance attribution of any strategy. Students will be grouped into market making and proprietary trading teams with the goal of generating positive P&L against each other.
• GSM MF 921: Topics in Dynamic Asset Pricing
  This course provides a selective survey of the methods and results of classic papers and recent advances in the asset pricing literature. Extensive use is made of continuous time techniques. Topics will include state dependent preferences, long run and business cycle risks, money, term structure models, transaction costs, intermediation.
• GSM MK 723: Marketing Management
  This course builds an in-depth understanding of basic marketing concepts and applies those concepts to a variety of management situations, including non-profit and public sector settings. The course provides working knowledge of the tools of marketing (product policy, pricing, distribution, promotion, consumer behavior), and the ways in which these tools can be usefully employed. The course builds practical skills in analyzing marketing problems and opportunities, and in developing marketing programs.
• GSM MK 724: Marketing Management
  This course builds an in-depth understanding of basic marketing concepts and applies those concepts to a variety of management situations, including non-profit and public sector settings. The course provides working knowledge of the tools of marketing (product policy, pricing, distribution, promotion, consumer behavior), and the ways in which these tools can be usefully employed. The course builds practical skills in analyzing marketing problems and opportunities, and in developing marketing programs.
• GSM MK 845: Social Media Marketing and Social Influence
  Social technology is continuously transforming the way consumers interact with each other and firms. Because of these changes, consumers have greater opportunity to voice their opinions and connect with other consumers and as well as increased influence over marketers and brands. This course covers the implications of the evolution of communication on marketing strategy in the new landscape where traditional and digital media coexist and interact. In this course, we examine how organizations capitalize on social media and these consumer-to-consumer interactions to support their marketing efforts. Specifically, we'll examine how this new technology can be used to (a) listen to consumers and monitor their behavior; (b) reach specific groups of consumers with messages via a variety of social media channels; (c) deliver content that draws consumers to the organization and to each other and motivates them to act; (d) effectively distributes content to a target audience; and (e) tracks the effectiveness of these efforts. We will particularly focus on the social aspect of social media and how social influence drives behavior. Because the pace of change in this area is so fast, we will challenge ourselves to look toward the future and predict where we think the field will go over the next five years. Throughout the course we will focus on 1) linking strategy and tactics and 2) measuring results. We will use a hands-on approach in examining these topics.
• GSM MK 849: Debiasing Decision Making
  The objective of this course is to inform future managers, consultants, and advisors of the psychological processes and biases underlying the decisions made by customers, competitors, colleagues, and themselves, with emphasis on how to incorporate such insights into marketing and business strategies. Applications of these processes and biases will be examined within the domains of the sustainability and health sectors. The course will provide students with a broad overview of important results from various behavioral sciences (e.g., behavioral decision research, cognitive and social psychology, behavioral economics, consumer research) that demonstrate the several biases that can affect the quality of our strategic decisions. It is intended to provide students with knowledge about applying these findings to topics in marketing, strategic management, and organizational behavior. Classroom time will be devoted to a combination of lectures, discussions, cases, and exercises illustrating the main concepts.
• GSM MK 852: Marketing Research
  This course examines a variety of exploratory and survey research approaches and their associated data analysis procedures. It provides participants with state-of-the-art tools for identifying and assessing customer needs and requirements to improve the performance of profit-oriented and public-sector organizations. The course emphasizes a managerial, user-oriented point-of-view.
• GSM MK 853: Global Strategic Marketing
  This course focuses on the key strategic marketing decisions managers must make: deciding whether to market globally; selecting countries in which to market; choosing marketing strategies and tactics for entry and growth; and organizing for and managing the implementation of global marketing strategies.
• GSM MK 854: Branding
  This is a course about branding, and the ways that brands acquire and sustain value in the marketplace. The course is embedded in sociological, anthropological, and psychological theories of consumer behavior and culture, and relies on these disciplines for insight into effective strategic management of the brand. The cases, readings, in-class discussions, and assignments are designed to provide you with: an understanding of brands as co-creations of consumers, marketers, and cultures, and brand management as a collaborative process of meaning management; a sound foundation in consumer-brand behavior; and a capacity to think creatively and with increased precision about the strategies and tactics involved in building, leveraging, defending, and sustaining strong brands. Select topics we will cover include brand (re)positioning, brand design, brand community, product placements and grassroots marketing, internal branding, brand relationships, brand architecture, brand leverage and extensions, brand metrics, and brand stewardship. A group brand planning project weaves content throughout the course; individual write-ups allow you to explore select branding topics in more detail. Several guest speakers from the branding services, consulting, and practice sides will provide their insights throughout the course.
• GSM MK 857: Service Marketing Management
  This course takes both a practical and conceptual approach to the marketing of services. The marketing literature views quality as being defined by customer expectations and perceptions. This course looks at key components of services that affect these expectations and perceptions as well as issues of demand management; developing systems that address custom problem solving and complaint management; and the overlap between operational, organizational, behavioral, and marketing issues in service management. The focus of the course varies by class to include professional services, small service, large service organizations and businesses that produce services as a key and necessary line extension to products that they produce.
• GSM MK 858: Customer Relationship Management
  The course is designed to give students a working knowledge of the concepts and practices of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The course will emphasize management of the customer experience and how to modify customer behavior using CRM. Key CRM components will be explored, including: database marketing, campaign management, marketing channels - including social media, marketing technology, marketing planning and measurement, and pricing. Instruction will be a combination of lectures, class discussion, cases, group activities, and guest lecturers
• GSM MK 859: Business Marketing
  This course provides an in-depth understanding of the unique aspects of marketing in a business-to-business environment. Students apply current marketing theory and techniques to industrial market settings. In addition, they develop managerial skills in the marketing planning and execution process, as well as critical analysis and problem-solving abilities with respect to marketing working relationships. The course allows participants to experiment with and apply strategic marketing concepts in a complex industrial marketing environment. Topics covered include the dynamics of relationships between suppliers and customers, the increasing reliance on the Marketing-R&D interface, the structuring of alliances between so-called competitors, and the process of negotiations-all in order to better understand how organizations endeavor to become and stay market-oriented. [Lectures, cases, guest speskers, interactive marketing simulation.]
• GSM MK 860: Integrated Marketing Communication
  The aim of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the strategic issues surrounding marketing communication, of which advertising is but one vehicle. We will be focusing on Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), which involves using a variety of tools (e.g. advertising, sales promotion, public relations, etc.) in a synergistic manner to achieve communication objectives. Students will learn IMC principles and practices and then develop an IMC campaign from situation analysis to strategy development and implementation. The ultimate objective of this course is to enable students to understand and operate within the advertising industry from either a client or agency perspective.
• GSM MK 867: Marketing Social Change
  Globalization, increasing transparency in business operations and the prevalence of social media have forever changed the way stakeholders view and interact with organizations. Societal and business imperatives are not only often considered compatible; they can be increasingly viewed as one and the same. People today often communicate, organize and engage based on mutual interests, and, generally, place greater trust in organizations and individuals that work for a better world. Marketing has often been referred to as the "science of sales." Whether you are selling a product, an intervention or an idea, it can be a powerful tool for advancing social change in today's dynamic environment. The strategic integration of a relevant social purpose into a product, business or nonprofit organization through brand-building citizenship activities can drive consumer and donor recall, consideration, acquisition, retention and propensity to recommend. However, these efforts do not usually constitute a "silver bullet" and may not be the best solution to a business problem or societal need at all. In the worst cases, ill-conceived citizenship marketing strategies can result in damaging consequences. Practitioners must be pragmatic when engaging in marketing social change. Understanding how to apply best practice, identify opportunities, address challenges, engage stakeholders and innovate strategically are essential skills in this rapidly evolving sector. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of how marketing principles can be applied to create both short-term and lasting social change. Students will explore dimensions of the modern landscapes of brand, corporate and nonprofit "citizenship" and how they relate to marketing. Areas of study include: cause-related marketing and cause branding; nonprofit branding and social movements, as well as corporate social responsibility and shared value creation. This class is taught by Kristian Darigan Merenda. Professor Merenda holds a BS in Marketing from Providence College and an MBA from Boston University. She is an author and award-winning consultant to Fortune 250 corporations and leading NGOs in their efforts to deliver mutually beneficial solutions for their business and society. If you have questions about the course, you can contact Professor Merenda directly at merenda@bu.edu or kristian.merneda@edelman.com.
• GSM MK 927: Marketing Management and the Customer-Focused Firm
  This course will familiarize doctoral students with various areas of investigation for problem-oriented academic marketing research pertinent to the research mission of the department: advancing the customer-focused firm. Discussion topics include but are not limited to the following strategies for gaining strategic advantage through the cultivation of marketing relationships: branding and brand equity, pricing, sales, customer relationship management and CRM, consumer-company identification, corporate social responsibility, consumer-to-consumer relationships and brand communities, retailing and customer service, product innovation, and product launch strategy. Through exposure to a strategic marketing perspective for the identification of research problem areas, this course will further socialize students into the process of developing research ideas and undertaking research, while stimulating the development of ideas for summer projects, qualifying papers, and dissertations.
• GSM OB 712: Managing Organizations and People
  This course introduces you to some fundamental concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better acquainted with the organizations for which you work, the teams in which you work, the people with whom you work, and your own personal development. Specifically, this course considers: 1) how to develop yourselves as managers, 2) how to work well within teams, 3) how to assess and manage interpersonal dynamics, 4) how to structure more effective organizations, and 5) how to manage organizational change. Tying all of these elements together, we will devote particular attention to the traits, skills and behaviors that are indicative of good leadership and how organizations and managers can be transformed for better alignment with the business demands of the future.
• GSM OB 713: Managing Organizations and People
  This course introduces concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better managers of the organizations you work for, the teams you work in, the people you work with and your own professional development. Emphasis will be on behavioral science concepts and research findings related to the major challenge managers face ? how to organize individuals in order to fulfill the objectives and strategies of the firm. Topics that will be examined include: the nature and dynamics of the organization (organizational structure and culture, performance systems and metrics, reward systems, selection and socialization); the elements of individual leadership and personal development (power, decision-making, emotional intelligence, career development, developmental needs, feedback, and mentoring and coaching); managing change within organizational contexts (the dynamics and stages of organizational change and the skills and tactics employed by change agents); and the relationships between the firm and the external environment in which it operates. The course objective is to provide analytical skills and strategies, substantive knowledge, and a professional sensibility that will increase your ability to take effective action in firms, agencies and other organizations.

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