2019-2020 / GEST6003-1

International Business Engineering Seminar

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

 Master in business engineering (120 ECTS)5 crédits 

Lecturer

Yasemin Arda, Alper Sen

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Pricing and revenue optimization focuses on how a firm should set and update pricing and product availability decisions in order to maximize its profitability. This course introduces the theory, concepts, and applications of pricing and revenue optimization. The topics include a review of price-demand functions, price differentiation, pricing under constrained supply, revenue management, capacity allocation, and network revenue management.
 
The main methodologies of pricing and revenue optimization will be reviewed using a combination of lectures, cases, and games. Applications of pricing and revenue optimization in different industries (including transportation, hospitality, entertainment, retail, and online advertising) and business contexts will be explored. The emphasis of pricing and revenue optimization in general, and this course in particular, is on tactical optimization of pricing and product availability (capacity allocation) decisions. Quantitative models will be used to characterize the market response to pricing and product availability decisions and these decisions will be optimized employing constrained optimization techniques.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

In relation with the Assurance of Learning process of HEC Liège, the learning objectives adressed in this course are:

  • Strategy: This course will help students to establish a strategy in order to optimize the value chain of a company, an organization or a project.
  • Strategy: This course will help students to understand the scientific and technological context of the situation they are confronted with.
  • Strategy: This course will help students to demonstrate scientific precision and a critical mind.
  • Implementation: This course will train the student to take into account the scientific, technological and entrepreneurial dimensions of the situation they are confronted with.
  • Implementation: This course will exercise students in the ability to take advantage of data digitalization.
  • Implementation: This course will exercise students to work efficiently in an international and multidisciplinary team, among others in a leading position.
  • Quality and Performance Control: This course will help students to plan and implement the performance and quality control in a company, an organization or a project.
  • Quality and Performance Control: This course will develop students' ability to use the appropriate analytical tools when analysing a complex management situation.
  • Communication: This course will allow students to improve their proficiency in one foreign languages (among the 3 languages required by the program).
  • Adaptability: This course will encourage students to be curious and to show a scientific precision of academic level.
The specific objectives of the course are:
  • Identify fundamental drivers of customer choice and a product's demand
  • Identify important models for price-demand relationship
  • Use statistical tools to estimate the effect of price and segmentation decisions on demand
  • Use optimization models to determine profit maximizing prices under a variety of settings

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Basic concepts of statistics, linear programming, and non-linear optimization (at an elementary level).

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course will be conducted with a series of lectures, games, and case studies.
 
Case studies are quantitative in nature and will require various methods including statistical methods, linear programming, and non-linear optimization (at an elementary level).

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Face-to-face

Recommended or required readings

Suggested Textbook:
 
Phillips, Robert. Pricing and Revenue Optimization. Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8047-4698-2.
 
Supplementary Texts:
 
Talluri, Kalyan T., van Ryzin, Garrett J. The Theory and Practice of Revenue Management. Kluwer Academic, 2004, ISBN 1-402-07701-7.
 
Nagle, Thomas T., Hogan, John. The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably, Prentice Hall, 2005, ISBN 0-13-185677-4.

Assessment methods and criteria

Students will be evaluated based on their case study performance (50%) and a final exam (50%).

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

The course is organized within the context of the International Fortnight program of HEC Liège - Management School of the University of Liège that aims to welcome visiting faculty from highly reputed foreign academic institutions to teach in their area of expertise and collaborate with HEC Liège faculty, staff, and students in research and other academic activities.
 
The course consists of 30 class hours and will be held in 9 sessions of 3.5 hours programmed over two consecutive weeks: September 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, and 26, from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM.
 
The course is given in English.
 
Students are wanted to participate in all the sessions (9 × 3.5 hours).

Contacts

Alper SEN (alpersen@bilkent.edu.tr)
 
Yasemin ARDA (yasemin.arda@uliege.be)

Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the May-June 2020 session

Teaching methods implemented : distance-learning

Assessment subjects

Assessment methods

Contacts

Adaptation of teaching commitments following the COVID-19 pandemic for the Aug-Sept 2020 session

Assessment subjects

The second session exam will cover all the subjects studied during the course.

Assessment methods

The grading policy is kept unchanged:
Case study (50%): The students who failed the first session case study have already been assigned another case study to be performed individually for the second session. The reports have to be submitted the latest on Monday, August 17.
Final exam (50%): The final exam will be organized as an online oral exam on Wednesday, August 19 using a video conference system (Lifesize or Zoom).
More information regarding the oral exam will be directly communicated to the two concerned students.

Contacts

Alper SEN (alpersen@bilkent.edu.tr)
Yasemin ARDA (yasemin.arda@uliege.be)