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Full-time MBA arrow Academics arrow Curriculum & Structure arrow Core / Elective Courses

Core / Elective Courses

Students are required to take ten core courses and six elective courses to graduate. The six elective courses can be selected from the list of MBA elective courses.

Selected elective courses offered locally from other taught Masters Programmes of the Faculty, including Master of Accounting, Master of Economics, Master of Finance, Master of Science in Business Analytics, Master of Science in Marketing, Master of Global Management, Master of Finance in Financial Technology. (At most two electives from this category)

Or selected elective courses offered overseas by our partners: London Business School, Columbia Business school, and Fudan University.

*MBA Course Exemption

Exemption of up to two courses may be granted if a candidate can produce evidence, such as transcript and course syllabus proving that a course is equivalent in content to another course elsewhere for which a satisfactory grade has been obtained or the candidate is holding relevant professional qualifications for. Candidates will be required to take alternative courses in lieu of the exempted courses. Please contact the MBA Programme Management Office for details upon application.

Core Courses Elective Courses
The main objective of this course is to promote an in-depth understanding of fundamental accounting concepts and practices as well as to enhance your ability to apply such concepts in various decision making contexts. Topics covered in this course include not only technical aspects of accounting in terms of how financial information is prepared; but also reasoning for why such information is relevant to the management of a firm. In addition, the course covers essential financial statement analysis skills and cost management issues, which go beyond typical financial accounting topics.
This course is designed to provide you with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead and manage data-driven projects in all business disciplines. Topics include, but are not limited to, principles of data analytics for business, basic techniques for analysing data, and an introduction to predictive and prescriptive analytics. The emphasis throughout the course is on concepts and reasoning. Through a combination of lectures, case studies, computer workshops, and discussions, you should acquire, or reacquire, some specific skills in data analysis for decision making, but more importantly, become a more informed and critical user of those tools in business settings. You should become more confident in asking critical questions about the quantitative work done, and develop a critical view of how data analytics can become a competitive advantage for organisations.
This course addresses learning, communication, and ethical reasoning skills that impact professional performance. In this class, we demonstrate how we are all susceptible to unethical behaviour, and therefore should take time to avoid situations wherein unethical behaviour is incentivised. Specific attention will be paid to ethical frameworks and the opportunity for informed self-reflection in applying ethical perspectives in a business context.
The Capstone Project requires students, working in groups, to conduct a detailed analysis of a company. Students must select a specific company, normally a listed company for which both financial and operations data are publicly available, at the beginning of their programme study, and identify the important challenges facing the selected company, develop an in-depth analysis, formulate strategic options, and make strategic recommendations to tackle the challenges over the course of the programme by applying the knowledge they gain in various core courses. The Capstone Project will last for the entire period of the programme, involving the submission of a preliminary report, the submission of a final written report, and an oral presentation.
This course provides a basic framework for understanding international macroeconomics and trade. It analyses the structure and performance of the macro-economy, as well as the implications of macroeconomic policies in both the domestic and global contexts. Topics include business cycles and economic growth, fiscal and monetary policies, exchange rate and trade policies, etc. Special attention will be paid to the economies of the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong, as well as current economic issues.
This course will focus on formulating and implementing business strategies to achieve superior performance. The purpose of the course in strategic management is to make participants familiar with the core concepts and techniques that function as foundations for formulating and implementing successful strategies. The main focus of the course is to learn how to use and apply these skills when judging complex management situations. The distinctive contribution of the strategic management course is that it integrates the different perspectives that you have already learned and allows you to apply these perspectives to complex and realistic general management situations. The ultimate goal of this course is therefore to develop your judgment as a general manager.
This course provides you with the understanding of (i) financial issues encountered by corporate managers, decision makers, and investors, (ii) financial models and analytical techniques to evaluate the investment and financing decisions of firms, (iii) practical issues about those corporate finance theories, and (iv) the recent development of financial management tools and strategies.
Information technology (IT) enables new patterns of commerce and affects how buyers buy and sellers sell, how firms interface with their customers and suppliers, how activities are organised internally within the firm, and how individuals utilise technologies. The integration of technology, individuals, and business processes makes it pertinent for the managers and leaders of today and tomorrow to be able to understand and communicate the strategic potential of these tools across the entire supply chain. This course integrates the fundamental principles of information systems and operations management to cover key aspects of IT management, user behaviour, and a firm's operating process flow and supply chain.
Managerial economics is a branch of economics that applies microeconomic analysis to business decisions. To effectively manage a company, the manager needs to have a good understanding of costs, pricing, market power, competition strategies, and internal organisation. We will gradually develop these economic concepts and show how they can be applied to managerial decisions. The analysis and principles that we learn in this course will serve as building blocks for the understanding of other business subjects such as accounting, marketing, corporate finance, and human resource management.
Concepts and analytical tools related to value creation and delivery needed for making marketing decisions will be covered in this course. Contexts for discussion and learning will be global, with special reference to markets in Asia and China. The course will be delivered in a workshop mode via a blend of interactive class discussion & exercises, and case analyses.
Five theme areas for the elective courses pool
All of our elective courses will be categorised into five major theme areas. Such categorisation will be provided to students so that they can have a clearer picture of what electives to study to fulfil their career aspirations.
Business Tech and Innovation
Marketing and General Management
Managing in China & Asia
Strategy and Consulting
Finance
This course consists of three parts. Part I covers financing needs and capital structure. Part II develops tools needed for valuing investment projects and companies. Part III deals with the concepts of options and derivatives and their applications in corporate finance and risk management. The topics to be covered include: Capital Structure: Theory and Practice, Cost of Capital, Valuation: WACC versus APV, Dividend Policy, Convertible Debt, Options, Risk Management, Real Options for Valuation, and Strategic Decisions.
This course aims at providing a systematic introduction of concepts, theories and practices in negotiation, familiarising the students with different types of negotiations, and equipping them with toolkits of effective negotiation strategies that can be applied to various business and management contexts. The course introduces the nature and types of conflict, mechanism of conflict escalation and de-escalation, and conflict resolution styles. It follows with the discussion of the characteristics of interest-based negotiation and negotiation strategies. Differentiation will be drawn between distributive and integrative negotiation strategies, and between structured vs. non-structured negotiation contexts. The course also covers various cognitive and affective elements of negotiation that contribute to the success or failure of the practice. Specifically, students will learn cognitive biases, framing, building trust, handling difficult counterparties, power and persuasion, negotiation ethics, and third-party intervention. Some topics will be covered in the context of cross-cultural negotiation and computer-mediated negotiation to cater to the needs of today’s international business environment.
This course aims to provide students with an overview of the main branches of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as explore use cases and practical business implementation within different industries and technologies to better understand the coming AI Human-centric revolution. Students will be able to identify and leverage AI to enhance and/or disrupt business models and whole industries while keeping in mind social and ethical dimensions for the greater good of the world. The course is also intended to aid the thinking and personal development of students so that they are better able to adapt to the future job market and shape the societal systems of tomorrow.
This course looks to introduce students to the various methods and strategies to make sense of data. We will cover topics including advanced and Big Data predictive analytics, machine and deep learning, text mining and analysis, image and video analysis, and geospatial and mobility analytics. Students will have real hands-on practice exercises with these methods, learn how to generate insights from large and unstructured data, and build an understanding of its strategic relevance in creating sustainable competitive advantage. The course will also bridge these technical methods with social sciences and consumer behaviour. We will cover a number of case studies, with an emphasis on Asia, in sundry industries including retailing and e-commerce, advertising, FinTech and retail financial sectors, telecommunication, and transportation and smart nations. Finally, we will discuss the interwoven dependencies on the legal frameworks with Big Data, including issues relating to privacy, regulations, rights, consumer reactions and adherence to data legislation in different markets.
With the rapid advances in information technologies, a massive amount of data, often known as “big data” is being generated at an unprecedented speed. There are ample opportunities for business organisations to gain managerial and strategic insights by gathering, cleaning, and analysing this data, a process known as “business intelligence.” The purpose of this course is to introduce a basic understanding of what business intelligence and big data are and how they can be applied to make intelligent business decisions and strategies. This course focuses on both the technical aspects and managerial aspects of business intelligence and big data analysis.
This course is designed to help students conduct valuation using financial statements. The course introduces concepts, tools, and skills used for analysing financial statements. Topics cover strategy, accounting, and financial analysis; forecasting financial performance; valuation theory and practice; as well as business valuation in a private equity setting. Students will have the opportunity to apply the concepts and skills in analysing financial statements and valuing real companies in the course. This course will be useful for students who are interested in firms’ valuation, and particularly for those interested in finance and entrepreneurship.
This course examines the challenges and opportunities that a rising and rapidly changing China has provided for various business corporations, i.e. multinational corporations, domestic state-owned enterprises, and entrepreneurial firms. It delineates the complexity of contemporary China with respect to economic, technological, political, social and cultural environments and how it influences corporations in a wide range of industries. Based on in-depth discussions of extensive business cases, it aims to provide students with analytical frameworks of how managers navigate in the China business environment and address the challenges and threats.
This course is to provide a multi-faceted overview of the characteristics and unique challenges of governance strategy and practices in Asia. Corporate governance topics include the institutional environment, corporate ownership, family-and state-owned enterprises, board of directors, and corporate transparency. Moreover, the topics of social responsibility, nonprofit organisations, and social enterprises will be discussed in-depth to bring this course to a forward-looking conclusion.
This course will explore the real-time, hands-on process of crisis management that organisations utilise in our global business environment. We will examine how organisations have reacted to past crisis situations and we will simulate real-world crisis situations, as a learning tool. The course will involve lectures, academic research, discussions, and guest speakers, all of which will help you prepare for future crisis management situations.
This course will be a practical guide to the technology, helping the student to discern realistic implementation versus the hype and fiction that sometimes surrounds the technology due to its cryptocurrency roots. It will focus on existing successful enterprise use cases, but also cover emerging concepts (DeFi, NFTs, DAOs) that business leaders should be aware of and how they might leverage the innovations. The course will interweave this theory and use cases with a series of guest lectures from people working in various areas of the industry. Upon completion, students will have a core understanding of the technology from a business perspective, be able to identify and leverage areas of business strategy that can take advantage of the technology, and give the student a framework of the fundamentals that will allow them to explore the concepts further in their future roles.
This course combines the most critical theories as well as the most current marketing topics, including branding in the digital age, emergence of disruptive brands, brand management during economic turmoil, CSR and sustainability, big data and big branding, the art and science of branding, and Post COVID-19 branding insights, etc. With the increasing importance of the China market to any organisation, this course will also analyse the latest market development in China and how brand-owners can better prepare themselves to seize the substantial business opportunities in China. Throughout the course, the concept of branding will be thoroughly examined holistically.
Understanding and building entrepreneurial skills have become critical for both business founders as well as future business leaders. Hong Kong is among the top startup hubs globally and the HKU MBA programme is collaborating with Cyberport Academy, part of Hong Kong’s largest startup incubation hub, to enable our students to experience the entire startup journey right from ideation to validation and startup pitch. This course will equip them with the tools to launch their own business and drive entrepreneurial initiatives in their companies.
This course aims to provide an overview of the entrepreneurship process by focusing on new venture creation from idea generation, building a compelling business model and opportunity recognition to managing new business start-ups and dealing with venture capitalists. Students will learn how to develop business models that create new value for customers in a start-up venture and will also learn about the values, management, marketing, and financial skills that are most often associated with successful entrepreneurial activity. Students then discover and evaluate opportunities, develop possible business models and prepare a venture plan.
This course is designed for students looking to deepen their understanding of how to develop marketing strategies through implementation across global markets. Examining the challenges of entering and operating effectively across international markets, this course covers international marketing objectives, strategies and policies, market selection, distribution channel decisions and management, international marketing mix approaches appropriate to individual markets, and systems of the international marketing organisation, planning, and control.
This course is an in-depth study of the hedge fund industry. We will study hedge fund trading strategies, the business model of hedge funds and hedge fund investors, as well as the institutional and regulatory framework in which hedge funds operate. The course will evaluate and analyse popular hedge fund trading strategies, including equity strategies (activist, market-neutral, long/short, event-driven, etc.), arbitrage strategies (derivatives, convertible, fixed-income, currency, and global macro, etc.), and fund of hedge funds. The course will also analyse the hedge fund business model, including: performance evaluation and risk management, fund compensation and contractual features, transaction costs and market impact, and fundraising and marketing. In addition, the course will study the institutional relationships hedge funds have with service providers (prime brokers, custodian banks, etc.) and with regulators. We will also discuss public policy implications and the value of hedge funds in society. This course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to evaluate hedge fund strategies, and to develop, manage, and successfully grow a hedge fund business.
This course explores how major global companies make their five key strategic decisions - how they create and resource revenue opportunities; how they “go to market”; how they design and build operations and management practices; how they deter competitors; and how they navigate foreign market environments and manage government authorities. This course explores how companies use and integrate the tools and ideas covered in the MBA Programme’s curriculum.
With the lecturer’s experience as a CEO who has transformed four major organisations in Hong Kong, (namely, Dragonair, Ocean Park, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Hang Lung Properties), the course highlights the practical lessons and experiences accumulated in his 42-year career. Students will share their experiences and obtain a better understanding of top-level business and strategy issues.
In this course, students will learn general business and domain-specific knowledge from four top business leaders and industry experts in the region. Emphasis is placed on transferring highly practical and valuable skills and tools. Our distinguished instructors will share with the class the deep insights they have accumulated and systematic frameworks they have developed over the decade(s) of accomplished careers. This course will create value for you whether you aim to advance in your career, make better business decisions, or be a more successful investor.
With shifting global economic patterns, the knowledge and field experience in different countries and economic regions is inevitable to be successful on an international and local scale. The international field project is a practical course, which proceeds by visiting companies and institutions to learn about businesses and public services and collect data which serves as a basis for course work. It also gives a cultural perspective and encourages observing international differences in markets, objectives, and operations. Classroom teaching, prereading literature and reviewing current events lay the foundation, but the main pedagogic concept is to analyse companies and institutions visited and extract lessons learned. This can mean the application of best practices back home, the assessment of opportunities for Chinese companies in the visited counties, and how to build closer professional and personal ties. Ideally, students already have a sound knowledge of professional practices and some core MBA curriculum subjects, so they can apply and calibrate this in a new context and realities outside the classroom. Further, global contexts will be discussed and the relation to trade agreements and initiatives such as the "One Belt, One Road Initiative".

*International Field Project is an elective course for Part-time students
This course aims to give students an overview of best practices in leading teams and organisations with a focus on interpersonal dynamics, and to help them to build resilient organisations and make better leadership decisions. Various important topics are included, such as the role of leadership in a business landscape of accelerating change, technology disruption, and global complexity, as well as new rules of collaborating across cultures, generations, and in virtual teams.
The world of global finance, banking, and financial services is changing rapidly with the emergence of start-up financial technologies, commonly referred to as FinTech, that is not only empowering or disrupting the status quo but also shaping the future of the financial services industry. Taught as a series of practical courses and guest lectures by industry professionals, the course covers the main pillars of the FinTech start-up ecosystem, including innovation in financial institutions, digital banking, WealthTech, peer-to-peer lending, artificial intelligence, blockchain, digital currencies, RegTech, and InsurTech, etc. and their practical impact on global banking and finance. This course will provide students with the latest empowering and practical knowledge on FinTech enabling them to understand some of the FinTech changes taking place currently in the financial services industry and, most importantly, the trends that will impact the industry in the future.
This course will provide each student with a solid legal foundation, especially in an Asian context. It is an international business law course specifically designed for students who are or hope to become managers and executives in Asia. We will discuss broad legal principles and how they affect business today, analysing several cross-border business transactions and court cases. The format of the course is similar to a graduate seminar, requiring students to be well prepared and participate actively in class.
This course is designed to apply the full range of management and business knowledge to giving professional advice to top managers. It is a fundamental course for those who work as consultants, are preparing for such a career, or those who engage with consultants on the client side and want to maximise the results of consulting projects. The red line through this course, is to experience and practice every stage of a consulting project in different industry contexts: the lead, the pitch, the client engagement, providing deliverables, and final presentation and project closing.
The main goal of this course is to learn how to provide superior information to those running a company so that they can make better decisions and more successfully compete for customers, suppliers, employees, and so forth. The practice of managerial accounting involves innovation, experimentation, diversity, success, and failure as businesses tinker with their managerial accounting systems to create superior information for decision making. Certainly, there are “best practices” in managerial accounting; you will learn about them in this course, but remember that a good business is always re-examining its internal information system to see whether the system can be coaxed into providing better, timelier data.
This class examines the strategic marketing issues related to high-tech industries, such as customer analysis, segmentation and targeting, product, price, promotion and place. The core of the course is an in-depth analysis of the marketing strategies that companies use to compete in the high-tech industries. This course aims to provide students with a solid understanding of the nature and dynamics of high-tech industries; with essential knowledge of marketing that allows them to create winning strategies for their organisations competing in this industry.
This course is designed to develop a solid understanding of commonly discussed and applied issues in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The topics covered in this course include the M&A process, methods of valuing a target firm, valuing synergies, the form of payment and financing, assessing highly leveraged transactions, governance in M&A, and M&A negotiations. M&A cases will be used in discussing these topics. By going through analyses and discussions of real-life M&As, students will gain experience in the application of financial theories and techniques to evaluate M&A decisions and transactions.
This course is designed to broaden students’ understanding of the issues related to the management of multinational enterprises. The emphasis is on the global business environment and its impacts on multinational enterprises’ strategy, structure, and functions. First, the course discusses the political, economic, and cultural environments in which multinational enterprises operate. Second, it examines the strategy and organisation of multinational enterprises, including entry strategies, international alliances, organisation structures, and control in multinational enterprises. Third, it examines the management of people in multinational enterprises, including motivation and decision-making in the international context.
This course is designed to allow students of all levels to become familiar with the fundamental role of technological advancements in today’s business environments. As technology becomes increasingly integrated into business processes, managers and leaders alike must be able to understand and communicate the enabling potential of these tools. This course provides an introductory training for such purposes. Topics of this course cover the fundamental challenges faced by businesses operating in the online environment, new opportunities and threats arising from social media, and strategic considerations in offering web-based services and information goods.
This course introduces the concepts of operations management and the application of analytical techniques in solving problems an organisation faces in its operations. Operations of an organisation concern the management of the processes which convert inputs into outputs. Effective operations management involves managing people, equipment, and other resources. This course will provide students with the analytical tools needed to understand and articulate the impact of an organisation's processes and the ability to continuously improve these processes. By introducing rigorous analytical methods and theories, this course demonstrates ways to apply structured thinking to loosely defined real-life operations processes.
This course is an introduction to programming with Python for beginners. Python is a useful and popular language used by many businesses, including leading technology companies. There are many applications of Python, including building websites, web scraping, and data analysis for forecasting. In this course, we will be learning the basics of programming and its business applications. This course aims to give students an edge in their business decision making and career development.
The objective of this course is to develop an analytical framework by which students can make sound real estate investment decisions. The main emphases of the course are theory, concept-building, financial modelling, and practical application. In particular, class discussions will cover the following areas in real estate: Real estate markets and investments, appraisals, and development, Institutional aspects of real estate finance, Mortgage Markets, Mortgage-Backed Securities, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Real Estate Transactions, Valuation of Land, Valuation of Income Producing Properties, and Redevelopment of Real Estate.
This course offers students the concepts and techniques necessary for effective corporate risk management. The purpose of this course is to offer a step-by-step approach to the development of proper risk management for a company. It will focus on the financial modelling of risk and the effective use of various financial products in risk management. In particular, the course will focus on: the identification and measurement of a firm’s exposure to financial risk, the use of various financial instruments in managing the firm’s exposure to risks, and the implementation of a risk management programme.
This course focuses on the systems approach to the planning, analysis, design, development, and evaluation of supply chain and logistics management. You will not be learning dry, abstract concepts or theories, but will be given practical situations and case studies from a number of industries to stimulate your thinking for solutions in the analysis of your own organisation’s supply chain operation. The learning contents are designed to be comprehensive and illuminative. If you are merely a consumer or customer, this study will help make you more perceptive and more understanding of the constraints and strengths of supply chain management.
Private Equity (PE), including Venture Capital (VC), has become an increasingly important asset class for most institutional investors. This course shall focus on the most recent developments in the PEVC industry and also provide an overview to students. This course shall examine how PE and VC work, mitigate risks, and generate returns and it will also discuss the processes ranging from screening to exiting deals. The objective of the course is for students to gain deep knowledge of PEVC from not only case studies and model simulations, but also experiential learning similar to that of field PEVC professionals through students' team collaboration to experience the art of negotiating and closing deals, which aims to mimic the real-world situation.
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