Business Administration (BA)
Professor Breeden, Dean (219W Fuqua School of Business); Professor Bettman, Director of Graduate Studies (A312 Fuqua School of Business); Professors Anton, R. Ashton, Bansal, Boulding, Bradley, Brandt, Breeden, Burton, Clemen, W. Cohen, Coleman, Desai, Fischer, Fitzsimons, Francis, Gallant, Graham, Harvey, Hsieh, Huber, Kamakura, Laughhunn, Lewin, Lewis, Lind, Luce, Lynch, Mela, Mitchell, Moorman, Nau, Payne, Puri, Purohit, Schipper, Sheppard, Sitkin, J. Smith, Song, Staelin, Viswanathan, Winkler, and Zipkin; Associate Professors Amaldoss, A. Ashton, Bernstein, Brav, Edell Britton, Chartrand, Chen, Cummings, de Vericort, Gervais, Jennings, Kaniel, Kok, Larrick, Lenox, Linville, Lopomo, Marx, Nanda, Olsson, Pekec, Rampini, Rigotti, Robinson, Severinov, Shang, Venkatachalam, and Wade-Benzoni; Assistant Professors Ai, Belloni, Brown, Carlson, Chatterji, Dikolli, Ecker, Ertimur, Khwaja, Kim, Lobo, Majumder, Mathews, Mayew, Musalem, Ridley, Rockart, Rosette, Soll, Stowe, Sun, Williams, Zarutskie, Zelner, and Zhang; Professors Emeriti Baligh, K. Cohen, Keller, McCann, and Moore; Research Professor Keeney
The PhD in business administration program prepares candidates for research and teaching careers at leading educational institutions and for careers in business and governmental organizations where advanced research and analytical capabilities are required. The PhD program places major emphasis on independent inquiry, on the development of competence in research methodology, and on the communication of research results. The school offers programs of research and training in the areas of accounting, decision sciences, finance, management, marketing, operations management, and strategy. The student and the faculty in his/her area determine the specific program of study. Each student takes a comprehensive examination at the end of the second year or at the beginning of the third year of residence. The final requirement is the presentation of a dissertation. The PhD program usually requires five years of work. Refer to the Bulletin of Duke University: The Fuqua School of Business for a complete list of courses and course descriptions. For further information, e-mail bobbiec@mail.duke.edu or
jrb12@mail.duke.edu, or visit the Web site:
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu.
501. Game Theory. Basic topics in noncooperative game theory: representations of games in normal and extensive form and solution concepts, including Nash equilibrium, subgame perfect Nash equilibrium, perfect Bayesian equilibrium, sequential equilibrium, perfect equilibrium, proper equilibrium, correlated equilibrium, iterated dominance, and rationalizationibility. Discussion of the relation between the normal and extensive form and the relations among the various solution concepts. Application of interest to the students covered as time permits. Instructor: Marx. 3 units.
510. Bayesian Inference and Decision. Methods of Bayesian inference and statistical decision theory, with emphasis on the general approach of modeling inferential and decision-making problems as well as the development of specific procedures for certain classes of problems. Topics include subjective probability, Bayesian inference and prediction, natural-conjugate families of distributions, Bayesian analysis for various processes, Bayesian estimation and hypothesis testing, comparisons with classical methods, decision-making criteria, utility theory, value of information, and sequential decision making. Instructor: Winkler. 3 units. C-L: Statistics and Decision Sciences 221
513. Choice Theory. This seminar deals with the foundations and applications of the theory of rational choice, including Bayesian decision theory (subjective expected utility) as well as nonexpected utility theory, noncooperative game theory, and arbitrage theory. It will survey the classic literature in the field and discuss the interconnections among its branches; dissect a variety of paradoxes, puzzles, and pathologies; and discuss recent advances and controversies. The goal of this seminar is to equip students with an understanding of both the power and the limits of rational choice theory, so that they can construct as well as critically analyze rational choice applications in a wide variety of social science contexts. It will also suggest some new directions for choice-theoretic research that involve a synthesis of ideas from competing paradigms. Instructor: Nau. 3 units. C-L: Statistics and Decision Sciences 234
521. Organization Seminar: A Micro Focus. Individual and small-group behavior in organizations. Theories of motivation, decision making, interpersonal behavior, group processes, and leadership. A variety of research approaches and methods includes presentation of behavioral research by members of The Fuqua School of Business and other researchers. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
522. Organization Seminar: A Macro Focus. The organization and the subunits which make up the organization. Topics include: contingency theory, institutional theory, and population ecology. Theories of organization, structure, decentralization, divisionalization, functional area integration, task design, incentives and rewards, information systems, and decision rules are developed with an orientation toward their choice and design for high performance. Includes presentation of research by members of The Fuqua School of Business and other researchers. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
525. Behavioral Decision Theory. Examines the development of research in individual and group decision behavior. Major emphasis is given to theoretical developments and empirical research, with a range of articles assigned for each topic. The basic topic areas include: (1) decision problem structuring, (2) thinking about uncertainties, (3) risk taking, (4) dealing with conflicting values, and (5) combining individual judgments into a group decision. Instructor: Payne. 3 units. C-L: Psychology 316, Statistics and Decision Sciences 231
531. Accounting Seminar: Empirical. This course focuses on empirical-archival research in accounting, emphasizing the framing of research questions, the research design and the research methods. Topics covered include: the value of relevance and stewardship roles of accounting information; valuation models; voluntary disclosure and accounting choice; earnings management; tax considerations. Prerequisites: PhD. level course in microeconomics recommended; basic mathematics background in calculus, statistics and algebra. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
532. Accounting Seminar: Analytical. This course focuses on the economic models underlying information economics-based theories of the usefulness of accounting information. Topics covered include: adverse selection, moral hazard, signaling, incentive contracting and disclosure. Prerequisites: PhD. level course in microeconomics recommended; basic mathematics background in calculus, statistics and algebra. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
551. Finance I. This course provides a comprehensive yet rigorous introduction to both the theory and related empirical evidence of asset pricing. Topics covered include (i) preferences, no arbitrage, and state prices (ii) contingent claims pricing and implicit state price densities, (iii) efficient markets, predictability, and event studies, (iv) single-period portfolio choice, mean-variance analysis, and CAPM, and (v) APT and multifactor pricing models. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
552. Finance II. This course is intended to introduce students to research topics in empirical corporate finance. The course is roughly divided into two parts. In the first part, we spend considerable amount of time on canonical early papers in corporate finance, most of which deal with the role of various capital market imperfections, such as taxes, moral hazard, or asymmetric information, in the determination of optimal capital structure. We also examine the empirical literature these early papers have spawned. In the second half of the course, we examine a range of current topics in empirical corporate finance and explore the tools used to address these questions. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
553. Finance III. This course looks at the foundations of the theory in corporate finance. Topics covered include adverse selection, contracting and agency problems, capital structure, initial public offerings, collateral and corporate finance, bubbles and corporate financing decisions, banking and bank runs, and coordination failures. Applications in corporate finance include optimal capital structure, voting, debt regeneration, investment decisions and market valuation, executive compensation, bank runs, initial public offerings, and secondary public offerings, collateralization and securitization. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
554. Finance IV. This is an advanced asset pricing course. The main focus of the course is to merge investor behavior with asset markets to interpret asset prices. The topics covered in the course include (i) present value and its implications, (ii) estimation issues in asset pricing, (iii) general equilibrium models of asset markets, especially, dynamic consumption based models, (iv) dynamic household portfolio choice, (v) term structure models (vi) state price representation of dynamic asset pricing models, (vii) production and asset prices, and (viii) recent developments in asset prices. The course covers many of the recent ideas/articles in asset pricing. Prerequisite: Finance I. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
561. Seminar in Quantitative Research in Marketing. Research in marketing endeavors to explain consumer and firm behaviors and use these to abet managerial decision making. This course surveys quantitative research in marketing, with a focus on statistical and game-theoretic models. The goal of the course is to a) raise students' awareness of this literature and b) stimulate new research interests. By the end of the course, students should be familiar with the key issues and approaches in quantitative marketing, the strengths of these research streams, and the opportunities to extend them. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
562. Seminar in Consumer Behavior. Examines the development of research in consumer behavior. Major emphasis is given to theoretical developments and empirical research, with a range of articles assigned for each topic. Topics include motivation and personality, perceptual processes, information search, choice processes, attitudes and persuasion, learning, and influence in consumer choice. Instructor: Staff. 3 units. C-L: Psychology 315
563. Marketing Models Seminar. The primary goals of this seminar are: (a) to review critically the most current research in marketing and (b) to gain a better understanding of and ability to build one's own model. After taking this course, students should be able to understand the assumptions and mathematical development of the current quantitative work in marketing and to use this understanding to develop meaningful extensions. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
564. Experimental Design and Analysis Seminar. Examines issues in the design and analysis of experiments. Emphasis on analysis of variance (ANOVA), starting with the basic ANOVA model and examining multiple factor designs, blocking designs, nested models, within subject designs, repeated measure designs, and analysis of covariance. Instructor: Edell Britton. 3 units.
571. Operations Strategy Seminar. Recent developments in the strategy of operations in both the manufacturing and service sectors. Topics include the focused factory concept, Japanese manufacturing philosophy, technological policy toward new process development and toward new product introduction, vertical integration, choice of capacity and location, industry analysis, and the impact of government regulation. Emphasis on the development of hypotheses about strategic topics and the empirical means by which they can be tested. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
572. Seminar in Operational and Technological Tactics. Current issues in the day-to-day management of manufacturing and service delivery systems. Topics include material requirements planning, capacity requirements planning, quality of work life projects, productivity measurement and enhancement, implementation of new product introductions and production process modifications, quality assurance, production planning and scheduling, and logistics. Concentration on the substance of recent developments, the generation and test of hypotheses about tactical issues, and the applicability of various optimization techniques to the advance of operation tactics. Instructor: Staff. 3 units.
591. Selected Topics in Business. Allows the doctoral student the opportunity to study special topics in management on an occasional basis depending on the availability and interests of students and faculty. Instructor: Staff. Variable credit.
596. Curricular Practical Training. This course offers international students an experiential learning opportunity in a U.S. work environment. A paper will follow the practical training. Instructor: Staff. 1 unit.
597. Dissertation Research. For students actively pursuing research on their dissertation. Credit to be arranged. Prerequisite: student must have passed the preliminary examination and have the consent of the director of the doctoral program and instructor. Instructor: Staff. Variable credit.
598. Independent Study. Allows the doctoral student the opportunity to engage in study or tutorial on special topics on an individual basis under the supervision of a faculty member. Credit to be arranged. Prerequisite: doctoral program standing and consent of the director of the doctoral program and instructor. Instructor: Staff. Variable credit.
599. Directed Research. Allows the doctoral student to engage in individual research projects under the supervision of a faculty member. Credit to be arranged. Prerequisite: doctoral program standing and consent of the director of the doctoral program and instructor. Instructor: Staff. Variable credit.
