Skip to content
Home » Course Catalogue » MBA Electives » RSM2522H – Marketing and Behavioural Economics

RSM2522H – Marketing and Behavioural Economics

General Information

Instructor(s)

Promotional Video
Unavailable

Applicable Major(s):
(c) = Core, (r) = Recommended

  • Brand Management (c)
  • Business Design (r)
  • Health Sector Management (r)
  • Social Impact & Sustainability (r)

Target Audience

This highly interdisciplinary course will be particularly relevant to students with interests in Marketing, Design, Strategy, Behavioural Finance, Policy, and General Management.

Format

2 classes per week for 6 weeks

Course Mission

The purpose of this course is to make behavioural economics accessible as a tool for solving management problems in strategy, marketing, and policy.  By the end of the course, students should:

  1. Have a working understanding of key principles of behavioural economics
  2. Be able to articulate the relevance and implications of these principles for common business and policy problems
  3. Be able develop behaviourally informed insights and tactics using these principles
  4. Have enough experience dissecting decision-making processes in a range of settings to recognize new applications and deepen their own expertise as they progress in their managerial careers.

Course Scope

The field of behavioural economics couples scientific research on the psychology of decision making with economic theory to better understand what motivates economic agents, including consumers, investors, employees, and

This course focuses on core behavioral economic principles every executive should understand.  Behavioural economics combines economic theory with the psychology of decision-making to better understand what motivates economic agents (i.e., consumers, investors, employees, and managers).  Most famously, BE has been used to “nudge” desired behavioral outcomes.  But its relevance is in fact much broader.  Every organization has an interest in the choices made by its stakeholders, whether they be consumers, citizens, or other businesses.  BE tells us how, when, and why people are likely to make counter-intuitive choices, with important implications for applications as varied as marketing, product development, customer experience management, pricing, strategy, and public policy.  

Core topics of the course include: the role of emotions in decision-making; how expectations and other context variables shape perception; surprising ways people think about time and money; risk; and self-control.  We also develop an understanding of choice architecture as a managerial tool – how controllable variables such as time, assortment size, and complexity influence decision-makers.

Evaluation and Grade Distribution

ComponentDue DateWeight
Class ParticipationOngoing15%
Short AssignmentsOngoing45%
Final Group ProjectsDuring exam period40%

Required Resources

  • Cases and articles to be purchased by students or made available on the course web portal.

Last Updated: 2021-12-01 @ 11:35 am