Search result: Catalogue data in Spring Semester 2020

Management, Technology and Economics Master Information
Recommended Elective Courses
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
363-1115-00LEnergy Innovation and Management Restricted registration - show details W3 credits1VA. Stephan, G. Mavromatidis
AbstractFundamental changes in the energy sector, such as more decentralized energy production, challenge the existing business models of organizations such as utilities or technology providers. This course adopts quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore innovation and managerial, organizational and decision-making aspects in the energy sector for the transition to a low-carbon energy system.
ObjectiveAfter completing the course, students will be able to:
• Understand the challenges occurring in the energy sector and that companies (in or relying on the energy sector) are facing
• Understand the basics of managerial/organizational aspects in the energy sector with a particular focus on energy innovations
• Identify and use the appropriate quantitative energy tools for strategic decision-making in the energy sector
ContentThis course explores innovation and managerial, organizational and decision-making aspects in the energy sector for the transition towards a low-carbon energy system. The course is split in two parts with a quantitative and a qualitative focus, respectively.

In the first part, students will learn about aspects such as the financial valuation of energy investment decisions and the ways that quantitative energy models of different types can be used to assist with strategic decision-making in the energy sector. Students will be introduced to two types of models: (1) techno-economic analyses of renewable energy generation and storage technologies, and (2) an energy market game which simulates the behavior of utilities in an electricity market. This part of the course will include individual and group assignments.

In the second part, guided by questions like “how does the energy industry change and why” or “how would you make the decision if you were the head of a utility”, the students will understand how firms manage innovations and why they can be difficult to manage even for established firms in the energy sector. This part of the course will be guided as an interactive case study.
363-1116-00LClimate FinanceW3 credits2GV. Stolbova
AbstractThe course will focus on understanding the impact of climate on the financial system, as well as how financial actors contribute to the transition to a low-carbon economy.
ObjectiveThe objectives of this course are threefold. First, it aims to provide participants with an overview of the state-of-the-art situation in matters of the impact of climate on finance and the impact of finance on the environment. Second, it introduces current challenges in the fields of sustainable finance, environmental finance and climate finance, and familiarizes participants with existing methods to solve these challenges. Third, it equips participants with knowledge and tools in climate-finance data analysis which could be applied to the real-world cases by calculating climate-related risks and gains for specific market players.
ContentIt is comprised of three parts:

The first part will give an overview of the relation between finance and climate. It will start with an introduction of the nature of climate change phenomenon and its financial implications. Several types of climate-related financial risks will be considered including physical risks of climate change (financial risks associated with natural disasters), and transition risks (associated with transition to a low-carbon economy, climate policies and regulations, stranded assets). In addition, risks and opportunities associated with the transition to a low-carbon economy will be discussed for institutional sectors (banks, investment funds, pension funds and insurance sector), individual market players, and the real economy.

The second part will allow the participants to acquire knowledge of existing methods and tools in financial climate-related risk assessment including both state-of-the-art academic research methods and current industry practices. It will also discuss instruments available to market players for financing the transition to a low-carbon economy (e.g. green bonds, climate funds, concessional loans) and existing measures of assessing environmental impact of investments. Participants of the course will have an opportunity to apply these methods to real-case portfolios of selected market players.

The third part will address economic and financial effects of climate policies and environmental regulations. It will start with an overview of implemented and widely debated climate policies. Then, it will discuss existing models for development of economic sectors considering various climate policies and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets. Finally, the course will address the impact of climate policies on financial institutions, real economy, individual investors, and provide main arguments on the heated debate on “winners and losers” on the way to decarbonization.
LiteratureThe main reference of the course is the set of lecture notes; students will also be encouraged to read some influential books and academic articles dealing with the issues under study:
[1] “Environmental finance: A guide to Environmental Risk Assessment and financial products”, Labatt, S. and White, R. 2002
[2] “Carbon Finance: the financial implications of climate change”, Labatt, S. and White, R., 2007
[3] “Handbook of environmental and sustainable finance”, Ramiah, V. and Gregoriou, G., 2015
[4] “Greening Economy, Graying Society”, Bretschger, L., CER-ETH Press, Zurich, 2018, 2nd edition
[5] “Natural Resource & Environmental Economics”, Perman, R., Ma, Y., McGilvray, J, Maddison, D., and Common, M., 4th edition, Longman, Essex, 2011
Additional literature:
[6] “Breaking the tragedy of the Horizon - climate change and financial stability”, Carney, M., 2015. Speech given at Lloyd's of London by the Governor of the Bank of England.

[7] “A climate stress-test of the financial system“, Battiston, S., Mandel, A., Monasterolo, I., Schutze, F., Visentin, G., 2017, Nature Clim. Change 7 (4), 283–288.

[8] “Vulnerable yet relevant: the two dimensions of climate-related financial disclosure”, Monasterolo, I., Battiston, S., Janetos, A., Zheng, Z., 2017, Clim. Chang. 145 (3-4), 495–507.

[9] “Rolling the “DICE”: an optimal transition path for controlling greenhouse gases”, Nordhaus, W.D., 1993. Resour. Energy Econ. 15 (1), 27–50

[10] “A Financial Macro-Network Approach to Climate Policy Evaluation”, Stolbova, V., Monasterolo, I., Battiston, S., Ecological Economics, 149, 2018, 239–253
363-1122-00LFrom Entrepreneurial Thinking to Market Relevance - How Startups Scale Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 40.
W3 credits2GA. Sethi
AbstractThis elective is relevant if you’re planning to join or start a startup in the near future. It will help you recognise how value is created and captured. This includes go-to market, marketing & visibility across verticals & across the supply chain for sustained value capture & business model sustainability.

In short, it’s the journey of how to create a billion dollar startup.
ObjectiveAt the conclusion of the course, the students are able to:

1. The difference between technology and market relevance
2. Recognise challenges that startups face when they move from technology to commercialisation
3. Addressing the failures of startups in scaling, and how early decisions limit scaling and value capture
4. How recognising market need can help startups to create value and strengthen valuation with investors
ContentTechnology startups face challenges in identifying market relevance in the course of commercialisation. Additionally, once they have matched their offering with market needs, they face additional challenges when scaling up since they get locked in early. Due to this, technology startups plateau off as niche.

Platform startups, on the other hand, struggle with retaining relevance. Due to these aspects, failure rates are very high.

This course addresses students who want to become entrepreneurs or want to join startups. They may come from business or science & technology backgrounds. The course will enable the students to identify the relevance of seeing the technology from an early stage startup from the market relevance perspective and use this to help the company drive revenue and relevance. The students will also get an overview of how platform startups can retain relevance. The students will have exposure to investors and entrepreneurs (with a focus on ETH spin-offs) through the course, to gain insight to commercialisation and subsequent scaling up of the technology.

Topics cover idea validation, technology and market size validation and assessment of market relevance, assessing time-to-market, customer focus, perceived value for customers, and finally, opportunities of maximising relevance of technology idea into sustained market traction. There is a particular emphasis on market validation on each step of the journey, to ensure relevance.

The course comprises lectures and talks from invited investors / entrepreneurs regarding the aforementioned elements. Additionally, students will form teams and will support an existing startup over the course of the semester. This will allow them to gain first-hand experience and insights into the dynamics of a early stage company. By having such real-life exposure, the course content will be transferred from theory to practice.

Grading of the course will be based on in-class presentations as well as the student teams' performance and support of their selected startups.
Literature“From Science to Startup” by A. Sethi
363-1017-00LRisk and Insurance EconomicsW3 credits2GI. Gemmo
AbstractThe course covers economics of risk and insurance. Topics covered are fundamentals of risk, individual decision making under risk, fundamentals of insurance, information asymmetries in insurance markets, and the macroeconomic role of insurers.
ObjectiveThe goal is to introduce students to basic concepts of risk, risk management and economics of insurance.
Content- fundamentals of risk
- individual decision making under risk
- fundamentals of insurance
- information asymmetries in insurance markets
- the macroeconomic role of insurers
LiteratureMain literature:

- Eeckhoudt, L., Gollier, C., & Schlesinger, H. (2005). Economic and Financial Decisions under Risk. Princeton University Press.
- Zweifel, P., & Eisen, R. (2012). Insurance Economics. Springer.


Further readings:

- Dionne, G. (Ed.). (2013). Handbook of Insurance (2nd ed.). Springer.
- Hufeld, F., Koijen, R. S., & Thimann, C. (Eds.). (2017). The Economics, Regulation, and Systemic Risk of Insurance Markets. Oxford University Press.
- Niehaus, H., & Harrington, S. (2003). Risk Management and Insurance (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill.
- Rees, R., & Wambach, A. (2008). The Microeconomics of Insurance, Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics, 4(1–2), 1-163.
363-1130-00LDigital Health Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VT. Kowatsch
AbstractToday, we face the challenge of chronic conditions. Personal coaching approaches are neither scalable nor financially sustainable. The question arises therefore to which degree Digital Health applications are appropriate to address this challenge. In this lecture, students will learn about the need, design and assessment of digital health interventions.
ObjectiveNHS teams up with Amazon to bring Alexa to patients (The Guardian, July 2019), Contactless cardiac arrest detection using smart devices (Nature Digital Medicine, June 2019), Apple Heart Study demonstrates ability of wearable technology to detect atrial fibrillation (Standford Medicine News, March 2019), Digital health companies raised a total of $4.2B across 180 deals through the first half of 2019. If this pace holds steady, the sector is on track for an $8.4B year in 2019 - and may even top 2018's record-breaking annual funding total. Sean Day, Rocket Health, 2019 Midyear Digital Health Market Update

What are the rationale and implications behind the recent developments in the field of digital health?

Digital Health is the use of information and communication technology for the prevention and treatment of diseases in the everyday life of individuals. It is thus linked to topics such as digital health interventions, digital biomarker, digital coaches and healthcare chatbots, telemedicine, mobile and wearable computing, self-tracking, personalized medicine, connected health, smart homes or smart cars.

In the 20th century, healthcare systems specialized in acute care. In the 21st century, we now face the challenge of dealing with the specific characteristics of chronic conditions. These are now responsible for around 70% of all deaths worldwide and 85% of all deaths in Europe and are associated with an estimated economic loss of $7 trillion between 2011 and 2025. Chronic diseases are characterized in particular by the fact that they require an intervention paradigm that focuses on prevention and lifestyle change. Lifestyle (e.g., diet, physical activity, tobacco or alcohol consumption) can reduce the risk of suffering from a chronic condition or, if already present, can reduce its burden. A corresponding change in lifestyle is, however, only implemented by a fraction of those affected, partly because of missing or inadequate interventions or health literacy, partly due to socio-cultural influences. Individual personal coaching of these individuals is neither scalable nor financially sustainable.

Against this background, the question arises on how to develop evidence-based digital health interventions (DHIs) that allow medical doctors and other caregivers to scale and tailor long-term treatments to individuals in need at sustainable costs. At the intersection of health economics, information systems research, computer science, and behavioral medicine, this lecture has the objective to help students and upcoming healthcare executives interested in the multi-disciplinary field of digital health to better understand the need, design and assessment of DHIs.

After the course, students will be able to...

1. understand the importance of DHIs for the management of chronic conditions
2. understand the anatomy of DHIs
3. know frameworks for the design of DHIs
4. know evaluation criteria for DHIs
5. know technologies for DHIs
6. assess DHIs
7. discuss the advantages and disadvantages of DHIs
ContentTo reach these learning objectives, the following topics are covered in the lecture and will be discussed based on concrete national and international examples including DHIs from the Center for Digital Health Interventions (Link), a joint initiative of the Department of Management, Technology and Economics at ETH Zurich and the Institute of Technology Management at the University of St.Gallen:

1. Motivation for Digital Health
- The rise of chronic diseases in developed countries
- The discrepancy of acute care and care of chronic diseases
- Lifestyle as medicine and prevention
- From excellence of care in healthcare institutions to excellence of care in everyday life

2. Anatomy of Digital Health Interventions
- Just-in-time adaptive interventions
- Digital biomarker for predicting states of vulnerability
- Digital biomarker for predicting states of receptivity
- Digital coaching and healthcare chatbots

3. Design & Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions
- Overview of design frameworks
- Preparation of DHIs
- Optimization of DHIs
- Evaluation of DHIs
- Implementation of DHIs

4. Digital Health Technologies
- Technologies for telemedicine
- Mobile medical devices
- Virtual, augmented and mixed reality applications incl. live demonstrations
- Privacy and regulatory considerations

The Digital Health lecture is structured in two parts and follows the concept of a hybrid therapy consisting of on-site sessions and complementary online lessons. In the first part, students will learn and discuss the topics of the four learning modules in weekly on-site sessions. Complementary learning material (e.g., video and audio clips), multiple-choice questions and exercises are provided online.

In the second part, students work in teams and will use their knowledge from the first part of the lecture to critically assess DHIs. Each team will then present and discuss the findings of the assessment with their fellow students who will provide peer-reviews. Additional on-site coaching sessions are offered to support the teams with the preparation of their presentations.
Literature1.Chaix, B. (2018) Mobile Sensing in Environmental Health and Neighborhood Research Annual Review of Public Health (39), 367-384.
2.Collins, L. M. (2018) Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) New York: Springer.
3.Corneta, V. P., and Holden, R. J. (2018) Systematic Review of Smartphone-Based Passive Sensing for Health and Wellbeing Journal of Biomedical Informatics (77:January), 120-132.
4.Coravos, A., Khozin, S., and K. D. Mandl (2019) Developing and Adopting Safe and Effective Digital Biomarkers to Improve Patient Outcomes Nature Digital Medicine 2 Paper 14.
5.Katz, D. L., E. P. Frates, J. P. Bonnet, S. K. Gupta, E. Vartiainen and R. H. Carmona (2018) Lifestyle as Medicine: The Case for a True Health Initiative American Journal of Health Promotion 32 (6), 1452-1458.
6.Kvedar, J. C., A. L. Fogel, E. Elenko and D. Zohar (2016) Digital medicine's march on chronic disease Nature Biotechnology 34 (3), 239-246
7.Nahum-Shani, I., S. N. Smith, B. J. Spring, L. M. Collins, K. Witkiewitz, A. Tewari and S. A. Murphy (2018) Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs) in Mobile Health: Key Components and Design Principles for Ongoing Health Behavior Support Annals of Behavioral Medicine 52 (6), 446-462.
8. Sim, I. (2019). Mobile Devices and Health. The New England Journal of Medicine, 381(10), 956-968.
363-1129-00LHumanitarian Operations and Supply Chain Management Restricted registration - show details W3 credits2VS. Wagner, S. B. Thakur-Weigold
AbstractAs both manmade and natural disasters are on the increase, the humanitarian sector has been growing accordingly. Because logistics typically comprises 70-80% of mission budgets, efficient operations and supply chain management are critical to maximizing impact. This course explores the emerging theory and best practices which address this need.
ObjectiveUpon completion of this seminar, participants will be able to differentiate between the commercial and humanitarian operational context and recognize the distinct phases of an intervention. They will be able to assess the humanitarian program as a system with constrained resources, and analyze logistics and supply chain processes fit to purpose. The course will involve both, research and practice, to ensure a realistic and rigorous understanding of humanitarian operations and supply chain management.
ContentThe seminar will review the strategies and core processes existing in a humanitarian supply chain, emphasizing how these are different from the commercial context, and explore success factors in practice. The instructional design will combine lectures and readings with videos, reports from the field, simulations and case studies.

1. Introduction to the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), and the specific requirements of the humanitarian sector, together with what these imply for operations and supply chain management. How does HumOSCM differ from the commercial context? We will review what it means to be a refugee, an IDP, or a person affected by a natural or manmade disaster, the key stakeholders in a humanitarian intervention, current trends in the sector, and the role of the logistics cluster.

2. Humanitarian interventions follow a lifecycle whose distinct phases create different requirements for logistics and other activities. We will review and discuss the characteristics of each phase and their respective strategies as well as fundamental types of intervention (emergency response vs. ongoing missions vs. development projects).

3. The activities in a humanitarian intervention must be understood as a system in which material can only be delivered properly if information flows. We will emphasize how collaboration and coordination are key to successful field operations, and experience the effects of broken feedback loops and poor system design.

4. Review of the core processes of the humanitarian supply chain: procurement, planning (preparedness), transportation (fleet management), inventory management (pre-positioning), donor management and reporting, and performance management.

5. Special topic / deep dive: Applying lean principles to humanitarian operations, with a report from the field.

6. Special topic / deep dive: How technologies (such as retinal recognition, drones, GPS mapping, cash programs), are changing the way aid is delivered, with a report from the field. When considering the impact of technological innovations, we will discuss the importance of process innovations as well.
Lecture notesThe course material will be made available for download on Moodle:

Link

All organizational matters will be handled by the teaching assistant Lysann Seifert (Link).
LiteratureThere is no obligatory or recommended textbook.

Readings that you might consult during the course will be provided for download.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe final course grade will be a weighted average of the following:
- Study of a current humanitarian intervention or disaster scenario and presentation of an appropriate HumOSCM strategy, including written summary (group work): 60%
- Written summary of a case study analysis with findings and solution (individual work): 40%

The course is limited to 20 participants. Application and pre-registration is necessary.

Please register by January 24, 2020 at the latest via myStudies and send your CV and a one-paragraph motivation for taking the course to the teaching assistant Lysann Seifert (Link). All registrations will be assigned to the waiting list, and students will be informed about the selection outcome by February 10, 2020.
363-1132-00LBusiness Models for a Circular Economy Restricted registration - show details W3 credits1.5GC. Bening-Bach, N. U. Blum
AbstractThis course leads students through the process of re-thinking an existing product in a circular way. At the end of the course students will come up with new, circular business models for their products. The course consists of an overview of circular economy principles, research, diverse workshop formats and team work.
Objective1) Students familiarize themselves with the principles of a circular economy
2) Students critically reflect on the limits of a circular economy
3) Students experience a re-thinking process of an existing product along circular economy principles
ContentThis course is aimed at people with a keen interest to understand and solve societal and environmental problems employing the principles of a circular economy.

The seminar consists of a mix of lectures, workshops, individual working sessions, and team work. Critical reflection is an integrative part of the process.

The course tackles a topic that in the light of climate change, resource scarcity and decreasing biodiversity, gains traction in industry, policy and academia: Circular economy. A circular economy is a regnerative system that uses as little resources as possible in the most efficient way. The implementation of a circular economy offers different ways to do so, e.g. by re-design, re-use, re-cycling. Along these different "cycles" new business models arise.

In this course students evaluate different products on their potential for a circular economy by considering - among others -the product's technical, economic, and legal environment. Once they strengthened their knowledge on the product and oh circular economy principles, they will develop solutions and business models in teams. The course ends with a pitching event, where the teams will present their solutions and business ideas.
363-1128-00LPricing - Theory and Practice Restricted registration - show details
Number of participants limited to 25.
W3 credits1GF. Uhrich, F. von Wangenheim
AbstractPricing is much more than just a price: lt is about how to convert interest into transaction. Pricing combines like almost no other business discipline quantitative and analytical rigor with qualitative and psychological aspects.
This course explains the underlying economical and psychological concepts that influence price setting and price perception.
ObjectiveUnderstand underlying theories and concepts of price setting and price perception. Learn how to master pricing from strategy to execution.
See how diverse pricing can be across industries.
Content- Introduction to pricing
the relevance of pricing & the profit formula

- Pricing theory—3 lenses on pricing & a holistic view on pricing:
cost-based pricing, customer/value-based pricing, competitive pricing & the holistic view on all pricing layers (pricing strategy, pricing execution, pricing enablers)

- Price elasticity—theory & reality:
price elasticity curves, break-even elasticity, typical elasticity values

- Behavioral pricing—cognitive biases:
value perception (loss aversion, transactional utility, precise pricing, power of free), reference frames (anchoring, asymmetric dominance, extremeness aversion, unit framing), certainty effects (IKEA effect, social proof, endowment effect), and flat-rate bias

- Pricing practice—key concepts by industry:
B2B (pricing power, price realization, surcharges, long-tail pricing, one-shot pricing, contract pricing), B2B2C (multi-channel pricing, price waterfall, trade spend, cross-border pricing), B2C (Promo effectiveness, psychological prices, good-better-best pricing, end-of-lifecycle pricing, non-profit/social pricing), eCommerce, digital/software/subscriptions (internet of things, land & expand, freemium, bundling/unbundling, lifecycle)

- Pricing diagnostics & price monitoring:
price clouds, price-mix-reporting, basket analysis

The course is a mixture of front lecture and student homework and presentation.
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