Business Administration (online degree programme)

The module teaches the essential aspects of business administration along the operational functions and deals with the following basic topics:

• Business administration as a science
• Subject matter, concepts and fundamentals of business administration
• Companies and corporate management
• Marketing
• Procurement
• Production
• Accounting and controlling
• Investment and financing
• Organisation and personnel

• Introduction to logic
• Set theory and numbers
• Equations and inequalities
• Sums and products
• linear systems of equations and linear optimisation
• Relations and functions, properties and graphs
• Sequences and series
• simple interest, annuity and amortisation calculations
• simple differential and integral calculus
• non-linear optimisation

• Company accounting: Definition, areas of company accounting, tasks of internal and external accounting, sub-tasks of bookkeeping, legal sources for bookkeeping, principles of proper bookkeeping, codification of the GoB in the HGB
• Stocktaking, inventory and balance sheet: Definitions of terms according to HGB, dates of inventory, retention period, inventory procedure according to HGB § 241, classification of inventory, assets and capital, balance sheet, legal regulations for balance sheet preparation according to HGB
• Possibilities of balance sheet changes: Asset swaps, nature, meaning, examples, asset/liability increases, nature, meaning, examples, asset/liability decreases, nature, meaning, examples, liability swaps, nature, meaning, examples
• Accounting system: Breakdown of the balance sheet into accounts, From the opening of balance sheet accounts to their closing, Opening and closing balance sheet accounts, The accounting record, Explanation of the term "double-entry bookkeeping"
• Income transactions, determination of material consumption: Determination of income in accounting, determination of material consumption
• Taxable sales, private account: Taxable sales according to EStG, private entries
• Accounting organisation: chart of accounts, chart of accounts, accounting books, document types and document processing
• Postings in the sales and procurement area: purchase and distribution costs, discounts, conversions and reductions, cash discount postings
• Charge postings
• Depreciation and amortisation: Depreciation methods, pro rata temporis depreciation, low-value assets, unscheduled depreciation, acquisition costs, subsequent acquisition costs, sale of used fixed assets
• Annual financial statements: Accruals and deferrals, provisions, valuation of receivables, amortisation of receivables, specific and general bad debt allowances
• Evaluation of accounting: Balance sheet analysis, balance sheet ratios, limits of evaluation

• First basic economic ideas
• Household theory
• Business theory
• Elasticity of demand and supply
• The functioning of markets
• Market and state

The module focuses in particular on the following topics:

• Self-reflection with regard to academic learning (learning types and learning techniques)
• Reflection on academic aspects, e.g. analytical thinking, forms of academic argumentation, indexing, interpretation and criticism of academic texts, the importance of different forms of publication such as monographs, hand dictionaries, encyclopaedias, specialist journals etc. and the importance of sources and evidence
• Learning and practising study-related techniques (e.g. taking notes, library use, research, excerpting, citing, presenting, discussions on a scientific basis, etc.)
• Thematisation and testing of forms of own text production (written elaboration) and forms of presentation and their quality criteria.

The content of this module is divided into two areas. Firstly, the specific topics and specialised vocabulary of the business world and secondly, the basic language skills. Each subject area looks at typical business vocabulary, phrases and idioms. Certain subject areas are particularly suitable for practising the grammatical facets of the language. The teaching of the two sections can be combined in this way and the language level is improved from chapter to chapter.

• Introduction to law: brief legal history, laws, areas of law, court system, European law
• Persons: natural persons, legal entities, representation
• Merchants: merchant characteristics, commercial register, company principles, excursus on company law
• Property law: objects (physical, non-physical), possession, ownership, other rights
• Legal transactions (RG): unilateral RG, multilateral RG, formation, disruptions, contracts, obligatory and disposable transactions, grounds for nullity, avoidance, contractual ancillary provisions and general terms and conditions
• Statutory obligations
• Excursus: Competition law
• Excursus: Patent law
• Excursus: Trade mark law
• Excursus: Copyright law

Fundamentals of accounting:

• Task and classification of accounting
• Functions of annual financial statements
• Accounting regulations
• Auditing, adoption, approval, disclosure of the annual financial statements
• Relationship between the commercial balance sheet and the tax balance sheet

Annual financial statements of an individual company:

• Content and structure of a balance sheet
• Accounting and valuation principles
• Accounting for fixed assets
• Accounting for current assets
• Accounting for equity
• Accounting for borrowed capital
• Recognition of other items
• Profit and loss account
• Notes and management report

Consolidated financial statements - German law:

• Principles of preparation and consolidation
• Consolidation of the balance sheets
• Consolidation of the income statement
• Cash flow statement
• Segment reporting
• Statement of changes in equity Notes to the consolidated financial statements and group management report

Consolidated financial statements - international law:

• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP)

Analysing annual financial statements:

• Objectives and limitations of analysing annual financial statements
• Steps involved in analysing annual financial statements

• Descriptive statistics: Samples, distributions and graphical representations, key figures, correlation and regression
• Classical probability theory: combinatorics, plausibility of axiomatics, Laplace measure, Mises frequency measure, independence, conditional probabilities, Bayes' theorem
• Random variables and a priori distributions: exemplary discrete and continuous distributions, measures and moments, estimates and inequalities, weak and strong law of large numbers
• Inductive statistics (inference): typical test distributions, point estimates, interval estimation methods, alternative hypothesis testing, analysis of variance/ANOVA

• Introduction to macroeconomics
• Measurement concepts for macroeconomic data
• The growth of the economy in the longer term
• Employment and unemployment
• Money supply and inflation
• The national budget
• The macroeconomics of the open economy - the influence
  of foreign countries
• Short-term fluctuations in economic activity - the
  Business cycle
• Economic forecasts - a practical example of the application
  the measurement concepts and theories

The course focusses on the following topics:

• Accounting systems
• Cost element accounting
• Cost centre accounting
• Cost unit accounting (including machine hourly rate and process cost accounting)
• Cost unit time accounting (short-term income statement)
• Partial cost accounting
• Standard costing

Students are taught the basics of market research and the various areas of marketing, starting with strategic marketing and market research, followed by implementation in the marketing instruments. The course therefore focuses on the following topics, among others:

• Conceptual basics
• Strategic analysis
• Analysis of buying behaviour
• Market research
• Marketing objectives
• Marketing strategy
• Product policy
• Pricing policy
• Distribution policy
• Communication policy

• Personnel planning
• Recruitment
• Personnel deployment
• Personnel appraisal
• Personnel development
• Behavioural science basics
• Remuneration
• Work organisation
• Leadership
• Staff release

• Fundamentals of business informatics
• Information, data and their presentation
• The role of information technology in companies and the information society
• Computer systems
• Software, algorithms and software development
• Databases and data modelling
• Data communication and computer networks
• Internet: Technologies and applications
• CSCW
• current developments and examples

• Fundamentals of logistics: The concept of logistics and its development, business fundamentals of logistics
• Order processing
• Transport, handling and storage systems
• Logistical subsystems and processes: Procurement, production and distribution logistics
• Fundamentals of logistics services
• Supply chain management
• Logistics and the environment
• Logistics and IT

Students are taught the basic technical and methodological knowledge of project management. The course focuses on the following topics:

• Fundamentals: Introduction to project management, project types, project organisation, project participants, project phases
• Tasks and instruments in the main project phases: Project definition, project planning, project implementation and project completion
• Special methods of project planning and control as well as working techniques to support project management
• Specific project management aspects: Project financing, project risks, communication in projects, the "human factor"
• Exercises to consolidate specialist and methodological knowledge (during the semester)

Students are introduced to the basics of e-commerce, e-logistics and social media management. The basics of the Internet are also presented. Various internet and mobile phone technologies are analysed in depth. Web 2.0 to 4.0 and mobile phone technologies from G1 to G5 and LTE are also covered.

The operational functions of e-business companies such as

• eProcurement
• eMarketing
• Search engine optimisation
• eCustomer
• ePayment
• eLogistics
• eFullfilment
• eStrategies
• eSociety

Students learn how to carry out independent internet analyses online and to put them into a scientific form. Various search engines are used in the process. The developed content is discussed and presented.

Utilisation and transfer according to Bloom's taxonomy:

• Collecting, evaluating and interpreting different theories and practical approaches to e-business
• Derive scientifically sound judgements about future developments in digitalisation
• Researching the current state of research and practice in e-business and deriving recommendations for action
• Carry out application-oriented projects and contribute to solving complex tasks as part of a team (group work)
• Independent design of digitalisation processes.

• Fundamentals of tax law: definitions, tax laws, categorisation of tax types, tax revenue sovereignty, taxation procedures
• Income tax: tax liability, types of income, tax exemptions, income-related expenses, special expenses, extraordinary expenses, favourable tax treatment, taxable income, assessment, tax rate, tax assessment, loss carryforward and loss carryback
• Corporation tax: tax liability, tax rate, calculation of taxable income, tax return and tax assessment notice, actual tax burden, losses, tax avoidance
• Trade tax: Taxation procedure, relationships to other taxes, financial significance of trade tax, trade tax disputes
• Value added tax: concept and basic principles, taxable transactions, tax exemptions, tax base, tax rate, input tax deduction, small businesses, taxation procedure, tax revenue
• Other taxes: real estate transfer tax, property tax, inheritance and gift tax, transport and excise duties, customs duties

Building on various controlling definitions, the theoretical background is developed, particularly from the financial sector, e.g. principal-agent problem, Modigliani-Miller theorem and the shareholder value approach.

Building on this, the methods and instruments of operational and strategic controlling are presented and practised in case studies. After a brief presentation and calculation of traditional key figures (ROS, ROI, etc.), the focus is placed on value-oriented key figures, in particular on the basis of the discounted cash flow method: return on capital employed (ROCE), economic value added (EVA), weighted average cost of capital (WACC), etc.

Practical budgeting problems of controlling are discussed and deepened on the basis of behavioural science approaches. Various approaches such as zero-based, beyond and better budgeting are developed as possible solutions. The financial section ends with a large Excel case study on full cost, contribution margin and process cost accounting.
As strategic controlling instruments, overhead cost analysis and the balanced scorecard are then discussed in depth. Other instruments are also addressed where appropriate.

All sub-steps are accompanied by extensive presentation slides, group discussions, case studies and Excel calculations. At the end of the course, every student should be able to apply their theoretical knowledge both theoretically and pragmatically to Excel.

• Fundamentals of application and information systems
• Structure, functions and operation of ERP systems
• Planning, development and operation of information systems
• Modelling of operational information systems
• Business process management
• Integrated information processing
• Data warehousing, data mining, OLAP, data analysis, big data
• Information management
• Information security and data protection
• current developments and examples

• Introduction and overview: Terms and definitions, discussion of management systems, competences and roles, analysis of the importance of strategic management concepts
• Strategy and strategic planning: definition of strategic objects, objectives in strategic planning
• Strategic environmental and corporate analysis: structuring strategic environmental and corporate analysis, environmental analysis, corporate analysis, SWOT analysis
• Classic strategy models: market segmentation strategies, competitive strategies, growth strategies, timing strategies for market entry, portfolio strategies, brand strategies and brand architecture, internationalisation strategies
• Strategy implementation: 7 S model, balanced scorecard, Six Sigma

• Introduction to capital budgeting
• Static investment calculation methods
• Dynamic investment appraisal methods
• Selection of alternatives and investment programme planning
• Optimal useful life and optimal replacement time
• Investment decisions under uncertainty

• The basics of financing
• Procurement of debt capital
• Procurement of equity capital
• The stock exchange
• Company valuation in group work

You choose this module according to your interests from the wide range of programmes offered by Ostfalia. The compulsory elective modules allow you to set individual specialisations and acquire practical skills that will open up a wide range of career prospects for you after graduation and provide targeted support for your career path.

Fundamentals of management consultancy, also depending on the company chosen in the semester and its issues.

The most important commercial transactions such as commercial purchase, commercial agent, commission business, freight contract, forwarding contract and warehousing contract, law of partnerships and corporations, in particular the GmbH and the AG with corporate law peculiarities, industrial property rights with patent law, trademark law, utility model, design patent and copyright law, as well as the objectives of the UWG and the GWB.

Course content:
In a significant part of this module, the foundations for the above-mentioned teaching content must first be laid, whereby the focus of the presentation is on explaining the IT programmes to be used. After this phase, the necessary company-specific analyses, planning and decisions are carried out by the student participants in group work and under the supervision of the lecturers. Towards the end of the simulated period, each student group must prepare a comprehensive business report in writing and present it in a presentation to lecturers and practitioners.

Web lectures:
The individual game rounds are prepared and followed up in the web lectures. Between the web lectures, students work independently in groups.

• Fundamentals of sustainable economic development
• Corporate concepts of economic sustainability
• Corporate concepts of ecological sustainability
• Corporate concepts of social sustainability
• Sustainability reporting
• Sustainability and regional economics

• Fundamentals of process-oriented organisations
• Process management and corporate strategy
• Methods of quality management and benchmarking
• Identifying and analysing company processes
• Process modelling
• Methods for introducing logistics processes in the company (e.g. business process reengineering and change management)
• Process controlling
• Process-supporting information systems

You choose this module according to your interests from the wide range of programmes offered by Ostfalia. The compulsory elective modules allow you to set individual specialisations and acquire practical skills that will open up a wide range of career prospects for you after graduation and provide targeted support for your career path.

The course content is primarily based on the topic of the Bachelor's thesis. Students are supported by the module supervisor in all content-related and methodological issues in preparation for the Bachelor's thesis.

The course content is primarily based on the topic of the Bachelor's thesis. Students are supported by the examiners in all content-related and methodological issues during the course of the Bachelor's thesis.