Master of Business Administration (Antwerp)

General competences

1. Being able to reason independently, logically and clearly, in an internally consistent and content-oriented manner and all of this in line with accepted scientific methods
2. Being able to reflect critically and to question scientific findings
3. Being able to reflect critically beyond the boundaries of established paradigms
4. Being able to reflect critically on one's own knowledge, skills and attitudes and follow up on the possible consequences of these reflections
5. Set personal knowledge acquisition as a goal and act accordingly
6. Have social skills
a. Being able to work in a team
b. Being able to take up responsibilities and managerial tasks and positions
7. Have an insight into the ways in which societal and organizational developments influence different disciplines within the domain of business studies and business economics and understand how to deal with these developments

Scientific competences

1. Being able to contribute actively to knowledge enhancement processes in one or more disciplines in the field of business studies and business economics
2. Being able to analyse complex problems in absence of a clear-cut solution and do so from various vantage points
3. Being able to solve real-world problems in a critical and systematic way
4. Being able to apply certain relevant insights from other disciplines in the general field of business studies and business economics to the problems encountered in one's own discipline
5. Being able to formulate and solve relevant research questions on the basis of existing scientific research literature
a. Being able to outline and work out a meaningful and attainable research thesis
b. Being able to apply various techniques and methods to analyse problems in an independently conducted research environment
c. Have research skills (i.e. being able to analyse, diagnose and synthesize)
d. Being able to communicate own research findings in an academically accepted way to specialists and non-specialists in the field, both orally and in writing

Domain specific competences

Strategic business management

1. Understand the leading theories and perspectives in strategic management and explain their assumptions and theoretical relations
2. Evaluate change in the competitive environment and develop a profound understanding of the role of strategic management in the formation of firm performance
3. Understand the main analytical tools in strategic management and be able to apply them in a variety of industry and country contexts
4. Have an insight in the strategic consequences of financial decision making on the basis of scientific literature
5. Being able to use and interpret financial data adequately in support of value related management decisions
6. Being able to analyze issues related to corporate governance, corporate financing and restructuring and its implications on managerial decision making
7. Being able to analyze and solve issues related to strategic HRM on the basis of scientific literature
8. Have an insight in the more strategic role HRM can play in a business and be able to evaluate the impact of certain HRM choices on the functioning of the organization and employees' behavior
9. Being able to use accounting data adequately in support of management decisions
10. Be aware of the importance of international dimensions for financial reporting, corporate governance, and taxation, and its impact on corporate performance.
11. Analyze consumer markets and the competitive situation to obtain relevant insights, and using this to formulate an appropriate (core) marketing strategy
12. Develop strategic plans for specific marketing instruments that help to implement the overall strategy
13. Have knowledge of and understand the implications of:
- the need for marketing strategy reformulation and how it can be implemented
- recent trends that increase the complexity of a marketing strategy