Evolution of Business and Market
The six-week course is divided into six themes focused on the evolution of companies and markets and the role of networks, institutions, culture, and technology in their development. It covers topics as diverse as the merchant guilds in medieval Europe, the historical emergence of the modern impersonal markets, and their promised benefits compared to traditional systems of business and the influence of pre-colonial institutions on development in Africa and Asia.
The course also deals with how businesses could overcome information asymmetry and moral hazard friction. It explores the role of networks and hierarchy in shaping traditional and modern industry and discusses the historical evolution of the firm, from individual merchants and guilds to large multinational corporations. It discusses the importance and limits of formal institutions, the role of trust and cosmopolitan culture, and the impact of communication, transport, and mass-media technologies.
The course is designed with the following specific objectives and learning outcomes:
- Learn the role of a dense network of relationships in traditional business
- Understand business formalization over time from craft guilds to formal markets
- Describe how a society’s social structure affects the market’s growth
- Explain a historical perspective of how markets evolve
- Analyze various policies of business and market, the role of institutions, cultural ingredients, and technology in the development process
- Study of the economy, focusing exclusively on India
Dr. Prateek Raj, from the Strategy area, is the course instructor.
The IIMBx team organised the course launch event on October 6, 2022, at MDC Peach Hall. Dr. Prateek Raj and Dr. Vasanthi Srinivasan, Chairperson, Digital Leaning at IIMB, were present along with the team.
If you are interested in this subject, do enroll for the course at https://www.edx.org/course/evolution-of-business-and-market.
