Accounting in Multi-National Enterprises- Period 4

Suppose two firms report the same earnings in their financial statements. How come investors react differently to them? Why is one firm punished by the market, while the other?s share price increases? A key aspect in answering these questions is the role of financial analysts, who largely determine what capital markets can reasonably expect from companies and whether investors should give their money to multi-national enterprises. This course helps you understand this role of analysts better by enabling you to trace and reproduce the way these mediators come up with their recommendations, seeing through some of the accounting choices companies make, placing the company firmly in its international context, and applying valuation concepts to multi-national enterprises in developed economies. To do so, this class explicitly takes a user perspective to accounting information to help you understand the relevance of accounting information in multi-national enterprises. That means that you will take the role of a financial analyst when examining companies? financial statements on the basis of a commonly used framework for analysis and valuation. At the end of your assessment, you will be able to come up with an investment recommendation. From a company?s perspective, you will take the role of a decision-maker who needs to place his/her judgment on the most relevant information for this decision. Hence, you will improve your understanding of important management accounting tools that you will encounter in your subsequent business career for planning, decision-making and control purposes.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.