The course examines the major strategic and operational decisions of trade enterprises, with particular reference to the large retail companies in Italy and internationally. Among the most important strategic decisions are those of internationalization, the accession to power purchase companies, and location decisions of retail outlets. Among the more operational issues, the course covers the management of the exhibition space, the managing assortment and in particular that of private labels, pricing policies, customer loyalty and the introduction of ICTs in big retailers.
The lectures of the course are integrated with some exercises, consisting in the study of business cases.