FINANCE: INVESTMENTS, INSTITUTIONS, AND MANAGEMENT 2ND ED.
TITLE : FINANCE: INVESTMENTS, INSTITUTIONS, AND MANAGEMENT
2ND ED.
MATERIAL TYPE : BOOK
AQUISITION NO. : 14015
In the mid-1990s, the number of students in the school of business at
East Carolina University dropped, as did the number of declared
finance majors. The same was trye in schools across the nation. This
drop prompted the department to review the content of its Principles
of Finance course. Surveys told us that students regarded it as one of
the most difficult courses they would take during their college
careers. Talking with students we learned that they were not getting
what they expected or wanted out of the introductory finance course.
They wanted to learn about all areas of finance not just how large
corporations practice finance. For eg, they were very interested in
investments and wanted to better understand popular business
publications.
The information gleaned from students in the surveyinspired me to
write this book. Most of the students in the introductory finance
class will not take any other course in finance before they graduate.
However, some find it so interesting that they will choose finance as
their major field of study. Both of these groups can be better served
by a course that introduces all the major areas of study in finance.
Just as introductory biology doesnot focus exclusively on plants and
introductory accounting does not simply cover taxes, introductory
finance should not be limited to corporate applications.
This text includes coverage of the three main areas of finance :
markets and institutions, investments and managerial finance. The
greatest emphasis continues to be given to corporate topics, since we
are educating business majorsand most will go on to be employed by
corporations. However, by limiting some of the corporate finance
detail and expanding areas that are of interest to a greater number of
students, two benefits are achieved. First, the class becomes more
interesting, relevant and valuable to a wide range of students. A
broader exposure to finance allows the nonfinance major to better
comprehend financial information and make business and personal
financial decisions.
A second benefit of a broader approach to finance is that some
students may find one of the three areas of study particularly
interesting and choose to become finance majors. This text makes it
clear that not all finance majors have to work for large corporations.
There are also jobs in financial planning, stock and securities sale,
insurance to name just a few. Students interested in these topics may
be discouraged by courses that follow the traditional corporate
finance approach. This point is emphasized with Careers in Finance
boxes in each chapter.
