Programs

Master's in Management

The Program

Master’s in Management

The Nova SBE Master’s in Management is a 3* semester program designed for students from any graduate background wishing to gain a management education.

About the Program:

  • In Year 1 (first and second semester), the program offers core courses, areas of expertise, electives, career's workshops, and events (Mastering your Career) and Skills Accelerator modules, where you can choose specific subjects that best suit your academic and professional goals. It's a customizable learning experience, so you can align your education and professional skills to excel in what you are good at.
  • In Year 2 (third semester), students complete their Master’s work project, which is equivalent to a Master's thesis.

*An additional semester may be required in case of Exchange Semester.

  • This Master’s program is open to candidates with a Bachelor’s degree in any field. Applicants who need to enhance their quantitative skills are highly recommended to complete bridging courses before the program starts to ensure they are adequately prepared.
  • It is designed for those who believe that real change happens when one can engage people and organizations towards a greater vision.
  • Best suited for those who seek the perfect mix between management concepts and practical application and, also, wish to develop human and professional skills to gain a competitive edge in the job market.
  • Ideal for individuals aiming to gain international business perspectives, with real-world connections, both inside and outside the classroom.

Program Overall Structure

Find out what this Master’s degree will offer you during the three semesters at Nova SBE!

You will engage in foundational courses that will build your knowledge and skills, providing a strong base for your studies. Additionally, you can choose from a wide range of electives, allowing you to tailor your curriculum to your personal goals.

Together, these courses will provide you with the necessary ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits to graduate.

  • Discovery Week

1st Semester (30 ECTS)

  • Mandatory Courses (divided into two levels according to your background, standard and advanced levels)
  • Electives
  • Skills Accelerator Modules
  • Study Trips
  • Career Development Program - Mastering Your Career
  • Mentoring Program
  • Regular Seminars, Networking Events, Business Forum, Conferences

2nd Semester (30 ECTS)

  • Mandatory Courses (divided into two levels according to your background, standard and advanced levels)
  • Electives
  • Skills Accelerator Modules
  • Study Trips
  • Regular Seminars, Networking Events, Business Forum, Conferences
  • Work Project
  • Regular Seminars, Networking Events, Business Forum, Conferences

* Please note that for the academic year of 2023/2024 this information may be subject to changes.

Master's Programs 2025/26

Applications are open for the following intakes:

• Fall (September 2025): all Master's Programs
• Spring (February 2026): Master's in Management only

For more information, please contact us by emailing leadyourfuture@novasbe.pt or calling +351 213 801 699.

Get to know the Mandatory courses and Electives

Finance

  • The course focuses on the practical and theoretical frameworks that support the proper financial analysis of management decisions and equips students with the tools to make sound investment and financing decisions. It covers fundamental topics such as financial statement analysis, investment and financing decisions, as well as payout decisions (advanced).

 

Human Resources

  • The course explores the strategic dimension of people within organizations. It emphasizes understanding the importance of human resource management in the context of broader organizational objectives, and the challenges managers face in attracting, managing and retaining talent. Key topics include talent recruitment and selection, performance management, employee development and engagement, and more.
     

Marketing

  • The course provides students with foundational knowledge of marketing principles and strategies. It covers key topics such as understanding customers and markets, segmentation, target and positioning, marketing mix decisions, and more. Students learn to systematically plan marketing activities to achieve organizational goals.

Statistics

  • The course equips students with essential quantitative skills for data-driven decision-making. The course covers fundamental statistical concepts such as descriptive statistics, sampling, hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and data interpretation.  Students learn to analyze data, draw insights, and make informed business decisions based on statistical findings.

Strategy

  • The course introduces students to core concepts and frameworks of strategic management. It focuses on understanding how businesses create and sustain competitive advantage by formulating and executing effective strategies, locally and internationally. It covers topics such as competitive analysis, industry dynamics, business, corporate and competitive strategies, internationalization and innovation.

 

*Please note that this information may be subject to changes.

Digital and Data-Driven Business

Entrepreneurship

Financial Management

Financial resources, cost efficiency and effectiveness, are management subjects that make you work better and harder. Check the following courses for a career in Corporate Finance.

  • Applied Corporate Finance
  • Auditing
  • Banking
  • Corporate Governance
  • Entrepreneurial Finance & Venture Capital
  • Financial Statement Analysis
  • Futures and Options
  • Investments
  • Mergers, Acquisitions, Restructuring
  • Private Equity

 

Marketing

If you like to communicate, launch, and improve products and services, deliver superior customer value, the Marketing expertise area may be the right one for you. Take a look at the following courses:

  • Advanced Branding and Brand Development
  • Applied Qualitative Studies
  • Applied Quantitave Studies
  • Asian Brands
  • Big Data Analysis
  • Brand Management
  • Brand Management for Hospitality
  • Brands and Marketing in Asia’s Emerging Markets
  • Consumer and Managerial Decision Making
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Cracking the Sales Code
  • Cross-Cultural Issues for Marketing
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • Digital Marketing
  • Digital Strategy and Transformation
  • E-Commerce and Metaverse
  • Innovation and Value Creation Wheel
  • Integrated Marketing Communications
  • International Marketing Strategy
  • Luxury and Fashion Marketing
  • Marketing Analytics
  • Principles of Shopper Marketing
  • Product Design and Development
  • Sales & Retailing
  • Social Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Special Course: L'Oreal Brandstorm Competition
  • Tourism Marketing

 

Operations Management

Can you develop and implement techniques to improve business processes and production? With these courses, you will. Tackles such issues as business process re-engineering, quality management, improving customer service, inventory systems, managing manufacturing, supply chain management, and project management.

  • Hospitality Operations Management
  • Innovation and Value Creation Wheel
  • Modeling Business decisions for Operations
  • Operations Management
  • Operations Strategy
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Sustainable Operations
  • Technology Strategy

 

Sports Management

The Sports Management Area of Expertise aims at providing students with the theoretical knowledge, skills, network, and personal attributes to build a career in the sports industry. The students benefit from our in-house world-renowned management expertise and of our main partner, the Portuguese Football Association and many other leading international sport organisations institutions that provide internship opportunities.

  • Applied Qualitative Studies
  • Applied Sports Projects
  • Big Data Analysis
  • International Events Management
  • Leadership and Change Management
  • persuasion and Negotiation
  • Sports Careers Seminar Series

 

Strategy and International Business

Do you see the world as a big marketplace? This expertise area will help you understand customers and competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, the complex business and institutional environments, and the existing resource constraints, on an international scale.

  • Asian Brands
  • Brands and Marketing in Asia’s Emerging Markets
  • Business Model Innovation
  • Business Strategy and Practice
  • Competition Policy
  • Corporate Strategy and Transformation
  • Digital Strategy and Transformation
  • Doing Business in China
  • Doing Business in Emerging Markets
  • E-Commerce and Metaverse
  • Family Business
  • Geoeconomics and International Relations
  • Innovation and Value Creation Wheel
  • International Business
  • International Events Management
  • Mental Models for Strategy
  • Modeling Business decisions for Operations
  • Negotiation
  • Persuasion and Negotiation
  • Small Business Management
  • Strategic errors in organizations
  • Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning
  • Strategy Consulting
  • Strategy Implementation
  • Sustainable International Business
  • Sustainable Operations

 

Sustainability

“Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).

To ensure global sustainability over time, the green transition focuses on responding to the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation but also to the need to work for an economic and societal transformation, integrating all three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social, and environmental.

That is the goal of this Area of Expertise, which will be taught in partnership with Nova’s School of Science and Technology (FCT).

 

  • Applied Social Entrepreneurship
  • Circular Economy:  Eliminate, Circulate and Regenerate
  • Corporate Governance
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Design Thinking for Social Innovation
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Energy and Climate change
  • Finance and the transition to net zero
  • Fundamentals on Environment and Sustainability
  • Impact Investments
  • Impact Makers
  • Leading Social Enterprises with impact in International Development
  • Performance and Progress
  • Responsibility and Ethics of Business
  • Social Marketing
  • Sustainability Evaluation of Policies, Plans and Projects
  • Sustainable International Business
  • Sustainable Operations
  • System Change

 

*Please take note of the following:


— Students can qualify for only one area of expertise, but it is not mandatory for students to choose one.


— Areas of expertise and respective courses might be subject to change from one academic year to the next.


— Some courses might not be offered every academic year.


— Please note that this information may be subject to changes.

Workstreams

Workstreams allow students to deepen their knowledge and experience in specific areas and, simultaneously, take the core subjects of the master's program in management. They have a predetermined study plan and may be associated with a prearranged final Work Project. In the first two semesters, workstreams combine functional areas of knowledge such as strategy, marketing, finance, human resources, and statistics - allowing students to develop an integrated perspective of management across essential disciplines – with disciplines specifically related to the area of ​​each workstream. The third semester is dedicated to the Work Project, developed by the students in each workstream under the supervision of an expert in the field.

 

The available workstreams are:

 

Hospitality & Customer Experience, in partnership with Westmont Hospitality Group

Hospitality & Customer Experience students will have the opportunity to participate in classes, talks and seminars taught and presented by professors and international consultants in Hospitality & Customer Experience, by national and international leaders of the tourism and hospitality industry, as well as by executives with knowledge and practice in customer experience in organizations in sectors such as banking, healthcare, entertainment, technology, sports and retail.

This integrated and innovative approach, combining academic knowledge with a strong connection to industry and practical experience, will give students a set of skills and necessary tools to pursue a career linked to innovation and customer experience in different sectors. This stream is offered for the Fall intake, and the application is submitted on the Master’s application form.

 

Integrated Marketing Communications

This workstream combines a set of subjects in which students develop their Marketing and Communication skills and apply them intensively in real projects. The workstream is given in cooperation with partner WPP, the largest creative transformation company in the world, which comprises agencies such as Gray Global Group, Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, J. Walter Thompson, and Hill & Knowlton (among others).

Streams allow students to follow a fixed study plan that provides direct access to specific courses for the Stream, including Integrated Marketing Communications, Digital Marketing, Brand Management, and others, key to building competencies in the Marketing Communications and Marketing area.

The stream is associated with a prearranged final Work Project, in this case, a Marketing Lab, done in the third semester, a practical project done in partnership with companies. Examples of companies involved are Greenvolt, EMMA, Sogrape, CUF Saúde, EDP, and Santander. These projects sometimes involve a scouting trip to the market under study by the brand in the Marketing Lab, supported by the partner companies. Recent examples involve the UK, Belgium, and Hungary.

The stream also includes other activities such as WPP Stream talks, company visits, or special classes.

This stream is offered for the Fall intake, and the application is submitted on the Master’s application form.

 

Luxury Management

The Luxury Management Workstream is the first step to a successful career in the Luxury, Fashion or/and High Premium Sectors. It is directed to students who demonstrate a high motivation and interest for those sectors.

The fixed study plan combines courses (Luxury and Fashion Marketing; Brand Management) and seminars (Seminar in Luxury Management) in which students develop their skills in the Luxury/Premium/Fashion fields and apply them in real projects, with the acquisition of a solid knowledge in Management. Over the Program, students interact with executives and international experts in the fields of luxury and fashion (LVMH, Richemont, L'Oréal, Farfetch, Leading Luxury second hand Tech companies)

In the third Semester, students develop a Field Lab (Group Consulting Project) for prominent companies in the Luxury and the Fashion Sectors, such as L’Oreal Luxe, Chanel, Cartier (Richemont), Montblanc (Richemont), Boutique dos Relógios or Reflaunt (leading start up in Fashion circular economy).

Placement: Students from the Workstream in Luxury are now working for companies such as LVMH, Mytheresa and L’Oreal Luxe. Workstreams are only available to students who have started their studies and have been accepted to Fall Intake.

 

*Please take note of the following:

— Students who attend the workstreams cannot combine it with Double Degrees, CEMS, exchange and/or other specialization areas. Double Degrees can only be combined with the following Master’s: Master's in Economics, International Master's in Finance and International Master's in Management. 


— Workstreams are only available to students who have started their studies and have been accepted to Fall Intake


— Some courses might not be offered every academic year.


— Please note that this information may be subject to changes.

  • AI Impact on Business
  • Algorithmic governance
  • Applied Corporate Finance
  • Applied Entrepreneurship
  • Applied Hospitality & CX Innovation
  • Applied Qualitative Studies
  • Applied Quantitative Studies
  • Applied Social Entrepreneurship
  • Applied Sports Projects
  • Asian Brands
  • Asset Management
  • Auditing
  • Banking
  • Better Marketing for Consumer Wellbeing
  • Big Data Analysis
  • Blockchain fundamentals
  • Brand Management
  • Brands and Marketing in Asia’s Emerging Markets
  • Business Model Innovation
  • Business Strategy and Practice
  • Circular Economy:  Eliminate, Circulate and Regenerate
  • Competition Policy
  • Competitive Strategy: an analytical approach
  • Computational Thinking and Data Science (includes Applied Statistics)
  • Consumer and Managerial Decision Making
  • Consumer Behavior
  • Corporate Governance
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Corporate Strategy and Transformation
  • Corporate Valuation
  • Cracking the Sales Code
  • Cross-Cultural Issues for Marketing
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • Data Analytics for Finance
  • Data Curation
  • Data Visualization
  • Derivatives
  • Design Thinking for Social Innovation
  • Digital Marketing
  • Digital Strategy and Transformation
  • Digital Transformation in Hospitality
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Doing Business in China
  • Doing Business in Emerging Markets
  • E-commerce and Metaverse
  • Economics of Education
  • Economics of Health and Health Care
  • Economics of Health Systems
  • Energy and Climate change
  • Entrepreneurial Finance & Venture Capital
  • Entrepreneurial Strategy
  • Entrepreneurship
  • European Union: Governance and Crises
  • Evidence-based practices for wellbeing
  • Family Business
  • Finance and the transition to net zero
  • Financial Crises in History
  • Financial Statement Analysis
  • Fintech Ventures
  • Fundamentals on Environment and Sustainability
  • Futures and Options
  • Game Theory
  • Geoeconomics and International Relations
  • Hospitality and CX Innovation Fundamentals
  • Hospitality Expansion & Internationalization
  • Hospitality Operations Management
  • Impact Investments
  • Impact Makers
  • Innovation and Value Creation Wheel
  • Innovation Management
  • Integrated Marketing Communications
  • International Business
  • International Events Management
  • International Marketing Strategy
  • International Tourism Policy
  • Introduction to Hospitality & Tourism Industry
  • Introduction to Programming
  • Investments
  • Leadership and Change Management
  • Leading Social Enterprises with impact in International Development
  • Luxury and Fashion Marketing
  • Luxury Management
  • Machine Learning 
  • Management in the Public Sector
  • Management of Non-Profit Organizations
  • Marketing Analytics
  • Media and Politics
  • Mental Models for Strategy
  • Mergers, Acquisitions, Restructuring
  • Modeling Business decisions for Operations
  • Negotiation
  • Network Analytics
  • Open Innovation
  • Operations Management
  • Operations Strategy
  • Organizing for Good in the digital age
  • Performance and Progress
  • Persuasion and Negotiation
  • Pricing Strategies
  • Principles of Shopper Marketing
  • Private Equity
  • Product Design and Development
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Responsibility and Ethics of Business
  • Revenue Management
  • Sales & Retailing
  • Science-Based Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  • Service Excellence
  • Small Business Management
  • Social Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Special Course: L'Oreal Brandstorm Competition
  • Sports Careers Seminar Series
  • Strategic Costing
  • Strategic errors in organizations
  • Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning
  • Strategic Planning and Control
  • Strategy Consulting
  • Strategy Implementation
  • Sustainability Evaluation of Policies, Plans and Projects
  • Sustainable International Business
  • Sustainable Operations
  • System Change
  • Talent Development
  • Technology Strategy
  • The Essence of Philanthropy
  • Tourism & Hospitality Consulting
  • Tourism Marketing
  • Value-Based Health Care
  • Venture Simulation
  • Web 3 a new frontier in business and finance
  • Work & Family
  • WPP Master Class


*This information may be subject to changes.

The Skills Accelerator is composed by 4 areas and students must complete 1 module in each area, according to their Master's program.

  • Digital
    Technology for business: concepts, tools, and software.
  • Ethics
    The concept of ethics and its importance in life (personal and professional). Exposure to ethical challenges and practical discussions on how to address them.
  • Market Links
    Activities career and job market related. Organized by Careers office, student clubs, or faculty. Depending on the module selected, corporate partners and other companies are invited to participate. Competencies you might acquire and/or accelerate: self-awareness, collaboration, teamwork effectiveness, critical thinking and problem-solving, job market knowledge, Alumni networking.
  • Leadership
    Leadership concepts and tips: self-leadership and leading others.

* Please note that for the academic year of 2023/2024 this information may be subject to changes.

As part of the degree requirement, students must carry out a work project (thesis) in their final semester. There are three formats available:

Field Lab
Students focus on a specific theme or topic of more applied nature to propose solutions to solve an existing local real-world problem in a specific setting (group setting).

Directed Research Internship
Students carry out a problem-based issue to help address an identifiable problem in a company setting relevant to the course of study.

Directed Research*
Students showcase their knowledge and expertise by investigating a research problem of scientific nature in a relevant area of interest.

* This format is generally reserved for those intending on pursuing further studies in a PhD program.

Grading is based upon the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), a grading scale developed to better understand and compare grades given, according to different national systems.

We did the math for you and the awarding of ECTS grades breaks down as follows:

30 ECTS
in Mandatory Courses including the Mastering Your Career Activities
(Bridging courses not included)

28 ECTS
in Elective Courses (minimum)

2 ECTS
in Skills Accelerator Modules

30 ECTS
in the Work Project

90 ECTS (minimum) in total to graduate
You need a minimum of 90 ECTS to complete your Master’s, but if you need 120 ECTS to proceed with your studies, you can extend your Master's by one semester with courses (28 ECTS) and modules (2 ECTS).

Q&A Sessions

Q&A Sessions

Watch the info video about the program, and attend one of our live Q&A sessions to learn more about the program and clear any doubts about the program and its curriculum that you may have.

Study Abroad

Complete your Master’s in Management with international experience.

You can choose from an Exchange Program or a CEMS MIM.

(This requires an additional semester)