Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship online

This course provides students with an introduction to basic accounting fundamentals and skills necessary to analyze financial information of firms from a decision-maker perspective. Financial information is presented in the form of financial statements, principally, the income statement, balance sheet, statement of retained earnings, and cash flow statement. We will discuss how accountants organize the results of business transactions and report them to external users who will then use the reports to make decisions.

This course will help students to develop a comprehensive analysis of the micro and macroeconomic forces that shape and modify our economy. Supply and Demand, Revenue and Cost, wages, employment, regulations and taxation are discussed as they affect production, consumption, investment, trade, prices, quantities, profits, inequality, and the economy as a whole.

A study of the basic principles and practices of financial management of private (as opposed to government owned or affiliated) business operations. The principles and models discussed in the course can be equally applied to publicly listed companies as well as privately owned ones. This course includes an operational framework for financial analysis, financial planning including capital budgeting, along with valuation analysis and cost of capital. The basic framework of analysis used is that of risk and return, emphasizing that the objective of the firm is to maximize shareholder return, subject to satisfying societal and other stakeholder concerns.

The main objective of this course is to introduce the basic statistical concepts and tools in order to form the foundation through which students can analyze data used for decision-making. The course is application-oriented and focuses on topics that are useful in business and industry such as descriptive statistics, probability, conceptual modeling, and problem formulation and decision analysis. The course prepares students to develop an understanding of how to deal with new trends in the industry such as big data and data mining.

This course takes a broad-based look at management and organizations in order to provide students with the building blocks needed for more advanced classes in the program. It exposes students to the history of management thought and to some of the most influential organizational theories. It uses insights from multiple disciplines such as economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and political economy and offers frameworks for analyzing modern organizations and current managerial practices. The course concludes with a discussion of contemporary issues in management.

Marketing is viewed as a system designed to create, capture, distribute, and communicate value to consumers and businesses. The course emphasizes the managerial approach to developing marketing strategy through analyses of business conditions, customers, and competitors. Emphasis is given to understanding buyer motivations, behaviors, and contexts as the basis for marketing decisions.

This course deals with the environment in which international business is conducted, including economic and financial relations, environmental and strategic factors that affect business operations within different nations. Topics include international trade, the balance of payment, exchange rate determination, hedging of foreign exchange exposure, tariffs and other trade restrictions, economic development, economic integration, and international economic organizations within different nations. Also reviewed are the economic, political and cultural conditions that influence international business.

Students may choose to investigate an issue at their place of work, undertake research that will lead them to new fields, or create proposals for business models or start-ups. The capstone experience will provide students with direct exposure into various industries and also serve as a basis for planning and advancement. Finally, the course will also help MBA candidates establish their professional identities through reflective assignments and self-assessments as guided by their instructor. The course is taken in the MBA student’s last semester, or after completing the majority of courses.

This course explores business analytics concepts and applications aimed at improving business performance. The course focuses on the three facets of analytics: Descriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics, and Prescriptive Analytics. An integral part of business analytics is the use of IT tools to support the collection and analysis of data, and converting it into actionable knowledge in the context of organization decision-making and problem-solving. As such the students will learn problem analysis and formulation, data modeling, and the application of various spreadsheet tools.

The course studies strategic management from the perspective of environmental sustainability, with an emphasis on the impact of innovation on corporate social responsibility. Sustainable Strategic Management refers to strategic management policies and processes that seek competitive advantages consistent with a core value of environmental sustainability. Firms that pursue sustainable strategic management base the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of their strategies on an analysis of the ecological issues they face, the values they hold that support sustainability, and the ecological interests of their stakeholders.

Managers need resources to succeed, and successful managers tend to negotiate well to give themselves the best chance to succeed. They negotiate with customers and suppliers for better prices, and they negotiate with internal functions to get better support and key resources to deliver value to both internal and external stakeholders. As managers move up the corporate ladder, they negotiate with their team members for better commitment and they negotiate with their superiors for domain independence. This course will focus on managers’ need to influence others, manage conflict, and negotiate agreements in a wide range of business scenarios both within and outside the organization. Students will be introduced to basic theories of negotiation, practices and frameworks of negotiation. Students will be provided with opportunities to reshape their understanding of negotiation, discover their own negotiation styles, and apply negotiation principles to critical issues. The course takes a view that negotiation is also a life skill that comes in handy in career growth and addresses the managers need to understand that influencing often occurs without formal power or authority. The course uses a combination of lectures, discussions, role-play exercises, cases, and exams.

This course provides a highly practical introduction of the field of entrepreneurship and the creation of new business ventures. It focuses on the motivation and characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, the germination and analysis of business ideas/opportunities, the development of business, marketing, organizational, and financial plans, and the identification of alternative sources of venture capital.

This course introduces various facets of crisis management. The focus is on the decisions that owners/managers of small businesses are faced with before, during, and after a crisis. While emphasis is placed on how crises are addressed in small business because of the disproportionate effect crises have on them, much of the course material is applicable to larger businesses as well.

This course focuses on educating students on the business and personal requirements required to fund new ventures. Major emphasis is placed on the assessment process that all entrepreneurs are faced with and on understanding the source of funds available to entrepreneurs. This course complements the Business Plan course and focuses on the financial documents required for each plan.

This course addresses market-oriented problems for entrepreneurs, including identification and selection of marketing opportunities and demand for forecasting; formulation of competitive strategies; and designing and/or evaluating marketing plans and programs. Includes marketing in special fields such as services and not-for-profit areas. Various marketing decisions are examined with regard to product planning, channels of distribution, promotion activity, pricing, and aspects of international marketing. Integration of the Internet with marketing techniques is also discussed and examined.

This is an overview course that provides both the context of rapid change and means by which we can help guide innovation and entrepreneurship within organizations. By understanding the historical lessons of change, we can minimize potential innovation failures and gear up for disruptive or incremental change. Both entrepreneurs and established firms must respond to multiple changes in their environments to survive. But even more so, these changes that extend from globalization to technology to demographics and beyond provide opportunities for new streams of revenue and competitive advantage. This course will explore a wide range of topics, approaches, and techniques that promote innovation and entrepreneurial behavior in different organizations of all sizes. It will explore how breakthroughs in technologies and markets create opportunities and threats, and how organizations that can master innovation have an advantage over those who lag behind. We will also consider internal structures, processes, core competencies, and cultures of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity in different size firms.