Professional MBA Course Descriptions

View Course Sections:

Foundation Courses

Core Courses

Electives:

Finance

Marketing

General

Foundation Courses (15 hours)

Financial Accounting                            
This course introduces accounting principles, including income-statement analysis, balance-sheet analysis, cash flow and financial statement analysis and the use of accounting information in a case based format. Pass/ No Record grading with Pass = B or better.
3 Credit Hours

Foundations of Marketing
This course provides the student with the fundamental concepts of the marketing discipline. Since this discipline encompasses different but interrelated functions, this course is designed to provide a foundational understanding of each of these functions and how they are inter-related within successful marketing. Such marketing functions include planning, coordinating, and evaluating product design, pricing distribution and promotional activities. The case approach is used to illustrate these concepts and how they are successfully integrated. Pass/No Record grading with Pass = B or better.     
2 Credit Hours

Foundations of Management
This course provides the student with the fundamental concepts of the management discipline. It is designed to provide an understanding of the areas of management and how they are inter-related. Topics include strategic planning, coordination of human resources, control, communication, change and leadership. In addition, trends in technology and their affect on management practices will be discussed. Pass/No Record grading with Pass = B or better.       
2 Credit Hours

Foundations of Decision Making
This course will provide students with a background in research methodology, statistics, and quantitative analysis. The course is an introduction to the collection and analysis of data for business decision making.  Pass/No Record grading with Pass = B or better.      
2 Credit Hours

Foundations of Economics
The application of microeconomic theory to managerial decision-making seeks to answer basic resource-allocation questions. The course is designed to provide the student with an ability to view resource-allocation problems within a framework of shareholder wealth maximization. Included are price and output decisions of the firm under various market conditions such as pure competition, monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition. Pass/No Record grading with Pass = B or better.     
3 Credit Hours

Foundations of Finance
This course introduces the basic concepts, principles and analytical techniques in financial management. Topics include formulating financial objectives, short-term financial analysis, financial forecasting and planning, elementary capital budgeting and cost of capital, and the nature of long-term sources of funds. Analysis of risk in financial decisions includes probability distributions, statistical inference and introduction to regression and correlation. Pass/No Record grading with Pass = B or better.       
Prerequisite: BUSN 502, BUSN 508 and BUSN 516.
3 Credit Hours

Core Courses (30 hours)

Leadership Development

The primary objective of the course is to provide a developmental opportunity for students to be more effective and intentional as leaders.  Based on the finding that increased self-awareness is key to leadership effectiveness, students will be exposed to a variety of assessments and experiences including personality assessment, 360-degree feedback, and coaching in order to increase their capacity to lead effectively.  The course includes online components and four day-long Saturday class meetings spread over two terms.

Prerequisite: All Foundation courses.    
3 Credit Hours

Law and Ethics
This course will examine the relationship between business and the complex network of state and federal laws and regulatory agencies. It is designed as a study of the legal and ethical environment of business. Topics will include the development of the law and legal system, regulatory law and regulatory agencies, commercial law basics and the fundamentals of applied business ethics. Specialty topics will include employment and labor law, environmental law, litigation/risk management, insurance and others.  
3 Credit Hours

International Business
This course will focus on the principal aspects of conducting business in the international context, the politico-legal context, marketing and management implications, and international economic and financial issues. The objective is to show similarities as well as differences between domestic and international business practices, and to provide a perspective from which to analyze business problems in the international context.   Prerequisite: BUSN 516.   
3 Credit Hours

The Management of Organizations
This course focuses on the management of human behavior in work environments. It includes the development, design, operation and control of activities necessary to generate the goods and services of profit and nonprofit organizations, as well as considering the personal dynamics of individuals, groups and organizations. Major topics include motivation, stress, career process, leadership, decision making and conflict management.   Prerequisite: BUSN 507.    
3 Credit Hours

Economic Policy 
A macroeconomics course which studies the problems of inflation, unemployment and economic growth and the policies for dealing with these problems. Prerequisite: BUSN 516.   
3 Credit Hours

Managerial Accounting
This course examines the ways in which accounting enables managers to operate effectively through the use of analysis and information as the foundation for managerial decision-making. Topics include cost-volume-profit relationships, cost behavior patterns, flexible budgets and standards for control, relevant costs, capital budgeting and the impact of taxes on management planning.   Prerequisites: BUSN 502.    
3 Credit Hours

Financial Management
This course examines the financial function and how it relates to other functions of the business firm including how financial decisions can further the basic enterprise's goal of wealth maximization. The student will explore in-depth controversial conceptual problems. This course focuses on the various concepts for manager decision-making under uncertainty, optimum financial structure, cost of capital and asset management. Prerequisites: BUSN 522.   
3 Credit Hours

Marketing Management
This course is designed to acquaint the student with techniques in defining a target market and specifying a marketing mix to satisfy that target. The main point of emphasis is that marketing is a total system of business action rather than a fragmented assortment of functions and institutions. The structure of the course is the case approach, which requires the student to use principles of marketing in the analysis of business problems.   Prerequisites: BUSN 506 & BUSN 620.   
3 Credit Hours

Decision Science
This course develops a generalized framework for examining the executive decision making process. Topics included are: decision structures, decision diagramming, and expected value; subjective probability assessment; pay off tables and decision analysis in normal form; Monte Carlo simulation; and the assessment of personal attitude toward risk.   Prerequisites: BUSN 508.  
3 Credit Hours

Strategic Management
This is the capstone course of the MBA program in which the emphasis is on the strategic planning necessary for an organization to define and achieve its overall objectives. Cases include problems in which economic, moral, personal, social and political factors are involved. A major theoretical or practical project is required. The final exam of the course is comprehensive and is designed to evaluate overall synthesis of content of the foundation and core courses. The capstone course may not be transferred from another institution.  Prerequisites: All other Core Courses.    
3 Credit Hours

Finance Concentration (9 hours)

Investment Analysis
The course deals with the selection of assets to meet stated portfolio objectives.  Financial assets are emphasized.  Course perspective is from a portfolio manager's point of view.  Topics include market efficiency, risk verses rate of return, passive and active bond management, industry analysis, stock valuation, options and futures markets, and risk reduction techniques.  Prerequisite: BUSN 622.  
3 Credit Hours 

International Finance
This course is an in-depth look at the role of money in the modern economy, the international market for currencies, hedging and speculation in international finance, exchange rates and the effect of international money movements on domestic economic activity. Prerequisite: BUSN 608 & 622.  
3 Credit Hours

Seminar in Financial Management
Financial Management topics will focus on various areas within the discipline using case analysis. Topics may include, but are not limited to, Working Capital, Capital Budgeting, Capital Structure, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Risk Management.
Prerequisites: BUSN 622.
3 Credit Hours

Marketing Concentration (9 hours)

Consumer Behavior
This course provides the student with an overview of the consumer decision-making process and factors that influence this process. The course will examine the psychological and sociological aspects of how consumers evaluate their ever-increasing purchasing options. Understanding such a process is a critical factor in strategic planning. The manner in which marketers utilize such information will be emphasized through class analyses. Prerequisite: BUSN 506.   
3 Credit Hours 

Market Research
This course provides an introduction into marketing research processes and results. Upon completing this course, the student should be able to interpret research findings and to reach meaningful conclusions based upon those findings. To meet these objectives, this course requires actual fieldwork supplemented by case studies. Prerequisite: BUSN 506.    
3 Credit Hours 

International Marketing
This course focuses on the economic, social and political influences on marketing management in the international context.  Basic marketing principles and processes from the conceptual framework for understanding global integration, decision-making and strategic planning.  Prerequisite: BUSN 506.
3 Credit Hours

General Electives (9 hours)

Entrepreneurship

This course examines the skills, concepts, and knowledge relevant to creating and funding a new venture. Considerable attention is given to the screening and evaluation of ideas and new business opportunities. The capabilities gained in this course apply to potential entrepreneurs interested in starting a new business, those interested in taking over an existing business, and those interested in incorporating an entrepreneurial approach in established businesses.  The course examines the nature of the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process, as well as the critical ingredients in success and failure.  Prerequisites:  BUSN 620 & BUSN 630

3 Credit Hours

Operations Management
Operations are the means through which a firm's strategic plans are effectively realized. Typically, the vast bulk of a company's people and assets are engaged in operations of one sort or another. Managing operations, then, means dealing with the ways these human and capital resources interact to create products and services. This course will sharpen participants' insights to the impact of corporate decisions on operations through discussion of selected case studies, many of which will deal with firms having a global operating reach. Prerequisite: BUSN 610.
3 Credit Hours  

Capitalism and Its Origins
What is capitalism? When, where, why and how did it arise? What are its costs and benefits? What are the alternatives to capitalism? This is a course in political economy. It aims to foster clear and dispassionate analysis of volatile issues arising from the impact of a market economy on aspects of contemporary life.  
3 Credit Hours 

Legal Environments of Business
Focusing on strategy implications, this course will examine the legal, regulatory, political, ethical and social environment of business. Using a case approach, the course builds on a foundation of legal basics, helping practical managers analyze issues and operate within the external framework of their business. Prerequisite: BUSN 605.   
3 Credit Hours  

International Experience
During this course students participate in a "hands-on" exploration of the business environment of a country or countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America or North America.  Course requirements include attendance at pre-trip seminars and completion of all course assignments after the conclusion of the travel experience.   
3 Credit Hours  

Topics in Business:

Advanced Coaching Theories
A survey of advanced and contemporary theories in the study of organizational coaching and of the leading scholars who have made important contributions to the field.  Topics will include formal and informal coaching relationships; internal and external practices; and advance coaching-related skill development.  Students will develop coaching skills through in-class and out-of-class practice.  Prerequisite: ODEV 640.
3 Credit Hours

Independent Study
This course requires independent reading and investigation of literature relevant to a specific topic or area of business.  Students must complete and have approved a proposal for an Independent Study on a form available in the graduate programs office prior to registration for this course.  This course may be repeated for a maximum of six credit hours.   
1, 2, or 3 Credit Hours