Catalog

Open only to MBA students. Non-MBA students seeking to enroll in noncore courses must meet the prerequisite requirements and have the consent of both the instructor and the director of the MBA program. Across all business areas, MBA students have enrollment priority for courses with an MBA prefix. Non-MBA students seeking to enroll in the noncore courses must meet the prerequisite requirements. Other elective options for MBA students may be found in the main business course descriptions.

MBAC 6000-3. Socially Responsible Enterprise. Investigates the relation between business and society by drawing on theories from ethics, sociology, economics, political science, and philosophy and applying these theories to specific business contexts. Gives managers an understanding of how broader societal issues can affect business decisions. Emphasizes case studies of current business practices.

MBAC 6010-3. Managerial Economics. Studies the elements of the business firm’s fundamental problem—how to maximize profits. Develops for each element managerial theory based upon introductory and intermediate-level microeconomics. Analyzes various applications and misapplications of relevant concept, primarily through case studies. Differential calculus and statistics are used throughout the course.

MBAC 6011 (1.5). Managerial Economics 1. Studies the elements of the business firm’s fundamental problem—how to maximize profits. Develops for each element managerial theory based upon introductory and intermediate-level microeconomics. Analyzes various applications and misapplications of the relevant concept, primarily through case studies. Differential calculus and statistics are used throughout the course.

MBAC 6012 (1.5). Managerial Economics 2. See MBAC 6011.

MBAC 6020-3. Financial Accounting. Introduces the financial reporting system used by business organizations to convey information about their economic affairs. Develops an understanding of financial reports and what they tell about a business enterprise. Focuses on how alternative accounting measurement rules represent different economic events in financial reports.

MBAC 6030-3. Quantitative Methods. Covers foundations for statistical reasoning and statistical applications in business. Topics include graduate-level treatment of descriptive statistics, probability, probability distributions, sampling theory and sampling distributions, and statistical inference (estimation and hypothesis testing). Provides an introduction to regression analysis, analysis of variance, time series forecasting, decision analysis, index numbers, and nonparametric methods.

MBAC 6031-1.5. Quantitative Methods. Covers foundations for statistical reasoning and statistical applications in business. Topics include graduate-level treatment of descriptive statistics, probability, probability distributions, sampling theory, sampling distributions, and statistical inference (estimation and hypothesis testing). Provides an introduction to regression analysis, analysis of variance, time series forecasting, decision analysis, index numbers and nonparametric methods.

MBAC 6040-3. Management Behavior in Organizations. Develops an awareness of the impact of individual and group processes on effective organizational functioning, an understanding of the impact of behavioral concepts, and practices their application through discussion and experiential learning.

MBAC 6050-3. Corporate Strategy. Experience the real-world problems facing general managers while enhancing skill at solving complex, real-business problems in strategy. Blends functional with strategic management and introduces students to the best new thinking in strategy. Integrates previous MBA learning, and instills a broadened perspective, competence, and familiarity with good practice in strategic management.

MBAC 6060-3. Corporate Finance. Analyzes the implications of modern finance theory for the major decisions faced by corporate financial managers. Develops the basic skills necessary to apply financial concepts to the various problems faced by a firm. Includes capital budgeting, capital structure, long term financing, short term financial management, and financial planning topics. Prereq., MBAC 6020.

MBAC 6080-3. Decision Modeling and Applications. Integrates topics from decision analysis and operations management as they relate to modeling management decisions. Field projects involve the university, local companies, and/or government agencies. Prereq., MBAC 6030.

MBAC 6090-3. Marketing Management. Provides a solid foundation of marketing knowledge by focusing on principles of marketing. Introduces the role that marketing cases play in advancing understanding and skill development in the field of marketing. Case discussions illustrate concepts discussed, and case studies are used to introduce the marketing decision making process. Emphasizes the international nature of marketing, as well as the importance of analysis and the understanding of the economic, demographic, political-legal-regulatory, sociocultural, technological, and natural environments. Prereq., MBAC 6030.

MBAC 6097-2. Business Simulation Seminar. Uses interactive, competitive, computer-based simulation designed to illustrate the process of implementing a strategy in a changing, technology-driven environment. The simulation uses advanced computer algorithms to create a market-driven business environment where customer preferences change, market segments shift, competitors emerge, technologies advance, and company fortunes rise and fall–depending on the decisions the student teams make. Prereqs., MBAC 6000, 6010, 6020, 6030, 6040, and 6080.

MBAC 6098-1. Business Writing. Develops business writing skills, with specific focus on style rather than content. Assists students in improving their writing skills in order to be effective communicators in their professional careers.

MBAC 6099 (1.5). Professional Development. Develops presentation and interview skills to help students become effective communicators in their professional careers and to acquaint themselves well in the job placement process.

MBAX 6100-3. Entrepreneurship and Small Business. Examines the environments of entrepreneurial firms from start-up to development of ventures. Allows students to assess their fit with entrepreneurial firms. Key element is learning the process of determining the difference between ideas and commercializable opportunities through feasibility analysis and plans. Prereq., MBAC 6020 or instructor consent.

MBAX 6110-3. Entrepreneurial Finance. Addresses a variety of topics including financial valuation, various sources of funds, structures and legal issues in arranging financing, the private and public venture capital markets, and preparation for, and execution of, an initial public securities offering. Prereq., MBAC 6020.

MBAX 6120-3. Entrepreneurial Marketing. Addresses the marketing challenges that face the entrepreneur or start up firm with a limited budget. From initially positioning the company and its products to marketing that position to key shareholders for a new venture, to establishing channels of distribution and reaching the consumer, take a specialized look at the development and implementation of a marketing plan.

MBAX 6130-3. Sustainable Business Ventures. Focuses on environmentally sustainable business ventures as well as issues associated with starting and operating a business that solves natural environmental challenges while achieving profitability. Includes a number of case studies, topical discussions, talks by environmental entrepreneurs, and an applied or library research project.

MBAX 6170-3. Business Plan Preparation. Completion of a sophisticated business plan within task groups from concept through all the elements of a professionally written business plan. Provides students high interaction with businesses and entrepreneurs. Prereq., MBAC 6020 and MBAX 6100, or instructor consent.

MBAX 6180-3. Startup Execution. Covers a variety of topics in applied entrepreneurship, including the steps required to legally launch a business and procedures for executing standard business functions (organization, marketing, sales, advertising, operations, team building, and finance) with minimal resources (cash, personnel, and equipment).

MBAX 6190-3. Projects in Entrepreneurial Companies. Limited to 12 students per section, each student is matched with an entrepreneurial company to complete a project that is key to company strategy. Students experience total company environment from the top management level through attending management meetings and interacting with cross-functional managers and employees. E-mail and face-to-face meetings result in discussing opportunities and issues resulting from experiences in companies. Prereq., MBAX 6100.

MBAX 6805-3. Entrepreneurship and the Venture Capital Process. This course will be articulated into two main parts, tightly interrelated: Entrepreneurship and the Venture Capital Process. The first part has the objective to lead the students to understand what venture capital is, how it works, how you structure capital raising, and how it helps entrepreneurial initiatives. The second part concerns how venture capitalists manage their operations, secure investment deals, and maintain their portfolios. Prereqs., MBAC 6011, 6020, 6031, 6040, 6060, 6080, and 6090. Restricted to LAWS students and graduate students in business.

MBAX 6825-3. Sustainable Business. Exposes students to an overview of concepts related to challenges of meeting interests of stakeholders so to balance social, environmental, and economic resources and impacts. Will provide students an introduction to the diversity of sustainability-related topics relevant to today’s business managers and entrepreneurs. Students will investigate avenues for using market strategies to build a path toward global sustainability. Prereqs., 1st semester MBA core courses.

MBAX 6845-3. Social Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets. Social entrepreneurs adopt business approaches to solving global, social, and environmental problems that have not been effectively addressed by government, business or traditional nonprofits. This course provides a framework for student teams to assist social entrepreneurs in developing countries, helping them achieve their social mission while operating sustainably and with measurable impact. Prereq., MBAC 6010, 6060 and 6090. Recommended prereq., MBAX 6170.

MBAX 6200-3. Advanced Corporate Finance. Covers the theory of asset pricing, which is then applied to capital budgeting, capital structure choice, mergers and acquisitions, and risk management. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6210-3. Applied Financial Management. Analyzes the financial condition, planning, and control of current assets, current liabilities, and long-term financial arrangements. Topics include financial planning, managing working capital, short- and long-term financing, capital budgeting, valuation, and capital structure policies. Case studies are emphasized. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6220-3. Investment Management and Analysis. Covers managing investment portfolios by blending academic theories and evidence with practitioner experience. Topics include risk and return relationships, securities, value theory (capital asset, arbitrage, and option pricing), portfolios, and performance evaluations. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6230-3. International Financial Management. Examines the financial procedures, policies, and risks faced by firms conducting business internationally. Topics include examining the international finance environment, managing foreign exchange risk exposure, managing international working capital, conducting analysis, and developing an understanding of international financial markets. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6240-3. Financial Markets and Institutions. Deals with the economics of financial markets and the management of financial institutions. Covers factors influencing the cost and availability of capital for financing business firms. Examines both domestic and international markets and institutions. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6250-3. Derivative Securities. Derivatives, like options, futures, forwards, and swaps, encompass all aspects of finance. Topics cover the characteristics, valuation, and trading strategies associated with derivatives as well as their use in risk management. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6260-3. Fixed Income Investing. Fixed income securities are those that nominally promise a fixed stream of payments. They include government and corporate long and short term debt issues that far exceed the amount of corporate stock issues, as well as long term personal debt (i.e., home mortgages). Develops practical analytical tools for describing these securities, the markets where they are traded, and their purchase and management by financial intermediaries. Stresses the huge market for U.S. government debt, because it provides a foundation for the development of more specialized tools used in other markets. Prereq., MBAC 6060.

MBAX 6885-3. Interpreting the Economic Environment. The macroeconomic environment is vitally important to business managers regardless of their area of focus. Most macroeconomic events portend future economic changes that influence business and/or industry. Develops a basic understanding of the macroeconomy and its relationship to an individual business or industry through understanding macroeconomic concepts and data sources, developing a basic model, understanding relevant policy instruments, and integrating this information into the global economy. Prereq., MBAC 6010.

MBAX 6300-3. Marketing Communication. Focuses on the strategic and decision making aspects of marketing communication from a managerial perspective. Increases students’ understanding of specific decision elements within an integrated marketing communications framework. Topics include promotional objectives, agency relations, media selection, budgeting, and advertising research. Also explores relevant advertising models and the economic and social effects of promotional activity. Prereq., MBAC 6090.

MBAX 6310-3. Marketing Strategy. Marketing strategy has developed into an increasingly critical managerial activity as businesses recognize the importance of creating customer value and being customer oriented. Discusses key elements of successful marketing strategy including market/customer analysis and competitor analysis, and identifies strategic approaches managers may adopt to succeed in today’s highly competitive and rapidly changing business environment. Prereq., MBAC 6090.

MBAX 6320-3. International Marketing Management. Develops skills and analyzes frameworks for selecting competitive strategy and building implementable marketing programs in contemporary global markets. A team project provides students with experience in researching international markets to assemble a product-market entry plan. Prereq., MBAC 6090.

MBAX 6330-3. Marketing Intelligence. Market Intelligence is a decision-oriented course geared toward gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about markets and customers. Students learn how to: define the marketing problem and determine what information is needed to make the decision; acquire trustworthy and relevant data and judge its quality; analyze the data and acquire the necessary knowledge to make certain classic types of marketing decisions. Prereq., MBAC 6090.

MBAX 6340-3. Marketing Field Project. Develops skills in marketing decision making. Teams design and complete a project located at a client business or other organization in the metropolitan area. Team members organize and assign responsibilities, interact with middle- and top-level managers, apply quantitative and behavioral tools presented in marketing and other courses, meet deadlines, and present results of project activities. Prereq., MBAC 6090.

MBAX 6350-3. Marketing of High Technology. Marketing in high technology environments poses its own unique challenges due to the complexity and novelty of the technology. Challenges include articulation of the value proposition, decision making with limited information on customers, and coordination with other market players. To succeed in this environment, firms need to be able to understand unarticulated needs, forecast the development of nascent markets, and position themselves appropriately in the competitive landscape. Focus will be on the strategy to accompany a technology and not on the technical or scientific aspects of the product.

MBAX 6360-3. New Product Development. Provides a better understanding of the new-product development process, highlighting the inherent risks and strategies for overcoming them. Using a combination of lectures, cases, and a project, this course examines the process of designing, testing, and launching new products. Emphasizes the interplay between creativity and analytical marketing research throughout the development process. Also covers branding issues, such as brand extensions and their impact on brand equity. Prereq., MBAC 6090.

MBAX 6410-3. Business Process Design. Covers the concepts and tools to design and manage business processes. Emphasizes modeling and analysis, information technology support for process activities, and management of process flows. Graphical simulation software is used to create dynamic models of business processes and predict the effect of changes. Prepares students for a strong management or consulting career path in business processes.

MBAX 6420-3. IT and Business Strategy. Although some companies are very successful are very successful in discovering and cultivating innovative technology-enabled business strategies, many fail in the process. Combines theories and frameworks with practical approaches to provide students with the skills required to help companies identify business opportunities, find appropriate information related technologies, and lead adoptions efforts to success.

MBAX 6460-3. Supply Chain Management. Explores the key issues related to the design and management of supply chains. Covers the efficient integration of suppliers, production facilities, warehouses, and stores so that the right products in the right quantity reach customers at the right time. Focuses on the minimization of the total supply chain cost subject to service requirements imposed by a variety of industries. Recommended prereq., MBAC 6080. Same as OPIM 4050. Formerly MBAX 6865.

MBAX 6440-3. Project Management. Acquaints students with multidisciplinary aspects of project management, including the relationship between schedule, cost and performance. The course uses a hands-on project where the student interacts with a real customer, providing an opportunity to utilize the qualitative and quantitative tools taught in the classroom. At the conclusion of the course, the student may be eligible to apply for a project management certification from Project Management Institute based on previous work experience.

MBAX 6450-3. International Operations Management. Takes a broad comprehensive perspective on managing and operating in a rapidly growing global economy. Explores regional and national approaches to international operations including trade practices; penetration strategies; financial, marketing, services, and manufacturing operations; ethical and sustainability issues; and global competitive strategy. Compares global business practices in Asia, South America, Europe, and Africa.

MBAX 6500-3. Management of Organizational Change. Explores ways to improve organizations to meet demands of changing environments. Emphasizes theoretical framework and models of organization change, barriers to implementing change and ways to overcome them, and the roles of the change agent and/or consultant. Prereq., MBAC 6040.

MBAX 6530-3. Negotiating and Conflict Management. Explores and builds skills for conflict management and negotiation problems faced by managers (e.g., dealing with subordinates, peers, superiors, or clients). Content is relevant to all MBA students, especially those interested in management, accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, and marketing. Prereq., MBAC 6040.

MBAX 6540-3. Consulting Skills. Provides an integrative, hands-on exercise in managing change. Develops skills in contracting, collecting, and analyzing data, and writing reports. Teams practice these skills by conducting an organizational diagnosis, consulting project within an organization. Prereq., MBAC 6040.

MBAX 6550-3. Management of Technology and Innovation. Examines a variety of issues common to management of technology, such as technology strategies, methods of technology transfer, selecting technology standards, managing the research and development process, and encouraging and rewarding innovation.

MBAX 6560-3. Executive Leadership. Examines organizational leadership from the executive perspective, including private and public sector firms, and non-profits. Studies how executives lead change and innovation, interact with the top management team, and deal with the board of directors Topics include governance of the firm, strategies for enhancing executive influence, assessing and understanding diverse leadership styles, and the ethics and responsibilities of an executive. Formerly MBAX 6890.

MBAX 6801-3. Global Perspectives Seminar. Provides students with an in-depth perspective about a specific country or region outside the United States. The course can focus on a different region or country each time it is offered. If demand for this type of experience is strong, multiple sections of the course could be offered in a given semester, each focusing on a different region or country. The choice of region and the specific focus of each course would depend on the faculty member teaching the course. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Prereqs., MBAC 6010, 6060 and 6090.

MBAX 6600-3. Real Estate Development. Studies methods of analyzing real estate opportunities, local government controls and regulations of the Development Process. Majority of class material is provided via case studies and guest lecturers. Last portion of the course will be the presentation of student group projects.

MBAX 6610-3. Real Estate Finance and Investment Analysis. Objectives of the course are to conduct income property investment analysis; to develop the technical competence necessary to structure real estate transactions; and to understand the financial assets securitized by real estate. Students will analyze income properties using Excel spreadsheets and ARGUS Financial Software. Techniques for structuring real estate transactions examined in this course include lender participations, sale-leasebacks, joint ventures, and real estate syndications. Prereq., MBAX 6600 or equivalent, or instructor consent.

MBAX 6620-3. Real Estate Project Competition. Develops skills in real estate decision making. Teams design, complete, and present a real estate project in a competition forum. Students gain an understanding and working knowledge of real estate, use a piece of real property to determine its highest and best use, create a sales plan, and prepare a real estate financing package. Team members organize and assign responsibilities, interact with real estate professionals, and apply appropriate quantitative and qualitative tools and procedures. Prereqs., MBAX 6600 and 6640, or equivalent, or instructor consent.

MBAX 6630-3. Real Estate Economics. Examines real estate market operations and discusses alternative methodologies for estimating real estate values. Examines various theories of land price determination and uses these models to understand how the private market allocates land to competing residential, office, retail, industrial/warehouse, hotel, and other end users. Examines how factors influencing the demand for real estate interact with the supply of real estate to determine market rents and how the flow of future expected income is capitalized to yield the market price of the asset. Prereqs., MBAC 6011 and MBAC 6060. Formerly MBAX 6835.

MBAX 6640-3. Real Estate Law. Examines the legal issues associated with developing, acquiring, transferring, and leasing real property. Topics include real estate contracts, land use and development agreements, vehicles for owning real estate, real estate covenants, conditions and restrictions, loan transactions, negotiating real estate contracts, commercial leases and real estate taxation. Material for this course will consist of assigned articles and real estate cases. Prereq., MBAX 6600 or equivalent, or instructor consent. Formerly MBAX 6855.

MBAX 6815-3. Survey of Best Practices in Sustainable Real Estate Development. Explores techniques, processes, tools, and capabilities required to manage growth and land use change in the light of shifts beginning to transform the way we approach land use and real estate development.

MBAX 6966-3. Independent Study-Real Estate. Independent study in the field of real estate.

MBAX 6700-3. Corporate Financial Reporting. Provides an in-depth study of the concepts underlying contemporary financial accounting practice. Includes preparation and analysis of financial statements and the application of concepts to selected current issues. Prereq., MBAC 6020 or equivalent. Same as ACCT 6220.

MBAX 6710-3. Financial Statement Analysis. Focuses on the use of accounting information by decision makers external to the firm. Considers judgments made by security analysts, bank lending officers, and auditors. Emphasizes credit scoring, risk analysis, and equity valuation. Prereq., MBAC 6020 or equivalent. Same as ACCT 6250.

OPMG 6900 (1-3). Independent Study.

OPMG 6940 (1-4). Master’s Candidate.

OPMG 6950 (1-6). Master’s Thesis.

OPMG 8990 (1-10). Doctoral Thesis.