Course Descriptions

Core Courses

MBA 501 Financial & Management Accounting

This course is an introduction to the basic financial and managerial accounting topics: GAAP, the major financial statements, accrual accounting, financial reporting alternatives, financial statement analysis, cost behavior, cost systems, short- and long-term decision-making and product costing, and a review of environmental accounting.

MBA 503 Organizational Behavior

This course builds awareness and understanding of the behavior of individuals and groups in organizations, preparing managers to be more effective within their organizational contexts. Topics include individual differences in motivation, perception, culture and learning style; group and organizational dynamics; and the impact of organizational structure and culture on behavior. Leadership techniques for influencing other organizational members, creative problem-solving and decision-making, ethics and values-based managing are covered. This course helps students relate basic theories, concepts, and techniques to real-world situations through the extensive use of case studies.

MBA 505 Managerial Economics

Managerial Economics is concerned with the application of economic principles to key decisions with organizations. It provides guidance to increase value creation and solidifies intuition for understanding the business environments in which organizations operate. A key objective of the course is to develop tools useful in other Stuart courses: economics is a key foundation for much of what is taught in finance, marketing, business strategy, environmental management, and virtually every other course in the graduate program. Managerial Economics is a way of thinking about problems, issues and decisions that managers face in each of the functional areas of their organization. It stresses the importance of incentives as determinants of human behavior and performance, and emphasizes the consideration of costs and benefits when making decisions. The course introduces and develops and concepts in various areas of microeconomics such as competition and market structure, incentive contracts, and pricing. Topics to be covered range from the most basic demand and supply models to principal-agent models and economics of information. We will also touch on some of the primary macroeconomic topics (GDP, inflation, unemployment); issues of ethics in economic policymaking pertaining to competitive and oligopolistic markets, pricing, and trade; and game theory.

MBA 507 Managerial Decision-Making

The course introduces the business research process and teaches analytical statistical methods that can be used for managerial decision-making. It also covers managerial decision-making under uncertainty. Topics include probability, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, linear regression, and goodness-of-fit tests.

MBA 509 Managerial Finance

An introduction to the basic concepts and practices used by managers in making financial decisions. Topics include cash flow analysis, capital budgeting, short- and long-term financial planning, cost of capital, financial leverage, and dividend policy.

MBA 511 Marketing Management

This course provides an introduction in the practice and strategy of Marketing. Marketing activities are those processes and functions that enable managers and policy makers to identify and serve the values and needs of a customer given the capacities of the company, activities of competitors, and inherent constraints in the business environment. Marketers typically refer to these concepts as “the four C’s.” Based on their understanding of the “four C’s”, students will then learn how to implement strategy by applying the levers of the marketing mix. These elements are known as the four P’s (product, price, place/channels of distribution, and promotion). Our treatment of marketing constraints and marketing mix will be motivated by essential foundations from economics, sociology and consumer behavior. Over the course of the semester, students are expected to transition from thinking about these concepts in isolation to a dynamic, integrative framework. This process includes using the marketing strategy framework to assess business and policy problems from a “multiple objective” perspective: that is, you will be asked to think about how your marketing activities along with those of your competitors and collaborators will affect the profitability, sustainability, social, and ethical standing of the firm. The synthesis of these concepts will be carried out through the use of case studies, problem sets, classroom lectures, discussions, and a field project. There will also be a midterm and final exam. The pedagogical style of the course emphasizes the students’ role in applying the concepts discussed in the lectures to the situations at hand. The role of the instructor is to provide you with tools to structure your thinking and stimulate and facilitate your analysis of the cases.

MBA 513 Operations Management and Technology

The course focuses on decisions to be made by operating managers in managing the technology, capital, and human resources of organizations in the process of producing goods and services. Topics include: equipment, technology, and process selection; product/process integration and innovation and the basic tools required for process design; work force, materials, and quality management; and aggregate planning and scheduling.

MBA 515 Strategic Information Systems

The effective planning and deployment of information technology [IT] will enable your organization to compete aggressively, rapidly, and globally in this digital age. A critical ingredient of success is the alignment of expectations by senior executives and IT management for leveraging IT investments to create business value. We will analyze the key decisions involved in the planning, operations, and control of IT. Additional emphases will be devoted to e-business integration, knowledge management, and emerging information technologies. Cases and PC exercises will provide practical applications of IT. Tools include business process analysis, IT portfolio management, online analytical processing, and data mining.

MBA 517 Strategic Competitiveness

In this course, you will understand the large macro-economic and micro-economic trends that are fundamentally transforming the business environment as we move inexorably towards what we call the Next Economy. You will learn that in the Next Economy, we need new thinking and new abilities for individuals and organizations to succeed. In the Next Economy, for-profit private companies will need to learn to engage society in a strategic manner. Specifically, you will learn about a new way of thinking and develop awareness about a new set of leadership capabilities, collectively called as Strategic Competitiveness. You will go through a process that will allow you to discover what it takes for individuals, private sector companies and public sector organizations to excel in the Next Economy. Finally, you will learn to learn. In the fast-changing market place of tomorrow, knowledge becomes obsolete fast. You have to embark on a never-ending journey of self-discovery and learning to keep yourself fresh and relevant in the Next Economy. Key Topics include: Strategic Competitiveness Framework, The Next Economy, Purpose of Business in the Next Economy, Strategy & Society – Ethics, CSR, Sustainability, Strategy, Business Models & Competitive Advantage, Can For-Profit Models Have a Positive Social Impact?, Blue Ocean Strategy, Strategies of Emerging Market Competitors, Trickle-Up and Trickle-Down Innovation, Strategies for Bottom of the Pyramid Markets, Strategy & Leadership. The course objectives include: (1) To appreciate the challenges and complexity of doing business in the Next Economy; (2) To understand that competitiveness and profitability in future could be enhanced by strategically engaging Society (ethics, environment, social problems); (3) To understand traditional approaches to competitive strategy and realize their limitations within the context of the Next Economy; (4) To learn a new approach to compete and succeed in the Next Economy; and (5) To recognize the new leadership capabilities needed to thrive in the Next Economy.

MBA 525 Strategic and Functional Management

This is a two-part capstone course for all MBA students. In the first part of the course, through the CAPSIM simulation project, students will learn how to implement business strategy and tactics. Emphasis is on how the various business functions could be integrated for the purpose of creating superior customer value. In the second part of the course, students will learn an integrative approach to the role of the general manager and the tasks of creating an effective business unit: crafting strategy; designing and maintaining an organization for implementing strategy; leadership and change management; and corporate governance. The course is designed around a model of the "fit" between industry structure-business strategy, organization design, and financial, operational and behavioral outcomes-and the complex task of maintaining that "fit" over time. Special attention is paid to drivers of change and sources of complexity, such as size, market diversity, and rate of growth. Case studies are used to develop total organization perspectives, to focus on individual leadership and management skills, and to emphasize the linkages between theory and practice. As the capstone course of the MBA program, this course must be taken during the final semester. Pre-requisite: To be taken in last semester; or advisor approval.

Electives

MBA 551 Insights on the "Next" Economy Consumer
This course will acquaint students with state-of-the-art theories in consumer behavior, provide opportunities to conduct quantitative analyses with scanner databases/UPC databases, include several group-based case analyses, and other assignments organized around emergent topics in the marketing domain. Students will be exposed to marketing and related inter-disciplinary perspectives. They will also gain a better understanding of the ‘next’ economy participants – both from production and consumption viewpoints. Prerequisite: MBA 511.

MBA 552 Strategically Managing Cost and Investment Decisions
This course builds on the financial and management accounting foundation presented in MBA 501. Competitive strategy is linked with management decisions concerning the understanding of costs and investment decisions. Managerial topics, i.e., activity based costing, the theory of constraints, strategic decision making, management and operational control, cost estimation, budgeting and cost allocation, will be covered so that the student will develop a better understanding of the underlying costs. There will be discussion of “green accounting” techniques as well. Investment decisions are based on understanding the financial statements of potential equity investments. Ratio analysis is covered as an evaluation tool, and detailed coverage of significant financial accounts; inventory, fixed assets, debt, leases, pensions, and others, will address the necessary manipulations that will place the underlying accounting methodology on a comparable basis. These equity investment decisions will also be discussed in relation to the organizations competitive strategy. Pre-requisite: MBA501.

MBA 553 Data Mining
The digital enterprise captures significantly more data about customers, suppliers, and partners. The challenge, however, is to transform this vast data repository into actionable business intelligence. Data mining and predictive analytics can provide valuable business insights. A leading data mining tool, e.g., IBM/SPSS Modeler will be used to investigate hypotheses and discover patterns in enterprise data repositories. Both data cleaning and analyses will be discussed and applied to sample data. Analysis tools include decision trees, neural networks, market basket analysis and discriminant analysis. More recent approaches, e.g., geographical, text and web data mining will be addressed. Applications of data mining in a variety of industries will be discussed. Software exercises, case studies and a major project will prepare you to use these tools effectively during your career. Pre-requisite: MBA507 or instructor consent.

MBA 554 Project Management
This course addresses both analytical and behavioral skills for effective project management. You will learn how to select a project portfolio, develop a work breakdown structure, estimate task times and costs, allocate and level resources, prepare Critical Path and PERT analyses, and assess earned value project performance. A leading project management tool, e.g., MS Project will be used for project management exercises. Much of the course content will be drawn from the Project Management Institute Common Body of Knowledge and Certification Program. Management of project risks, structure, team building and conflict will be addressed. A Project Management simulation game provides an opportunity to apply your team-based skills. A variety of project management cases across industries will be studied.

MBA 555 Contemporary Issues in International Business
To operate in the complex environment of a globalized world, managers must develop an in-depth understanding of current events. The international business professional must develop an appreciation for topics such as the OPEC oil cartel, international risk analysis, technological advances as a driver of global markets, major international strategies, cross-cultural competence, the political economy of modernization, collaborative ventures, and international acquisitions. The course also provides rigorous economic analysis of the modern theory of trade as well as government trade policies. It deals with the factors that determine the exchange rates under the floating and fixed exchange rate systems. Furthermore, the course analyzes the crises in emerging markets and the need to revamp the international financial system. In the area of trade, topics covered include: the Doha round, economic integration (i.e. the EU, free trade areas), and the meteoric rise of sovereign wealth funds (SWF).

MBA 556 Operating System and Supply Chain Management
We will present models and practices to optimize the management of both demand and supply for a company’s products or services, with an emphasis on the integration of business and technology aspects. This course will first introduce an integrated view of the production and logistics functions in organizations such as capacity analysis, inventory management and logistics management. The course then discusses topics involved in the interaction of a firm with other players in a supply chain such as value of information, supply contracts, price-based RM and quantity-based RM. Prerequisites: MBA 507 and MBA 513.

MBA 557 Contemporary Business Law
This course will introduce graduate business students to legal issues that are pertinent to working in the modern American business environment. It will cover legal issues pertaining to business organizations (e.g., essentials of forming a partnership or corporation and corporate governance); ethics; transactions (e.g., basics of the Uniform Commercial Code, anti-trust issues in pricing and market share; representations to customers, contract formation, performance, contract disputes); personnel (e.g., hiring practices, anti-discriminations laws, including those that address age, gender, etc., and accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act); international business (e.g., U.S. boycott and anti-boycotts laws; U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; Contract for the International Sale of Goods); and e-commerce.

MBA 558 Global Expansion Strategy
Global expansion represents an attractive growth strategy for many companies. In particular, China, India, Brazil and other emerging countries represent very good opportunities for growth. However, there are significant risks as well in global expansion. Firms could take advantage of opportunities while simultaneously reducing risks if they develop a systematic strategy to enter foreign markets and expand in them. This course teaches students how firms could develop and implement comprehensive strategies to achieve their global growth objectives. Topics covered include: Alternative growth strategies, the global expansion option, assessment of opportunities abroad, selection of markets, foreign-market entry modes, market development strategies, regional and global coordination. Pre-requisite: MBA511; or instructor consent.

MBA 561 Models for Decision Making
Models for decision analysis in various functional fields including finance, marketing, and operations. Applications include media selection, capital budgeting, portfolio selection, advertising effectiveness, plant location, distribution planning, and production planning. The focus of the course is building models and using software to aid in decision-making. Pre-requisite MBA507

MBA 562 Spreadsheet Modeling
Spreadsheets are a popular model-building environment for managers. Add-ins and enhancements to Excel have made powerful decision-making tools available to the manager. This course covers how to use the spreadsheet to develop and utilize some of these decision-making aids. Visual Basic for Excel allows the nonprogrammer to create modules for functions, subroutines, and procedures. Topics include forecasting (both regression and time series), decision-making under uncertainty and decision trees, using SOLVER for optimization, and probabilistic simulation using @RISK. Pre-requisite MBA507

MBA 565 Advanced Data Analysis
An examination of the methods for analyzing data. Topics include analysis of variance, multiple regression, nonparametric methods, Bayesian and decision analysis. Sampling methods and multivariate analysis, including the bivariate normal, confidence interval and hypothesis tests of the centroid, discriminant analysis, conjoint analysis and factor analysis. Prerequisite MBA 507 3 credits.

MBA 575 Creativity and Contemporary Entrepreneurial Opportunities
Entrepreneurship focuses on the concepts, skills, and know-how, information, attitudes and alternatives that are relevant for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial managers and the relevant stakeholders. Specifically, this course provides an introductory overview of the knowledge and skills needed for the identification, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities in a variety of circumstances and environments. It concentrates on the study of various innovative thinking in strategy, identifying and screening a business opportunity, developing business models, preparing business plans, securing financing and managing high growth firms. It integrates knowledge gained from the prior core business courses (i.e., management, marketing, finance, accounting) to sharpen the student's ability to "think strategy innovatively and think entrepreneurially" and form new ventures. Further, it is a course that mixes theory with practices covering industries such as computer, cell phone, biotech, wireless, to name just a few. You will be challenged to apply principles, concepts and frameworks to real world situations, culminating in a formal business plan. Pre-requisites: MBA509, MBA511; or instructor consent.

MBA 576 Creating and Financing New Ventures
The course concentrates on the study of entrepreneurship, preparation of business plans, methods for evaluating and screening new venture ideas, formulation and implementation of business strategies for new ventures, development of a business plan, the financing of new ventures and venture growth strategies and exits. It integrates knowledge gained from the prior core business courses (i.e., management, marketing, finance, accounting) to sharpen the student's ability to "think entrepreneurially" and form new ventures. The course will also focus on identifying, examining and evaluating various sources of original and growth capital. Emphasis will be on legal, financial and tax issues related to capital formation as well as specific problems experienced by the small-to-medium-sized firm undergoing rapid growth. Topics discussed will include venture valuation, financing startups, financial planning and strategy, going public, selling out and bankruptcy. A formal proposal for capital acquisition developed through field research will be required of each student. Pre-requisites: MBA509, MBA511; or instructor consent.

Last modified: 01/18/2012 14:45:45