Business Administration (MBAA)

This course presents insights from a variety of academic disciplines, including management, psychology, sociology, economics, and political science, to understand the processes through which people work together in organizations. Focus on topics such as leadership, motivation, diversity, decision-making, and organizational culture.

This course surveys the basic concepts of the accounting discipline, encompassing principles, current practices, and trends, and the activities involved in understanding and interpretation of accounting systems from a manager's perspective. Emphasis is placed on developing an interface with other areas of business.

This course adopts a thematic approach to applying economic concepts to solving contemporary real-world business problems. These problems are analyzed from the perspective of an entrepreneur, a business manager, and an economic policy maker. Specific themes include understanding economic terminology, issues and methods; identifying determinants of supply and demand; understanding the economics of the firm, characterizing alternative market structures, measuring aggregate demand and supply, and understanding the implications of various government economic policies.

An applied, case-based course which covers the essential principles of marketing as a vital component of a business operation, emphasizing marketing's strategic bases and the real-world utilization of both traditional and innovative techniques to influence both the trade and the consumer in making a purchase decision. The primary foci of the course will be upon the effects of uncontrollable factors in the environment and the controllable variables essential to marketing success including market analysis, product decisions, pricing, distribution, and promotion.

The course is an overview of modern concepts in Operations Management. Emphasis is placed on Productivity Management/Operations Strategy, Time Series Forecasting, Facility Location Strategy, Processing and Layout Strategy, Aggregate Planning Strategy, Supply-chain/Inventory Management, and Quality Management.

An applied course which develops strategic thinking skills to enable managers to position the business to achieve and sustain superior competitive performance. Addresses issues of both strategy design and implementation in the complex global economic environment. The course requires students to draw upon and integrate knowledge and skills developed throughout their business education. Prerequisites: MBAA 6040, MBAA 6050, and MBAA 6070.

The course covers the methods and instruments useful to financial managers of business enterprises for making investment, payout, and financing decisions, and in managing working capital. Prerequisite: MBAA 6020 and MBAA 6030.

The course introduces students to the process of understanding, displaying, visualizing, and transforming data into insight in order to help managerial decision makers make better, more informed, data-driven decisions. The course provides a basic introduction to descriptive analytics, including visualization, predictive analytics, and preliminary exposure to some aspects of prescriptive analytics. The approach taken by the course is very practical and applied: hands-on learning is the central focus of the course. For each topic, a case/problem analysis will require the use of Excel and other specialized analytics and decision-making software.

This course is designed to introduce the MBA student to key IT concepts and to enhance understanding of the issues that business executives face when developing and managing information systems. By completing the course, the student will be better equipped to make IT-related decisions, to participate in IT projects, and to knowledgeably communicate with IT experts.

This course broadens MBA students' perspective and helps them develop in-depth understanding of international business theories and practices. Students will learn about complex issues in different political, legal, economic, monetary, and socio-cultural systems and how they influence business operations. Students will study the key theories, government policies, and current trends of international traded and foreign direct investment. Students will also examine various market entry modes, strategy choices, as well as organization and management approaches. Through this course, students will acquire skills and knowledge necessary for evaluating international opportunities and challenges and for managing international expansion and operations. Prerequisites: First-year MBA core courses.