Master of Business Administration (MBA)

MBA 7050- Financial Analytics for Managers - 3 credits

The course will begin with an overview of financial accounting and review how accounting data is used from a manager's perspective. Beginning with data acquisition and preparation, students will learn how to access financial data and prepare it for analysis, using tools like Excel, Alteryx, Tableau, and Power BI. The course will detail advanced financial analytics techniques that can be used to help managers make business decisions. Lastly, students will transform the financial data into visualizations to support and clarify data included in written reports and presentations.

MBA 7100 - Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics - 3 credits

Data collection and analysis have always been central to decision making in industry. In the past, this was undertaken as a two-step process, statisticians gather data, analyze it, and create reports. Later, a decision maker reviews the reports, interprets the results, and acts. In the modern era of big data and fast decisions, the reduced costs, improved programming languages, and the increased processing power of technology has resulted in the collection and analysis of data increasingly moving into the continuous decision-making cycle itself. This is because data is continuously streaming into organizations and decision makers are compelled to instantly analyze data and act upon it. Consequently, decision makers can no longer only rely on reports built by others. They must understand the data on which the information was produced, where the data was extracted from, its nature, how it was transformed, and the strengths and limitations of the analytics techniques utilized. They must also know about the legal and ethical issues pertaining to the collection and use of the data on which the information was produced. New packages in programming languages allow decision makers to do complex analysis using prebuilt functions. Consequently, decision makers require an understanding of the programming upon which this modern “live” analytical decision-making process lies. This course focusses on coding as the component that binds the collection, transformation, visualization and analysis of data. Students will use coding to extract data from diverse data sources (APIs, web scraping), create visualizations, transform data into a clean format, and analyze data. Students will also learn how to utilize the selected programming language to implement analytical techniques such as different types of machine learning, text analytics and social network analytics. In addition to coding exercises, during each class students will discuss cases and examples of use within business.

MBA 7150 - Managerial Accounting Analytics - 3 credits

This course will examine how managers use accounting data within their organizations to plan, control, and make business decisions. Cost terminology, systems design, differential analysis, and cost behavior will be discussed throughout. Students will analyze internal and external data using advanced techniques to make operational and performance measurement decisions. Throughout the course, students will transform data into visualizations included in written reports and presentations.

MBA 7200 - Strategic Corporate Finance - 3 credits

The course provides students with a foundation in corporate finance, emphasizing analytical techniques essential for managers. We will focus on financial decisions made by managers. The process of valuation is a central theme discussed throughout the course. Other topics will include financial analysis, forecasting, capital budgeting, managing growth through investment decisions, using and valuing derivative securities (futures, options, and convertible securities), and analyzing risk and return. Throughout the course, students will leverage their proficiency in Tableau and other analytic tools in application assignments.

MBA 7250 - Law, Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility - 3 credits

This course analyzes the responsibilities managers of a corporation have to stakeholders within a global setting. Using simulations and cases, students will examine the relationship between a corporation and its stakeholders, society, the natural environment, and technology. Ethical reasoning within a business context will also be discussed.

MBA 7300 - Marketing Metrics and Analytics - 3 credits

This course examines how data analytics can be used to improve marketing decision-making. Students will be introduced to the fundamental principles and techniques of data analytics. In addition, they will develop data-analytics thinking, and that proper application is as much an art as a science. The course incorporates real-world examples and cases to place data analytics techniques in context to develop data analytics thinking. In addition, students will work "handson" with data analytics software. This course aims to enhance student knowledge of emerging analytic techniques, tools, and applications to business and marketing problems.

MBA 7350 - Global Business Policy and Strategy - 3 credits

This course begins by discussing how the global business environment helps identify business opportunities, taps valuable resources, assists in planning, and improves the business's overall performance, growth, and profitability leading to strategic management. Global strategic management cuts across the whole spectrum of business and management, centering on the industry and competitive environment in which it operates its long-term direction and strategy, resources and competitive capabilities, and prospects for success. Throughout the course, the spotlight will be trained on the foremost issue in running a global business enterprise: "What must managers do, and do well, to make the company a winner in the game of business?" The answer that emerges, which becomes the course's theme, is that good strategy and execution are the critical ingredients of company success and the most reliable signs of good management.

MBA 7400 - Operations Management and Data Science - 3 credits

Operations management is the planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling of all the activities of processes that convert inputs into products and services. Operations Management is scientific management using quantitative methods. It focuses on quantitative and qualitative methodologies for all levels of issues: strategic, tactical and operational. Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytical techniques are applied to structure and evaluate key operational decisions. Honed are skills required to model a system's operations, address uncertainty, mitigate risk, assess resource needs, integrate components into a coordinated system, and efficiently develop and manage capacity and inventory. Emphasizing research that focuses on real business problems and maintaining a balance between theory and practice, students are trained in fundamental and applied business modeling and analytical thinking.

MBA 7450 - Supply Chain Integration and Analytics - 3 credits

This course studies the decisions, strategies, and analytical methods in designing, analyzing, evaluating, and managing supply chains. Concepts, techniques, and frameworks for better supply chain performance are discussed, and how digital technologies enable companies to be more efficient and flexible in their internal and external operations are explored. Content flows from supply chain integration to supply chain decisions and management and control tools.

MBA 7500 - Project Management and Analytics - 3 credits

In this course, students will learn the significant elements of project resource management and the broader context of this critical planning function. Students will learn project needs assessment, cost estimation, project cost control, project budgeting, cash flow management, financial management, value management, configuration management, and supply chain management. Students also learn to appreciate the importance of integrating cost and value management processes by exploring project scheduling and time management within the broader context of the planning effort. Students explore how an organization's leaders are responsible for conceiving, designing, implementing, and managing the overall objectives, culture, environment, and processes as part of the project management process. The course includes risk identification, qualitative risk management, risk treatment, monitoring and review, project processes, risk allocation, environmental risk, and quantification of project risk. Students learn that risk management assists project managers in setting priorities, allocating resources, and implementing actions and processes that reduce the risk of the project not achieving its objectives.