MBA PROGRAM DETAILS

Intensive weekend campus residency course focusing on the behavioral dimension of decision making with an emphasis on the dynamics and challenges of providing responsible leadership and developing high performance teams.

This introductory MBA financial accounting course explores the use of financial statement information by investors, creditors, managers, and other corporate stakeholders. Course topics emphasize understanding Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) related to asset and liability valuation, debt and equity issuance, revenue recognition, income measurement, and common supplemental financial statement disclosures, as well as interpretation of common financial statement ratios. Fundamental differences between U.S GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are also explored.

This introductory MBA management accounting course explores the value of information in performance measurement and decision-making by various organizational stakeholders. Key topics include strategic cost management, budgeting and profit planning, resource allocation, management incentives, and performance evaluation.

Covers concepts of operations management, operations technology, and the responsibilities of operation managers in the management of production systems, including problems and techniques of systems design, operation and control.

Begins with a review of descriptive statistics, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. These tools will be extended into regression analysis geared towards analyzing large data sets in order to make informed business decisions.

Covers tools and models used for making investment and financing decisions. Topics include valuation, risk and return, capital budgeting and cost of capital.

Focuses on the behavioral dimension of managerial action and decision making with emphasis on group dynamics and interpersonal relationships. Includes an exploration of personal style, team leadership competencies, motivation, influencing others, communication, diversity, high performance teams, and learning in a global environment.

Focuses on the development, implementation and control of strategic marketing management decisions in complex environments designed to accomplish an organization’s objectives. Theory and practice are utilized to develop integrated corporate strategies and detailed programs.

Provides an understanding of technology, organizational environment, and its effect on society.

Explores common patterns of success and failure in managing ethical conflicts. Critical evaluations of managerial and corporate ethics are discussed.

Covers innovation processes at the organizational system level. Develops a student’s awareness and confidence to innovate and learn the value of creativity tools and techniques for individual and group innovation.

Focuses on international trade and production, global division of labor, environmental change, political economy governance, exchange rate implications, international relations and consequences of globalization and production.

Designed to give students the opportunity to develop their professional skill set with a client firm that is serving the common good. The focus is on strategic market management using a systems perspective within our Augustinian tradition of supporting advancement of human dignity.

Consists of a global project in which a student will be required to incorporate all knowledge gained in the MBA program to explore possible solutions to current market issues that are challenging global organizations or conduct extensive research on various industries. Students can choose to participate in an international immersion as part of this course or complete a domestic equivalent.

Examines the entire strategic management process including industry and competitive analysis, developing a vision and mission, assessing organizational capabilities, formulating and implementing strategy and evaluation and control. An in depth discussion of corporate governments, ethical conduct, corporate diversification and strategic leadership are also central elements of this course.

Specialization: ANLT, SMGT, MKTG

Data mining is the process of selecting, exploring, and modeling large amounts of data to uncover previously unknown patterns and gain insights. The objective of this course is to teach students how (and when) to use various techniques for mining data. Topics include logistic regression, decision tree networks, and neural networks. Students will mine large datasets from a variety of business areas and use their findings to support business decision making.

Specializations: MKTG & SMGT

Branding plays a critical role for most marketers in that brands are at the core of a relationship with the customer, provide a platform for strategic option, and impact financial success of the firm. This course examines the importance of branding to business, consumers, and society. The brand value chain will be introduced as a key framework for analyzing the impact of marketing expenditures on the bottom line of firms. The concept of brand equity will be emphasized and techniques for its measurement outlined. The course will also focus on how advertising and promotion are used to enhance the brand building process. Special topics related to branding include using big event advertising to build brands and mechanisms for cutting through advertising clutter in order to build the brand.

Specializations: ANLT & SMGT

This course examines the concepts and approaches in Business Intelligence (BI) from a business user/analyst perspective. Students will learn to use BI tools for creating applications and dashboards in the context of fact‐based decision‐making.

Specializations: FINC & SMGT

Since the year 2000, we have experienced two monumental and systemic waves of business failures: the Dot.Com Meltdown and the Global Financial Crisis. Ineffective and, at times, corrupt corporate governance was at the heart of each of these systemic failures. This course examines the respective roles and responsibilities of shareholders, management, directors and other stakeholders in corporate governance. It will focus on the tools needed to be an effective advisor to senior managers and board members regarding corporate governance issues as well as strategies to make the system function more effectively. Students will develop foundational governance expertise which will help enable them to serve as a responsible and effective CEOs, CFOs or Directors..

Specializations: FINC & SMGT

This course is designed to help students develop a set of analytical tools for various corporate restructuring activities, with a focus on Mergers and Acquisitions. The course covers managers' motivations to engage in M&A, strategies used in friendly vs. non‐friendly takeovers, as well as anti‐takeover defense tactics used by target companies. Students will learn the costs and benefits associated with each strategy, and the financial consequences. To facilitate decision-making, students will also learn multiple methods for valuating a target firm, centering on estimating value of synergy and value of control.

Specialization: MKTG

The Internet is a dynamic marketplace if there ever was one. This class will give students the theoretical understanding of the digital marketplace necessary to adapt to its many changes, while also equipping students with the skills they will need to perform vital daily functions. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand how firms can improve their digital presence and improve their digital marketing and social media.

Specialization: SMGT, IB

 This course will provide an overview to the student on the multifaceted topic of international business with an emphasis on the pragmatic applications of this field of study. The course is designed to give students breadth on the many issues associated with international business, including development of global leaders; managing cultural differences; discussing ethical dilemmas, such a bribery and corruption, as related to global business. The course is also designed to discuss the practical issues of management that affect the current international business environment such as developing international markets, analyzing foreign direct investment strategies, and protecting intellectual property rights. This course will integrate cases, readings and experiential exercises to facilitate active rather than passive learning.

Specialization: ANLT

Business analytics has been defined as the use of business intelligence and quantitative methods, including statistical analysis, forecasting/extrapolation, predicative modeling, optimization and simulation in the context of organizational decision making and problem solving.

This course provides an overview of business analytics process and important analytic techniques; data visualization, data mining, optimization, and simulation. Students are exposed to a variety of business problems in analytics (marketing, finance, operations).

Throughout the course, students will learn to model and analyze complex business decisions with various tools on spreadsheets to improve decision making across business functions.

Specialization: FINC

This course covers the fundamentals of security analysis and valuation with a focus on equity investments. The approach will be holistic and thus apply both top‐down and bottom‐up valuation methods, as well as introduce industry analysis and portfolio management techniques. This course will be applied in nature, thus emphasizing how to put valuation theory into practice with several real‐world examples.

Specializations: MKTG & ANLT

The primary objective of this course is to provide students with research and managerial perspectives in the application of marketing research tools. A hands‐on approach allows students to learn how to construct both qualitative and quantitative marketing research tools in an effort to understand concepts that range from brand affinity to consumer experience. This course is particularly relevant for students interested in careers in consulting; product, service and brand management; and media and communications as well as for entrepreneurs.

Specializations: FINC, IB

Corporations with activities that span multiple countries, also called multinational corporations (MNCs), face unique challenges and opportunities that purely domestic corporations do not face. In this course, students will learn the principles of international finance. This course adds an international dimension to the concepts previously learned in corporate finance. Students will be introduced to the historical and geographic environment of MNCs and financial institutions, the structure and operation of the foreign exchange markets, international monetary systems, international money and capital markets, derivatives markets, country risk evaluation, international portfolio diversification, and international elements to project evaluation. This course will provide readings from the financial press.

Specializations: MKTG, IB

This course examines strategic elements of international marketing programs along with appropriate tactical elements designed to help firms implement strategy and thrive. Key topics include evaluating international market opportunities and coordination of strategy across markets. The application of marketing principles, along with an understanding of current trends affecting the marketing mix will be explored in depth. In addition, the multinational environment and cultural influences that complicate marketing programs will be emphasized.