Graduate Business Administration (GBUS)

A survey of the foundational material in the fields of Finance and Economic Theory. Coverage begins with a review of economic principles covering supply and demand, basic industrial organization, market power, money, money supply, and markets and institutions. Financial concepts in the course will cover the time value of money, principle of risk-reward, principle of diversification, and an overview of financial statements. Case study methodologies are introduced and course topics are integrated through carefully selected cases.

This course prepares students to build and lead ventures in uncertain environments. Topics include identifying opportunities, securing funding, and positioning competitively. Students learn frameworks for critical entrepreneurial decisions: selecting ideas, targeting customers, choosing technologies, and building effective teams. Develops the entrepreneurial mindset needed for success in fast-paced markets.

This course immerses students into learning and acting on the complex issues facing marginalized citizens. Through readings, videos, and honest, respectful, and open class discussions, the students achieve a new level of thought and leadership style to make a difference in their personal and professional worlds.

This course explores design thinking as a human-centered approach to problem-solving. Students engage in hands-on projects to define problems, identify customer needs, create solutions, gather market insights, and test ideas. Develops an innovation-focused mindset and skillset that prepares students to identify unmet needs and high-value opportunities.

This course examines the theory, implications, and practical applications of contemporary leadership. Students are introduced to historical and contemporary leadership issues and theories, and the vital central role of leadership in managing and transforming organizations to meet the needs of the 21st century. Topics include leadership principles and their impact on organizational behavior, culture, motivation, group dynamics and team building, organizational structure, design, change, and development.

This course is a study of marketing from a strategic management perspective. Emphasis is placed on marketing ‘driving’ the decision-making process, with strategic evaluation of internal (marketing mix) and external (competitive, economic, technological, social and government) forces affecting the firm. Critical evaluation beyond an introductory level is required.

This course explores the concepts of management information systems from a strategic management perspective. Students will think tactically and critically about how information systems can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. The importance of information systems in intra-organizational, inter-organizational and global business environments will be emphasized. Software applications will provide students with practical experience of business problem analysis and solution recommendations.

Topics include optimization and linear programming, network models, sensitivity analysis, regression analysis, time series models and forecasting, simulation models, queuing theory, and decision analysis. Extensive use of Microsoft Excel.

This course introduces fundamental financial and managerial accounting concepts. Financial accounting topics include Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), an overview of financial statements, an overview of the accounting equation, recording economic events, as well as an overview of the accounting cycle. The course also addresses basic managerial accounting concepts such as cost behavior, and incremental analysis.

Prerequisite: GBUS 503. This course focuses on financial decision making in the modern corporation by providing the theory, the methods, and the concerns of corporate finance. Emphasis is placed on the application of financial data to a wide range of management decisions. The main topics include financial theories, analysis and reporting, financial markets, valuation, uncertainty and the trade-off between risk and return, capital investment decisions, capital markets and optimal capital structure.

Prerequisite or corequisite: GBUS 521, 523, 525, 526, 527 and 528. This capstone, integrative course of the MBA program examines the complex strategic problems facing top management in a variety of contemporary organizations. Includes strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. Emphasis is given to thinking strategically about management issues, problems, and decisions from the perspective of the total organization, and how the organization 'fits' within its environment to ensure long-term survival and success.

This online asynchronous elective is designed to allow graduate students of all backgrounds to 1) learn more about supply chain management (SCM) and 2) to apply a basic understanding supply chain management to a potentially disruptive innovation in the field to predict how it will impact business and business strategies.

This course develops essential skills for leading innovation in startups and established organizations. Topics include corporate entrepreneurship, managing growth, strategy in uncertainty, maintaining innovative culture at scale, M&A, and preparing for liquidity events. Students learn to balance entrepreneurial agility with organizational stability through case studies and applied projects.

This course provides a comprehensive and detailed review of project management. The course will review the framework, culture, principles, and techniques of project management and explore their importance through real-world program management applications. The course will examine each stage of the project management lifecycle and their contribution to successful project management execution. Traditional concepts and tools of project management will be discussed and evaluated to identify potential shortfalls and forecast future project management needs and technologies in an ever changing 21st century global business environment.

Prerequisite: GBUS 551. This course builds upon topics covered in GBUS 551 and studies issues of risk for every stage of project management. Issues of impact, risk assessment, and quantitative and qualitative techniques to evaluate risk are discussed. This course also investigates the importance of contingency plans and proper filing systems.

This course provides a general management overview of the contracting and procurement process. It emphasizes contracting and procurement's strategic role, its effect on organizational operations, the importance of the organization's internal and external linkages (e.g., supply chain), and performance risk sharing through type of contract selection. Ethical and legal aspects of contracting are presented.

Examines the human resource management function of an organization's personnel/human resource department and the effective utilization of human resources as a critical responsibility of all managers. Topics include employment planning, recruitment and selection, performance measurement, training and development, compensation, and labor relations.

This course examines the legal and regulatory framework for professionals who have responsibility for managing the use and development of technology. Students consider the historical foundation and current status of laws that govern technology. Topics include laws surrounding the Internet, privacy, and the free flow and use of information. Students also assess technology law as it relates to intellectual property and cyber crime.

This course explores the use of decision support systems (DSS) within public and private organizations. Conceptual and practical discussions help students understand the design and use of these systems. Students will explore commonly used DSS tools and the possible incorporation of these tools in different business environments. A simple decision support system will be designed and developed during the course using a commercially available tool or programming language.

This course provides an introduction to the development of AI solutions, with a focus on business analytics applications. Students will learn Python development, along with the latest AI tools and methods for creating effective AI solutions. The curriculum emphasizes practical applications and hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies.

This introductory course on AI Language Models for Business Applications is designed for students with a background in Python programming. Over eight weeks, students will explore the fundamentals of AI language models, including their architecture and key components.

This course explores practical AI-driven solutions for business applications, focusing on enhancing efficiency, decision-making, and automation. Students will engage with cutting-edge AI tools and techniques, applying them to real-world business challenges in areas such as marketing, operations, finance, and customer service through hands-on exercises and case studies.

Prerequisite: GBUS 561. In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of predictive analytics and its applications in business. Students will apply statistical methods to build and evaluate predictive models. Emphasis will be placed on determining appropriate methods for business scenarios and on recognizing the limitations of predictive models.

Prerequisite: GBUS 561 or equivalent. This course explores mathematical optimization and AI-driven planning techniques for solving complex decision-making problems. Topics include linear and integer programming, constraint programming, and applications to scheduling, timetabling, vehicle routing, and supply chain network design. Students will develop proficiency in optimization modeling, algorithms, and practical implementations using industry-standard solvers and tools.

Prerequisite: GBUS 561. Focuses on leveraging AI-driven decision-making to optimize business outcomes. Introduces the fundamentals of reinforcement learning (RL) including Markov decision processes, dynamic programming, Q-learning, and deep RL. Hands-on projects and case studies showcase how RL is applied to areas like pricing strategies, customer engagement, supply chain optimization, and financial modeling.

This course will focus on visualizing AI model results in a way that is understandable to business stakeholders. Students will examine the theoretical foundations of a variety of techniques, gain experience with these techniques using open-source software, and learn how to apply them to solve real-world problems.

This course examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming business strategy, competitive advantage, and organizational decision-making. Students will explore AI's role in shaping corporate strategy, operational efficiency, and innovation while addressing ethical and governance challenges. The course equips students with the skills needed to leverage AI for strategic business impact.

This course is for students interested in analytical techniques for decision modeling, marketing analytics, and marketing engineering. As a profession, marketing is evolving beyond relying almost exclusively on concept- and principle-based decision-making to systematic data-driven decision-making.

Prerequisite: Topic dependent. Selected topics reflect faculty specialization or program needs. A special topics course provides opportunities for additional study in a particular specialized area. May be repeated for credit with a change in topic and mentor permission.

This is an individual study under faculty direction on a topic of relevance to the MBA program.

The Professional Experiences and Networking Program (PEN) offers students opportunities to experience various fields of employment while working with a variety of organizations on important and challenging projects. These experiences augment classroom learning while allowing on-the-job training.