Course Descriptions

BUS 500 - Business Prerequisite Course
8 hours* (2 hours per module)
An intensive, semester-long course designed to provide the prerequisite foundation for a student who does not have an undergraduate degree in business. Topics covered include quantitative methods, principles of financial and managerial accounting, finance, principles of micro- and macroeconomics, management and marketing. A grade of "C" or better must be earned in each module of the course.
*Grade is not computed in the overall MBA grade point average.

BUS 602 - Legal Environment of Business (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to examine the legal environment and how business operates within it. Topics include elements of law and judicial process, civil and criminal procedure, constitutional principles, agency law, government regulations, torts, product liability, property law, contracts, sales and secured transactions, negotiable instruments, credit, bankruptcy, labor and employment law and employment discrimination.

BUS 603 - Business Ethics (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to develop skills in the recognition, analysis and articulation of the ethical responsibilities that businesses have to customers, competitors, employees and other stakeholders. Topics include influence of religious and cultural values and the efforts to codify ethics for various industries and progressions.

BUS 611 - Managerial Economics (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of microeconomic theory as it applies to managerial decision-making, including tools to quantify economic relationships. Thus the course entails both theory and application. Topics include market analysis, consumer behavior, demand estimation, production and cost analysis and market structures.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Principles of Economics I and II, Principles of Accounting I and II, College Algebra or Calculus; Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 614 or BUS 615 or BUS 621 is required and BUS 613 is recommended.

BUS 612 - Organizational Management (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to analyze, through cases and experiential situations, the behavioral dimensions of business organizations. Topics include motivation, communication, performance, stress, culture, group dynamics, organizational structure, leadership, and change.
Undergraduate Prerequisite: Principles of Management.

BUS 613 - Managerial Accounting (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to teach the use of accounting information in management decision making and planning. Topics include Cost/Volume/Profit analysis, financial statement analysis, the use of accounting data in decisions such as pricing, capacity, product selection, outsourcing, the use of accounting data in planning and control systems including capital expenditure planning, profitability, resource budgeting, and measures of performance.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Principles of Accounting I and II, Principles of Microeconomics, and computer spreadsheet skills.

BUS 615 - Quantitative Data Analysis (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this class is to investigate a variety of quantitative analysis techniques from the areas of statistics, management science, and optimization. Students will learn both the theoretical and application software skills necessary to quantitatively model, analyze, and interpret a diverse set of problems and make quantitative decisions. Topics include probability distributions, hypothesis testing, forecasting, regression, confidence intervals and p-values, Markov processes, inventory models, job scheduling, decision trees, simulation and linear programming using industry tools including SAS and Excel.
Undergraduate Prerequisite: Algebra and Business Statistics.

BUS 622 - Marketing Management (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to study, through cases, projects and survey of research, the development and evaluation of marketing strategies in both consumer and industrial markets. Topics include product management, market segmentation, marketing promotions, distribution management and pricing methods.
Undergraduate Prerequisite: Principles of Marketing.

BUS 623 - Financial Management (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to study issues faced by financial managers and investors. Financial management topics include raising capital through debt and equity, capital budgeting, managerial compensation and decision-making. Investment topics include the valuation of stocks, bonds and options, and portfolio creation.
Undergraduate Prerequisite: Finance, Algebra and Statistics; Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 613 is required and BUS 614  or BUS 615 or BUS 621 is recommended.

BUS 624 - Managing in a Global Marketplace (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to study the opportunities and problems of the management, marketing and operations of organizations in markets outside the home country. Topics include adaptations to business functions, including organizational design, management of human resources, new product development, legal and ethical diversity, financial and money markets, market research, promotions and advertising. Emphasis will be placed upon the political, legal, economic, and cultural variables that impact organizations through foreign governments.

BUS 631 - Business Strategy (core course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to study management's role in policy formulation and implementation through research and cases. Opportunities are also available to make policy decisions by viewing business from an entrepreneurial perspective. This is the capstone course for the MBA program.
Graduate Prerequisites: Successful completion of at least eight core courses that include BUS 622 and BUS 623.

BUS 660 - Corporate Innovation (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to develop strong innovation management skills to help managers make good decisions relating to innovation strategy and implementation of new products and processes within the firm. Topics include guiding concepts and theories of innovation and how to translate into concrete practical strategies and programs for developing new products, understanding paradigm shifts in market needs, managing the innovation process and projects across different company functions and environments. Other topics include development of patents, trademarks, copyright, and other intellectual property to protect corporate knowledge assets, development of strategic alliances and organization of the firm as a learning and innovation organization.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 612 and BUS 622.

BUS 661 - Technology and Innovation Management (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to develop decision-making skills in managing technology and innovation programs while providing a clear understanding of the innovation process and the most effective technology and innovation systems in use today. Topics include theory and practice of technology innovation management (TIM) at both functional and general management levels of the firm, technology road maps, and strategic technology plans, managing in varying technology environments, the effect of technology standards, out-sourcing and in-sourcing strategies, competitive strategy factors, and management of the appropriate level of technology deployment within the firm.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 612 and BUS 622.

BUS 670 - Health Care Systems Management (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to provide a breadth of advanced coverage across the U.S. health care system and the interrelationships across the different system components. Topics include organization of the U.S. health care system, the structure of the health care delivery system and the continuum of care, the financing of health care services, public and private third party payment structures, managed care and principles of capitation, organization and management of the health services workforce, principles of quality of care and outcome measurement and future changes in the U.S. health care system.
Graduate Prerequisite: BUS 612. 

BUS 671 - Financial and Legal Issues in Health Care Management (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this class is to examine key financial and legal issues in health care management across the spectrum of health care organizations. The course will be divided into sessions that focus specifically on financial and legal topics. Financial topics include an in-depth examination of financial issues associated with the third-party payment system, Medicare and Medicaid, managed care and capitation, rate setting, contracting, risk management, and financial analysis within health care organizations. Legal topics include legal organization of the health care institution, institutional liability, admission and discharge, consent for treatment, fraud, abuse and compliance, health care information and patient privacy, and health care ethical issues.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 602, BUS 623, BUS 670.

BUS 672 - Health Care Strategic Management (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to assess and integrate the different functional activities of the health care organization in order to develop overall corporate strategy. This will be the capstone course for the MBA program for students with the Health Care concentration. This course will substitute for BUS 631 (Business Strategy) from the core MBA curriculum. Topics include a comprehensive examination and application of strategic management across the health care industry and management's role in policy formulation and implementation, competitive advantage in the health care industry and how to sustain it, vertical and horizontal integration and overall expansion strategy, strategic plan design and development.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 670, BUS 671, successful completion of at least eight core courses that include BUS 622 and BUS 623.

BUS 680 - Project/Program Management Fundamentals (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to examine and develop competency in the Project Management Institute's methodology and approach to project and program management. Topics include the role of the project and program manager and the specific processes required for successful outcomes in managing projects, the origin of project management and its importance, the project and product life-cycles, the use of Microsoft Project to manage projects, and other project management techniques and processes. This class has an experiential focus and uses a project management simulation to develop skills and prepare students to manage projects.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 612, BUS 613, BUS 623, and BUS 614 or BUS 615 or BUS 621, or the permission of the instructor.

BUS 681 - Project/Program Management Leadership (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to examine both managerial and transformational skills and abilities needed in leading projects and programs successfully. Topics include how to lead teams in cross-functional matrix organizations, virtual organizations, and constantly changing organizations. Various theories of leadership will be examined as well as extensive use of experiential skills development and case analysis exercises.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 612, BUS 622, or the permission of the instructor.

BUS 690 - Data Analytics (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the primary techniques and methods used within data analytics. Theory and applied software skills are jointly emphasized to prepare students for statistical analysis of real world data. This course will expose students to foundational data analytics techniques and methods used in business applications and will promote the development of analytical software skills, especially for interpretation and visualization of results, with a focus on data analytics tools. Topics include: databases, visualization of data, experimental design, regression, time series, decision trees, clustering, association rule mining, and Bayesian statistics with extensive use of data analytics tools including SAS and Tableau software, data access/extraction, and other data analysis and data warehouse tools.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 615 or BUS 614 or BUS 621.

BUS 691 - Business Intelligence Applications (concentration course)
3 hours
The purpose of this course is to learn effective methods of presenting, visualizing, and making quantitative decisions using the data analytics techniques learned in BUS 690. Course will promote the development of analysis, software, visualization, and presentation skills along with advanced data analysis techniques and real world applications so that students can effectively make quantitative decisions and communicate analytical results and business decisions. Topics include instructor led case studies as well as student projects and presentations will be used to enhance the student's abilities to use data analytics in problem solving. Coverage is also given to advanced data analytic topics such as survival analysis, nonparametric models, advanced classification, and Monte Carlo simulation.
Graduate Prerequisites: BUS 615 or BUS 614 or BUS 621, and BUS 690.