Foundation Courses
MBA501
Business Statistics and Quantitative Thinking (3 cr.)
This course is designed to give students a practitioner foundation in applied math and statistics. The tools and applications used in graduate business courses and by individuals in managerial positions are covered. Topics include ratio analysis and comparisons, descriptive and inferential statistics, correlation, analysis of variance and regression.
Grading is pass/no credit (P/NC).
MBA502
Writing Fundamentals (3 cr.)
The course familiarizes graduate students with the expectations and conventions of graduate writing and research at Saint Mary’s University. It is designed for students with limited graduate writing experience, students who want to refresh their writing skills, and students who need to learn the APA style. Course content includes (a) forms of graduate discourse; (b) APA rules of grammar, punctuation, and usage for APA; (c) word processing functions that support APA style; and (d) methods and resources for graduate research through the Saint Mary’s University Library.
Grading is pass/no credit (P/NC).
Prerequisites
MBA503
Principles of Economics (3 cr.)
This course is designed to give students an overview of the principles of macro and microeconomics. The underlying economic theories and applications used in graduate business courses and by individuals in managerial positions are covered. Students examine supply demand analysis at the industry and firm level, market structures, elasticity analysis, macroeconomic indicators of the economy, business cycle analysis, and the impact of government economic policy on business.
MBA504
Accounting Concepts and Methods (3 cr.)
This course is designed to give students a practitioner foundation in the principles of financial accounting. The tools and applications used in graduate business courses and by businesses in decision making in an international environment are covered. Topics include financial accounting methods, preparation of financial statements, the accounting cycle, internal control, and accounting for partnerships and corporations.
MBA510
Managerial Finance (3 cr.)
This course introduces the essential financial tools, principles and practices used by business. The tools and applications used in this course focus on the role of finance in managerial decisions regarding assets and liabilities, valuation, globalization, response to changes in the macroeconomic business environment and changing government regulation of financial institutions. The course addresses risk and rates of return, time value of money, capital budgeting techniques, cost and structure of capital, leverage, and working capital management.
MBA520
Marketing Principles (2 cr.)
This course is designed to give students a broad overview of the marketing function within an organization. The marketing techniques used by firms operating in a global environment are covered. Topics include customer decision behavior, product and service concepts, market segmentation and targeting, the four Ps (product, price, promotion and place) and product mix, channel, wholesaling and logistics management, fundamental marketing product, and pricing and life cycle strategies.
Core Courses
MBA600
Quantitative Decision Making (2 cr.)
This course is designed to give students a practitioner’s ability to utilize quantitative decision making tools and techniques commonly used in business. The QDM tools and techniques used in operations management, inventory management, marketing, project management and finance are covered. Topics include hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, subjective probability, decision trees, Bayes Theorem and regression.
MBA601
Intercultural Acumen (3 cr.)
This course provides a practical framework for managers to appraise and manage the balance between cultural unification, accommodation and uniqueness that arises in the domestic and global workplace. The skills and techniques required to manage a global work force, conduct business in foreign countries with cultural literacy, and communicate with individuals and organizations in other cultures are covered. Students analyze cultural general theories; the impact of culture on interpersonal interactions such as negotiating, managing conflict, team work, business ethics, and motivation; cultural taxonomies; and the fundamentals of intercultural competence.
MBA602
The Political Economy of Business (3 cr.)
This course provides a theoretical framework to evaluate the political, historic, economic and social context in which business activities take place around the world. Topics include economic relations, risk assessment, ethics, strategic analysis of nation-states, institutional and policy management of multinational economic relations, and sustainability of economic growth and global competitiveness. Students develop the skills and techniques used by global managers to analyze the political-economic health of a country in terms of financially oriented risk-reward criteria and operationally-oriented competitiveness as set by global standards.
MBA603
Business and Internationalization (3 cr.)
This course is designed to give students a theoretical framework to evaluate the process of globalization and economic integration from the perspective of business. Topics include economic integration; global financial markets and institutions; globalization; emerging markets; the cultural and ethical environment; and organization, control, marketing, finance, logistics and distribution, and management in a global context. Competitive strategies for the functional areas of business within the 21st century global business environment are developed.
MBA604
Managerial Economics in a Global Environment (2 cr.)
This course focuses on the application of economic theory to examine how an organization can efficiently achieve its aims or objectives. The tools and applications used by organizations to make decisions and assess their outcomes in a global context are covered. Topics include advanced supply demand analysis and estimation, production and cost analysis, market structure and price analysis, regulation and risk analysis, and global pricing practices.
MBA605
Ethics and Responsibility (2 cr.)
This course provides a theoretical framework to analyze ethical differences as they arise in domestic and global business settings and to formulate or negotiate resolutions to difficulties and problems brought about by these differences. The tools, theoretical frameworks and their application used by organizations and individuals to make decisions and balance firm profitability with social and individual responsibility are covered. Topics include cultural comparisons of ethics and social responsibility; problems and ethical considerations with international alliances; ethical dimensions of organizational and communications structures across cultures; and ethical analysis and decision making tools.
MBA606
Business Law (2 cr.)
This course focuses on how legal and regulatory systems affect firms, business strategy, and the decision making process of organizational members. Topics include contracts, commercial and employment law, intellectual property and fraud. The differences between domestic and international legal systems and impact on business operations and ethical perceptions are addressed.
MBA607
Global Leadership and Management (2 cr.)
This course is designed to accelerate development of a student’s ability to have personal and organizational impact in a global or multicultural business environment. The tools, theoretical frameworks and their application by organizations and individuals to effectively make decisions, problem solve, manage change, and adjust strategy are covered. Topics include multicultural management; multinational organizational strategy; critical and distinctive functions and skills of management and leadership; and ethics in international leadership and management.
MBA608
Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management (2 cr.)
This course focuses on how to market diverse products through various channels of distribution in various countries and how to manage a supply line across national borders. Topics include pricing, promotion, distributor and representative identification, selling, ethics in logistics and global supply chain management. The range of industries covered include services, consumer products and business-to-business marketing. The challenge faced by business managers in emerging economies as well as sophisticated but highly regulated developed countries is covered. Best practices used to address those challenges are also covered.
MBA609
International Operations Management (2 cr.)
This course covers the tools, techniques and methodologies used by managers to plan, design, and implement control systems that create/produce services and/or goods in an organization. The decisions for which operations managers are held accountable, methods used to make those decisions, and the factors affecting productivity, effectiveness and efficiency in an organization are covered. Topics include strategic considerations in operations management, operations decision making, quality management, forecasting, just-in-time inventory management, the impact of culture on the management of operations, and facility location for an international network.
MBA610
Organizations and Human Behavior (2 cr.)
This course examines human behavior and social relationships in the workplace setting from a domestic and intercultural perspective. The theories, history and practice of promoting effective individual and group behavior in organizations across cultures are covered. Topics include groups and teams, multicultural teams, power and influence, trust, gender and equality, the impact of culture on work behavior, and creating cultural synergy in a multicultural work environment.
MBA611
Business Analysis: The Case Method (2 cr.)
Prerequisites: All other Core courses
This course focuses on the case study method of business description and analysis. Students apply the case study methodology to a wide variety of situations, industries, countries and functional areas within business. Students employ the case method to critically and strategically evaluate and analyze business firms, products, situations, and strategies. Case topics are diverse in their perspective and scope.
Electives: Marketing
MBA620
International Marketing Management (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course is designed to give students a broad overview of the marketing function within a global or globalized organization. The marketing tools and applications covered in this course are used by firms operating in a global environment. Topics include market assessment, global positioning, global competitiveness, and planning and marketing tactics.
MBA621
Marketing Research (3 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course identifies the tools and techniques of marketing research and their application to marketing decisions and the marketing function. Topics include problem identification, common marketing research techniques, analysis of marketing data, design and conduct of research tools, the role, scope and limitation of marketing research within the marketing function, and ethics in market research.
MBA622
Selling and Sales Management (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course focuses on the role of the sales manager and on the principles of selling. The activities, strategies and evaluative models in sales management and selling are covered with global applications. Topics include selling skills, trust based relationship selling, management of a sales force, creation of a strategic sales program, implementation and evaluation of a sales program.
MBA623
Advertising and Promotion (3 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course focuses on the principles and concepts of advertising and promotion used to influence customer buying decisions. Topics include factors affecting advertising and promotions, message development and management, media selection, effects, and assessment.
MBA624
Buyer Behavior (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course is designed to give students a theoretical framework to evaluate customer behavior and maximize the buying response. Topics include the nature of customer behavior, factors affecting buyer decisions, formation of customer needs, buying motives, organizational learning, and customer strategies.
MBA625
Global Brand Management (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course is focused on product and brand management decisions that must be made to build, measure and manage brand equity in a global context. Students examine the importance of brands within a marketing strategy, how brands are managed and how brand equity is built and protected. Topics include brand elements, managing and measuring brand equity, brand extension strategies, and brand knowledge.
MBA626
Marketing Communications (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course examines the marketing communications management process as part of a marketing strategy. Students experience the decision making process that involves marketing managers of an organization and various agencies an organization may use. Topics include communications and message analysis, budgeting, objective setting, message management, measuring communication effectiveness and marketing communications planning.
MBA627
Pricing Strategy (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course examines making pricing decisions and managing pricing risks. Students apply pricing theory and principles and analyze their implications to elements of a marketing plan and to competitive responses. Topics include price sensitivity of market segments, pricing strategies and product life cycle, pricing and multiple distribution channels, and analysis of costs for a price decision.
MBA628
Persuasion (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course focuses on the process and techniques of persuasion in the marketing and selling function as distinct from other communications and selling techniques. Students apply the principles of persuasion as it relates to business. Topics include patterns of influence and persuasion, thoughtful versus mindless influence, persuasion techniques, the ethics of persuasion and image management.
MBA629
E-commerce and Internet Marketing (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
This course examines the Internet as a marketing channel and a platform upon which to build a market strategy. The thinking skills and techniques used to integrate an on-line strategy into an existing marketing program or as an individual strategy are covered. Topics include evaluation of e-commerce infrastructures, strategies for business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing, and current and future trends in internet marketing.
MBA630
Database and Micromarketing (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA608 Marketing Distribution/Logistics and Global Supply Chain Management
Description: This course focuses on market targeting strategies. It addresses the mindset and the practical skills needed to shift from traditional product, brand driven mass marketing to individualized, customer driven mass customized marketing. Topics include database development and mining, sales force automation systems, information management methods, and organizational change management in the marketing process.
MBA639
Strategic Marketing Management (3 cr.)*
Prerequisites: MBA608 and 17 credits in the area of Specialization including the required courses
This course is the trak capstone for Specialization Trak students in Marketing. It is focused on global marketing strategy. Students integrate knowledge from previous courses to analyze and evaluate competitive strategies used by various firms. Topics include sustainable competitive advantage, longevity, measurement, and strategic planning.
Electives: Finance
MBA640
Managerial Accounting (3 cr.)
This course examines on the principles and techniques of managerial cost accounting. It covers various cost accounting techniques and the effective use of accounting information for business decision making. Topics include cost-volume-profit analysis, activity based costing, activity based management, inventory costing and capacity analysis, cost allocation, and budgeting.
MBA641
Forensic Accounting (3 cr.)
This course is focused on detection, analysis and documentation of fraud as found in accounting systems and information. Asset misappropriation, corruption, and fraud in financial statements through the use of statistics are covered. Topics include skimming, cash larceny, tampering, billing schemes, bribery, conflicts of interest, and fraud in financial statements.
MBA642
International Finance (2 cr.)
This course builds on the basic concepts and finance theory studied in Managerial Finance. It explores international finance theory, exchange rate behavior, and political risk with particular application to the financial management of a multinational firm. Topics include: balance of payments and national goals, analysis of direct foreign investments, the hedging of exchange rate risk, the international cost of capital, multinational capital budgeting, and transfer payments.
MBA643
Corporate Finance (3 cr.)*
This course examines the principles of corporate finance and the tools and practices used in financial decision making. It examines the treasury function of an organization and the decisions made by the treasurer. Topics include long term financing, capital budgeting decisions, beta, debt-equity options, dividend policy analysis, and IPOs.
MBA644
Financial Markets and Instruments (2 cr.)
This course explains the operation, mechanics and structure of the financial system that comprises the monetary infrastructure supporting business. The scope of the course includes all financial institutions, markets and instrument in the public, private and global arena. Topics include fundamentals of financial markets, the role of money in price changes, the determination and structure of interest rates, the fundamentals of financial instruments, U.S. monetary policy formulation and economic impact, and the structure, function, and operation of financial institutions.
MBA645
Financial Engineering: Risk and Derivatives (3 cr.)
This course focuses on corporate financial risk management. The tools and techniques used by a firm to engineer the level of risk acceptable to the company are covered. Topics include identification, measurement and management of corporate financial risk, including dynamic hedging, derivatives, portfolio replication, ethics in finance, and the management of exchange and interest rate risk, credit risk, and operation risk.
MBA646
Due Diligence and Valuation (2 cr.)
This course focuses on the analysis of business risk associated with acquisition and the strategic implications of acquisition. The legal, financial, ethical, operating and managerial aspects of acquisition activity are covered. Topics include valuation methodologies, method of payment considerations, defensive strategies, roll-ups and consolidation strategies, risk management strategies, pricing tactics and negotiation, regulatory issues and corporate governance regimes.
MBA647
Portfolio Management (2 cr.)
This course focuses on asset allocation and overall management of risk and return of a portfolio. Portfolio theory is applied within a global context in this course. Assets cover physical and liquid assets. Topics include portfolio construction, and protection, asset allocation, efficient diversification, portfolio theory and construction, investment policy, and performance evaluation.
MBA648
Security Analysis (2 cr.)
This course focuses on valuation of a firm’s securities for the purposes of investing. The tools and techniques used to evaluate equity prices are covered. Topics include valuation methods including discounted cash flow, accounting valuation, and comparative valuation, analyst reports on industry and competitive strategy analysis, and ethical issues in security analysis.
MBA649
Entrepreneur Finance (2 cr.)
This course focuses on how private equity funds are raised and structured, how investments are sourced, selected and negotiated, and the role of the value-added investor. The course provides the opportunity to apply the tools of finance to the problem of venture capital financing for relatively risky new business ventures. Topics include sources of venture capital funds, capital optimization, securitization, ownership structures, legal aspects of venture capital, pricing a private enterprise, and exit strategies.
MBA650
Project Finance (3 cr.)
This course focuses on non-recourse and limited recourse financing structures where debt, equity, and credit enhancements are combined for the construction and operation of or refinancing of a particular capital-intensive asset. The financial techniques that bring together development, construction, operation, finance and investment to develop a global project in a particular country are covered. Topics include project finance structures, technical/political/economic feasibility, credit enhancement, debt/equity/collateral issues, ownership structures, documentation, and dispute resolution.
MBA651
Strategic Financial Management* (3 cr.)
Prerequisites: 17 credits in the area of Specialization including required courses
This course is the trak capstone for Specialization Trak students in Finance. It is focused on global financial strategic planning. Students integrate knowledge from previous courses to analyze and evaluate financial contingency plans used by various firms to protect against or neutralize risk. Topics include competitive advantage through finance, longevity, measurement and strategic planning.
Other Electives
MBA653
New Venture Strategy (2 cr.)
This course is focused on taking a new venture through the startup phase and into the growth stage of firm development. Students produce a business implementation plan for a new venture idea. Topics include new venture business planning, sales and marketing in a start-up, managing the start-up development process, establishing operations and investor relations and communications.
MBA660
Entrepreneurship(2 cr.)
This course provides addresses the characteristics of contemporary entrepreneurship. Critical factors in the entrepreneurial business development process are addressed: Identifying new opportunities, financing a new venture, evaluation of a plan from a strategic perspective, and alternative forms for establishing a business. Lectures, cases, guest lectures by entrepreneurs, and student projects will be used throughout the course.
MBA661
Opportunity Identification and Assessment (2 cr.)
This course is focused on purposeful search models designed through taxonomies and outcomes assessment tools used by venture capitalists. The search models, taxonomies and outcomes assessment tools used by venture capitalist are covered. Topics include reactive and proactive searches, spillover search methods, venture taxonomies, financial viability analysis, market-ability analysis and investor presentations.
MBA662
International New Ventures (2 cr.)
This course examines how individual entrepreneurs, companies and capital providers manage the entrepreneurial process and its financial aspects across borders. A wide range of business models to assess and manage financial, valuation, personnel and strategic issues within a country context are covered. Topics include cross border finance issues, firm structure and equity issues, and management and ethical issues in new ventures.
MBA664
Trade Management (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA620 International Marketing Management
This course focuses on the fundamentals of management and control of the trade function within a firm. It covers the principles and practices of exporting and importing from a managerial perspective. Topics include finding markets, establishing terms of sale and financing, the legal framework of exporting and importing, documentation, and risk assessment.
MBA665
Intercultural Negotiations and Conflict Resolution (2 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA601 Intercultural Acumen
This course focuses on the range of approaches to resolve disagreements and create successful negotiations across cultural borders. It addresses intercultural negotiating style and techniques to resolve situations that arise in global business. Topics include cultural resolution and negotiation styles, intercultural style index, mediation and intercultural analysis, issues of diversity.
MBA666
Economics of Emergence, Growth and Development (3 cr.)
Prerequisite: MBA604 Managerial Economics in a Global Environment
This course focuses on the theories and realities of economic growth and development for emergent and emerging economies. It examines the theories of economic development and applies them to the cases of Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Topics include neoclassical growth theory, capital mobility, human capital theories, globalization, anti-globalization, market transformation, the role of social infrastructure in economic development, the role of global institutions, sustainable economic development and current trends and problems.
MBA667
Global Strategy: Products and Firms* (3 cr.)
This course is focused on global strategy. Students integrate knowledge from previous courses to analyze and evaluate competitive strategies used by various firms. Topics include strategy versus tactics, planning, environmental scanning, policy and ethics, the internal and external environment and theories in strategic management.
MBA668
Knowledge Management (3 cr.)
This course focuses on how knowledge is created, captured, represented, stored and reused so as to fully leverage the intellectual assets of a firm. The tools and techniques for knowledge acquisition, assessment, evaluation, management, organization and dissemination are applied to business situations. Topics include knowledge generation, knowledge coordination and codification, knowledge transfer and reuse, technologies and knowledge management and knowledge management strategies.
MBA669
Strategic Management (3 cr.)*
Prerequisite: 9 credits of elective courses
This course is the trak capstone for Custom Trak students. It is focused on global strategy. Students integrate knowledge from previous courses to analyze and evaluate competitive strategies used by various firms. Topics include sustainable competitive advantage, global strategic planning, and corporate responsibility in global markets.
Capstone
MBA750 Capstone Field Study 3 credits
Prerequisites: All MBA Core and electives
This course is program capstone for all MBA students in all Traks. Students will have the live case experience of developing a market for a product or service. Working with sponsoring companies, students will assess the market, the environment, and competitors. A portion of the class will be designated to travel to the market site for first-hand assessment. Upon return, the students will complete their final report to a panel.
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