Business (BUS)

This course introduces students not only to the business environment but also to the different purposes and functions of businesses. Students will obtain a broad understanding of the fundamentals of business organizations and their operations and, in the process, learn the basic terminology and concepts employed in the business world. Students will also gain experience using computer applications popular in the business community such as Excel, Word, and Access Database.

This course builds competency with the most commonly used productivity suits used in business including MS Excel/Google Sheets, MS Access, MS Word/Google Docs, and MS PowerPoint/Google Slides while reinforcing business concepts, modes of thinking, and communication skills. Course sessions, held in a PC lab, will cover basic-through-intermediate skills for each application using exercises and mini-cases that require students to analyze business problems and consider how best to communicate information, results, and findings. Course work will be integrated across the various tools in the Office/Google suite and also across various business disciplines. Students will learn not just the computing tools themselves but also how such tools are used in today's business environment to manage information, analyze data, and communicate more effectively.

This 3-credit elective finance for entrepreneurship course aims to further develop topics that are relevant to entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. This course particularly fits those students who may be interested in finance at a later stage of their studies, with its primary focus on the financial aspects of entrepreneurship. Students will participate in various activities consistent with finance and entrepreneurship, and present their term project in a presentation. Learning Objectives: 1) Be able to explain business planning, banking services, and business management. 2) Be able to explain investment and business ethics. 3) Be able to explain money, credit, banking, angel financing, venture capital, funding rounds. 4) Be able to develop financial planning for a new business.

This course introduces the student to basic financial and managerial accounting topics: GAAP, the major financial statements, accrual accounting, financial reporting alternatives, financial statement analysis, cost behavior, cost systems, short-term and long-term decision-making, and product costing. BUS 210 should not be taken by business majors.

This course introduces students to the financial reporting practices of firms ranging in size from sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 companies. Although the predominant focus will be on reporting principles used in the United States, the course will consider international reporting standards as well. Students will learn some of the metrics (ratios) by which one measures the financial health of a firm, whether small or large, domestic or international. Finally, using a popular financial management software package, students not only will learn how businesses track their day-to-day transactions and report on operations but also will be able to apply this knowledge to their personal and/or business finances.

This course introduces students to how managers use accounting information to make decisions and to monitor and control the operations of their businesses. Students will learn how an entity's profits respond to changes in sales volume, selling prices, and costs. They will also learn how to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information and use the former to make sound business decisions. The principles introduced in this course are applicable to domestic and international businesses of all sizes.

Business decisions are often difficult and risky because decisions have to be made with incomplete and imperfect information. The primary purpose of this course is to introduce the basics of modeling and analyzing complex problems that involve business decision-making under uncertainty. Students will learn probability theory and some basic statistical concepts and procedures. The course emphasizes techniques for formulating decision problems and analyzing data. Students will also learn how to use computer software in decision and statistical analyses.

This 3-credit elective finance for entrepreneurship course aims to further develop topics that are relevant to entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. This course particularly fits those students who may be interested in finance at a later stage of their studies, with its primary focus on the financial aspects of entrepreneurship. Students will participate in various activities consistent with finance and entrepreneurship, and present their term project in a presentation. Learning Objectives: 1) Be able to explain business planning, banking services, and business management. 2) Be able to explain investment and business ethics. 3) Be able to explain money, credit, banking, angel financing, venture capital, funding rounds. 4) Be able to develop financial planning for a new business.

Successful managers are able to align business strategies with the organization's culture and core competencies. In this course, students will develop the managerial skills needed to succeed in today's increasingly competitive global economy. The course explores how individuals are motivated to learn, decide, and coordinate in individual versus group settings. Students will apply these concepts to resolve a wide array of problems in real world organizational settings, such as creating an innovative culture, developing an effective performance management system, and managing a diverse workforce. Particular emphasis will be given to development of leadership skills and entrepreneurism.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the business of sports, which includes budgeting and financing for professional teams, leagues, and sports stadiums and venues. The course will give students a basic understanding of the concepts and skills needed to evaluate the different intricacies of sports business along with special topics covered such as esports, social media, and diversity, equity, and inclusion and how they impact the current sports market. Emphasizing current sports relate articles and case studies students will develop an understanding of the intricacies and nuances of the sports business industry and why it is different. Students will combine the skills and knowledge in application in both the midterm and final projects. Guest speakers will also be brought into class to speak on behalf of real world experience and to offer advice for those looking to break into the sports industry.

This course introduces students to concepts and techniques related to the design, planning, control, and improvement of both service and manufacturing operations. The course helps students become conversant in the language of operations management and provides them with the quantitative and qualitative tools needed to analyze basic operations issues. It also describes the role of operations management in the overall strategy of a firm. The topics covered include process analysis, waiting line management, project management, inventory and supply chain management.

This course explores the uses and limitations of accounting information as an integral part of a manager's decision process. BUS 311 goes beyond BUS 211 and 212 by integrating economics, finance, and statistics among other disciplines in the consideration of actual business cases. Some of the topics included will be cost estimation, activity-based costing, quality control, transfer pricing, and divisional performance evaluation.

This course is designed to make you a better decision maker. Good decision makers know how to recognize decision problems, how to represent the essential structure of the decision situation, and how to analyze the problem with the formal tools based on decision theory. Many managerial decisions, regardless of their functional orientation, are increasingly based on analysis using quantitative models from the discipline of management science. Management science tools, techniques and concepts have dramatically changed the way business operates in manufacturing, service operations, marketing, and finance. BUS 321 introduces students to various ways of modeling or thinking structurally about decision problems in order to enhance analytical skills to support business decision-making. Students will gain experience using different optimization models and spreadsheets to deal with complex managerial decision problems.

BUS 341 surveys the many challenges and opportunities faced by an entrepreneur in the modern global economy. The course begins with basic contract law, corporate law, and intellectual property law, and then goes on to explore organizational issues for entrepreneurs, the legal implications of debt and equity financing, the protection of the expression of ideas that is afforded by copyrights, and the protection of corporate goodwill that is afforded by trademark law, as well as the statutory restraints imposed by statutes such as the Financial Services Modernization Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA"), and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"). The course will broaden students' perspectives regarding the international legal and business environment by examining cross-border data privacy policies as well as statutes such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA").

BUS 351 introduces students to time value of money concepts and how these concepts are used in making long-term financial decisions. In addition, the course will expose students to after-tax cash flow analysis using a variety of decision models that are appropriate for sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations, whether they are newly-founded or established firms. Many of the principles introduced here can be applied to personal financial decisions such as retirement planning, car loan analyses and home mortgage analyses, for example.

One-time or initial versions of course topics equivalent to the current BUS 361 and new courses BUS 362 and BUS 363. Topics will introduce students to entrepreneurship or provide specialized knowledge in entrepreneurship.

Students will learn how a promising idea transforms into a successful startup. This course is designed to provide students with practical strategies and a data-driven approach to creating their own businesses. By the end of the course, students will gain exposure to various tools such as customer journey maps, minimum viable product, and the Lean Business Model Canvas, which can aid in validating the startups’ value propositions.

BUS 371 focuses on the information, frameworks and techniques required to devise a marketing strategy for the organization. The course begins with an understanding of how to design products and services for consumers based on their needs and their budget constraints. It then moves to an evaluation of the capabilities of the firm, its collaborators, and its competitors in service of developing appropriate price and promotion strategies when going to market. This course has no formal pre-requisites, but students will benefit from a basic background in microeconomics and basic statistics.

This course focuses on the use of economic principles for business and managerial decision making. The course aims to provide students with frameworks for studying business decisions that managers routinely face and equip students with the tools necessary to better understand the ramifications of their choices. The course builds on concepts of microeconomics and the theories of industrial organization to deliver formal methods for analyzing business decisions. After reviewing consumer and producer theories, the course will delve into game theory, information economics, and the study of imperfectly competitive markets, and proceed to introduce students to business strategies that assist managers in earning and sustaining competitive advantages in the marketplace. The course introduces and develops concepts in various areas of economics such as competition and market structure, incentive contracts, and pricing. Covered topics would range from the most basic demand and supply models to game theory, principle-agent models, and economics of information.

This course provides hands-on training and practice in the styles of writing and related English communication skills needed by all public managers, including email, letters, and formal reports. Emphasis is placed on learning and practicing effective writing and communication related to real-world administrative and managerial situations relevant to the student's particular current or chosen professional position.

This course is designed as an introduction to the evolving area of AI, with an emphasis on potential business applications and related managerial insights. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science behind systems that can program themselves to classify, predict, and offer solutions based on structured and unstructured data. For millennia, humans have pondered the idea of building intelligent machines. Ever since, AI has had highs and lows, demonstrated successes and unfulfilled potential. Today, AI is empowering people and changing our world. Netflix recommends movies, Amazon recommends popular products, self-driving cars learn to navigate safely around other vehicles without human assistance, and programmed robots distinguish trash from dishes that are to be washed. This courses focuses on how AI systems understand, reason, learn and interact; learn from industry’s experience on several AI cases; develop a develop a deeper understanding of machine learning (ML) techniques and the algorithms that power those systems, and propose solutions to real world scenarios leveraging AI methodologies.

Introduction to Block Chain will provide students with a basic understanding of the Hyperledger Fabric project sponsored by the Linux foundation. This class will mainly focus on Business applications for Hyperledger Fabric along with the introduction of basic code structures for Hyperledger Fabric. https://www.hyperledger.org/use/fabric The class will consist of a set of theory lectures and hands on labs. The theory section will cover the business needs for a Blockchain, the business processes required to create an industrial grade blockchain application and the logic steps to design a blockchain. The hands on labs will provide the basic knowledge to create a blockchain in a Linux environment utilizing JavaScript. There will be four labs and one final team project. All of these projects will be completed in a virtual Linux environment that will be provided for students. This is a course in which students play a very important role. Students learn best when they are actively involved in the process. We will be exploring this very important new area of finance and supply chain and we look forward to this joint journey into this exciting new field.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the growing range of connected devices that send data across the Internet. The IoT is now a reality due to the convergence of several technologies. A “Thing” is any object or device with embedded electronics that can transfer data over a network without any human interaction. So, imagine if you had smart devices in your car, your workplace or even on yourself. The IoT can help transform industries leveraging cutting edge technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, using information gathered in real time by thousands of sensors globally. This course explores the topics, technology and skills required to gain practice in the successful implementation of IoT solutions. IoT Practitioners extract real world data from sensors in devices, integrate them to services in the cloud, and using analytics and artificial intelligence, extract valuable insights to improve enterprise operations and enable innovative, new industry business models.

Besides studying exchange rates and the effects of national economic policies, this course attempts to provide a complete tour of the major international financial markets. This course covers foreign exchange markets, international equity markets, international bond markets, derivatives markets in currencies and interests. This course emphasizes risk management tools and techniques.

This is an undergraduate class of ‘Investments’, in which Portfolio Theory is centered. Textbook chapters are used to build fundamentals, most in-class discussions will concern real-market data, case, and financial articles that relate to these topics. There are four sections. The first section visits both safe and risky assets and introduces the tools needed to interpret the history of rates of return. Section 2 focuses on diversification and constructs an efficient portfolio of risky assets. Section 3 officially connects risk and return and introduces asset pricing theorems, including CAPM and APT. In Section 4, we discuss the fundamental and controversial question of market efficiency and its implications.

This course is an advanced introduction to modern corporate finance. Topics include cash flow forecasting, optimal dividend policies, mergers and acquisitions, structured finance, capital at risk, and the risk of adjusted return on capital. The philosophical foundation of the course is the concept of shareholder value added. Students will learn how financial decisions can contribute to the value of modern corporation.

This course provides a systematic exposition of the primary mathematical methods used in financial economics. Mathematical concepts and methods include logarithmic and exponential functions, algebra, mean-variance analysis, summations, matrix algebra, differential and integral calculus, and optimization. The course will include a variety of financial applications including compound interest, present and future value, term structure of interest rates, asset pricing, expected return, risk and measures of risk aversion, capital asset pricing model (CAPM), portfolio optimization, expected utility, and consumption capital asset pricing (CCAPM).

This course is the first of three subjects that form the Financial Modeling Sequence. It is designed to provide students with the necessary programming skills necessary to create realistic financial models. It is an essential core subject and must be completed in order to obtain the MSF degree. Modeling I focuses on the implementation of financial models in MS Excel using Visual Basic for Application (VBA).

This course provides the foundation for understanding the price and risk management of derivative securities. The course starts with simple derivatives (e.g., forwards and futures) and develops the concept of arbitrage-free pricing and hedging. Based upon the work of Black, Scholes, and Merton, the course extends their pricing model through the use of lattices, Monte Carlo simulation methods, and more advanced strategies. Mathematical tools in stochastic processes are gradually introduced. Particular emphasis is given to understanding option strategies.

BUS 467 focuses on the behaviors of entrepreneurs (both successful and unsuccessful), entrepreneurial networks, the venture creation process, new venture strategies, identification and evaluation of new venture opportunities, new venture financing, legal and tax considerations, market entry strategies, and the development of a formal business plan in a global context.

BUS 469 provides students a hands-on, real world opportunity to: 1) identify, investigate and/or evaluate the suitability of a product or service to the marketplace; 2) work with an existing company to evaluate and/or investigate a product or service opportunity for the company; or 3) investigate and/or evaluate a research-based technology for suitability as a product or service. Students will either build or join a small team to develop a prototype, engage customers/partners, and identify support and/or funding. Business students who have taken the prerequisite (or equivalent) courses may register with instructor approval. Prerequisite: Entrepreneurship Minor Classes (4) and IPRO.

The Marketing Management course is designed to provide students with an overview of the decision making process in marketing. Marketing decision-making is a process that is essentially wrapped around the fundamental goal of creating value in the marketplace. This requires a professional knowledge of market drivers, competitors' capabilities, technological trends, and the market dynamics of value. The orientation is toward the kinds of marketing decisions that managers must make within the modern business environment. A primary goal of this course is to provide a thorough understanding of the rapidly changing business environment and the various stakeholders that influence the marketing management function.

This course offers students a solid grounding in the theory and practice of new product development. Using a combination of theory-based lecture, hands-on exercises and assignments, and discussion, students will develop skills across the entire product development process--from opportunity identification through product launch.

The course serves as an overview of the fundamentals of marketing research. We will discuss a variety of topics pertaining to the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of information. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with what needs to be studied, how to study it, and how to interpret the results for the purpose of improving decision making related to marketing problems and opportunities. Students will develop their marketing problem defining and solving abilities through discussions of readings, cases, in-class activities, lectures, assignments and interactions in and outside of class. The emphasis of this course is developing research skills to solving realistic marketing strategy problems. This course will be conducted as an advanced level class for knowledgeable and highly motivated students and is an opportunity to refine and sharpen your knowledge of marketing concepts and marketing decision-making skills before applying them in real-world jobs after graduation.

Learning and practicing modern methods of selling and presenting form the basis of this course. Students will benefit from this course by exploring the rapidly changing profession of highly skilled representatives, salespeople and entrepreneurs. The class content will cover basic skills such as writing powerful sales content, making compelling presentations, successful sales methodologies and techniques. Students will engage local companies, hear from successful salespeople, practice selling skills and gain familiarity with sales tools such as CRM. In addition, students will learn the basic functions of sales force management as well as theories and concepts about building and managing an effective sales force.

Consumer Behavior is an interdisciplinary course that examines how internal, external, situational, and social influences impact purchase behavior. While all of us are consumers, our intuitions about our own behavior as well as that of others are often inaccurate. Drawing on research from behavioral economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and academic marketing, this course enhances students' understanding of how and why people choose, use, and evaluate goods and services as they do. We will use several different kinds of materials and approaches in this course to illustrate consumer behavior phenomena and to get us thinking about the managerial and strategic implications. Material will be presented in lectures, discussions, articles, videos, and several case analyses. We will apply relevant theories and research to real-world consumer behavior problems. In addition, you will be part of a team and conduct a consumer behavior project of your choice that will allow you to draw upon the knowledge you gained during class, gain greater insight into a specific area of consumer behavior and develop recommendations for marketers based on your findings.

After completing this course, students will know how to apply the built-in functionality of Microsoft Office Excel 2016 to analyze data, build Operations, Finance and Marketing-related spreadsheet models, formulate optimization models, and perform risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation. These objectives will be facilitated through the following key tools taught in this course, which are: 1) Advanced Excel functionality; 2) Data Analysis; 3) Spreadsheet modeling; 4) Optimization (resource allocation); and 5) Simulation for risk-analysis and modeling uncertainty Decision modeling is a core competency in today’s competitive business environment. The course’s specific toolset is fundamental for the following reasons. Spreadsheets are ubiquitous in today’s business environment. A business school graduate should be fluent in their use. Deploying Excel’s functionality to support Data Analysis enhances and reinforces students’ analytical skills and their ability to intelligently use information.

This course will provide students with an introduction to data literacy and skills to create data visualization. These skills are prerequisites for data-driven fields of study, professional success, and everyday life. In this course, we define data literacy as “to understand, explore, and communicate with data”. Students will learn design principles for creating meaningful displays of quantitative and qualitative data to facilitate managerial decision-making1. Students will learn essential theories, concepts, methodologies, and use leading computer tools (e.g., Tableau) to visualize and analyze real world data.

This three-credit course, mainly for Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) students, combines strategic management and design thinking to help students develop into great managers after they graduate and gain professional experience. Students will examine how managers at various levels create/manage “high-performing” organizations and design products. This is a capstone course for undergraduate business degrees. Because of the capstone nature of this course, students will also integrate accounting, economics, finance, marketing, organizational behavior, statistics, strategy, and related disciplines into strategic management and product design. To do so, students will participate in CAPSIM Capstone business simulation, case-based learning activities, a product design exercise, and a term project. Students will deliver an oral presentation and submit peer-review documents to help other students. Students will summarize the term project into a written report. At the end of the semester, a student should be able to decide how to allocate resources, meet challenges and win the competition, and make a strategic organizational and product decision as if the student is a general manager.

This course will provide students with an introduction to data literacy and skills to create data visualization. These skills are prerequisites for data-driven fields of study, professional success, and everyday life. In this course, we define data literacy as "to understand, explore, and communicate with data". Students will learn design principles for creating meaningful displays of quantitative and qualitative data to facilitate managerial decision-making. Students will learn essential theories, concepts, methodologies, and use leading computer tools (e.g., Tableau) to visualize and analyze real world data. This course is divided into lectures, discussions, in-class activities, Tableau practice, homework assignments, and a class project.

This course will explore a business topic or application of current interest at the time the course is offered.

Independent study in Business as designed to provide the student with an option to study a specific area of Business in more depth than is offered in the curriculum. For example, a student could expand upon subject matter contained in the existing curriculum, or the student could explore an area of business not currently in the curriculum. In either event, the student, the instructor, and the student's advisor must agree upon a plan of study prior to enrolling in the course. **Instructor permission required.**