Master of Business Administration – Finance Specialization Online

Financial Accounting: This course is an introductory study of financial accounting. This includes studying basic accounting language and concepts, recording financial transactions, and preparing and interpreting financial statements. Reporting and analyzing operating income, operating assets, and owner financing is also emphasized.

This course serves as an introduction to the financial system and its relationship to domestic and international business activity financing. Financial market components and phenomena such as financial instruments, institutions, the flow of funds, market efficiency, interest rate determination and term structure, exchange rates, and government policy are analyzed. An introduction is given to the concept of financial asset valuation and the time value of money.

This course explores issues pertaining to the operation of businesses and the markets in which they operate. Among these are the behavior of consumers, the determinants of prices and production levels, profit maximization, the efficiency of market outcomes, and market failures. The course applies economic thinking to issues like cost/benefit analysis, the maximization of consumer satisfaction, risk analysis, economic inequality, international trade, and government regulation of markets.

The course shows how the techniques of marketing management can be used to attract and satisfy customers while building long-term business profitability. Topics include (1) market, consumer and competitive analysis; (2) segmentation, targeting and positioning; (3) product development, pricing, promotion and distribution; and (4) marketing strategy and planning.

This course focuses on the firm's management accounting system as its primary information system. It examines the problems of cost measurement, planning, coordination, control and performance evaluation. It explores how accounting systems address business problems and evolve in response to the changing economic environment. The course will relate ethical and global issues to managerial accounting topics. Students will explore and analyze real-world data and apply their gained knowledge to contemporary managerial accounting problems and cases. Prerequisite: MBA 601, MBA 602 or equivalent course work.

This is a survey course focusing on how managers can construct a decision-making process that maximizes the value of the firm. Because the majority of financial decisions require an estimate of future events, considerable time will be spent investigating how to achieve the above objectives, subject to the constraints of an uncertain future. Outside readings, case studies, and text material will be used to integrate current financial theory with pragmatic financial decision making. A working knowledge of the basic concepts in finance, accounting and statistics is assumed. The use of an electronic spreadsheet is needed for homework assignments and case analysis. Prerequisite: MBA 601, MBA 602 or equivalent course work.

This course introduces students to the growing field of business analytics. Business analytics is the use of data, information technology, statistical analysis, and quantitative methods and models to support effective organizational problem solving and informed decision making. The course includes methods, tools and techniques for summarizing and visualizing historical data, which is relevant to descriptive analytics–the use of data to find out what has happened in the past or is currently happening; methods, tools and techniques for extracting information from existing data in order to determine patterns, which is relevant to predictive analytics–the use of data to find out what will happen in the future; and methods, tools and techniques for optimization, which is relevant to prescriptive analytics - the use of data to determine the best course of action in the future. Prerequisite: MBA 601, MBA 602 or equivalent course work.

This course covers a broad overview of finance topics from a data analytics perspective. Students will learn the ins and outs of applied data analysis and a conceptual framework for thinking about data from both a statistical and machine-learning perspective with applications in finance. Students will learn to understand and apply concepts like capturing and analyzing new sources of financial data, building predictive models, and running simulations of market events, using concepts of data analysis and probability in investment science, risk management, valuations, rates of return and profitability analysis. The course aims to provide a theoretical and practical framework in which students will be challenged to solve real-world problems in the finance field and gain familiarity with commonly used stochastic models.

This course provides an examination of modern financial markets. Specifically, we discuss the largest financial intermediaries including commercial banks, finance companies, securities firms, investment banks, mutual funds and hedge funds with a focus on balance sheet structures, regulation and current issues and trends. We also examine various financial instruments, derivatives and off-balance sheet activities that are useful from a risk-management perspective within the industry. Prerequisite: MBA 692.

The course focuses on current practice and recent theoretical developments. It deals with the characteristics of individual securities and portfolios, criteria and models for alternative portfolio composition, criteria for evaluation and measurement of performance, and the impact of government regulation. The evaluation of current theory, its significance for the financial management decision making, and the consideration of relevant empirical evidence are covered. Prerequisite: MBA 692.

Current developments in global financial markets and instruments from the perspective of firm management. Topics include an overview of foreign security markets, trends in foreign exchange risk management, and the impact of international debt on multinational firms. Prerequisite: MBA 692.

This experiential course emphasizes the importance of feedback and self-assessment for leadership development. It includes extensive assessment of each participant's management style and skills based on self-evaluations (using structured questionnaires, decision-making exercises, and role plays) and feedback from coworkers, faculty and other participants. Leadership development experiences emphasize time and stress management, individual and group problem solving, communication, power and influence, motivation, conflict management, empowerment and team leadership. Each participant identifies skills they need to develop and reports on efforts to develop those skills.

This course is about the manager's responsibilities for problem solving and decision making, and those areas in which information technology can be used to gain the insight needed to support selection of decision alternatives. Students learn about the role of data, information and knowledge in managerial problem solving and decision making. Transactional processing and database management systems (DBMS) are used to store, manage and retrieve data in organizations. Decision support system (DSS) tools and technologies (such as natural language programming and influence diagramming) are used to organize data into information for decision analytics. Expert systems (ES) are used to synthesize information into knowledge for knowledge management. Students are required to use DBMS, DSS and ES software packages in a hands-on environment.

This course integrates the areas of finance and accounting and is designed to provide students with the ability to analyze financial statements, understand the incentives of companies to manage earnings through their choices of accounting methods, understand the limitations to the usefulness of financial statements, and understand the value of financial statements in decision making from the perspective of investors, creditors and management. Prerequisite: completion of MBA core courses.

This course is designed to explore the complex ethical, legal, cultural, political, social and economic issues confronting individuals, groups and organizations. We will use various models and theories to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address the issues of a diverse set of organizational stakeholders. Prerequisite: Completion of MBA foundation courses.

This integrative capstone course is designed to expose students to strategies that companies use to build and sustain competitive advantage in the global market. The course provides students with industry, competitor and business-level analytic tools that help students to assess factors that influence strategy formulation and strategy implementation in both domestic and global markets. Prerequisite: all required (non-specialization) course work.