Curriculum

Prerequisites

Calculus, statistics, and evidence of computer literacy

The Distance MBA curriculum consists of 16-three semester hour courses for a total of 48 semester hours. The curriculum includes the following components: 18 semester hours of core requirements, 12 semester hours of cross-functional requirements and 18 semester hours of elective requirements.

Core Requirements (18 Semester Hours)

The core requirements must be completed within first 24 hours of study.

• GRBA 810 - Contemporary Managerial Accounting
  • Internal accounting as a tool to generate information for managerial planning and control. Problems and case material used to review basic financial accounting, to develop operational understanding of elementary cost systems, capital and operating budgeting concepts, incremental analysis, transfer pricing, performance evaluation, and other selected quantitative techniques available to assist management in the performance of the planning and control functions.
• GRBA 811 - Managerial Finance
  • Application of financial theory to business problems. Financial statement analysis, working capital management, capital structure planning, cost of capital, and capital expenditure analysis.
• GRBA 812 - Managerial Economics
  • Applies economics to problems faced by managers in both the private and public sector. Consideration is given to the impact of the economic environment on decisions made by the firm including the effects of legal, regulatory and social constraints. Internal allocation of resources in organizations from an economic perspective. Economic tools that aid managers, including statistical analysis, are applied to practical decisions.
• GRBA 813 - Managerial Marketing
  • Development of analytical and decision making skills, and an understanding of the market forces which influence those decisions. Major emphasis on the decision areas of product, distribution, personal selling, advertising and pricing, as well as on the development of integrated marketing programs. Social, ethical, and global issues.
• GRBA 814 - Organization Behavior
  • Critical behavioral science theories that contribute to the effective management of human behavior in organizations. Conceptual frameworks that help diagnose and explain the potential for common interpersonal problems. These models serve as the foundation for student efforts to develop behavioral skills and intervention techniques that promote effective individual and team activity leading to positive managerial experiences. Communication, power and influence, conflict management, and perception.
• GRBA 815 - Operations and Information Systems Strategy
  • Understanding of how operations and information systems can be used to capture competitive advantage in the marketplace. Relationships between operations and information systems and other functional areas of organizations, e.g., marketing, finance, and engineering/research and development.

Cross-Functional Requirements (12 Semester Hours)

GRBA 852 and GRBA 853 should not be taken before all core courses have been completed. GRBA 853 is the program capstone course and should not be taken until your last year in the program.

• GRBA 851 - Managerial Decision Making
  • Advanced quantitative tools for aiding and enhancing managerial decision-making so that students develop skills for formulating, analyzing, and solving a wide range of interdisciplinary business problems. Decision-making under certainty, uncertainty and risk, and in competitive situations. Use of various quantitative models and computer-based tools, including problem formulation, interpretation of solution, sensitivity and shadow price, heuristic approaches, simulation and game models.
• GRBA 852 - International Business
  • Reconsideration of marketing, management, accounting, and financial concepts within and between foreign environments. Understanding of alternative cultural, economic, and political systems which affect the operations of business firms. Attention to functional business decision making.
• GRBA 853 - Strategic Management and Business Policy
  • This course is to be taken in the last semester of classes.
    Development and implementation of corporate strategies and policies. Interrelationships between the external and internal environments of the organization (including functional areas) are stressed through identification, analysis, and implementation of solutions to strategic situations facing varying types of organizations. Policy cases, live cases/industry analyses, and an executive-level simulation game. Bridging the gap between management theory and practice.
• GRBA 898 - Management Skills Seminar
  • Seminar in current topics in business. Topical issues such as diversity, ethics, leadership, business communication, etc. New topics announced prior to each term in which the course is being offered.

    Seminars in topical issues such as diversity, ethics, leadership, business communication etc., portions to be taught by visiting executives.

Elective Requirements (18 Semester Hours required)

Three elective courses may be used in a specialization.

Elective courses should not be taken before GRBA 810, 811, 812, 813, 814, 815, 851 and 898.
Three elective courses must be from three of the five business departments. (ACCT, ECON, FINA, MNGT, MRKT)

• ACCT 801 - Financial Reporting and Analysis (Prereq: intermediate accounting or ACCT 820)
  • This course prepares students to effectively utilize accounting information presented in financial statements. Specific topics include the analysis of primary financial statements, revenue recognition practices, the financial reporting system, and the effects of accounting method choice on reporting financial data, and firm valuation.
• ACCT 807 – Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting
  • In July 2002, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act in hoping of “protecting investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures”. As a result, corporations are making tremendous changes to their governance structure related to financial reporting. In this class, we will examine the detail requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and how these mandatory requirements affect corporate governance functions and financial reporting. Topics include Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, quality of financial reporting, management and the controllership function, internal and external audit functions, accounting fraud and SEC and PCAOB specific governance rules. We will pay special attention to the importance of effective corporate governance structure and quality financial reporting to the U.S. capital market.
• ACCT 817 – The Income Tax and Management Decisions
  • The impact of Federal income tax law on management decisions, more from the viewpoint of recognizing problems than prescribing solutions.
• ACCT 820 – Financial Accounting
  • Basics of financial accounting and reporting including the construction of financial statements and their interpretation for internal and external users of financial information.
• ACCT 840 – Fraud Examination (Prereq: intermediate accounting or ACCT 820)
  • Explains fraud and provides a forum for discussing how fraud differs from other crimes. Includes fraud techniques, schemes, readings and study of actual fraud cases. Prereq: intermediate accounting or ACCT 820
• AECN 883 - Ecological Economics
  • Increasing pressures on environmental systems and energy resources has resulted in ever more interest in sustainable systems, eco-approaches to business, industry and community. As a case in point, Nestle, a large agribusiness food company, now offers incentives to suppliers to produce raw materials in more sustainable ways. Automobile and other kinds of manufacturers are designing products with the life cycle of the materials in mind, e.g. Ford Motor Company through its Volvo division is now designing and producing cars that are at least 85% recyclable. General Motors has a “Think Green, Go Yellow” campaign to encourage the use of renewable fuels. DuPont (and subsidiaries like Pioneer) and a number of other large firms are now part of the Chicago Climate Exchange, which is dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This tendency to eco-approaches is also emerging in the way communities, urban areas and cities are being designed, in the eco-community idea. This course considers these developments in both business and community as case studies. It works at synthesizing and integrating the main principles and ideas about sustainability and eco-approaches across several academic disciplines, including business, resource and environmental economics, ecology, physics (thermodynamics), and behavioral economics." Visit here for the syllabus.
• ECON 822 - International Finance
  • Determinants of exchange rates, international payments, and inflation, unemployment, national income, and interest rates in an open economy. International monetary system and capital and financial markets, and of the mechanisms by which a national economy and the rest of the world adjust to external disturbances.
• ECON 996 - From Single Market to Single Currency: The Political Economy of European Integration Since 1945
  • During the last decade, the completion of the 1992 Single Market and the introduction of the euro have affected not only European Union member states but also global business development. This course aims to provide a full and detailed understanding of the origins, development and future economic strategy of the expanding European Union. Special attention will be paid to customs union theory, the single currency and monetary union, the 1992 Single Market, fiscal policy, and the EU's trade and agricultural policies. The impact of the EU of event in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union will also be stressed, and the process of economic transformation to market economies will be analyzed in detail. Emphasis will also be placed on the role of Germany after reunification, the comparative economic performance of the EEU in relation to NAFTA and Asia - Pacific, the disputes between Britain and the EU, and future potential Eastern enlargement.
• FINA 867 - Options, Futures, & Derivative Securities
  • Analysis of the properties of derivative securities that are commonly encountered in practice. Examines the theoretical framework within which derivative securities can be valued. Discussion of alternative hedging strategies for financial institutions and portfolio managers.
• FINA 863 – Portfolio Management
  • Overview of the workings of securities markets and develops the fundamental intuition of the risk-return trade-off along with the role of information in financial markets. All major asset pricing models with emphasis on their practical application to risk management in a portfolio context.
• FINA 850 – Multinational Financial Analysis
  • International aspects of financial management. Exchange risk analysis and management. Accessing international capital markets. International capital budgeting. Numerical optimization technique.
• MNGT 821 - Entrepreneurship & Venture Management
  • Aspects of starting and managing a new enterprise. Characteristics of entrepreneurs; the identification and evaluation of new venture opportunities-resource utilization; development of appropriate strategies and the successful planning, implementation and launching of a new business venture.
• MNGT 828 - International Management
  • US enterprises operating in the global economy. The manner in which cultural, economic, political, and social differences affect the management of business, governmental, military, and other enterprises is considered. Problems of managing in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
• MNGT 995 - E-Commerce Operations Management
  • This is an e-commerce course that focuses on the functional area of operations management. This course seeks to provide students with an understanding and knowledge of the management of critical success factors that lead to a successful e-commerce operation. It examines in detail the current research literature and practices of e-commerce as it relates to the management topics of product and process design, purchasing, forecasting, scheduling, inventory, product and service quality, human resources, reengineering, and consulting. Emphasis will be placed on both conceptual material and some methodological procedures. Students will learn about the process of e-commerce models, state-of-the-art research findings, and current practices that lead to a successful e-commerce operation.