Courses
The courses of the Smeal College of Business MBA program are outlined with their descriptions
Courses
The following courses require matriculation into the MBA Program at University Park and are considered part of the MBA Core Curriculum:
| BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BA) |
| The following courses require matriculation into MBA Program at University Park and are considered part of the MBA Core Curriculum: |
| 500. MARKETING (2). Development of a marketing management focus, including market analysis, competition analysis, and decisions in pricing, products, promotion, and distribution channels. |
| 501. MANAGEMENT (2) Examination and application of concepts of human behavior and organization to managing people in work organizations. |
| 502. TEAM PROCESSES AND PERFORMANCE (1) Development of managerial skills and techniques for diagnosing, intervening and leading effective teams. |
| 504. ETHICAL LEADERSHIP (1) Introduces students to their ethical responsibilities as business leaders. |
| 505. NEGOTIATION THEORY AND SKILLS (1) Development of managerial skills for distributive and integrative negotiations at the two-party and team levels. |
| 510. SUPPLY CHAIN AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT (2) Introduction to the organizational processes and methods used to create and deliver goods and services. |
| 511. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (2) Basic concepts and principles (i.e., the jargon) underlying financial accounting practices. |
| 512. RISK &DECISION (2) Construction and use of quantitative methods in business decision-making. |
| 517. COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR MANAGEMENT (3) Development of communication skills required for management; audience awareness, style, individual and group presentations. |
| 521. INTRODUCTION TO MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING (2) Cost accounting and the design of management accounting systems for planning and controlling operations, and for motivating personnel. |
| 523. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (1) An introduction to information technologies critical to business organizations. |
| 531. INTRODUCTION TO FINANCE (2) An intensive examination of techniques available to aid the financial manager in decision. |
| 533. ECONOMICS FOR MANAGERS (2) An introduction to the tools of economic decision making and a consideration of firm, industry, and global economic influences on economic decision making. |
| 535. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES (1) An overview of the global business environment. |
| 571. STRATEGIES FOR CONVERGING ECONOMIES (2) Analysis and application of market and non-market concepts and techniques in business. |
| 2nd Year COURSE SUMMARY | ||
|---|---|---|
| Course Name/# | Course Title | Brief Description |
| ACCTG 550 | Taxation &Mgmt Decisions | Develops a framework for understanding the effect of taxes on business decisions and for devising effective tax planning strategies. Framework applied to cases involving mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, compensation plans, organizational form decisions, and investment management. Prerequisites: BA 511, BA 521; Elective for CFAP, IMPA |
| ACCTG 560 | Accounting &Business Analysis | This course prepares students to effectively extract and utilize the information in financial statements. The relation between the financial statement representation and the underlying business activities is emphasized. Specific topics to be addressed include revenue recognition practices, obligation measurement, and the impact of organizational form on accounting measures of performance. Prerequisites: BA 521; Required for CFAP ; Elective for IMPA |
| BA 597B | Advanced Communications | Special Topics in Corporate Communication: Interpersonal Communication in the Work Place. This course examines the principles and practices that explain, predict, and control how interpersonal communication works effectively or ineffectively in the workplace. As BA 517 examines the qualities of effective oral, written, and graphic communication; BA 597B examines the qualities of effective interpersonal communication. Prerequisite: None; Elective for PMD, SCM, SMAC* |
| BA 597C | Strategic Leadership Seminar | This course presents a CEO's perspective on the key opportunities and challenges faced by business leaders as they seek to adapt themselves and their organizations to the evolving business environment. Course content is based on extensive research and first hand consulting experience working with senior leaders from major corporations worldwide, including companies like 3M, Fujitsu, IBM, British Airways, Motorola, Samsung, BP Amoco, and many others. The lessons learned from those benchmark companies and the evolving models of management they are helping to create, will form the backbone of a series of discussions on 21st century organizational forms and the new leadership competencies required to direct them. This course provides an excellent overview of the leadership development challenges faced by MBA's as they resume their corporate careers. Prerequisite: None; Elective for SMAC* |
| BLAW 597B | Business Law for Innovation and Competition | This course will teach students the basic nature of IP rights, as well as the process for obtaining and enforcing them. Students will be prepared to more accurately valuate IP and manage it in the context of both small and large business ventures. The course will also teach students to better appreciate when professional legal counsel is necessary, and how to manage those interactions more cost effectively. Prerequisite: None; Elective for CFAP and ENTR |
| EBIZ 501 | e-Management | Provides the conceptual frameworks and tools to help students explore and understand the multiple facets and applications of eBusiness in a wide range of industries, and for discussing current developments in eBusiness in a managerially useful manner. Students will learn, among other things, the ability to coach a team on eBusiness thinking processes, use a step-by-step approach for developing an eBusiness initiatives portfolio, understand different business models for eBusiness, evaluate "the business case" for eBusiness, and identify and articulate the key management issues which arise in implementing eBusiness strategies in organizations. Prerequisite: None; Elective for ENTR, PMD, SMAC (when offered) |
| EBIZ/MKTG 543 | e-Marketing | Offers students the concepts and tools to design and deploy marketing strategies to help their organizations develop enduring relationships with their customers in a global, networked, and digital economy. Covers such topics as emerging market mechanisms (online shopping; B2B exchanges), enhancing relationships with various downstream stakeholders (online information links with distributors), and new marketing tools and techniques (e-mail and banner advertising; Customer Relationship Management). Prerequisite: None; Elective for PMD, SCM |
| ENTR 502 | Starting &Growing A New Business | Intended for students planning at some time to start or join a young company, help spin-out a company from a major corporation or enter the private equity sector. Students learn all the key phases of a start-up from opportunity identification, company formation, planning, raising different rounds of finance, recruiting and building a team, developing and executing a sales strategy and finally creating an exit strategy for investors. The course provides students with knowledge and experience to increase the likelihood of success whether as a principal in a small company, a new business unit in a corporation or a manager of risk investments. Prerequisite: None; Elective for ENTR; Elective for SMAC* |
| ENTR 503 | Garber Venture Capital Practicum | Enable students to gain practical experience in equity investments in small and start-up firms. Students are exposed to the decision making process in actual deal participation using the Garber Venture Fund coupled with relationships with external investment groups. This course exposes students to many complex business issues typical of the real world. At the end of the course, the students decide whether to make an investment from the fund and on what terms. ENTR 503 can be taken a maximum of 2 times for a total of 2 credits. Prerequisite: None, Elective for ENTR, SMAC* |
| ENTR 504 | Business Planning Immersion | Primary objectives of the course are to teach students the key elements required in a compelling business plan and provide students an opportunity to write a business plan. The course will enable students to construct business plans that present the key points in a direct, clear and appealing way. Five issues are addressed in detail including understanding the target audience, writing a powerful executive summary, key considerations in staffing and building a startup, planning key functional activities, and presenting financial information. Students will hone their skills by writing and reviewing business plans. Required for ENTR primary portfolio |
| ENTR 571 | Enterpriseuring | This course is the Capstone course within the Portfolio. It emphasizes innovation and the management of the entrepreneurial function as strategic tools. It examines in detail the commonalities and differences between entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and enterpriseursTM The latter term describes a new breed of managers that create innovative business models transcending conventional corporate boundaries eroded by Information Technology, Deregulation, and Globalization. Four cases are analyzed: a biotech start-up, a large infrastructure start-up, a counter-cultural new corporate division, and a "green field" virtual company scenario. Prerequisite: None Elective for ENTR |
| FIN 553 | Financial Modeling | This course develops the technical modeling skills necessary to be successful in the finance workplace. The primary learning vehicles are spreadsheets and simulation modeling software. Statistical techniques covered in the course include descriptive statistics, regression analysis, optimization, and simulation. Prerequisite: BA 531, FIN 550; Elective for CFAP, IMPA |
| FIN 563 | Financial Management Simulation &Corporate Visitation Immersion | Students will be organized into competing teams and be responsible for making all decisions relating to managing a simulated firm. The simulation will emphasize finance but will be explicitly cross functional so that teams must make decisions about operational, marketing, and management issues. Using financial measures of performance, teams will be judged on how well they manage the firm. The second part of the immersion experience is an interaction with corporate financial officers either on-campus or through an off-campus visit. It may be combined with the Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis Portfolio's trip to visit securities on Wall Street. Prerequisite FIN 571; Required for CFAP primary portfolio |
| FIN 565 | Investment Management Portfolio Immersion | The objectives of the immersion week are two-fold: 1) to give students working knowledge of the financial information systems in the Smeal College Trading Room and experience trading simulations; and 2) to provide students the opportunity to learn first-hand about the investment world through visits to Wall Street firms and the New York Stock Exchange. Prerequisite FIN 550; Required for IMPA primary portfolio |
| FIN 571 | Strategic Financial Management | Designed to be a practical, comprehensive course in corporate finance and strategy. Draws together the various topics in managerial finance and presents a unified, integrated view of the overall subject areas. Requires student to deal with case applications and to consider recent empirical and theoretical findings in the field. The topics covered include capital expenditure analysis, capital structure and dividend policies, corporate structure and restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, insider trading, and international corporate finance. Integrated throughout the course will be issues of managerial compensation and potential management-shareholder conflicts. Prerequisites: BA 531, FIN 550; Required for CFAP ; Elective for IMPA |
| FIN 577 | Financial Engineering &Corp. Strategy | Provides students with an understanding of how innovative financial strategies can be used to enhance real opportunities of the firm. Students learn how basic derivative instruments can be used to re-engineer exposures to risk so as to create value and promote the firm's strategic objectives. Practical perspectives in a variety of investment and financing settings are provided. Prerequisites: FIN 571; Elective for CFAP |
| FIN 581 | Fundamentals of Financial Markets | This course provides students with an understanding of the operation and structure of money and bond markets, and the concepts and techniques used in evaluating and managing fixed income portfolios. It covers the determinants of asset prices and yields, the term structure of interest rates, and yield curve analysis. It also deals with the concepts and techniques used to evaluate and manage exposures to interest rate, credit, and foreign exchange risk. Prerequisites: FIN 550; Required for IMPA |
| FIN 583 | Modern Portfolio Mgmt | This course provides the rigorous theoretical foundations and vital tools needed to structure, manage and monitor the performance of an investment portfolio. Topics include portfolio theory, the risk-return relationship, asset allocation and security selection, style analysis and performance evaluation, mutual/hedge funds. Prerequisites: FIN 550, FIN 553, FIN 581; Required for IMPA |
| FIN 585 | Financial Innovation &Portfolio Risk Mgmt | This course focuses on the recognition, measurement, and management of portfolio risk. A central theme of the course is how financial innovation, through the use of derivative instruments and creative financial structures, is used to control exposures to financial risk and enhance returns. An introduction to fundamental derivatives, standard valuation models, and practical applications to portfolio management is provided. Prerequisites: FIN 550, FIN 553, FIN 581, FIN 583, FIN 587; Required for IMPA |
| FIN 587 | Investment Mgmt I | Capstone course in IMPA portfolio. Course is taken for 1 credit in both 6th &7th modules. Builds on concepts covered in previous IMPA portfolio courses. Focuses on applied issues &topics in the management of investments. Outside lecturers from investment management world will play prominent role in delivery of course. Topics include: wealth management, asset allocation &portfolio management, security selection &trading, retirement planning, mutual &hedge funds, and tax issues in investment banking. Prerequisites: FIN 550; Required IMPA |
| FIN 588 | Investment Mgmt II | Capstone course in IMPA portfolio. Course is taken for 1 credit in both 6th &7th modules. Builds on concepts covered in previous IMPA portfolio courses. Focuses on applied issues &topics in the management of investments. Outside lecturers from investment management world will play prominent role in delivery of course. Topics include: wealth management, asset allocation &portfolio management, security selection &trading, retirement planning, mutual &hedge funds, and tax issues in investment banking. Prerequisite: FIN 550, FIN 587; Required IMPA |
| FIN/IB 555 | Global Finance | This is the capstone course for the portfolio. The course deals with the analysis of problems in international business finance and the impact of evolving international payment systems on business. The focus will be on how decisions about financial management are and should be made in the modern multinational enterprise. The impact that these decisions have on the worldwide allocation of economic resources and distribution of wealth will be assessed. Other topics of discussion include: what are the financial risks inherent in these decisions? What role can new financial instruments play in the management of these risks? Prerequisite: FIN 550; Required for CFAP ; Elective for IMPA |
| INS 575 | Risk Management | This course will focus on the concept of Enterprise Risk Management. This includes the areas of firm risk typically handled by insurance managers as well as the integration of such risks with other risks faced by firms. The methods typically used by risk managers to deal with risk will be discussed as well as newly developed products that incorporate characteristics of both insurance and capital markets. We will provide a theoretical analysis of the motivation and effects of risk management by firms. In addition, we will use case studies, articles from industry publications and simulation modeling to provide practical background and insight. In the process, the characteristics of insurance markets and products will be explored. Prerequisite: BA 531; Elective for CFAP |
| MGMT 511 listed as MGMT 597K in Fall 04 | Engagement Management | The course helps students develop a working knowledge of the skills and techniques necessary for engagement in successful consulting projects, i.e. initial contact, project proposal, project contract, diagnosis and analysis, project management, and presentation of the results. Students will have the ability to interact effectively with clients, manage consulting projects, operate as both a project team member and leader, and organize and propose team-based strategic solutions as either an internal or external consultant. Required for SMAC portfolio |
| MGMT 520 | Team Facilitation | Provides students with an in-depth understanding of team dynamics and the opportunity to develop skills for facilitating teams to achieve effective performance through the facilitation of one or more first-year MBA teams. Specific course topics include models of group development, diagnosing team problems, selecting effective intervention strategies, skills in giving and receiving feedback, conflict management, and working constructively with gender, race, and cultural differences within teams. Prerequisite: None; Elective for ENTR, PMD, SCM, SMAC |
| MGMT 521 | Complex Negotiations | Complex Negotiations is an elective course that is designed to help students develop understanding and competencies necessary for conducting complex multi-party negotiations. Topics include: framing of negotiations, dealing with internal and external negotiations simultaneously, dealing with social dilemmas, mediation, negotiating across power differences, multiparty negotiations, and international business negotiations. Prerequisite: None; Elective for IMPA, ENTR, PMD, SCM, SMAC |
| MGMT 531 | Strategy Implementation &Org. Change | Provides students with key analytic ability to assess the gap between the current status of the organization and the need to implement a new strategy or execute change, and then identify a strategy for closing the gap. Students will develop facility with two essential frameworks: a model of organizational alignment and a model for managing the change process. The topics covered include alignment of organizational structure, information and decision processes, rewards, people, and symbols; persuasion, resource, time and pacing, and leadership by the top team in the change process; implementation of an innovation strategy, a turnaround strategy, a transnational strategy, or an acquisition integration strategy. Prerequisite: None; Elective for SMAC, SCM (When Offered) |
| MGMT 551 | Growth &Innov. Strategy | Designed to provide students with concepts and tools that start-up and mature companies can use to create and sustain competitive advantage through technological and organizational innovation. Topics include: the relationship between technology strategy and corporate strategy, methods for understanding market demand for disruptive and sustaining innovations, leveraging assets through strategic alliances, and structuring the firm for successful innovation. Prerequisites: BA 571; Elective for ENTR, PMD, SMAC |
| MGMT 561 | Global Strategy | Global Strategy is an elective course that focuses on the company in its international environment—its global strategy and the organizational and managerial arrangements it uses to pursue that strategy. Study how companies internationalize by analyzing a series of key corporate decisions: the decision to go international, whether or not to enter a particular market, how to enter a market, how to use expatriates and teams, how to integrate a cross-border acquisition, etc. Develop a global perspective that emphasizes broad, systemic thinking at four "levels" of analysis: the global economy as a whole, industries, national governments, and firms. Prerequisite: None; Elective for PMD, SCM, SMAC |
| MGMT 597D | Diversity Leadership (Johnson) | The leaders and organizations that will be most successful in the 21st century are those that build the capability to quickly adapt to changing marketplace conditions and leverage talent as a competitive advantage. Key to this organizational agility is the ability to manage diversity for organizational benefit. In this respect, diversity is much more than race and gender and managing diversity has more to do with accessing and leveraging a broad array of perspectives than ensuring compliance with EEO regulations or Affirmative Action Plans. Managing diversity is about creating an environment that enables diverse perspectives and ideas to surface and developing the skills to determine which ideas can best contribute to accomplishing business objectives. OPEN ELECTIVE |
| MGMT 597G | Leadership &Change in Organizations (Gioia) | This course is concerned with understanding yourself as a leader, particularly as a leader in organizations and especially a leader of organizations undergoing change. The course focuses on: 1) developing conceptual understanding of issues involved in leading people; 2) providing opportunities for direct or vicarious learning of leadership skills; 3) giving insight into your own attitudes beliefs, and leadership philosophy; 4) creating a stimulating forum for discussing leadership issues with colleagues. Recommended for ambitious students who expect to become business and organizational leaders and are looking for the personal knowledge and skills to help become an effective leader of others, organizations and of yourself. Elective: SMAC |
| MGMT 597I | Power &Influence (Pollock) | This course provides a pragmatic and ethical framework for analyzing the sources of power in organizations and the circumstances that lead to its attainment and effective use. The goals of this course are to help you learn more about the nature and sources of power in organizations and increase your ability and confidence in diagnosing power situations, managing conflict, and using political strategies in pragmatic ways to get things done in the workplace and other organizations. Topics covered include formal and informal sources of power, social exchange perspectives on power, network structures and their consequences, organizational culture and symbolic actions, the bases of interpersonal influence, and diagnostic tools and techniques to identify the "rules of the game." Required: SMAC |
| MKTG 532 | Brand Management | This course is designed to 1) examine and understand the processes of building, designing, measuring and maintaining brand equity; 2) discuss actual applications of Brand Management strategies and methodologies presented in class, together with cases and exercises; and 3) provide MBA students with the analytic and strategic skills necessary for internships or early careers in Brand Management. Prerequisites: BA 500; Required for PMD unless taking MKTG 533 (B2B) |
| MKTG 533 | Business Marketing | The creation, measurement and delivery of superior customer value in business markets is the focus of this course. Successful market-focused business-to-business (B2B) organizations know the importance of linking customer needs to the development of high value products throughout the value chain in a global, electronic environment. And those successful organizations require that marketing be viewed as an investment, with measurable results and not as an expense. Prerequisite: BA 500; Required for PMD unless taking MKTG 532 (Brand Mgmt) ; Elective for SCM |
| MKTG 534 | Integrated Marketing Comm. | This course is designed to help students to more effectively: 1) describe, manage and coach the concept and realities of "Brand", and "Brand Equity" in an operational way with teams, agencies, and other supporting groups and their business; 2) implement and Coach an 8 step process for the development and execution of an Integrated Market Communications program, to build sales, build brand equity, and achieve financial objectives; and 3) get better, more effective, creative results from their advertising and support agencies, whether they are managing, influencing, or consulting to the process. Prerequisite: BA 500; Required for PMD |
| MKTG 542 | New Product Development | The course has two objectives. The first objective is to expose the students to the various tools needed in NPD and to familiarize the students with the NPD process (market opportunity identification, customer analysis, concept generation, selection and testing, prototyping, launch and product life cycle management). The capstone of this is a team project that gives the students an opportunity to practice these process/tools discussed in the classroom. The second aim is to help students understand and tackle some key NPD challenges facing senior management and management consultant. Prerequisite: BA 500; Elective for ENTR, PMD, SCM |
| MKTG 571 | Marketing Strategy | This is the capstone course for the portfolio. As such, it is intended to help review and integrate concepts presented in other product and market development courses. It examines marketing related issues and solutions to problems arising from market and product development of products or services in competitive business environments. It focuses on business-level marketing strategy, not corporate strategy or business policy. Prerequisite: BA 500; Required for PMD ; Elective for SMAC* |
| MKTG 597B | Marketing Engineering | This course deals with concepts, methods, and applications of decision modeling to address such marketing issues as segmentation, new product design and development, advertising, sales force and promotion planning, and sales forecasting. The course is designed for MBAs who have an understanding of marketing principles, and exposure to spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft EXCEL. Using market simulations and related exercises tied to PC-based computer software, students will develop marketing plans in various decision contexts. The course objectives include: providing students with an understanding of the role that analytical techniques and computer models can play in enhancing marketing decision making in modern enterprises, improving students skill in viewing marketing processes and relationships systematically and analytically and providing students with the software tools that will enable them to apply the models and methods taught in the course to real marketing problems. Prerequisite: BA 500; Elective for PMD |
| MKTG 597C | Marketing Simulation Immersion | The Marketing Immersion course is designed to provide students with the chance to synthesize what they are learning in the PMD portfolio in particular and the MBA program in general. This comes through practicing managing the marketing function of a simulated enterprise over time in competition with their classmates. Required for PMD primary portfolio |
| MKTG 597D | Sales &Sales Force Mgmt (Ross) | The selling function is the business function that connects the firm to its markets and its customers, and the role of the sales person is to manage the relationship between the firm and its customer. The role of sales force management is to 1) connect the selling function to the firm's business strategy, 2) organize and coordinate the selling function and the sales people it contains, and 3) perform the day to day management of the sales force. Course objectives are: 1.) to introduce you to the sales function and sales management, and 2.)to improve your familiarity with selling and sales force management so that you can work more effectively with your own and with other firms' sales people. Elective for PMD. |
| REST 560 | Real Estate Financial Analysis | This course provides a modern framework for the valuation and analysis of real property using both theoretical and empirical approaches. Topics include valuation of land and improvements, real estate finance methods, real estate investment strategies, and special topics relating real property to corporate finance. Prerequisite: BA 531; Elective for CFAP |
| REST 570 | Institutional Real Estate Investment | This course surveys the latest developments of real estate as an institutional investment. Topics include the role of institutions in real estate markets, modern applications of financial economics models to real property, securitization and the rise of real estate securities, international real estate investing, and trading room applications. Prerequisite: BA 531; Elective for IMPA |
| SCM 540 | Transportation in Supply Chain | This course provides knowledge of the internal and external components of transportation systems, including their technological features, operational processes, network configurations, and cost conditions. Alternative buyer-seller channels for domestic and international transportation service, and transportation service transaction processes, are identified and evaluated from strategic, tactical, and economic perspectives. Organizational alternatives and issues for the integration of transportation management and operational processes in supply chain systems also receive attention. Prerequisite: BA 510; Elective for SCM |
| SCM 546 | Strategic Procurement | This course explores leveraging the contributions of a supply strategy, e-procurement, supply segmentation, collaboration &relationship management, and global procurement for developing and executing sourcing strategies, with special emphasis on the strategic planning and use of information technology. This is one of three foundation courses. Required SCM |
| SCM 556 | Manufacturing Strategy | Focuses on understanding the connections between manufacturing, inventory, and location decisions on customer-focused, multi-stage supply chains. We will explore how strategic choices (such as information technology, facility location, and mass customization) tie in with planning decisions (such as forecasting and aggregate planning) to support synchronized supply chains. This is one of three foundation courses. Delivery is coordinated with BA 510. Evaluation methods include a combination of class participation, exams, "hands-on" exercises, case studies, and reactions papers. Prerequisite: BA 510; Required for SCM; Elective for SMAC* |
| SCM 570 | Supply Chain Modeling | Supply Chain Modeling focuses on mathematical modeling techniques used to design, analyze, execute and integrate supply chains. Three primary methods will be studied: simulation, optimization and enterprise resource planning. Key conceptual and theoretical methods will be reviewed, along with the use of complementary, contemporary software in each of the three major areas. Prerequisite: SCM 556; Elective for SCM |
| SCM 576 | Logistics &Supply Chain Leadership | This capstone course is designed to integrate course topics covered in foundation courses and engage students in probing discussions of critical supply chain leadership issues. Special emphasis is given to supply chain technology adoption, change management, shareholder value assessment, capability assessment, relationship management, and performance metrics. Offered once per year in the spring semester. Evaluation methods include class participation, an intensive case project in the field, and a case competition judged by a panel of senior executives. Prerequisites: SCM 546, SCM 556, SCM 566; Required for SCM portfolio |
| SCM 597 | Immersion | Using an appropriate pedagogical approach including but not limited to experiential, case based or problem based learning, this course is intended to support offering coverage of topics or special interest subjects. Required for SCM primary portfolio |
