Graduate Business (GBUS)

GBUS 401 Financial Reporting for Managers and Investors 3 Credits

Corporate financial reporting under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Analysis and interpretation of financial statements: accrual accounting, balance sheet valuation, income determination and cash flow analysis.Profit manipulation, window dressing and "creative accounting" through accounting policy choices. Fraudulent financial reporting, uses and limitations of accounting information. Accounting information as a tool for strategic decision making.

GBUS 405 Career and Professional Development I 1 Credit

Enables foundations to navigate career journeys and transition into the workforce. Focuses on strengths, interests, personal leadership, strategic communication, and professional networking. Includes business content, exercises, facilitation, readings, assignments, and thought leadership. Students must show progress toward crafting their professional profile and presenting to networks and employers through required and completed course deliverables and activities that tie into the course's learning objectives and build upon course-related activities such as mock interviews, Career Expo, etc.

GBUS 408 Advanced Business Speaking and Pragmatics 2 Credits

Designed to assist international business students become capable communicators within the U.S. and the global marketplace. Students will increase their oral communicative competence and socio-cultural communication awareness through assignments designed to help them learn successful behaviors and customs that are essential elements of oral communication in U.S. graduate business courses, job searching, networking, business presentations, and career development. Students are assessed through their successful use of advanced language functions during the application of face-to-face business settings including business-style negotiations, interviews, presentations, and panel discussions.

GBUS 409 Advanced Business Writing and Reading 2 Credits

Designed to introduce international business students to the types of rhetoric and written structures required in an American university graduate business program, as well as in most business environments; and to provide them with the skills and strategies that are necessary to produce cogent academic essays and papers, as well as business summaries and briefs for the global marketplace. Utilizing a process writing approach, students model expository, chronological order/process, compare and contrast, cause and effect, argumentative, and problem-solution styles, as well as formal and informal business written communication styles. Students are assessed through their successful use of these rhetorical models in writing, their advanced level of academic vocabulary and grammatical structures, as well as through summaries and analyses of research-level articles that include appropriate academic publication conventions.

GBUS 413 Advanced Management Accounting 3 Credits

Issues in management accounting including activity-based costing, activity-based management, strategic cost management, theory of constraints, advanced manufacturing technologies, cost of quality and lifecycle costing. Readings and cases.
Prerequisites: MBA 403

GBUS 414 Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation 3 Credits

This course focuses on analysis of financial statements. It develops the skills necessary to interpret and use financial statement information effectively to assess profitability and risk and is intended for individuals likely to become intensive users of financial accounting information. Requirements include readings, case studies, presentations, and written analysis of actual financial statements.
Prerequisites: (MBA 402) or (ACCT 151 and FIN 125 or FIN 225)

GBUS 419 Financial Management 3 Credits

An intermediate level course in corporate finance. Coverage includes capital budgeting techniques including real options, decision tree analysis, risk analysis, advanced cost of capital theories, capital structure theory, dividend policy, working capital management, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and bankruptcies. The course emphasizes both theory and practice through lectures, cases, and financial modeling exercises. Students not possessing the relevant prerequisites must obtain waivers from the designated finance faculty representative.
Prerequisites: MBA 402 or MBA 461 or FIN 433 or (ACCT 151 and FIN 125)

GBUS 420 Investments 3 Credits

A survey course in investments. Overview of financial institutions and markets involved in the issuance and trading of securities. Emphasis on valuation and risk assessment of fixed income and equity securities. Construction of optimal portfolios and examination of performance measures. Students not possessing the relevant prerequisites must obtain waivers from the designated finance faculty representative.
Prerequisites: MBA 402 or MBA 461 or FIN 433 or (ACCT 151 and FIN 125)

GBUS 421 Advanced Investments 3 Credits

Advanced topics relating to specific areas within investment finance such as valuation/security analysis; portfolio/risk mamangement; fixed investment securities;mutual funds; hedge funds; microstructure; and trading. Consent of designated finance faculty representative required.
Repeat Status: Course may be repeated.
Prerequisites: GBUS 420

GBUS 422 Derivatives and Risk Management 3 Credits

The theory and application of a variety of derivative instruments (options, futures contracts, etc.) used in corporation finance and the financial services industry. The focus is on the risk management application vs. a rigorous development of option pricing theory and similar topics. Consent of designated finance faculty representative required.
Prerequisites: GBUS 420

GBUS 424 Advanced Topics in Financial Management 3 Credits

Advanced topics relating to specific areas of corporate finance such as: theoretical and empirical examination of recent developments in financial management, asset valuation and capital budgeting including the role of uncertainty, imprecise forecasts, risk preferences, inflation, market conditions, and the global marketplace, working capital management, leasing, mergers, and financing. The course content may vary between instructors or each time the course is offered. Consent of designated finance representative.
Repeat Status: Course may be repeated.
Prerequisites: GBUS 419

GBUS 425 Real Estate Financing and Investing 3 Credits

An upper-level course in modern real estate financing techniques from the perspectives of both the borrower and the lender. Subject matter encompasses the following areas: The principles of financing decisions; financing methods and techniques; institutional sources of funds for real estate; and real estate financing decisions. Consent of designated finance faculty representative required.
Prerequisites: (MBA 402 and GBUS 420)

GBUS 426 Financial Markets and Institutions 3 Credits

Functions and portfolios of financial intermediaries. Sectional demand and supply of funds, nature and role of interest rates, term structure and forecasting, impact of inflation and regulations on financial intermediaries and markets, and current developments in the financial system. Management of assets and liabilities within the U.S. financial institution's legal and economic constraints. Consent of designated finance faculty representative.
Prerequisites: (GBUS 420)

GBUS 431 Quantitative Finance 3 Credits

Relationship of quantitative models to financial theory and applications. Capital budgeting, portfolio selection, security evaluation, cash management, inventory policy and credit analysis. Consent of designated finance faculty.
Prerequisites: MBA 402

GBUS 432 Demand and Supply Chain Planning 3 Credits

Students will learn how businesses work together to build relationships and integrate demand and supply planning activities across the supply chain to deliver superior value to customers. They will also learn about tools and technologies that enable integration as well as the critical drivers and the key metrics that support supply chain performance. Current readings and case studies, simulations and written assignments will be used.

GBUS 437 Federal Taxation and Business Decisions 3 Credits

Impact of federal taxation on the structure and timing of business decisions. Problem-solving methods and research techniques from a managerial perspective.
Prerequisites: ACCT 307

GBUS 441 Business Ethics 3 Credits

Presents several frameworks by which to view ethics and decision-making. Links theory and practice through the study of business ethics as it relates to a variety of management issues. Course content is structured along three dimensions: ethics and the individual, managing ethics in the organization, and organizational ethics and social responsibility.

GBUS 442 Seminar in Management Consulting 3 Credits

A study of consulting practices in general and their application to small business. Processes include a field study/counseling service to a local business. Emphasis is on the identification and analysis of multidisciplinary problems and opportunities and the implementation of recommendations. Must have completion of MBA background courses (or equivalent). Consent of instructor required.

GBUS 443 Advanced Leadership Topics: Leadership Skill Building 1 Credit

Beyond intelligence and technical skills, what separates effective from less effective leaders is an understanding of the human psychology that drives business. This course offers students an opportunity to learn more about themselves, to get feedback, to practice getting out of their comfort zones. It focuses on providing students with essential leadership knowledge and abilities, including topics at the heart of relational leadership (e.g, listening, coaching, feedback giving/receiving, EI) to grow into the leader they want to become.

GBUS 447 Negotiation 3 Credits

The class examines the behavioral foundations of the negotiation process. Topics include: The negotiation process, negotiation planning, power in negotiations, communications in negotiations, tactics, concepts of win-win and win-lose, social styles, individual and team negotiations, ethical considerations, cultural differences, negotiating in sole source (customer) situations, using third parties. The concepts will be exposed through both lectures and simulations.

GBUS 448 Leadership 3 Credits

This course is an examination of leadership at the organization and group/team levels, and aims to develop and build a student's leadership skills and the ability to diagnose leadership needs in different situations. In identifying and building these leadership skills, the course will focus on the decisions leaders need to make, and the appropriate leadership decision-making processes required in various contexts and at different stages of an organization's existence. Cases and developmental exercises including in-depth decision-making exercises are utilized and cover diverse situations and cross-cultural dimensions including specific situations such as a crisis or ethically difficult decisions.

GBUS 449 Talent Analytics 3 Credits

Addresses the growing need for data-driven, analytical approaches to managing talent. To implement business strategies effectively and to gain competitive advantage through people, leaders must deal with people issues. The organizations that will win the “war for talent” will be those, which are better at identifying and keeping key talent, motivating high performance, developing and promoting staff, and predicting future people needs accurately. HR professionals need analytics to address these challenges.
Prerequisites: MBA 405 or MGT 436 or MBA 464

GBUS 450 Strategic Supply Management 3 Credits

A survey course designed to introduce the MBA/MSE student to the vital role played by supply management in achieving overall effectiveness for the firm in today's global economy. The course starts by examining the traditional purchasing process and then moves on to an examination of the evolution of purchasing into supply management and, finally, to the role purchasing plays in improving effectiveness of the entire value chain. consists of lectures, discussion and case analysis.

GBUS 453 Transportation and Logistics Management 3 Credits

The control of physical distribution and inventories; the flow of information, products and cash through the integrated supply chain.

GBUS 456 Applied Supply Chain Models 3 Credits

This course will present applied and analytic approaches for developing inventory and forecasting models, supplier selection, supply chain quality management, and production planning and supply chain network design.

GBUS 460 Strategic Marketing Management 3 Credits

The course studies the management of contemporary organizations from the perspective of a marketing manager. While the course content addresses the activities required to maintain a strategic fit between an organization's environment and its particular set of objectives and resources, the central focus is on designing strategic marketing actions for various types of organizations. The course pedagogy emphasizes the application of marketing and other business principles through seminars, simulations, or case discussion.
Prerequisites: MBA 404

GBUS 461 Marketing Analytics 3 Credits

With principles of marketing as its underpinning, this course provides an overview of both theories and practice of marketing analytics. Topics and skill sets include customer data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, search engine marketing, digital metrics, dataset queries, statistical programming, text analysis, and data visualization. Through class discussions and hands-on exercises, students will gain a basic understanding and working knowledge of analytics, allowing them to make strategic decisions and derive customer insights to support businesses in today’s data-driven world.

GBUS 462 Pharmaceutical Marketing 3 Credits

The course provides an introduction and overview of the various healthcare system components as they relate to the pharmaceutical industry. This course will (1) focus on product decisions of the firm, requiring an occasional shift in focus from that of corporate management to that of operating managers of new product activities or established brands; (2) recognize the importance of marketing research as input to product decisions; (3) take a managerial orientation; (4) recognize the need to tailor product policy approaches to the characteristics of the decision-maker and the firm. The course will be a mixture of lectures, discussions, case analyses, and group exercises. Graduate students only.
Prerequisites: MBA 404

GBUS 464 Business-to-Business Marketing 3 Credits

This course focuses on marketing strategies and tactics in firms whose customers are other institutions, not individuals. Topics covered include organizational buying behavior, managing strategic buyer-seller relationships, sales force deployment, communication strategies, and so on. Specific attention is given to the impact of information technology and globalization in the business to business context.

GBUS 465 Creating Breakthrough Innovations 3 Credits

Most products and services either fail or do average business, but some are phenomenally successful. Such products and services that provide phenomenal financial returns and become market leaders can be called "Breakthrough Products and Services". The main objective of the course is to improve our understanding of the process of creating breakthrough products and services. It is accomplished by in-class discussions of cases, assignments, and the state-of-the-art research work in academia and industry. The course concludes with a term paper that integrates the concepts learned from class discussions, reference books, and research papers and applies them to a real product. Must have graduate student status plus two years of postgraduate work experience.

GBUS 466 Marketing Research and Analysis 3 Credits

This course focuses on procedures for collecting and analyzing relevant information for informed decision making by managers. The process of identifying research questions, developing instruments for collecting information, appropriate interpretation of information, and appropriateness of research methods are some of the topics discussed in this course. The course focuses on the process of doing marketing research as well as the techniques for analyzing information. Discussion of concepts and cases, developing data collection instruments, and doing actual marketing research projects will form the key elements of this course.
Prerequisites: (ECO 401 or BUEC )

GBUS 467 Sales Management 3 Credits

This course takes an integrated approach to the study of sales management, including formulation of strategically sound programs and the implementation of selling initiatives and the evaluation and control of the organization’s sales activities. Topics include the role of the sales manager in the divergent demands of multiple constituencies; the development of effective sales organizations; lead generation and quota setting; territory management; and motivation and reward systems. Learning methods include case studies where students’ diagnose problems and develop viable alternatives.

GBUS 468 Future of Marketing 3 Credits

The course focuses on emerging trends that significantly influence the future of marketing. A variety of methods and contemporary materials will be used to discuss future scenarios: (1) how marketing is conceptualized and implemented; and (2) how marketing impacts and is impacted by society.

GBUS 470 Marketing Communications Strategies 3 Credits

This course focuses on how various elements of communications are integrated to achieve various organizational objectives. In addition to the traditional communication media such as advertising and point of purchase media, emphasis will also be placed on new media and strategies made possible due to the advances in technology. The course will involve discussion of concepts, case analysis and discussion, insights from practitioners, and group projects.

GBUS 471 Strategic Brand Management 3 Credits

This course approaches the study of brand management by illustrating the formulation of strategically sound brand management programs and the evaluation and control of the implementation of key brand initiatives (new products, advertising support, etc.). Focus is on theories and models to develop and manage brand equity. Specific learning modules include customer development, brand strategy development, brand extension development and annual brand planning. Specific attention is focused on case studies and team projects in building, measuring and managing brand equity.

GBUS 472 Strategies for Services Marketing 3 Credits

The course focuses on the challenges of marketing and managing services (whether in a manufacturing or service business) and discusses the development of strategies for addressing these challenges. The need for cross-functional integration to provide effective service is stressed. Illustrative topics include service quality gap analysis, relationship between superior service and profitability, service encounter analysis, customer lifetime value analysis, services guarantees, and service demand and capacity management.

GBUS 473 International Finance 3 Credits

Consideration of problems arising from the risks associated with international investing and multinational corporation finance (currency, political, etc.). Focus is on (a) investing in international market given the institutional constraints and differences between domestic markets, and (b) managerial issues relating to corporations, investors, and financial institutions. Consent of designated finance faculty representative.
Prerequisites: GBUS 419

GBUS 475 Global Marketing Strategies 3 Credits

The course is designed to provide a framework within which global marketing operation can be analyzed, understood, and undertaken. The course focuses on issues that are being faced by firms in today's global marketplace, particularly those that are related to strategy formulation and implementation. The learning experience in this course is placed on global business decision-making, through the use of case studies, projects, exercises, and lectures.

GBUS 482 Financial Engineering Professional Development I 1 Credit

MFE alumni speakers provide weekly insights on coding languages and industry trends. Preparations for placement in internships and full-time positions are undertaken for finance and data science positions. Students must show progress toward crafting their professional profile and are required to submit bi-weekly summaries of completed course activities that tie into the learning objectives of the course and build upon prior course activities to advance job preparations and career foundations.

GBUS 483 Financial Engineering Professional Development II 1 Credit

MFE speakers provide insights into job search strategies and current job opportunities. Mock interviews and further preparation targeted to tracks (Trading, Data Analytics, Advisory, Risk), prepare students for targeted interviews. Students must show progress toward crafting their professional profile and are required to submit bi-weekly summaries of completed course activities that tie into the learning objectives of the course and build upon prior course activities to advance job preparations and career foundations.
Prerequisites: GBUS 482

GBUS 484 Financial Engineering Professional Development 0 Credits

The program's size and selectivity lead to an intense experience enabling the student to benefit from development opportunities such as: Alumni Connections, Alumni speaker series, corporate connections gained through practicum capstone projects, standard University job tools and programs, Quant Career fairs, Quant Trading Competition, Quant Conference and Networking, internships and job opportunities.
Repeat Status: Course may be repeated.

GBUS 485 Financial Engineering Practicum Capstone I 2 Credits

MFE students work in teams with a faculty mentor on the scoping, reach, coding, and technical feasibility of portfolio theory-based tools, risk management models, trading algorithms, or blockchain-based trading strategies initiated by the course’s corporate sponsors. Projects can be initiated by enterprising students. These sponsors are asset managers, algorithmic traders, blockchain professionals, bankers, published authors, investor advisors to ensure that the projects have real-world applicability. Written reports and oral presentations to sponsors are required. Open to MFE students only.

GBUS 487 Financial Engineering Practicum Capstone II 2 Credits

MFE students continue to work on team projects designed in GBUS 485 via conference participation, reaching to experts in the field, further developing their coding, risk assessment skills. Written reports and oral presentations to sponsors are required. Open to MFE students only. Class meets every week while periodic team meetings with and without sponsors are also held.
Prerequisites: GBUS 485

GBUS 490 Thesis 0-6 Credits

GBUS 492 Special Topics 1-4 Credits

Repeat Status: Course may be repeated.

GBUS 494 Field Projects 1-4 Credits

The field projects course will provide MBA students with an opportunity to apply MBA concepts with an employer, corporate partner or other suitable organization. Students will work with a supervising professor and a corporate representative on a project designed by the student. Students must prepare a written proposal for the project including the expected outcomes and an estimate of the hours required for completion. Students will present their proposal to a faculty member of their choice for approval. The academic rigor and time required to complete the project will determine the number of credits earned.

GBUS 499 Dissertation 1-12 Credits