MBA - MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION COURSE DESCRIPTIONS 

Admittance in to the MBA program is for Fall only and follows a specific course sequence designed by the professors. These courses are reserved for students of Graduate standing.   

Pre Courses
MBA/500 - Preparation for GMat
This preparatory course enables students to prepare themselves for the GMAT which is a standardized assessment, delivered in English, that helps business schools assess the qualifications of applicants for advanced study in business and management. Schools use the test as one predictor of academic performance in an MBA program or in other graduate management programs. This course prepares students in basic verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills.
Credits: None

Core Courses
MBA/5500 - Introduction to Economics
This course is divided in two principal parts: Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. The first part provides an overview of the fundamentals of macroeconomic theory. Themes addressed in this course include: GDP and inflation, unemployment, the role of money, aggregate demand and supply, the monetary and fiscal policies. The second part discusses the behavior of single agents such as consumers and producers and their interaction in markets and economic institutions. This part will include the standard microeconomics paradigm of consumers' and producers' optimal behavior, focusing on classical demand and production theory; the explanation of the work of perfectly competitive markets, providing a benchmark against which it is possible to assess other market structures.

MBA/5600 - Analysis of Business Problems
The course uses short cases to focus on wide variety business concepts and practical issues. The cases are generally based on small businesses and entrepreneurs. The cases involve problems that are “open ended”, which offers a very rich analysis and insightful discussions. This is an introductory course that helps the students to develop general frameworks for addressing business problems.

MBA/6000 - Financial Accounting
This course covers the concepts and procedures used in accounting to support financial decision making. Topics include main financial statements (balance sheets, income statement and cash flow statement) and their interrelationships. Then the course analyzes in detail the key accounts and shows how useful information about a company can be extracted from financial statements.

MBA/6050 - Corporate Finance
This course aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the main principles of corporate finance. Topics covered include risk, the rate of return, analysis of sources and cost of internal and external funding, capital structure, and dividend policy. Through these concepts, students will be able to answer what the cost of money is and where to obtain funds for a company.

MBA/6100 - Decision Analysis
The corporate world, like our individual lives, is driven by the decisions made in the world of uncertainty. Some people use “gut-feeling” to make decisions and some may use rigorous analysis to reach certain decisions. Most economic decisions are associated with both tangible and intangible aspects. For example, if a company lays-off 1000 employees, then the tangible part is that the company will have lower expenses and can show higher profits. These can be calculated with some certainty. However, by laying-off employees, it is difficult to estimate how much the company will lose in terms of its brand image that attracts the consumers. This course offers sophisticated tools and rich frameworks to conduct decisions analysis on tangible aspects. It also offers rich discussions on the intangible aspects

MBA/6200 - Ethics, Law & Business
This course outlines and examines the various approaches taken to the world of business in ethical and legal terms. The relationships between the various stakeholders (society, employees and customers) in business firms will be highlighted. Important themes such as business contracts, organizations and secured transactions will be explored along with a special focus on the various legal systems in countries other than the USA.

MBA/6300 - Marketing Management 
This course concentrates on the following topics: motivation and purchasing power, consumer wants, the structure of distribution, and the management of a firm’s marketing effort. Through an intensive study of the environment in which decisions regarding marketing are made in advanced market economies, students will learn about the mixed variables of marketing applied to different companies of various sizes. In order to integrate students’ marketing background, lectures and the case analysis method will be used. 

MBA/6350 - Marketing Implementation
This course provides the understanding of practical concepts that are essential to the success of a firm. The focus of the course is on the practical measures that a company adopts to actually sell its products and implement a marketing 
strategy. Some of these measures include targeted advertising, communication with consumers, developing sales-teams, motivating distributors, and understanding consumer behavior.  

MBA/6400 - Organizational Behavior
This course addresses the basic issues of work behavior such as leadership, the management of change, motivation and individual differences. The theme of work behavior will be seen from the point of view of behavioral research and managerial practice. Students will lay the foundations for the management of performance, operations and quality.

MBA/6500 - Global Economics
This course aims to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the international economy from a managerial standpoint. By examining different countries’ economic policies, political and institutional analysis is developed together with a study of economics. The case method is used to apply this knowledge. Students will analyze economic situations in various countries within the context of the international economy.

MBA/6600, MIAA/6300 - Managerial Accounting
This course analyzes and discusses what information gathered, accumulated and presented is helpful in managerial decision making. Students learn how cost systems are designed and how to measure the cost of the resources in running a business. The course also covers basic concepts of planning, directing and controlling organization’s operations. Students will be introduced to budget preparation and analysis of variance.

MBA/6700 - Operations Management
Placing emphasis on the various means and analytical methods employed for understanding operations management structures in firms, this course aims to understand the managerial aspects including the direction and control of the transformation from inputs into completed goods and services. 

MBA/6800 - Business Strategy
The aim of this course is the general manager's, CEO's, or Director's responsibility to oversee the implementation of a long-range plan that will result in a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization. This course also includes steps that lead to a successful strategy, how to translate strategy into tactical plans that drive day-to-day action, how to measure performance of the strategy, and how to determine and enact necessary organizational corrective adjustments.

MBA/6900 - Entrepreneurship
This course provides the basis of the entrepreneurial approach to management, essential to any business activity today. In an integrative, action-oriented course, students will acquire the mindset and skills of entrepreneurial management. Topics covered include the identification and evaluation of business opportunities, the conception of business models and the identification factors for successful implementation. This course utilizes a series of practical academic frameworks jointly with innovative tools, cases and exercises with the aim of allowing students to deploy an entrepreneurial approach to any business situation.

Electives

MBA/7000 - Advanced Applied Finance
This course is divided into two parts: Advanced issues on Risk and Return and Finance in Emerging Markets. In the first part some of the topics covered may include: implications of the investments horizon on investment decisions, impact of globalization of markets on investors’ ability to diversity risk, benchmarking as a tool of measuring performance of mutual funds. The second part analyzes the performance of investments in the emerging markets and the relevant measurement tools utilized.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7050 - International Financial Statement Analysis
The course goes beyond the traditional techniques of financial statement analysis which were covered during the first year courses. New performance measures such as economic profit and non-financial indicators are described and illustrated. Ways of analyzing liquidity and credit risk using accounting numbers and explained as well as common techniques of earnings management. The focus of this course is on international companies and students will learn about how differences in accounting practices can make it difficult for an investor to compare the profitability and risk of firms in different countries. This course shows students how investors deal with such differences when analyzing financial statements.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7070 - Investment Banking
This course analyzes the service provided by investment banks. Main topics include valuation of companies, financial 
strategy and growth of businesses, acquisitions, leveraged buy-outs, leveraged re-capitalization, greenmail, foreign investments and joint ventures, neutralization of risk, development of new financial products, and positioning of new financial instruments.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7100 - Management of Non-Profit Institutions
The number of non-profit institutions has been growing exponentially through the world in the last two decades. Sometimes social welfare institutions are referred to as NGOs (Non-governmental organizations). Under the umbrella of the non-profit status there are an enormous variety of organizations with highly diverse objectives, financing, power structure configurations, personnel make-up and strategies. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to different aspects of the governance of organizations in the third sector, which mostly take on the legal form of foundations or charities.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7110 - Social Entrepreneurship
This course is specifically developed for students who are passionate about bringing about change in their societies. The focus is on how one individual with non-business oriented idea can develop community organizations that can lead to betterment of society. Using a case based approach; the course will look at individuals who have been successful social entrepreneurs. The course will also draw parallels and contrasts between social entrepreneurship and business entrepreneurship.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7150 - Information Systems and Business
This course serves as an introduction to the new solutions through technology and the obtainment of competitive advantages through information value. It will discuss how technology helps to define business models and provide operations in the digital network economy. Real world examples will be examined and analytical frameworks will be introduced in order to address the issues which business leaders and technology face. Information will also be discussed as an economic good which is deserving of greater attention in organizations.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7200 - International Corporate Governance
This course examines corporate governance systems and practices around the world. This uses case studies and various countries to explore how a country’s legal system affects cost of capital and financial development. The course also looks at conflict resolution between the various constituencies of the firm, including incentive alignment between owners (shareholders) and their representatives (board and management), and the need to protect shareholder rights.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7300 - Corporate Social Responsibility
There is an ongoing debate about what corporate social responsibility means and what is its relevance in democratic societies. Given the current global economic situation, this course helps students develop ideas and understanding of the interaction between social and economic growth. The course does not offer an answer, but it helps the students explore and develop their own frameworks based on various schools of thought.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7350 - Sustainable Supply Chain Management
In a product based company, an efficient and low cost supply chain management is essential to compete in the market place. The balance between costs and efficiency is further complicated when supply chain involves different countries. In the current global economic situation, it is rare to find products in a developed nation that have not been, at least partially, manufactured in foreign countries. This course offers the tools and insights into developing a risk mitigated and sustainable supply chain management.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7400 - Multicultural Management
This course presents a problem solving, decision-making approach to international business in the light of actual management situations where an appreciation of the impact of cultural difference on behavior can make a difference to performance. This course also builds on the functional management disciplines such as cross-cultural marketing, finance, control, personnel strategy, organization behavior, and negotiation.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7450 - Communication and Interpersonal Relations
This course explores the psychological process of communication and the dynamics of interpersonal and group relations within organizations. More specifically, the course examines interpersonal communication, relations and conflicts, relations with superiors, group dynamics and group decision making, the manager as a counselor.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7460 - Negotiations & Conflict Resolution
The focus of this course is to improve students' skills and theoretical understanding of all types of negotiations that managers and executives face in their professional lives. These may include managing group relations, managing business relationships, managing cross-cultural negotiations, making ethical choices, and negotiating in a variety of contexts, including multilateral negotiations and conflict resolutions. The course will focus on latest practical approaches that apply to international business.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7500 - Applied International Economics
Combing theory and case studies, this course provides the fundamental skills required to understand the workings of the international economy. The first half of the course focuses on the real economy (free trade, protectionism, industrial policy, and competitiveness). The second half concentrates on monetary problems in the international economy (how exchange rates are determined, exchange rate systems, European Monetary Union, etc.)
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7550 - Emerging Economies
This course provides the tools for analysis of the economic, financial and political structure of emerging economies, in order to assess their economic situation and country risks. This course is designed to appeal to students who, whether in consulting or banking, are likely to be asked to evaluate the economic situation of emerging economies and their investment opportunities.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7700 - Project Risk Management 
This course is intended to build on participants’ previous experiences by providing and letting them experiment with some frameworks which have proven useful in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluation projects in a wide variety of environments. Students will follow the life cycle of a project and work in teams on a real project such development of a new product, change in structure such as staffing, constructing a facility, or running a political campaign.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7800 - Global Strategy
This course helps the student understand the problems faced by, and the decisions made by, executive managers who have to balance the needs and desires of share-holders, customers, and employees with the requirements of local country mores and government regulations. It requires consolidation of skills and knowledge from a variety of disciplines including management, finance, marketing, and ethics. The course uses the case study approach supplemented by readings and lectures. The cases are directed toward evaluating the conflicting pressures that managers encounter, rather than a detailed analysis of a particular facet.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7950 - Innovation Management
The purpose of this course is to learn how a company can improve its ability to innovate at different levels of its organization: individual, group and corporate. This course also shows how the company must motivate and develop different competencies in people and groups depending on the type of innovation that it wishes to be achieve such as process or product innovation, incremental or radical, local or global, etc. Finally, using case from different continents, it is sought to show that innovation has a cultural component that leads companies with different cultures to approach innovation from different viewpoints.
Prerequisite: Core Courses

MBA/7970 - Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship
This course is designed to introduce students to the issues and practices of financing entrepreneurial businesses (start-ups, emerging growth companies, management buy-outs and buy-ins). The course covers matters regarding raising finance, pricing and structuring financings and exiting, from the point of view of both the entrepreneur and the investor. This course has three principal objectives: to familiarize students with the financing/deal-making process, to provide an understanding of different methods used in valuing privately-held companies, and to sensitize students to various issues (including non-financial ones) that must be addressed by entrepreneurs and investors alike when funding a new venture and when exiting it. From this course, students should gain an understanding of how deals are done, pricing and structuring financing, exit considerations, and a sense of the issues and pitfalls that must be considered in managing such investments. 
Prerequisite: Core Courses

Research and Professional Practice

MBA/8900 - Internship
An internship serves as practical and professional experience and serves as a springboard for the development of a research project. Students will apply knowledge acquired during the program and will learn to work in teams. The host company and a faculty member will decide which project to develop.
Prerequisite: Core Courses
Credits: 3 Credits total

MBA/9000 - Capstone Project 
A project developed by a group of students in collaboration with a company and supervised by an instructor. This project will represent the culmination of the knowledge students have acquired throughout the course.
Prerequisite: Core Courses
Credits: 6 Credits total