BUSO - Online MBA Programs
BUSO600 Leadership and Teamwork (2 Credits)
Course examines concepts of team-building and leadership which are critical to managerial success. Topics include leadership, decision making, communication and conflict, work motivation, building effective teams, and organizational change and culture.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO601 Corporate Finance I (2 Credits)
Introductory course in corporate financial management. The course outlines the financial concepts and techniques used to evaluate corporate decisions. The topics include the time value of money, valuation of common securities, capital budgeting methods, and discounted cash flow. The objectives are to introduce the language and structure of finance and to develop the ability to analyze financial decisions.
Prerequisite: BUSO602.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO602 Financial Accounting (2 Credits)
Overview of financial accounting, periodic financial statements and the financial reporting process. Importance of financial statements as information source for creditors and investors and as a means by which managers can communicate information about their firms.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO603 Data Analysis (2 Credits)
Many different skills are required in arriving at informed managerial decisions. Among these are analytical and quantitative skills. Data Analysis is one in a sequence of two courses that seeks to develop these two important skills. More formally, the goals of this course are: to introduce basic statistical techniques: summarizing and presenting data; confidence intervals and hypothesis tests; regression analysis.; to implement these techniques using spreadsheets; and to become active users of data analysis in making managerial decisions.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO604 Managerial Economics and Public Policy (2 Credits)
Basic microeconomic principles used by firms, including supply and demand, elasticities, costs, productivity, pricing, market structure and competitive implications of alternative market structures. Market failures and government intervention. Public policy processes affecting business operations.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO612 Marketing Management (2 Credits)
Analysis of marketing problems and evaluation of specific marketing efforts regarding the organization's products and services, pricing activities, channel selection, and promotion strategies in both domestic and international markets.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO614 Strategic Management (2 Credits)
Analyze and identify profit opportunities and threats in different industry and competitive environments; Analyze and identify a firm's valuable assets, resources and capabilities and how they might be protected, leveraged, and extended in the market; Learn how to organize your company to be the best prepared to adapt its strategy over time as the market environment changes; and how to use organic growth as well as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, and divestitures to ensure that the firm maintians the proper scale and scope to compete effectively over time.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO616 Managerial Accounting (2 Credits)
Use of accounting data in corporate planning and control. Cost-volume- profit analysis, budgeting, pricing decisions and cost data, transfer pricing, activity-based management, performance measures, and standard costing.
Prerequisite: BUSI610; or BUSO602; or BUSM602.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO620 Strategic Information Systems (2 Credits)
Use of information technology to achieve competitive advantage, efficient operations, and effective decision making. Analysis of functions of information technology and its impact on competitive strategy and organizational operations.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Credit Only Granted for: BUSO620, BUSI621, BUSM621 or EMBA620.
BUSO624 Operations Management (2 Credits)
Operations management is concerned with efficient and effective design and operation of business processes for delivering products and/or services. Emphasis is given to process analysis and design, capacity management and bottlenecks, waiting lines and the impact of uncertainty in process performance, quality management, lean, six-sigma, and revenue management.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO626 The Global Economic Environment (2 Credits)
Relationship between national and international economic environments. Determinants of output, interest rates, prices and exchange rates. Analysis of effect of economic policies (fiscal, monetary, trade, tax) on the firm and the economy.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO700 Fundamentals of Business (2 Credits)
This course introduces students to the language of business. Topics covered include financial accounting, financial management, data models, strategy, leadership and teamwork, and a brief action learning project on innovation. Pre-work includes the DISC assessment, and a requires a passing grade on a spreadsheet pre-work course.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H Smith School of Business.
BUSO701 Integrative Business Capstone (2 Credits)
This is an experiential course that involves an integrative business experience. This experience may be simulated through a software package or through content, speakers and events that are based in a realistic business setting. Students compete in teams. Each team makes decisions in areas such as human resources, compensation packages, geographic expansion through sales offices, debt versus equity financing, manufacturing and inventory management, marketing, including pricing, advertising and product design. The impact of each of these decisions flows through the three financial statements and results in financial outcomes and ratios that measure the success of each team. Additional metrics include stakeholders beyond investors such as employee morale, community engagement, and environmental impact. Students compete for financing and for customers. Multiple presentations are made by students during the simulation to explain their strategy, their tactics, and their planned investments.
Prerequisite: Students must have completed a minimum of 48 credit hours.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO702 Action Learning Project I (1 Credit)
The objective of the Action Learning Project I and II is for teams to identify and solve business problems that currently exist in organizations and in the process, to provide significant value to organizations and their stakeholders. The experience of solving business problems will both enable students to apply knowledge learned in core courses and to develop the wisdom, skills, and problem-solving capabilities of team members. This course is designed to promote independent learning. Faculty members will offer mini-modules on key themes such as team dynamics, client relations and consulting protocols but their primary role will be to facilitate the ALP process and serve as consultants to the student teams.Selecting the right project and defining it unambiguously sets the stage for the rest of the ALP process improvement or problem solving effort, ultimately leading to a relevant, value added and well-received deliverable. Poor problem selection creates longer-term problems for both ALP teams and the sponsoring organization and can reduce or impede the quality of your learning experience. For this reason, we will lay the foundation for the final selection of projects during this term (a) soliciting ideas from all students, and (b) offering feedback to identify and nurture the most promising ideas.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO703 Action Learning Project II (3 Credits)
The objective of the Action Learning Project I and II is for teams to identify and solve/dissolve business problems that currently exist in organizations and inthe process, to provide significant value to organizations and their stakeholders. The experience of solving/dissolving business problems will both enablestudents to apply knowledge learned in core courses and to develop the wisdom, skills, and problem-solving capabilities of team members. This course isdesigned to promote independent learning. Faculty members will offer mini-modules on key themes such as organizational support, team dynamics and peerfeedback, but their primary role will be to facilitate the ALP process and serve as consultants to the student teams.
Prerequisite: BUSO702.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO704 Ethical Leadership (2 Credits)
This course will examine business ethics issues across a variety of business contexts. You will learn toapply a number of ethical theories to business problems, primarily through case studies and discussion.The goal is for you to engage actively with the material and understand the complexity of many ethical dilemmas that businesses and business owners face. Often in ethics there is not one right answer; rather,businesses and individuals must wrestle with ethical principles that may compete and conflict with one another in arriving at a resolution. We will explore conflicts between personal values and organizationalgoals, ethics as part of a business strategy, and various ethical frameworks businesses may use in understanding and implementing ethical approaches to problems.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO705 Business Communications (2 Credits)
Develop the ability to communicate with and about data.
Restriction: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business; or must be in Business and Management (Master's) program.
BUSO706 Organizational Change (2 Credits)
Develops the advanced knowledge and skills of MBA students who plan to work with organizations as change agents. Concrete and useful strategies, tools, and interventions for diagnosing organizational change situations, analyzing problems, and designing and implementing organizational change. Draws on literature from organizational behavior, human resource management and strategic management to identify models as prescriptions of change.
Prerequisite: BUSM600; or BUSO600; or BUSI662; or EMBA656.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO711 Executive Powers and Negotiation (2 Credits)
Increase negotiating self-confidence and improve capacity to achieve win-win solutions to organizational problems. Improve effectiveness at finding creative solutions to conflict.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO712 Entrepreneurship (2 Credits)
Introduces students to tools and skills needed to create and grow a successful new venture. The course integrates research findings from a range of different practical and intellectual perspectives, including psychology, sociology, economics, strategic management, and history into practical, hands on lessons for an entrepreneur. Class projects teach skills to explore high-risk business ideas in inexpensive ways and allow students to experience the entrepreneurial environment.A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model (Steve Blank). Entrepreneurship is about pursuing hunches about solutions to customer problems and thereby creating value. Testing these hunches requires getting customers to evaluate solutions. It is difficult to attract resources (either human or financial) before it is known if the hunch is correct, but testing hunches requires resources. This course provides iterative tools to solve this chicken and egg problem. We will also focus on specific skill building exercises, such as pitching and networking.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO713 Supply Chain Management (2 Credits)
Offers a practical blueprint for understanding, building, implementing, and sustaining supply chains in today's rapidly changing global supply chain environment. It will provide the student with a survey of the fast-moving Supply Chain Management discipline and practice, including the evolution of supply chain strategies, business models and technologies; current best practices in demand and supply management; and methodologies for conducting supply chain-wide diagnostic assessments and formulating process improvement plans.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO714 International Business (2 Credits)
The international business environment as it affects company policy and procedures. In-depth analysis and comprehensive case studies of the business functions undertaken in international operations.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO716 Decision Modeling (2 Credits)
Many different skills are required in arriving at informed managerial decisions. Among these are analytical and quantitative skills. Decision Modeling is one in a sequence of two courses that seeks to develop these two important skills. More formally, the goals of this course are: to introduce business optimization modeling techniques to aid in complex decision making environments, decision trees to structure strategic decision making problems in an uncertain environment, and Monte-Carlo simulation to help analyze and assess the risk associated with decisions in an uncertain environment. We will demonstrate the use of all techniques in this course in a spreadsheet environment.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO731 Social Media and Web Analytics (2 Credits)
Examines the process of developing, implementing, and analyzing strategies for successfully marketing a variety of existing and potential products and services using electronic media. Besides well-established Internet marketing tools such as e-mail, search engines and display advertising, a substantial part of the course is dedicated to understanding social media, analyzing successful social media strategies, and tracking their effectiveness. The course offers hands-on experience with many popular as well as emerging techniques unique to electronic media. Special attention is given to metrics appropriate for the new media.
Prerequisite: BUSM612; or BUSO612; or BUSI650.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO732 Managing Digital Business Markets and Platforms (2 Credits)
The objective is to understand the strategic and tactical issues involved in managing digital businesses and markets. Also, some of the characteristics of digital businesses and markets that make them unique and understand how companies can best manage them will be examined.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO733 Data Mining and Predictive Analytics (2 Credits)
Data mining techniques and their use in business decision making. A hands-on course that provides an understanding of the key methods of data visualization, exploration, classification, prediction, time series forecasting, and clustering.
Prerequisite: BUSM606; or BUSO607; or BUSI630.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO740 Customer Equity Management (2 Credits)
This course focuses on managing customers of a business, whether in B2B or B2C space, as a portfolio of equity. It provides an understanding of the current and future value of customers to the business. Topics include selective acquisition, development, and retention of customers using latest developments in information technology.
Prerequisite: BUSI650; or BUSM612; or BUSO612.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO741 Consumer Behavior (2 Credits)
Analysis of customer decision-making and how marketing strategy can be used to influence those decisions. The framework is a buyer behavior model, in which concepts from psychology, sociology, and economics are applied to individual and organizational purchase decisions. Marketing strategies of leading firms in consumer products, technology, and services (including internet services) are analyzed using a variety of case study formats. Focus is consumer behavior; however, principles can also be applied to the decision-making of business.
Prerequisite: BUSM612; or BUSO612; or BUSI650.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO750 Global Trade Logistics (2 Credits)
Acquaints students with managerial issues in international logistics and transportation, and provides students with an understanding of issues related to import/export management and the global marketplace.
Restriction: Must be in one of the following programs (Business and Management (Master's); Business and Management (Master's)) ; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO751 Supply Chain Risk Management (2 Credits)
Supply chain managers are facing an increasingly volatile operating environment, with constant danger of trading community disruption from business, social and environmental risks. Students are provided with a working knowledge of both the core techniques of supply chain risk assessment and mitigation; as well as best practices in establishing formal corporate supply chain risk management programs. A semester-long X-Treme Supply Chain Simulation will enable students to gain hands-on experience in navigating a computer company through a complex and risky four quarters of global business operations.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO752 Innovative Solutions to Supply Chain Challenges (2 Credits)
This course is designed to provide you with practical challenges to implement innovative and effective actions to achieve the goalof enhanced supply chain operations. You will be challenged to function as a supply chain executive in charge of major decisions.The course is designed to be a mix of action-focused learning combined with some very recent and interesting examples of howcompanies are addressing their own supply chain challenges in innovative ways.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO758 Special Topics in Business (1-4 Credits)
Selected advanced topics in the various fields of graduate study in business.
Prerequisite: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Repeatable to: 9 credits if content differs.
BUSO759 Independent Study in Business (1-4 Credits)
Independent study for Masters students in Business.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Repeatable to: 9 credits if content differs.
BUSO778 Global Business Experience (1-6 Credits)
Provides MBA students the opportunity to combine classroom learning and project research with seminars in a host country. The focus and locations visited will vary.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Repeatable to: 8 credits if content differs.
BUSO780 Fraud Examination, Detection, and Deterrence in the Business Environment (2 Credits)
The world is full of fraud schemes, victims, schemers, and those who catch them. Business, the public sector, and non-profitshave their bottom lines impacted every day by fraud. This class is about all of this, and is an introduction to fraud in theoperational environment. The primary objective of this course is for students to gain a conceptual understanding of how fraudoccurs, how it can be prevented, and how fraud can be detected through practical application of skills and tools. We will alsobriefly practice the skills needed for providing testimony in court as a lay or expert witness. This course addresses generalbackground relating to fraud, delves into the myriad types of financial fraud, corruption, employee theft, cybercrime, identitytheft, red collar crime, scams, and examines the trends in fraud detection and investigation. The goal is that, whether youbecome a fraud fighter, or continue in your management careers, you will leverage this course to prevent and detect fraud atyour workplace.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO781 The Impact of Taxation on Business Entities (2 Credits)
Tax Strategies for Business Planning and Investment provides a study of how federal and state taxes affect business strategy. The course focuses on the taxation of business entities and transactions. Concepts of taxing jurisdictions, taxes as transaction costs, maxims of income tax planning and jurisdictional issues in taxation are reviewed with particular emphasis on their impact on business operations. The course examines the choice of business entity, examining the taxation of flow-through entities (partnerships, LLCs, and S corporations) and C corporations (separately taxed entities). The course also examines investment and personal financial planning.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
BUSO782 Financial Planning and Control Systems for Managers and Consultants (2 Credits)
This course provides an analysis of several topics concerning financial planning/control systems (management accounting systems). Topics covered: design and use of cost management systems (including activity based costing systems), financial performance measures for enhancing firm value, managerial incentive contracts and accounting data, management accounting and Internet-based transactions, managing earnings and financial ratios, use of balanced scorecard to evaluate financial/nonfinancial managerial performance, management accounting systems and competitor analysis, behavioral aspects of budgeting, post-auditing of capital investments, accounting/economics aspects of information security, and transfer pricing.
Prerequisite: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business. Or BUSO616; and BUSO602.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Credit Only Granted for: BMGT711 or BUSO782.
Formerly: BMGT711.
BUSO788 Business Consulting (1-4 Credits)
Selected advanced topics in the various fields of graduate study in business.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Repeatable to: 8 credits if content differs.
BUSO798 Special Topics in Business (1-4 Credits)
Selected advanced topics in the various fields of graduate study in business.
Prerequisite: Permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Restriction: Must be in Business and Management (Master's) program; or permission of BMGT-Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Repeatable to: 9 credits if content differs.