MBA Course Descriptions

This course provides students with foundational knowledge in financial accounting for decision-makers. You will analyze financial statements and disclosures, and learn how to record economic events as an accountant. Students complete the program with a solid understanding of the financial reporting process, including accounting standards, and managerial incentives.
Prerequisite: Students must successfully complete all required MBA Math modules before taking this course.

MBA students’ are introduced to managerial accounting practices for decision making. The course is designed for students who have no prior formal coursework or experience in accounting. Students will learn how to identify and assign revenue and cost information within business processes to conduct break-even analyses, assign product costs, complete operational budgets, and assess performance.

Students survey microeconomic concepts for managerial decision-making. Topics include: competition, market power, production and cost, pricing practices, and economics of information and innovation.

This course takes students through the process of solution-driven data analysis, by applying finance, management, marketing, and operations applications. You will examine business cases and problems where data analysis is part of the decision-making process and become proficient in Excel methods commonly used in management. As a final project, students analyze a business problem from formulation to a solution, using data. Restricted to MBA students.
Prerequisite: Students must successfully complete all required MBA Math modules before taking this course.
Note: If you have taken MBA 504 you should not take this course.

As a continuation of the Data-Driven Managerial Decisions, 1 course — students dive further into business cases and problems, becoming advanced in the data analysis decision-making process. You will learn how to perform linear relationship estimation among variables while becoming skilled in Excel methods commonly used in estimation. Students are also expected to complete a course project that follows a business problem from formulation to a solution using the methods covered the course.
Prerequisite: MBA 506
Note: If you have taken MBA 504 you should not take this course.

Using the Paul and Elder model of critical thinking, you will progressively develop an ability to reason through an issue. These are skills that you will use extensively in this program and throughout your career.  Students gain a structure for critically analyzing and evaluating a claim, text, or speech– increasing the likelihood that you will make the best decisions.

This course provides students a foundation for thinking through business issues from an ethical perspective. Students will advance their skills for recognizing and reasoning through ethical dilemmas in management, with an aim toward developing essential ethical traits including integrity, empathy, courage, fairmindedness, autonomy. perseverance, humility, and confidence in reason. Students will apply a structured, reasoned process for resolving ethical dilemmas, and will engage in personal reflection to continue to develop their intellectual traits.

Prerequisite: MBA 510

Note: Required course for MBA students who started in Fall 2021 or later

The course examines financial decision making at profit-driven businesses. Topics include: what to produce and how, how to finance the assets needed for production, capital market theory, and bond and stock valuation.

Prerequisite: MBA 501 Financial Accounting for Decision Makers

Explore the management of people in organizations. Students learn staffing processes and how to motivate and consider cultures when managing within technology-intensive organizations. Other topics include leadership, diagnosing organizational culture, conflict management, and negotiations, as well as innovation and change management. Restricted to full-time MBA students.

Professional Evening and Online MBA students will complete a mandatory Raleigh Residency, which is a 1- credit hour, 3-day course (Thursday-Saturday) held in Raleigh, NC, during the first semester of the program. The focus of the first Raleigh Residency is to provide essential lessons on non-verbal communication, presentation, and networking skills. Active duty military may substitute this residency requirement with another elective course. Required for Professional Evening & Online MBA students only.

Note: Required for Professional Evening & Online MBA students only.

This course is about the fundamentals of managing people. The course focuses on three levels of analysis: the individual, the team, and the organization. Students gain exposure to topics and issues in the field of organizational behavior and human resource management. Module one focuses on communication, leading oneself, learning to work in teams, and managing change. Module two focuses on human resource issues, managing teams (including both virtually and geographically co-located), influencing without authority, and decision-making. Students should plan to be involved in residency activities for three full days, including a dinner on Thursday evening. Required for Professional Evening & Online MBA students.

Note: Required for Professional Evening & Online MBA students who started the MBA program Fall 2016 or later. If you have taken MBA 530 you cannot take this course.

If you have taken MBA 530 you cannot take this course.

In this course, you’ll focus on the design and management of organizational operations, including both service and manufacturing. You’ll gain practical tools for strategy analysis, process design, planning and controls, operations organizational structures, work design, scheduling, materials management, and advanced operations techniques, using a variety of managerial and quantitative models.

Prerequisite: MBA 507

Students become grounded in market segmentation, targeting, and positioning. By examining channels of distribution, promotion strategy, product development strategy, and pricing strategy, you learn how to apply relationship marketing and strategy within high-tech environments.

This practice-oriented capstone course integrates the concepts, knowledge, and skills of the MBA program. With a strong global emphasis, students gain a solid understanding of strategic thinking, strategic analysis, and competitive advantages. You will also focus on the creation and monitoring of entrepreneurial opportunities, corporate and business level strategies, strategic alliances, acquisitions, and restructuring.

Managerial and Career Effectiveness offers frameworks, concepts, and tools for management and career effectiveness. This course introduces concepts of assessing managerial strengths, weaknesses, and potential. You’ll understand team building, public speaking, networking, and decision making, as well as creativity and problem-solving. Using career development techniques, including data mining, job search, behavior-based interviewing, and negotiation skills, you’ll learn the practical application of these concepts. 

Note: Required course for Full-time MBA students only.

All MBA students are required to complete a practicum course. Practicum course options are included in the “Elective and Practicum Courses” descriptions of this document and indicated with a *P.

All MBA students are required to complete an advanced analytics course. Course options to meet this requirement are included in the ‘Elective and Practicum Courses” descriptions of this document and indicated with an *A.

Through case studies and analysis, students explore data security and privacy requirements within today’s business environment. You’ll gain knowledge of common vulnerabilities, securing data, encryption, policies, privacy management, standards, and compliance.

Market and evolution of enterprise resource planning [ERP] systems and ERP technology. Business process reengineering in sales, purchasing, human capital, accounting, plant maintenance and warehousing using SAP Security issues. Course can lead to SAP University Alliance Recognition. 

Note: Students should take MBA 501 Financial Accounting before taking MBA 515.

Learn an integrated approach to managing risks that can prevent an organization from achieving its objectives, both financial and non-financial. Dive into the core elements of an effective enterprise risk management process, links to management strategy, and risk assessment methodologies.

Participate in a semester-long team project with real organizations and begin the process of implementing enterprise risk management. Student teams will interview management and conduct surveys to identify organizational risks. By developing metrics and indicators, students will be able to assess risks, determine the top priority risks, and track the most significant risks. A faculty member will provide close supervision of the project team. 

Prerequisite: MBA 518. Application required.

This course extends the discussion on the corporate financial management decision-making process and is a continuation of the MBA 520 section. Content includes:

• An overview of financial management; 
• Valuing real assets and real options; 
• Risk management and derivatives; 
• The role of financial leverage; 
• Optimal capital structures; 
• Conflicts between security holders and management;
• Stockholder-bondholder conflicts; 
• Financial distress, bankruptcy, and reorganization;
• Corporate control and restructuring; 
• Organizational governance issues.

Prerequisite: MBA 520

Financial Modeling is “corporate finance in Excel.” Students will start with the theoretical base gained in MBA 520, and work through problems in capital budgeting, equity valuation, capital structure, among other topics, using spreadsheet analyses. The course will take a very hands-on approach to build financial spreadsheet models. Microsoft Excel is the primary tool to implement these analytical models, and the course will go into detail on the proficient use of the software.

Prerequisite: MBA 520

Advanced topics in investments with a focus on underlying theory and practical application using real world data. Stock valuation models, bond valuation, derivatives, portfolio performance evaluation, investment strategies, efficient market theory and other current issues in investment finance.

Prerequisite: MBA 520

This advanced quantitative course examines applied equity valuation. Students conduct stock valuation analysis, which is then used to select stocks for the student (managed by the SunTrust MBA fund). Topics include:

• The investment decision-making process
• Empirical evidence on securities returns
• Forecasting financial statements
• Industry and macro-economic analysis
• Valuation models
• Portfolio performance evaluation
• Performance attribution. 
• Students will also learn how to write computer programs using SAS software to generate statistical tests using “big financial data.” 

Prerequisite: MBA 520

This course focuses on the importance of tax considerations in making business decisions, developing a framework for understanding how taxes affect business strategy, and financing decisions in a wide variety of settings. Course concepts apply to investments, compensation and pensions, organizational form, multinational ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and family tax planning. The ultimate goal is to provide you with a new approach to thinking about taxes (and all forms of government intervention) that will be valuable even as laws and governments change.

Prerequisite: MBA 520

This course focuses on the theory and practice of financial management in the international arena, including spot and forward markets for foreign exchange, currency futures and options contracts, global arbitrage conditions, foreign exchange exposure, foreign trade financing instruments, direct and portfolio investment abroad, and the role of country risk in determining investments.

Prerequisite: MBA 520

This course emphasizes ensuring that the organization benefits from inevitable conflicts that occur. It provides skills in diagnosis, negotiation, and building trust and cooperative working relationships in organizations.

The course will cover the core concepts behind successfully acquiring, deploying, and motivating talent to achieve organization competitiveness. Students will think strategically about company human assets, learn basic HRM concepts, and then create practical solutions to typical HCM problems. At the end of this course, students will demonstrate a basic understanding of the topics of equal opportunity employment, diversity, recruiting and selection, performance evaluation, performance goal setting, performance coaching and feedback, competitive compensation and benefits, fair discipline and termination processes and strategic talent management and succession programs.

Successful innovation involves creating more valuable experiences for users and customers. The course covers fundamental concepts and methodologies for experience-based innovation, drawing on design and creativity frameworks to fully understand customer experiences. Course activities include exercises and a project to practice innovation and “design-thinking” tools and techniques in a business context. Students will address relevant strategic perspectives for designing innovative products and services through case studies and other managerial readings with practical business applications. The course emphasizes the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to experience, such that the course is suitable for students in all disciplines with an interest in innovation.

The course focuses on establishing a basis for collaborative relationships with suppliers through strategic market intelligence research, relationship assessment and management, negotiation, collaborative contracting, and on-going management of relationships in global supply chains. The course emphasizes the importance of collaboration through the application of practical tools and approaches that drive mutually beneficial outcomes. Every student will participate in a team-based supply chain project with an organization and will learn the team-based, deadline-driven nature of supply chain initiatives in a real-company setting.

In this course, a variety of tools and frameworks are presented to help students understand the foundation and logistics behind decision making. You will learn how it relates to broader issues in managing the entire supply chain and fulfilling the strategic objectives of a firm. Methods used include a mix of traditional lecture, interactive class discussion, case study analysis, spreadsheet exercises, and independent research.

The class takes students through the design and management of operations planning and control systems for manufacturing firms. Explore capacity management, master production scheduling, production activity control, in addition to just-in-time and time-based competition concepts. Students will even participate in multi-week simulations of decision making within a manufacturing environment.

Prerequisite: MBA 540

The performance of a firm’s operations is critical in determining the long-term viability of that firm. This course builds a solid framework for understanding operational decision-making and how those decisions determine the firm’s ability to effectively utilize its physical and human resources to meet customer requirements needs. This course builds upon several key concepts from MBA 540, particularly those related to capacity and bottleneck analysis and decision making in the face of varying levels of supply and demand uncertainty.

The primary objective of this course is to develop and improve students’ modeling skills through a variety of realistic situations. We start with problems requiring “back-of-the-envelope” analysis and extend this framework to strategic. Through practical examples, cases, and projects, students learn to identify the issue at hand and its essential features.  You will develop a structure for analyzing the problem, to identify and make explicit the sources of uncertainty in the decision environment, to carry out a cogent analysis, and to present the analysis and insights to interested parties in a compelling manner.

Operations play an essential role in the success of firms. Consequently, decisions on the design and management of operations must align with a firm’s overall business strategy and must take into account the competitive business environment. This course teaches students how to (1) evaluate and formulate an operations strategy and (2) analyze operational decisions that impact a firm’s competitive position. The course builds upon the foundational concepts and models that students have seen in previous operations courses to illustrate how operations fit within an organization and may provide a competitive advantage.

Operations and Supply Chain Management is concerned with planning and coordinating the value‐adding activities and the flow of materials and information within and among the organizational units or firms that participate in the product fulfillment process – from procurement to manufacturing and distribution. The objective of this course is to build an understanding of how to manage and improve the performance (efficiency and responsiveness)of operations and supply chains through decision making that is based on analysis and facts, rather than intuition. The course introduces fundamental aspects of operations and supply chain management as well as analytical modeling tools and techniques that can be used to support decision making (e.g., optimization, regression analysis, simulation).

This practicum is a required capstone course in the Supply Chain Management concentration. The course includes a team-based project that tackles the issues of a Supply Chain Resource Consortium (SCRC) partner. These projects will be as varied in scope as our company’s SC issues and improvement initiatives but will focus on SC Relationships, SC Physical Flows, and SC Information Flows. Students will study technical supply chain issues particular to each project and will learn the team-based, deadline-driven nature of supply chain initiatives in a real company setting.

Prerequisite: MBA 540. Note: Application required – please see Class Note in registration system for details.

This course is designed around the full analytics lifecycle which encompasses the business problem, the data, the analysis, and the decision. Students will learn to identify and clearly explain business problems that can be addressed with analytics. They will learn to determine which analytic methods are best suited to solve particular problems and clearly explain the results of an analytic model. Emphasis will be placed on analyzing real data and understanding how analytical thinking can be applied to solve big data problems. Formerly MBA 590 Statistics for Business Analytics

Prerequisites: MBA 506 and MBA 507

This course examines how to collect and process data to make it useful, how to validate, protect, and process data to make it available, and how to create a place to properly store data.

This course examines significant aspects of developing, analyzing, improving, and managing business processes from a variety of perspectives. We will consider both strategic and execution issues critical to high-performance operations. We will also examine processes in several different industries and functional areas within firms, to identify similarities and differences of well-run processes. The course is practice-oriented, using cases, exercises, and discussions to learn and apply BPM skills and concepts.

Also known as “Product Innovation Lab.” This course presents and utilizes an integrated approach to new product design, development, and launch with corporate-sponsored projects. Cross-disciplinary teams of students from management, engineering, and design apply the skills they learned in the foundation courses to develop a new product and prototype. The course provides a team experience of formulating, evaluating, and developing a new product concept.

This course will be focused on solving a real world business problem that includes a heavy data analytic component. The business problem will vary according to the client but could include problems from marketing, finance, supply chain, or other concentration areas. Formerly MBA 590 Decision Analytics Practicum

Prerequisite: MBA 551

This course immerses students in concepts, theories, and techniques applicable to understanding consumer motives, attitudes, decision-making processes, and satisfaction determinants.

Examine a systematic approach to structure, implementation, and analysis of marketing research for decision making. This course will focus on the customer as well as their wants and needs for developing promotional marketing campaigns, developing new products, and refining current product offerings and for improving customer service efforts. Students also analyze appropriate consumer and firm behavior models within a marketing context.

This course focuses on creating and managing product and brand portfolios for long-term profitability. Students will apply strategic and implementation frameworks for managing the profitability of mature products, as well as transferring existing competencies to new products, exploiting evolving market opportunities, and strategic management of a product portfolio. The course will also focus on building and managing brand equity, examining the impact of brand equity on product line and firm performance, evaluating opportunities for extending brands, and repositioning existing brands.

This course focuses on strategically and successfully managing the multitude of business relationships that contemporary marketing managers (as well as general managers) face. Topics broached in this course include market orientation, customer relationship management, managing a sales force, supply chain partnerships, buyer behavior, managing internally as well as other relationship-related marketing topics. This course is research and theory-based but is firmly grounded in the marketing practice.

This course, Marketing Analytics takes a hands-on and systematic approach to harness knowledge from data. The broad goal is to teach students the various data techniques and steps involved in data and model-driven management decisions. This course will focus on the following aspects of marketing analytics: product analytics, customer analytics, marketing-mix analytics, and digital and social media analytics.

Students engage in exploration, examination, analysis, and management of all major digital channels, including SEO, social, mobile, web development, email, video, and new technologies. The emphasis will be on analytics and understanding how to deploy rapidly adapting strategies. Students will participate in hands-on examples, complemented by in-depth applications drawn from different industries.

Prerequisites: MBA 506 and MBA 507

Work on a team and with faculty advisors from the Consumer Innovation Consortium, and partner with companies on custom-designed research projects that solve practical business problems.

This class immerses you in the processes of identifying, exploring, and exploiting opportunities for value creation (e.g., economic value, social value, or environmental value). Whether you intend to start a venture firm, work for an entrepreneurial venture, or work at a large company, this class will provide you with experience in thinking about how to create value. A critical skill that will enable you to become an “entrepreneurial thinker” in both your work and personal life.

This class immerses you in the processes involved in developing a go-to-market approach for a value creation opportunity (e.g., economic value, social value, or environmental value).

Prerequisite: MBA 570

Students work in teams to address issues experienced by new business startups who are also clients of the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) program and other NC State entrepreneurship efforts. This class is organized as a ‘consulting’ experience and includes project scope analysis, project management, direct involvement with new business startup clients, and the creation of oral presentations and written reports. Teams are responsible for determining critical questions, gathering relevant data, analyzing the data, and interpreting results.

This course is an evaluation of a portfolio of technologies to determine the best alternatives for commercialization through high growth, new business startups. Topics include technology portfolio analysis, the development of technology-product-market linkages, and the creation of value propositions.

Note: This course is cross listed as MSE 576 for students needing engineering credit.

This course is a continuation of MBA/MSE 576. Topics include refinement of technology-product-market linkages, development of Voice of Customer data and analysis, continued development of a business plan suitable for funding opportunities as a new business startup.
Prerequisite: MBA/MSE 576.

Note: This course is cross listed with MSE 577 for students needing engineering credit. 

This course is an advanced experience designed for students pursuing a new business startup with an existing business plan. Emphasis is on the verification of all assumptions, the development of value propositions, and ‘pitches’ for different critical targets for the new business startups, funding strategies, legal/regulatory issues, structure of the new business startup, and the associated board and advisors.

Prerequisite: MBA/MSE 576 and MBA 577 OR  MBA 570 and MBA 571

This class will immerse you in the topic of entrepreneurial planning as an iterative process—one that is driven by a stream of strategic choices in the context of uncertainty and risk. We focus on creating strategic growth maps for existing ventures—and will help students identify where the venture is and where they want to go. Then, how to get from point “A” to point “B.” You will learn to make decisions that are informed by your development (and analysis) of relevant social networks, organizational structures and cultures, intellectual property, employment practices, and incentives.

Explore current trends and learn how businesses are integrating sustainability into their strategies. Gain an understanding of the tools businesses are using to operate in a sustainable manner. Experience current and evolving ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting practices, while also exploring future trends. Work in teams to complete deliverables focused on driving social and environmental impact, with local and global clients, ranging from startups to multinationals, across a range of industries.

This class develops major themes and emerging strategies in the pharmaceutical industry. The focus is on strategic planning, process improvement, outsourcing, globalization, federal regulation, global distribution, and deployment challenges for executives in the pharmaceutical industry. The course consists of a series of management presentations, frameworks, collaborative industry projects, and secondary research, with an emphasis on driving change in a dynamic and competitive global pharmaceutical industry.

This course centers on practical issues that help students become effective business managers in the life sciences industry. Detailed analyses of Phase I-IV clinical trials, 510(k) and PMA steps, and other roles of the FDA; pharmaceutical sales; management issues; market identification; and the IP/patent process are some of the topics covered. The course will also broach off-label usage and social issues such as ethics and corporate social responsibility.

This course provides online MBA students with the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned by completing virtual consulting projects with local and global organizations. Projects focus on a range of issues, from creating new value for the firm to meeting the requirements for B-Corps certification. Students work in virtual teams to complete deliverables against a defined scope of work. Clients are from Jenkins’ diverse partner base, including early-stage, established firms, and non-profits in technology, manufacturing, service, and other industries.

This course deals with the analysis of companies, with particular emphasis on firms’ financial statements and the valuation of equity securities. The central part of the course is designed to let you apply techniques and tools you have developed in other MBA courses (such as in strategy, financial accounting, and finance). You will examine how a firm’s strategy affects both current and forecasted financial statements, how we derive valuation attributes from those financial statements, and how it all fits together in a full-scale valuation of a firm. The aim is to give you a good knowledge of how we can translate business strategy and business risk notions into “numbers” (i.e., how we build financial models for firms).

This practicum course is about creating new value and competitive advantage. The development, utilization, and protection of technology and innovation are central to competing in our fast-paced global economy. This course is designed to give students an advantage by learning to create new value, rather than managing existing assets. Value creation through innovation follows the same logic in large and small companies. Student teams work with RTP area companies on projects that create value in a variety of ways.

Creating business models and plans are central to the skill of starting, running, monitoring, modifying, and helping new and existing for-profit and non-profit organizations. Building business plans is an interdisciplinary topic concerned with creating value. Business plans describe how an organization makes money from offering value propositions to selected customer segments. Value creation is similar in either large or small companies and particularly appropriate for venture creation, new services, and products, capital investments, mergers and acquisitions, establishing new lines of business, and reinvigorating old companies.

Note: This is not an introductory course and the content assumes that students have a working knowledge of marketing, finance and other business functions.

Online practicum for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as market analysis for new IoT technologies, customer analysis and launch strategies for IoT products/services, and innovation strategies relevant to the IoT marketplace.