2018-2019 Graduate Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Business Administration, MBA
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 Return to: Academic Offerings
Contact
Alexander McKelvie, Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Full-Time Master’s Programs; 415 Whitman School of Management, 315-443-7252, mckelvie@syr.edu
Program Description
Students in the Whitman MBA program at Syracuse University receive a well-rounded education that incorporates both the theoretical background and practical experience needed to succeed in today’s ever-changing global economy. The experiential learning component encourages students to apply classroom learning to business problems, connect with decision makers, and deliver tangible results that add value to sponsoring organizations. Students build an experiential portfolio through internships, consulting, specialized courses, community engagement, and other practical experiences that make them more valuable in the marketplace.
Accreditation
The Whitman School has been accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) since 1920.
Admission
Students are required to take the GMAT as part of the application process. Applicants will be considered for the program based on their GMAT score, previous academic experience, work experience, professional references, and personal statements.
Financial Support
Merit-based financial support is awarded based on a student’s admission application. These awards are highly competitive and are available to both U.S. and international full-time students. Students may apply for several loan programs to cover the cost of attendance. (Federal Direct Loan, ProgramFederal PLUS Loans, Alternative Loan Programs) Part-time students must be enrolled for at least six credits (half-time status) to be considered for loan programs.
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Student Learning Outcomes
1. Demonstrate knowledge of how to effectively manage organizational resources
2. Demonstrate effective and persuasive communication
3. Demonstrate skills in inquiry, critical thinking, and problem solving, supported by appropriate analytical and quantitative techniques
4. Demonstrate the ability to think strategically about business issues
5. Develop an entrepreneurial skill set
6. Demonstrate the ability to manage in a global environment
Degree Requirements & Learning Objectives
This is a 54 credit program that leads to a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree.
The M.B.A. curriculum is designed as a 54-credit program and normally requires two years or four academic semesters to complete on a full-time basis. It consists of two elements: 36 credits of required core courses and 18 credits of electives. Students are required to complete at least 6 credits of experiential credit. A minimum of 9 credits of electives selected in one area may form a concentration. M.B.A. students may choose a concentration in accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing or supply chain management. Students may select electives from other graduate programs in the University.
Free Electives 18
Students are required to complete 6 approved experiential elective credits through at least two distinct experiences. These experiences include internships, consulting, specialized courses, community engagement and other practical experiences.
Accounting
The accounting department offers courses in the areas of accounting and management information systems.
Accounting
Chair -
Joe Comprix, Associate Professor, 611 Whitman School of Management, 315-443-3674, jjcompri@syr.edu
All organizations rely on accounting information to make decisions. Accounting courses emphasize the analysis of accounting information for strategic operating, financial, and tax decisions. In addition to foundation accounting courses, offerings include financial statement analysis, strategic cost analysis, and taxes and business strategy.
Career opportunities for individuals with accounting skills include professional accounting positions in audit, tax, information systems, and consulting, as well as corporate positions as controllers or financial analysts. The M.B.A. program is not designed for those who seek CPA licensure. M.B.A. students who seek CPA certification must carefully choose their electives, and normally will need to take additional courses to meet the educational requirements to be eligible to sit for the Uniform CPA examination.
Management Information Systems
Contact -
Michel Benaroch, Professor; 535 Whitman School of Management, 315-443-3492, mbenaroc@syr.edu
Today’s business environment requires M.B.A. graduates to have a thorough understanding of how traditional and e-business enterprises effectively deploy and use information technologies to enable business transformation and innovative competitive strategies, facilitate integration across business functions and supply chain networks, and enhance managerial decision making for business performance. The focus of the MIS curriculum is on helping students understand how organizations can develop and manage technological capabilities necessary for meeting current and future business needs. Our courses provide coverage of technologies, frameworks, methodologies, and tools related to advanced decision support and data mining, database management, project management, customer relationship management, and web-based system development, among others.
Courses in MIS provide M.B.A. students and students majoring in engineering management with the concepts, theories, and best practices needed for deploying and managing technology in rapidly changing business environments. Career opportunities for graduates include such positions as management consultant, technology manager, systems analyst, end-user computing specialist, business intelligence specialist, and other career-oriented managerial positions.
Entrepreneurship & Emerging Enterprises
Chair -
Alex McKelvie, Professor; 415 Whitman School of Management, 315-443-7252, mckelvie@syr.edu
The EEE Program offers a unique M.B.A. concentration that combines themes that are critical for sustainable competitive advantage in any modern industry: entrepreneurial management, innovation, and global leadership. The entrepreneurial process is applied in a variety of organizational contexts. The courses in the concentration are designed to reflect a logical flow. Students first take a core course that establishes a strong entrepreneurial foundation, including what entrepreneurial management is, how to think about entrepreneurship, and the implications of entrepreneurial thinking and acting for a student’s approach to venture opportunities. This is followed by two elective EEE courses. The concentration ends with a capstone experience completed during the final semester, where students integrate all of their M.B.A. learning and apply it to the actual creation and implementation of an entrepreneurial concept.
The entrepreneurship concentration is intended as a comprehensive student experience. Accordingly, the program incorporates a number of pedagogical innovations and extracurricular initiatives. In addition to lectures, elective courses will expose students to presentations from entrepreneurs, participation in a novel creativity program, field consulting with existing small businesses, work in local business incubators, hands-on case studies, work with small businesses in completing an entrepreneurial audit, consulting to entrepreneurial family businesses, and the conceptualization and implementation of a new business idea together with a complete business plan and a pitch to a source of venture financing. Students are invited to enter business plans in the Panasci Business Plan Competition, an annual campus-wide competition with more than $40,000 in awards for winners, and other on-campus entrepreneurship competitions. Student initiated ventures can also operate in the Couri Entrepreneurial Hatchery. Each student in the program can be assigned to a successful entrepreneur, who will serve as a mentor. The D’Aniello Entrepreneurial Internship provides students with hands-on experience in an entrepreneurial venture.
Finance
The finance department offers courses in the areas of finance and real estate.
Finance
Chair -
Ravi Shukla, 629 Whitman School of Management, 315-443-3576, rkshukla@syr.edu
The study and understanding of finance is an integral component of decision-making in all areas of business. Finance is a global, dynamic and exciting discipline. It offers a unique blend of theory and practical applications. Students studying finance should have excellent knowledge of economics and accounting, be able to use quantitative tools, and be willing to function in a world full of challenges and uncertainty. Thus they become members of a profession that can be both intellectually and professionally rewarding. Offerings include courses in financial management, investments, securities markets, international financial management, distress investing, portfolio management, real estate finance, fixed income securities, financial modeling, financial planning, and financial institutions.
The department is also responsible for the offering of statistics courses in the Whitman School. In today’s information age, knowledge of managerial statistics is useful in virtually every functional area of management. The concepts and tools of statistics are used to extract useful information from data to facilitate effective managerial decisions. For example, statistical techniques are used to design marketing studies, sample production units and customers, forecast business and economic conditions, formulate decision models that incorporate risk considerations, model the volatilities in stock returns, and monitor and control performance in a wide variety of managerial processes. The modern manager must be familiar with the assumptions underlying various statistical techniques and should be able to judge their appropriateness in a variety of situations. In addition, he or she should be able to perform selected analyses to voluminous data sets using available computer programs and interpret results in a valid and meaningful way. Courses in managerial statistics prepare students to be both producers and consumers of statistical analyses.
Real Estate
Contact -
Professor, Whitman School of Management
The real estate track focuses on the development of a skill set and knowledge base to excel in the increasingly competitive landscape of the real estate industry. Curriculum and practical experiences are designed to help you learn to analyze and understand local tax laws, zoning regulations, school districts, contracts, utilities, transportation and much more. An understanding of real estate fundamentals and the capacity to put that knowledge to work in a changing commercial environment is an emphasis of the program. We prepare you to critically examine real estate financial information from diverse and conflicting sources.
Management
Chair -
Ravi Dharwadkar, Professor, Whitman School of Management
To be successful, organizations must be able to compete in complex and global business environments, and managers must be able to lead within diverse and dynamic workplaces. The Management Department at Whitman offers courses on how organizations, employees, and managers can succeed in meeting today’s business challenges. The Management Department is composed of two areas: management and business law. The faculty members of the Management Department teach courses and conduct research in the areas of strategy, organizational theory, business law, organizational behavior, ethics, leadership, and human resources. The rapidly changing business environment and the growing complexity of organizations, coupled with increased competitive pressures across industries and countries, has made courses from this department important for many careers. The faculty of the Management Department strive to provide the highest-quality classroom experience and have won several teaching awards.
Marketing
Chair -
SP Raj, Professor, Whitman School of Management
The Marketing Department houses two MBA concentrations: Marketing Management and Supply Chain Management. All students of the department are expected to appreciate the interrelatedness of the perspectives of consumers, intermediaries (e.g. retailers, distributors), and suppliers ( e.g. 3PL’s, OEMs, other product or service providers).
The marketing curriculum is flexible and can accommodate interdisciplinary interests. Students can pick and choose from a wide menu of elective courses to build expertise in traditional areas of marketing (product management, marketing communication, and marketing research) and in channel and supply chain management.
Marketing Management Concentration
The marketing management program in the Whitman School is designed for students to encounter all the basic challenges in the industry: how a company decides what to sell, the customers and markets to target, and the best means of reaching them. In many courses, students work in project teams-just as professionals do-to create strategies for product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Students learn to respond to the demands of competitors, the government, and larger social issues.
Marketing graduates are prepared for broad and promising career options, including advertising and promotion management, business-to-business marketing, consulting, marketing management, marketing research, new product development, product and brand management, retailing and wholesaling, sales management, and managing a family business.
Supply Chain Management Concentration
All purposeful organizations transform various inputs to some form of output. This may involve the actual manufacturing process of a product or the delivery of a service. In supply chain management, students apply decision-making methods to the design, planning, and control of such transformation systems.
To design and plan the supply chain system, managers must understand aggregate forecasting, location analysis, physical layout, and maintenance policies. Running supply chain systems involves short-run forecasting, capacity planning, scheduling and control, inventory control, and quality and cost control. It is also critical that students understand the design of information systems, which relate all these areas to the activities of other units in the organization.
Since the problems studied in supply chain management are common to all organizations, career opportunities exist in varied public and private organizations including distribution, banking, transportation, health care, government, consulting, and in the more traditional retailing and manufacturing areas.
Learning Goal 1:
Our graduates will understand how to effectively manage organizational resources.
- Our students will be able to summarize key traits of different organizational resources, including financial capital, human capital, intellectual capital, technology resources, relational resources, and processes.
- Our students will be able to measure, organize and allocate resources in order to effectively meet organizational objectives.
- Our students will be able to evaluate, prioritize and plan the acquisition of resources that are aligned with organizational objectives
Learning Goal 2:
Our graduates will be effective, persuasive communicators.
- Our students will be able to utilize effective strategies for communicating with and listening to other individuals and small groups.
- Our students will be able to develop, organize and generate clear and effective professional briefings and reports.
- Our students will be able to develop and support arguments that are both conceptually coherent and compellingly persuasive.
Learning Goal 3:
Our graduates will demonstrate skills in inquiry, critical thinking and problem solving, supported by appropriate analytical and quantitative techniques.
- Our students will be able to gather, manipulate, analyze and generate data for purposes of understanding business problems and design solutions for them.
- Our students will be able to apply industry standard tools and technologies to facilitate the problem solving process.
- Our students will be able to generate original and innovative solutions to new and existing business problems as well as justify the solutions.
Learning Goal 4:
Our graduates will demonstrate the ability to think strategically about business issues.
- Students will be able to identify and differentiate strategic issues from tactical ones.
- Students will be able to explain and apply concepts, models and tools of strategic analysis.
- Students will be able to identify and evaluate the short and long term implications of business decisions for an organization’s stakeholders.
- Students will be able to appraise situations faced by a business organization from a broad perspective that considers economic and social factors.
- Students will be able to integrate knowledge and concepts from different functional areas of business in the course of analyzing and resolving strategic-level decision problems.
Learning Goal 5:
Our students will learn to function with an entrepreneurial spirit.
- Our students will be able to discover and evaluate business opportunities.
- Our students will be able to apply entrepreneurial thinking when acting within different facets and functional areas of business.
- Our students will be able to apply creativity and innovation processes to solve business problems.
- Our students will be able to recognize and assess risks surrounding innovative actions as well as generate approaches for mitigating and managing risks.
- Our students will be able to develop an original business idea and prepare a comprehensive business plan for its implementation.
Learning Goal 6:
Whitman MBA’s will demonstrate the ability to manage in a global environment.
- Whitman MBA’s will demonstrate awareness and understanding of world geography, languages and cultures.
- Whitman MBA’s will be able to identify and explain cultural similarities and differences in societies across the globe.
- Whitman MBA’s will be able to integrate opportunities and threats across the globe into their analysis of business situations.
Transfer Credit -
Students can transfer a maximum of 6 credits of elective coursework. The credits must be graduate level taken from an AACSB accredited business school. A grade of “B” or higher is needed to transfer in the credits. The grade itself does not transfer.
Satisfactory Progress -
Students are required to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher to meet degree requirements.
Business Analytics Track
Program Description
The MBA Business Analytics track is a nine credit option within the MBA program. Students develop an interdisciplinary understanding of the applications of analytics to the fields of accounting, finance, marketing, and supply chain management through techniques in data collection, data visualization, statistical and pattern analysis, and data mining.
Admission
Admission to the residency or online MBA program. U.S. Bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent) from an accredited college or university is required. Applicants are expected to score a minimum of 600 on the GMAT exam (60th percentile) or an equivalent percentile score on the GRE. International students are recommended to score 100 on the TOEFL with 23 on the speaking portion of the exam. A minimum of one year of professional work experience is preferred.
MBA track in Business Analytics Requirements
1. one required course in analytics core
2. one selective course in analytics applications core
3. one additional selective course in analytics applications or in analytics depth core
Learning outcomes:
1. Students will be able to collect and organize data
2. Students will identify patterns in data via visualization, statistical analysis, and data mining.
3. Students will develop alternative strategies based on the data.
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