MBA and MS Accountancy cOURSE DESCRIPTIONS

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Finance Courses
Ec520 Macroeconomics
Exploration of major macroeconomics issues, policies, and problems. A case-study approach is used to examine macroeconomic performance, the impact of public policy on economic activity and financial markets, the dynamics of inflationary forces, and the changing role of the U.S. in the world economy.
Ec530 Managerial Economics
Application of economic theory and methodology to business decision making. The course focuses on how managers can improve their understanding of the economic environment and its impact on the business firm. Tools will be discussed which improve the economic efficiency of managerial decisions.
Fn530 Corporate Finance
An overview of financial principles and problems associated with the financial management of business organizations. Topics include financial statement analysis and planning, time value of money, securities valuation, capital budgeting, capital asset pricing model, cost of capital, capital structure and working capital management. Prerequisite: Ac520
Fn535 International Finance
A survey of the international financial environment, the goals and unique risks faced by the multinational enterprise. Topics include balance of payments, the foreign exchange market, parity conditions, international banking and capital markets. A special emphasis is on foreign exchange rate risks of transaction, economic and translation exposure. Other selected topics such as international capital budgeting and cost of capital are also included. Prerequisite: Fn530.
Fn570 Investment Analysis
An introduction to the financial assets available to investors – including stocks, corporate and government bonds, other Treasury securities, futures, options, mutual funds – and the techniques for building and managing a portfolio. Modern portfolio theory will also be covered. Prerequisite: Fn530 
Fn580 Financial Statement Analysis
Covers the application of analytical tools to general purpose financial statements necessary to evaluate the financial condition of the firm and evaluate the future prospects of the company. The “analyst” can be any of several interested groups: investor, creditor or other stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers or government. Prerequisite: Fn530
Fn565 Derivative Markets
An examination of derivative securities, market structures, and various valuation models. The course include discussion of spot and future markets, the valuation of futures and options, swaps and other derivative assets, investment strategies, portfolio insurances, financial engineering and risk management. Prerequisite: Fn530
Fn590 Seminar in Finance
Exploration and analysis of recent developments in financial theory and practice. Students will examine the current literature on major financial issues. The focus on the course will be at the discretion of the instructor. Prerequisite: Fn530
Ec595 Seminar In Macroeconomic Policy And International Finance
Case-study approach to U.S. macroeconomic issues and public policy initiatives and their domestic and international repercussions. The seminar focuses on the interplay of political institutions and market forces in the shaping of macroeconomic fiscal and monetary policies.

Management Courses
Gb503. Statistics for Managerial Decision MakingThis course covers database and database system design and data and network models. It examines relational models and data independence. Topics include database administration and data base management systems.
This course covers concepts of probability and statistics needed by managers to analyze and interpret numerical data in uncertain environments. It includes hypothesis testing, regression and correlation analysis and analysis of variance. Concepts are discussed in a framework of real world applications.
Gb511. Management and Human Behavior
This course covers planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and the management of change in a modern organization. It examines decision making and problem solving in pursuit of organizational goals. It addresses human behavior in the areas of motivation, communication, and interpersonal relations.
Gb517. Business Ethics and Legal Liability
This course provides an understanding of the legal and other exposures that confront organizations that fail to operate in a framework of honesty, integrity, and ethical behavior. It assists students in understanding their own value systems and how they fit within different organizational cultures. It develops skills to help a manager effectively and efficiently analyze legal and ethical consequences in a variety of business situations. It develops an awareness of the challenges of creating and maintaining an ethical corporate environment.
Gb621. Human Resource Management
This course provides an overview of the principles and philosophy of human resource management. Topics include recruiting, hiring, training, and compensating employees, creating policies and procedures to improve employee productivity, developing effective and efficient systems for management, and methods to assure legal compliance.
Gb623. Entrepreneurship and Innovation
This course covers the skills and talents essential to become a successful entrepreneur. It investigates innovation in a process of recognizing opportunity and evaluating the development of business concepts, acquisition of resources, and managing the growth of a venture. This course provides an understanding of the challenges, problems and issues faced by entrepreneurs and innovators.
Gb625. International Business
This course examines characteristics of management systems in developed and less-developed countries. Covers problems arising when multinational corporations make direct investments in facilities abroad and the affect of government policies on foreign investors. Discusses entry strategies and negotiations, joint ventures, licensing, technology transfer and appropriate technology. Includes extensive discussion of cases on business in developing countries.
Gb627. Cultural Dimensions of International Business
This course focuses on the way local business and business negotiations are conducted. Examines cultural differences in management, planning, analysis, organizational structure, and business relationships. Emphasizes how different cultures interface as they do business. 
 
Marketing Courses
Gb513. Marketing Management
This course examines the field of marketing and the dynamics of matching goods and services with customer and consumer needs. Topics include strategic planning, marketing research, and buyer behavior of businesses and consumers. The course covers the marketing functions of product mix and branding, price determination, channels of distribution and promotion and advertising.
Gb641. Marketing Strategy
This course equips the student with advanced marketing concepts and methods to provide and sustain customer value. Emphasis is placed on the tools managers use to analyze marketing problems and make effective decisions. Discussions include case studies, analysis of marketing models, group presentations, and computer-based models to reinforce the marketing strategies.
Gb643. International Marketing
This course covers the process of international marketing including techniques of exporting and importing, creating foreign direct investments, licensing, franchising, partnering, and other structures. Discussions focus on cultural and economic factors that shape strategies in developed and developing consumer and business markets and strategies for successful branding, pricing, and promotion.
Gb645. Marketing Research
This course covers the tools and techniques used to gather information in order to identify market opportunities, monitor marketing performance and evaluate market change. Special attention is given to matching the characteristics of products and services with the needs of businesses and individual buyers.
Gb647. Global Logistics
This course examines international movements from producing through distribution to the sale of components and finished products. Discussions include planning and managing systems that create efficient and timely cross-border and cross-ocean shipments. The course examines and problems and solutions managing complex supply chains.

Interdisciplinary Courses
Gb624 Technology for Managers.
This course examines the emerging role of technology and applications to support organizational business models and computer systems. It integrates data base management and planning and controlling new systems. It discusses security and other issues related to systems support for marketing, management, and financial reporting. (counts toward management information system concentration)
Gb626 Business System Interruption.
This course deals with various sources of business interruption arising from failures of management information system and telecommunications structures. It addresses complexity of technology, interaction of the web and back office systems, and security failures. It covers fraud, hacking, firewall attacks, and protection of intellectual property through encryption and other means. (counts toward management information system concentration)
Gb629. Enterprise Risk Management.
This course covers the emerging discipline of enterprise risk management (ERM). It begins with an overview of risk management and the scope and contributions of ERM. It addresses issues involved with the implementation of ERM in a framework of governance, risk identification, and risk mapping. It examines the role of a central risk function and knowledge warehouse. Cases studies illustrate key concepts..
Gb631 Risk Management and Insurance
This course covers risk management from the perspective of insurable exposures that confront modern organizations. It examines decisions to retain, mitigate, or transfer exposures. Topics include property, general liability, and employer liability exposures, protecting directors and officers, and managing potential disruptions to operations. Special attention is given to the role of and expectations from brokers, broker performance, and the compensation of brokers. (counts toward management concentration)
Gb633 Executive Seminar in Business Strategy
This course brings senior executives to the classroom to exchange ideas on the goals and strategies of companies and industries. The course identifies issues and current trends in business strategy and uses an enterprise risk management framework to understand best practices. Candidates work in teams to develop an understanding of critical success factors in global business strategies. In advance of sessions, teams research the executives and their activities and prepare a presentation on the characteristics of executive leadership dealing with a variety of enterprise risks. (counts toward management concentration)
Gb635 Statistical Aspects of Risk Management
This course covers the role of statistics helping organizations deal with enterprise risk. Building on an ERM framework, it examines techniques to improve the processes of identifying external and internal exposures, measuring their severity and frequency, and evaluating alternatives to mitigate risk. The course stresses the importance of subjective estimates, probability distributions and standard deviation as well as regression analysis, and portfolio theory.
Gb636 Financial Aspects of Risk Management. This course covers financial issues related to enterprise risk management in a modern corporation. It examines business risks and techniques to measure the impact of them. It shows how to create a cash flow stream to evaluate investments in risk management projects. It focuses on risk and return and other financial topics to manage enterprise risk. (counts toward finance concentration).
Gb649 Outlaw Regimes and Corruption. This course examines the darker side of doing business in a global framework. It examines national and regional laws and regulations that affect business practices. Topics include contract enforcement, regulatory compliance, and dispute resolution. Particular attention is given to exposures arising from corruption, unethical and illegal business practices, money laundering, and other behaviors associated with outlaw regimes. (Counts towards international business concentration. May be used as capstone course in place of Gb695)
Gb691 Current Topics in Business
Subject to the approval of the GraduateSchool, professors select topics in an area of interest to students and design a course to advance the knowledge of candidates in a current area of managerial emphasis or concern.
Gb693. Research Project
Subject to the approval of the GraduateSchool, candidates create and complete an original research project under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Gb695. Global Business Policy
This capstone course integrates lessons learned in earlier courses and develops a comprehensive approach to global problem solving and decision making. Students work in teams to demonstrate a mastery of concepts and complete projects that integrate lessons learned from marketing, management, finance, information system, and other functional areas. (Capstone course.)

Accounting Courses
Ac501 Managerial Accounting
This course covers the processes of identifying, measuring, analyzing, interpreting, and communicating accounting and financial data needed to make strategic and operational decisions. Students learn about the issues facing service, nonprofit, retail, and manufacturing firms and about topics such as activity-based costing, customer profitability analysis and budgeting and performance evaluation.
Ac510 Managing Internal Control Systems
This course reviews managerial accounting systems covering the monitoring of the accumulations, summarization and reporting of accounting information to the ultimate user within the organization. It emphasizes the evaluation and control of input data, processing systems, and output results.
Ac520 Financial Accounting and Reporting
This course covers accounting issues and concepts focusing on financial reporting. It blends accounting theory with practical applications through extensive use of cases. A particular focus is the accuracy of financial reports and how management should use them.
Ac541 Internal Controls and Sarbanes Oxley Compliance
This course covers techniques to provide a reasonable assurance that an organization will achieve its objectives with respect to the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of financial reporting, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Topics include performance and profit goals, safeguarding resources, preparation of reliable interim, condensed, and financial statements, and complying with laws and regulations applicable to the entity.
Ac543 Forensic Accounting and Internal Auditing
This course examines how accountants use business information and financial reporting systems to estimate economic damages or identify errors or fraud in accounts or inventories. It incorporates the internal audit process of verifying the accuracy of internal records, searching for mismanagement and waste, reviewing the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, and advising on compliance with corporate policies and procedures and government laws, and regulations.
Ac553 Taxation of Business Entities
This course covers the application of advanced tax principles to the solutions of complex tax problems. It includes in-depth analysis of factors affecting tax planning and compliance of individuals, corporations, partnerships, estates, and trusts.
Ac554 International Taxation
This course covers U.S. tax law related to international transactions of individuals and business entities. It examines issues dealing with planning and compliance.
Ac557 International Accounting Related Business Policy
This course covers decision-making and planning techniques in auditing and taxation practices. It includes the effects of cost-benefit relationships and business ethics, and long-range planning. It requires intensive writing of business plans and emphasizes international applications.
Ac572 Government and Fund Accounting
This course provides a comprehensive study of principles of government and fund accounting and their practical application.
Ac574 Accounting for Inter-corporate Investments
This course examines inter-corporate investments, including an in-depth study of parent subsidiary relationships, purchase versus pooling of interests, and indirect and reciprocal holdings.
Ac580 Accountancy Research
This course covers current techniques of research and preparation of research findings. Students will engage in an in-depth study of a selected topic and submit their findings through oral presentation and written report. Students follow the Guidelines for Research available on the M.S. Accountancy section of the Graduate Program’s web page.