MBA in Finance

People are an organization’s most valuable resource. The quality of an organization’s talent is perhaps the single most important resource contributing to its profitability and or viability. Leaders and managers within the contemporary organizational context appreciate that a critical source of competitive advantage comes from the effective management of human resources. Product designs or service processes, creative marketing strategies, while critical, are not considered sufficient to deliver sustainable competitive advantage.

Academics, policy makers and practitioners are thus paying greater attention to work force issues. Managing human resources is as much a science as it is an art; it represents the combination of the application of scientific principles and practices, and, the application of personal characteristics. The human resource function exists within the organization in order to support the achievement of the organization’s strategic imperatives.

Business strategy consists of the theories, concepts, and methods top and middle-level managers can use to ensure the profitable and long-term growth of their organizations. Strategy helps general managers (as opposed to functional managers whose responsibilities focus on one function such as finance, production, marketing, human resources, IT, etc.), make better decisions to improve the competitive position of their organization in the long run and create value for its key stakeholders.

Gain a perspective on organizations, both within and outside of the for-profit business world. Strategic analysis and managerial thinking applies to organizations regardless of their activities, for or not-for-profit orientation, governance structure, geographic locations, size, etc. You’ll examine the main theories, concepts, and models of strategic analysis and their role in management practice.

Examine the critical financial fundamentals necessary for managing an organization's operational activities and achieving its strategic goals. You’ll learn about the time value of money, investing in various instruments, making critical decisions regarding capital expenditures, and various methods for successfully capitalizing the firm. Managing critical cash flows and allocation of financial assets are also discussed in detail from a managerial perspective.

Explore a wide range of economic concepts, theories and analytical techniques and key economic fundamentals. You will learn about the supply and demand model – the fundamental market model where trade-offs and choices are considered by comparing benefits and costs. Product and market structures, including perfectly competitive, monopolistically competitive, oligopolies, and monopolies, are also analyzed at the firm level.

Macroeconomic issues of fiscal and monetary policy are explored at an aggregate level. Finally, you’ll gain an understanding of selected topics in international trade, financial markets, economic growth, and positive and negative externalities.

Many business decisions throughout every level of an organization are based on the information found in the company’s financial statements. Explore how small and large process changes can increase organizational efficiency and profits through analyzing financial statement information. You’ll also examine how decisions made about capital projects, long-term investments, and a company’s risk aversion impact the bottom line.

Examine the skills and characteristics necessary to be an effective leader. You’ll learn how to apply leadership skills during change and in multicultural and diverse environments. The common thread throughout the course will be leading with strong managerial ethics, emotional intelligence, and reflective leadership. You’ll also examine the relationship between contemporary leadership issues and classical leadership theory.

Explore the design and implementation of the best combination of marketing efforts to carry out an organization's strategy in its target markets. You’ll develop an understanding of how an organization can benefit by creating and delivering value to its customers, and stakeholders, and the skills in applying the analytical concepts and tools of marketing to such decisions as segmentation and targeting, branding, pricing, distribution, and promotion.

Gain a deep understanding of operations management and how it is critical to your success in any field, from consulting to entrepreneurship to general management. You’ll explore the major problems and decision processes of operations management such as operations strategy, process and capacity planning, facilities planning, aggregate planning, materials planning, and quality planning.

Modern business is conducted by economic organizations in a highly competitive market environment. Managers often make decisions under severe time pressure without sufficient information. Ethical decision making in business cannot be considered apart from the complexity and uncertainty of actual situations. Therefore, the focus of the course is on ethical questions from the point of view of the practicing manager, with the aim of making ethical decisions that are consistent with effective corporate management.

Develop your understanding of theoretical and practical insights and developments in the fields of business ethics and sustainable business and learn the principles, practices, and ethical concerns/challenges organizations face in their daily operations. You will also gain an understanding of the theoretical basis of business ethics: stakeholder-theory, theories of responsibility and normative ethical theory, as well as intercultural ethics.

Conduct a strategic assessment of the overall global competitive environment and consider how an organization can leverage resources, capabilities, and preferential entry modes to create competitive advantages when entering a foreign market. As part of the final assessment of global strategy, you’ll take part either virtually or in-person in an international trip, visiting one to two foreign locations to experience local business culture. You’ll use theoretical knowledge to assess the strategy of an international organization in an applied cultural context. 

Following the international financial crisis of 2007–2008, global businesses and governmental leaders have taken profound measures to change the structure of financial markets to ensure such a crisis does not happen again. This is the activity of financial regulation – the attempt of authorities to control economic risks.  

Explore the liberalization of international financial markets, the development of international regulations in response to crises, and how the most recent watershed has shaped the current global economic environment. You’ll be equipped with an understanding of key elements in financial regulation, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as well as important historical events, including the Breton Wood Conference of 1944 and the Herstatt Bank failure of 1974. Finally, you’ll explore the benefits and challenges of liberalization related to saving and investments, market forces on government action, and the creation of derivative instruments aimed at managing risk, among other relevant topics. 

Understanding entrepreneurial finance is an important part of analyzing the potential factors that lead to success and failure and the opportunities and challenges small enterprises face. One of the ways which allow entrepreneurs to make effective decisions to develop their ventures is to establish a comprehensive structure of analysis that considers finance and financial management. Financing sources is particularly difficult for a small firm due to the high uncertainty about cash flow and future liquidity requirements. Small firms face unique financial problems that overshadow the barriers hindering their survival and growth.

Entrepreneurial Finance combines the basic concepts of entrepreneurship, economics, and finance. Explore the key financial challenges faced by entrepreneurial ventures, which can range from seed and start-up capital to the management of working capital, and the different  options available to SMEs by financial institutions, and private equity and venture capital.

Gain a holistic view of the entirety of corporate finance. At its heart, corporate finance focuses on two basic questions – financing (how to raise money) and investing (how to spend that money). Focusing on six key ideas, almost all of which have won Nobel prizes, you’ll learn how to find the best ways to answer these two questions. You’ll apply these ideas to analyze project investment and corporate valuation, as well as the best forms and ways to raise capital, why corporate governance is necessary and how to handle situations where the markets are not efficient.

Develop your understanding of research in general and business. You’ll address both academic business research and business consultancy research and examine the concepts and theories underlying research, as well as the practice of research.

This course has an applied focus. Your readings and assignments are designed to identify a feasible research topic and develop a research proposal for academic business or business consultancy research. You will examine how research problems and questions may be identified, and the process of achieving thoughtful, effective, and efficient research design. You will also investigate the importance of the literature review and how it can be carried out for optimal effectiveness in research.

Learn the research methodologies and methods, as well as the techniques of the research process as applied to business, whether as a business consultant or as an academic researcher. You will also study the philosophical and epistemological assumptions underpinning the research approaches and methodologies, as well as their role in determining the design and implementation of the research. Finally, you will also gain an understanding of the ethical aspects of research and consultancy.