Online Business Graduate Course Previews

To better serve our distance students, we offer courses in a modular format. Our schedule consists of five eight-week terms per year. Each course is three semester hours of credit. Students typically take one or two courses per term.

Select a course name below to view its course-catalog description and the instructors currently teaching the course.
Select an instructor to view a course syllabus from a recent semester.
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Core Courses

GRBA 808 Foundations of Business Strategy

Catalog Description

An overarching, integrated framework of the strategic management process—analysis, formulation, and implementation—that provides a foundation for examining why some companies succeed and others fail. Readings and lectures cover business and corporate strategy and illustrate strategic management theories and frameworks while case discussions and projects provide opportunities for application.

Instructors

Dr. Tammy Beck

Dr. Jifeng Yu

Dr. Rob Campbell

GRBA 809 Financial Accounting

Catalog Description

Basics of financial accounting and reporting. The construction of financial statements and their interpretation for internal and external users of financial information.

Instructors

Dr. Tony Kang

GRBA 811 Managerial Finance

Catalog Description

A case course designed to meet the financial core requirement in the MBA program. Application of financial theory to business problems. Financial statement analysis, working capital management, capital structure planning, cost of capital, and capital expenditure analysis.

Instructors

Dr. Emre Unlu

GRBA 812 Managerial Economics

Catalog Description

Applies economics to problems faced by managers in both the private and public sector. Consideration is given to the impact of the economic environment on decisions made by the firm including the effects of legal, regulatory and social constraints. Internal allocation of resources in organizations from an economic perspective. Economic tools that aid managers, including statistical analysis, are applied to practical decisions.

Instructors

Dr. Geoffrey Friesen

Dr. Julian Atanassov

GRBA 813 Managerial Marketing

Catalog Description

Mixture of case discussions, readings, lectures, plus written and oral assignments. Development of analytical and decision-making skills, and an understanding of the market forces which influence those decisions. Major emphasis on the decision areas of product, distribution, personal selling, advertising and pricing, as well as on the development of integrated marketing programs. Social, ethical, and global issues.

Instructors

Dr. Amit Saini

Dr. Sunil K. Singh

Dr. Pinar Runnalls

Dr. Ravi Sohi

GRBA 814 Applied Organizational Behavior

Catalog Description

Critical behavioral science theories that contribute to the effective management of human behavior in organizations. Conceptual frameworks that help diagnose and explain the potential for common interpersonal problems. These models serve as the foundation for student efforts to develop behavioral skills and intervention techniques that promote effective individual and team activity leading to positive managerial experiences. Communication, power and influence, conflict management, and perception.

Instructors

Dr. Amy Bartels

Dr. Elina Ibrayeva

Dr. Brett Neely

GRBA 815 Supply Chain Management Strategies

Catalog Description

Strategic implications for the management and coordination of supply chains, including both internal and external operations and the information systems necessary for support. Relationships between operations and information systems and other functional areas of organizations, e.g., accounting, marketing, finance, and engineering/R&D are evaluated, along with relationships with other organizations in the supply chain, are emphasized.

Instructors

Dr. Scott R. Swenseth

GRBA 816 Strategic Human Resource Management

Catalog Description

Development of an understanding of how human resource decisions, strategies, and practices contribute to business performance and a firm's competitive advantage. The Approach to human resource management from a strategic perspective, as it focuses on the relationship between HRM practices and business performance. A general management perspective by focusing on the role of managers and how they can execute effective and ethical human resource practices that support strategic objectives.

Instructors

Dr. Jenna Pieper

Dr. Jake Messersmith

GRBA 851 Business Analytics

Catalog Description

Broad understanding and knowledge of important business analytic topics and how they can be used to support decision making in all business areas, government, education, and agriculture. Emphasis will be placed on the technical procedures that are used to describe, predict and prescribe data into information for decision making. Students will learn how data exploration results in a sequence of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive processes to result in unique and new information on which decisions can be made.

Instructors

Dr. Yunxia (Peter) Wu

Dr. Wesley Boyce

Dr. Majid Nabavi

GRBA 853 Advanced Business Strategy

Catalog Description

Bridging the gap between strategic management theory and practice through extensive application - an executive level simulation game, business cases, and an action learning capstone project. Discovering problems, finding solutions, and developing and implementing plans using strategic management frameworks.

Instructors

Dr. Laura Poppo

Dr. Brandi McManus

Dr. Sam Nelson

Elective Courses

Economics

ECON 817 Introductory Econometrics

Catalog Description

Introduction to Basic Econometric methods including economic model estimation and analyses of economic and business data. Hypothesis formulation and testing, economic prediction and problems in analyzing economic cross-section and time series data are considered.

Instructors

Dr. Christopher Mann

ECON 822 International Finance

Catalog Description

Determinants of exchange rates, international payments, inflation, unemployment, national income, and interest rates in an open economy. International monetary system and capital and financial markets, and of the mechanisms by which a national economy and the rest of the world adjust to external disturbances.

Instructors

Dr. Uchechukwu Jarret

Entrepreneurship

ENTR 821 Identifying & Exploring Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Catalog Description

Focuses on the management of new firms, including small businesses designed to be lifestyle ventures and firms destined to grow. Exposure to variety of growth opportunities including franchising, organic growth and expansion of smaller businesses or units within larger firms. Teaches how to manage a new business and exploit an entrepreneurial opportunity and manage resources to sustain the firm once the business is running. Learn through a variety of hands-on methods designed to enhance their critical thinking and practical business skills. Case study analysis and exposure to thought leadership in the field are part of the core learning methods.

Instructors

Dr. Samantha Fairclough

ENTR 822 Entrepreneurship in Established Firms

Catalog Description

Established firms face a variety of challenges that often require entrepreneurial processes to be addressed. But established firms are not start-ups, and simply trying to act like a start-up may not yield desirable outcomes. Explore the opportunities and challenges associated with corporate entrepreneurship, which involves entrepreneurial principles and processes applied in established organizations. We will cover topics including corporate venturing, entrepreneurial culture, strategic tension, and others.

Instructors

Dr. Varkey Titus, Jr.

ENTR 823 Business Plan Development & Decision Making

Catalog Description

An in-depth look at the business planning process. Produce a business plan. Learn through business plan writing, through in-depth cases studies, by engaging in role plays and by interacting with business executives. Business plans are a critical part of any organization, thus, preparing to develop business plans for a variety of new concepts and ideas, whether inside an established firm or as part of the start-up new venture. Business plans are entered into the business planning competitions in which the University participates.

Instructors

Dr. Samuel Nelson

Finance

FINA 801 Quantitative Methods for Finance

Catalog Description

Practical use of statistical and quantitative methods that have wide applicability in business and financial decision making.

Instructors

Dr. Nam Le

FINA 802 Fixed Income Analysis

Catalog Description

Basic understanding of fixed-income markets, fixed-income securities, and tools employed by market participants to the analysis of fixed-income investments.

Instructors

Dr. Stanislava (Stas) Nikolova

FINA 803 Case Studies in Financial Management

Catalog Description

Development and implementation of financial strategies and policies. Cases will cover financial statement analysis, working capital management, capital structure planning, cost of capital, and capital expenditure analysis.

Instructors

Dr. Nam Le

FINA 804 Portfolio Management II & Ethics

Catalog Description

Covers elements of the investment management process. Investment management process considers risk, return, and investment constraints. Ethical considerations of this investment management industry.

Instructors

Dr. Richard A. DeFusco

FINA 850 Multinational Financial Analysis

Catalog Description

International aspects of financial management. Exchange risk analysis and management. Accessing international capital markets. International capital budgeting. Numerical optimization technique.

Instructors

Dr. Paul Dion

FINA 855 Capital Markets & Financial Institutions

Catalog Description

Analysis of the development and functions of the various financial institutions, with emphasis on the nonbank financial intermediary. Sources and uses of funds for each of the major types of intermediary, the nature and structure of financial markets, the behavior of financial institutions, and the theories of interest rate determination.

Instructors

Dr. Emre Unlu

FINA 862 Security Valuation & the Buffet Investment Method

Catalog Description

This course covers methods used to value publicly-traded and private equities. Methods used by Warren Buffett are emphasized.

Instructors

Dr. Shane Moser

FINA 863 Portfolio Management

Catalog Description

The workings of securities markets. The fundamental intuition of the risk-return trade-off. The role of information in financial markets. All major asset pricing models and application to risk management in a portfolio context.

Instructors

Dr. Julie Wu

FINA 867 Options, Futures, & Derivative Securities

Catalog Description

The use of derivative securities in risk reduction and portfolio management strategies.

Instructors

Dr. Glenn Williams

FINA 871 Nonprofit Financial Management

Catalog Description

Financial Managment for the non-profit firm examines the planning process for operating, capital expenditure, and cash budgets. This process includes long-term financial planning and the importance of capital structure and investment policies that are aligned to the organization's strategic objectives. All these topics build on the foundation of nonprofit accounting and nonprofit financial statements.

Instructors

Dr. Jim Croft

Business Administration

GRBA 860 Management: Theory, Issues & Practice

Catalog Description

Various approaches to management, and the functions, roles, and activities of the modern manager within the organizational and environmental context. Contemporary issues such as the gig economy, contingent and remote work, ESG, employee engagement, wellbeing, coaching, and performance development. The theme and perspective is how to make the practice of today's organizations more effective.

Instructors

Dr. Timothy Hodges

GRBA 898 Managerial Skills Seminar: Fundraising in the Nonprofit Organization

Catalog Description

Seminar in current topics in business. Topical issues such as diversity, ethics, leadership, business communication, etc. New topics announced prior to each term in which the course is being offered.

Nonprofit organizations thrive thanks to donations from their supporters. Whereas for-profit organizations rely on sales, and government agencies depend on appropriations, donor contributions sustain nonprofit organizations of all types. Although many nonprofits derive an important part of their income from revenue-generating programs, such as ticket sales, gift shop sales, program service fees, and so on, they still rely on contributions to support many of the services they provide to the public and to their clients.

As this information makes apparent, fundraising is big business. And not only is it big business; it is also incredibly competitive, in the sense that nonprofits in every field are pursuing the same philanthropic dollar. If a nonprofit organization is to survive and flourish, it must be thorough, orderly, and deliberate in designing and implementing its fundraising program.

Instructors

Dr. Jim Croft

GRBA 898 Managerial Skills Seminar: Influential Communication

Catalog Description

Seminar in current topics in business. Topical issues such as diversity, ethics, leadership, business communication, etc. New topics announced prior to each term in which the course is being offered.

This course focuses on understanding the role of inter-personal influence in business. Students will explore the range of relationships that drive business outcomes, with an emphasis on personal style and team dynamics. The course discusses a variety of tools and methods for influence and persuasion, strengthening students’ confidence and capability.

Instructors

Dr. Elaine Pelletier

GRBA 898 International Studies in Business

Catalog Description

Seminar in current topics in business. Topical issues such as diversity, ethics, leadership, business communication, etc. New topics announced prior to each term in which the course is being offered.

The course is designed to provide you with an understanding of international business and enrich the learning experience with a study abroad trip to Barcelona, Spain. The course will consist of approximately equal parts of class lecture and discussions, corporate visits, and cultural visits. All of the corporate and cultural visits will take place in Barcelona, Spain. After this course, you will deepen your understanding of the global environment we live in and broaden your perspective on conducting business internationally.

Instructors

Dr. Tony Kang

Management

MNGT 811 Leading People and Projects

Catalog Description

Organizations are complex systems calling for a leadership process, including the leader, the follower, and the context to effect change. Gain an understanding of many of the basic concepts and generalizations about leadership, which relate to human behavior and interactions in organizations. Objectives and activities focus on understanding how leaders function in organizations and on one's leadership operations in the organizational setting. Participants will utilize concepts, generalizations, theories, and frames of reference to analyze organizations and leadership to understand and improve their functions. Topics covered include: Systems Theory and Organizational theory, the change process and the leadership process, roles in changing organizations, power and politics in organizations, congruence of individual and organizational ethics, and the behavioral concerns in project.

Instructors

Dr. James A. Yankech

MNGT 817 Positivity for Managers

Catalog Description

An overview of most recent developments in the fields of positive psychology, mindfulness, and positive organizational scholarship. Will focus on proven positive psychology practices to develop skills to promote flourishing in yourself and those around you. Emphasis on how positivity can be applied at an organizational level to improve leadership and employee engagement.

Instructors

Dr. Elina Ibrayeva

MNGT 825 Strengths Based Leadership

Catalog Description

Focus on great leaders, great leadership teams, and why people follow. Identification, development, and application of personal leadership strengths. Builds understanding of research and development of employee engagement and wellbeing.

Instructors

Dr. Timothy Hodges

MNGT 828 Leadership in a Global Context

Catalog Description

Taught from the perspective of US enterprises operating in the global economy. The manner in which cultural, economic, political, and social differences affect the management of business, governmental, military, and other enterprises is considered. Emphasis on problems of managing in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Instructors

Dr. Elina Ibrayeva

MNGT 840 Corporate Strategy and Entrepreneurship

Catalog Description

Understand, analyze, and problem solve around the array of decisions that, entrepreneurs, managers, and CEOs consider when determining where and how to grow. Learn and apply qualitative decision frameworks that enable more thorough decision analysis to your own company or a company that you work for, cases studies, and your own personal growth path.

Instructors

Dr. Laura Poppo

MNGT 859 Managerial Negotiations

Catalog Description

Designed to help managers and professionals deal with a broad range of negotiation issues. Provides an understanding of the theory and processes of negotiations and develops skills that can be used to negotiate in a variety of settings.

Instructors

Dr. Elina Ibrayeva

MNGT 863 Compensation Administration

Catalog Description

Design and administration of compensation systems. Deals with determinants of general level of pay, pay structures, wage and salary surveys, job analysis, job evaluation, performance evaluation, benefit plans, and financial incentive systems.

Instructors

Dr. Jenna Pieper

MNGT 864 Talent Acquisition

Catalog Description

This course will explain the process by which organizations forecast employment needs, recruit potential employees, select high potential candidates from applicant pools, assess job performance levels, give feedback, train and develop existing employees, and deal with voluntary and involuntary turnover. Students will be provided with examples of tools used by HR professionals in the staffing process. Students will also be expected to evaluate and suggest improvements to real HR recruiting and selection systems based on the information learned in the classroom.

Instructors

Dr. Jake Messersmith

MNGT 871 Nonprofit Management

Catalog Description

Provide an overview of the management skills required by leaders of nonprofit organizations Discuss the purpose or mission of a nonprofit organization and its place in society. Examine the importance of an organizational vision of success, and how that can lead to a well-developed strategic plan.

Instructors

Dr. Jim Croft

MNGT 996 Adaptive Leadership

Catalog Description

This course will focus on applying the principles of adaptive leadership, a model for dealing with difficult organizational challenges. The most persistent problems that organizations face require stakeholder driven change by focusing on altering attitudes, values, priorities and loyalties. This course will walk students through several tools for helping to drive change in their organizations, regardless of position or level in the organization. Students will develop a plan for implementing change in their organizations. Students will also participate in a series of structured peer dilemma sessions, where they will be given a structured framework for helping peers (and themselves) identify and tackle significant organizational challenges.

Instructors

Dr. Jake Messersmith

Marketing

MRKT 821 Customer Analytics and AI

Catalog Description

Research methods to supply marketing information pertaining to the: assessment of the nature of demand, assessment of the extent of demand, marketing program development, and the monitoring of marketing performance.

Instructors

Dr. Sajeesh Sajeesh

MRKT 826 Services Marketing

Catalog Description

Services marketing and the services marketing process. Key concepts, issues and terminology. Specific tools and frameworks enabling communication with other professional marketers and analysis of services marketing situations to make realistic recommendations for managerial action.

Instructors

Dr. Laura McLeod

MRKT 830 Strategic Issues in Marketing Communication

Catalog Description

Analysis and application of current concepts regarding the formulation and evaluation of marketing communication strategy in organizations which operate on a profit and not-for-profit basis.

Instructors

Dr. Pinar Runnalls

MRKT 845 Advanced Marketing Analytics

Catalog Description

Web, social media, and consumer text analytics; analyzing consumer data streams from the Internet, mobile devices, and sensors; handling very large volumes of data; general data analysis software operation for various marketing problems; marketing platform software for general and specific tasks; learning machines in marketing.

Instructors

Dr. Meike Eilert

MRKT 850 Data Driven Decision Making

Catalog Description

Understanding tools and techniques that can be used for making strategic and tactical marketing decisions in areas such as pricing, sales, advertising, new product demand forecasting, and allocation of resources. Topics covered include market response models, linear models, conjoint analysis techniques, resource allocation models, forecasting models, customer profitability analysis, customer choice modeling, value pricing, product line decisions, and other significant strategic marketing issues facing today's managers.

Instructors

Dr. Sajeesh Sajeesh

MRKT 855 Marketing and Globalization

Catalog Description

Globalization and resulting changes in the business environment. Access to new consumers, new supplies. The effect on consumer choices. Readings from scholarly and popular press, videos, and a "real world" application. Marketing strategies developed for Nebraska firms and organizations such as value-added food marketers.

Instructors

Dr. Pinar Runnalls

MRKT 859 Managerial Negotiations

Catalog Description

Designed to help managers and professionals deal with a broad range of negotiation issues. Provides an understanding of the theory and processes of negotiations and develops skills that can be used to negotiate in a variety of settings.

Instructors

Dr. Elina Ibrayeva

Supply Chain Management and Analytics

SCMA 832 Planning and Controlling Supply Chain Systems

Catalog Description

Taught predominately by the case method with a few classes for review and summary lectures. Concentrates on higher management decisions involving the manufacturing, service, and public sectors. Facilities planning, labor, aggregate planning, strategic planning, capacity management, and trade-off analysis.

Instructors

Dr. Scott Swenseth

SCMA 834 Advanced Topics in Lean Supply Chain Management

Catalog Description

Focus on the improvement of supply chain operations through the application of lean management principles. Topics include just-in-time, six-sigma, theory of constraints, and associated tools and applications. The course would be offered primarily in the on-line MBA program.

Instructors

Dr. Wesley Boyce

SCMA 836 Project Management

Catalog Description

Planning and managing projects from initiation through implementation. Use of tools and techniques for bidding, planning budgeting scheduling, risk management and implementation.

Instructors

Dr. David Olson

SCMA 837 Risk and Simulation Modeling

Catalog Description

Analytical and simulation models for decision making in functional areas such as finance, accounting, marketing, personnel, operations, and inventory. Construction of decision models for practical applications. Emphasis on analyzing alternatives and implementing solutions that result in increased productivity.

Instructors

Dr. David Olson

SCMA 839 Global Supply Chain Management

Catalog Description

Focus on global aspects of supply chain managing with primary emphasis on sourcing and distribution strategies. Topics will include sourcing strategies, concepts and tools. Specific issues include make versus buy decisions, supplier evaluation and selection, total cost of ownership, contracts and legal terms, negotiation, and purchasing ethics.

Instructors

Dr. Wesley Boyce

SCMA 844 Managing Logistics in the Supply Chain

Catalog Description

Examination of physical distribution activities in the marketing mix from the viewpoints of both providers and users of components of logistics systems. Logistics problems of concern to the marketing manager include time and place utility concepts, spatial relationships of markets, channel design, transportation modes, and inventory.

Instructors

Dr. Wesley Boyce

SCMA 847 Information Technologies for Operations and Innovations

Catalog Description

Business leaders must understand how to leverage advanced information technology (IT) for operations and innovation. Learn the foundations of IT, advanced IT trends, and how IT is used to operate, innovate, grow, and transform organizations.

Instructors

Dr. Silvana Trimi

SCMA 851 Predictive Analytics

Catalog Description

This course will focus on how knowledge management has been successfully applied in business in the form of predictive analytics. Predictive analytics extends statistical and/or artificial intelligence to provide forecasting capability. It will also describe in non-technical terms the statistical and artificial intelligence-based tools commonly used in forecasting and other business decisions involving big data.

Instructors

Dr. Ozgur Araz

SCMA 852 Data Management and Organization

Catalog Description

Technology of databases and related human and managerial considerations. Databases are studied from the perspective of the logical organization, as well as from the perspective of managers and applications programmers, in the use of organizational data. Consideration of physical organization and SQL. Practical applications of databases.

Instructors

Dr. Majid Nabavi

SCMA 853 Data Mining and Descriptive Analytics

Catalog Description

Data mining applies quantitative analysis to support humans in identifying actionable information from large amounts of data. Actionable means that value can be obtained, which for businesses usually relates to making money. This course will focus on how data mining has been successfully applied in business. It will also describe in non-technical terms how the statistical and artificial intelligence-based tools commonly used in data mining work. The course will also address ethical issues related to use of information obtained through data mining.

Instructors

Dr. David Olson

SCMA 854 Advanced Analytics and Big Data

Catalog Description

Covers advanced business analytics topics, including data cleansing, classification, clustering, reduction, exploration and visualization. Big data analysis platforms and tools are also covered.

Instructors

Dr. Majid Nabavi

SCMA 855 Prescriptive Analytics

Catalog Description

This course will focus on how optimization modeling techniques can be used to make the best decisions in a variety of business analytics applications. The emphasis will be on the formulation of different optimization problems and the use of the correct quantitative techniques to solve these problems.

Instructors

Dr. Shivam Gupta