
The 46-credit Online Master of Business Administration includes 28 credits of core coursework in central business areas like accounting, analytics, business law, economics, finance and management.
To fulfill the final 18 required credit hours, students may choose to complete two of three available concentrations: business analytics, finance and marketing. Students also have the option of completing a general track, instead selecting any elective courses to complete their degree. While concentrations are available, students do not need to make a decision about pursuing a concentration at the time of enrollment.
“The Freeman School of Business is a very collegial environment where the faculty know the students, and the students know the faculty.”
Daniel Mochon, Associate Professor
Coursework will primarily be completed asynchronously, with one hour of synchronous engagement weekly. Assignments will vary by course and will cover real-world business issues designed to prepare students for a changing business environment. Students collaborate through group work, discussions and activities. Synchronous meetings may include case studies, presentations, application-based assignments and guest speakers.
Course Descriptions
Core Curriculum (28 credits)
This course introduces basic concepts underlying the reporting of economic activities to external users. It emphasizes the concepts and relationships underlying the income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and statement of changes in shareholders’ equity.
The course covers ESG accounting standards, and it builds the accounting skills necessary to help understand and value firms, assess performance and effectively engage in the capital markets.
This course introduces a toolkit of analytical approaches and theoretical concepts that can help managers better understand the nature of the competition that their company faces as well as inform their choice and execution of strategy. We will explore how firms achieve competitive advantage in a dynamic and complex environment. The course is organized around frameworks that will assist you in analyzing a wide range of strategic issues facing companies, including: 1) theories for in-depth industry and competitor analysis as well as for anticipating and predicting future industry developments, 2) an examination of the economic underpinnings of competitive advantage, and the conditions that allow firms to conceive, develop and sustain advantageous strategic positions and 3) an examination of both business strategy and corporate strategy issues and how to implement strategies.
Strategies to achieve greater climate and social sustainability are covered in this course.
Business analytics refers to the skills, technologies and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods.
Business analytics has been widely adopted in different functional areas (i.e., accounting, finance, operations, marketing and human resources) as well as a wide range of different industries (energy, healthcare, sports, government, etc.). For example, banks, such as Capital One, use analytics to segment customers based on credit risk, usage behavior and other characteristics and then to match customer characteristics with appropriate product offerings. Harrah’s, the gaming firm, uses analytics based on tracking the consumer behavior to improve its customer loyalty programs.
This course provides students with the fundamental concepts, techniques and applications needed to understand the emerging role of business analytics in organizations, and ability to communicate with analytics professionals to effectively use and interpret analytics models and results for making better business decisions. This course will also familiarize students with R (analyses software) and Tableau (visualization software) which are widely used in the industry.
Corequisites: Introduction to Business Statistics
To achieve a competitive advantage, firms must thoroughly understand the complex processes underlying the manufacturing of products as well as the delivery of services. This course provides students with concepts, tools and techniques to design, analyze and improve the operational capabilities of organizations and supply chains. We will look at the operations function in both manufacturing and service industries and investigate how it can provide a competitive advantage along the dimensions of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. We will then look more broadly at the importance of coordination and risk mitigation for supply chains. The course will introduce several key topics in operations and supply chain management that are essential to any organization.
Operations management is largely based on statistics. Consequently, we will devote a substantial amount of time to mastering analytical methods. The deeper issues surrounding operations and supply chain strategy and ESG implications, however, must be addressed through a broad and conceptual approach. Hence, this course will provide a mix of quantitative and qualitative treatments of the subject using lectures, case discussions, articles, instructional games and exercises.
Pre-requisites: Introduction to Business Statistics
This course is designed as a graduate-level introduction to the basic principles and concepts in marketing. The goal is to expose you to these concepts as they are used in a wide variety of business settings. The course will provide you with a framework that can help you make effective marketing decisions. This framework includes elements of a market situation analysis (company, customer, competition, collaborators, context), marketing strategy formulation (segmentation, targeting, positioning) and the marketing mix (product, price, placement/distribution, promotion) as the tactical implementation of a marketing strategy. Students will combine quantitative and qualitative analyses in applying the principles you learn in class to a variety of real-world marketing issues.
The course covers what societal marketing is and how marketers can contribute more than just product or service value.
Business Analytics Concentration (9 credits)
Choose three of the following four classes:
Finance Concentration (9 credits)
Marketing Concentration (9 credits)
This course teaches students how to create a strategic marketing plan that identifies the strongest paths to sustained growth for a brand. Students will learn to build and sustain strong brands through a deep understanding of customer value creation, market analysis, the positioning of new products and services and the formation of integrated marketing plans with metrics to monitor performance. The course will combine quantitative and qualitative analyses to support brand growth decisions. Students will work on projects and make strategic decisions about designing and implementing brand strategy.
The course will address how to intentionally manage the environmental implications of growth, the responsibility of brands for promoting equity and diversity and how to build authentic brand-community relationships.
Pre-requisites: Introduction to Business Statistics or Business Statistics and Models – may be taken concurrently or Business Statistics and Modeling with R; Marketing Management or Marketing
Choose one of the following:
General Electives (9 credits)
Much managerial activity involves negotiating and the settling of disputes, and effective negotiation can improve outcomes for everyone involved. Ineffective negotiation, in contrast, usually leads to poor outcomes for everyone involved and can result in failures to agree even when agreement is possible. The course is designed to provide students with basic negotiating skills, as well as to provide specific tactics and the theoretical underpinnings for those tactics. The importance of planning is also emphasized, as well as how to avoid common mistakes in negotiations. Specifically, this course explores the behavioral processes inherent in virtually all types of negotiations, as well as the problems involved in cross-cultural negotiations.
The course involves lectures concerning types of negotiations and relevant tactics, while in-class negotiation exercises allow students to practice tactics as well as receive feedback concerning how to improve.
Managing for Success is an intensive, experiential-oriented course that is aimed at developing fundamental leadership and management skills. No matter their general mental ability, experience, or drive, managers at any level need core skills to be effective. These skills are:
- Self-awareness: Understanding your behavior’s impact on organizational outcomes
- Communication: Effectively communicating goals and inspiring trust
- Influence: Being comfortable at persuading, promoting, and delegating
- Learning agility: Knowing when to change course, and helping others to do so
- Feedback: Effectively delivering feedback and conducting performance feedback sessions
Along with the development of fundamental skills for managing others, leaders need to know how to establish an organizational climate for success. In this course, students will learn about how to create the environment for success as well as immerse themselves in development, adapt these skills to their own leadership/management contexts, participate with peers in learning, and share ideas on how to apply their lessons learned to the workplace.
Get the Online MBA Program Brochure
To download a program brochure and learn more about the Online Master of Business Administration offered by the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, please fill out the form. You can also get in touch with an admissions counselor directly by calling us toll-free at 800-856-9981.