UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

BMGT 198: Freshman Fellows Colloquium in Corporate Social Responsibility
Faculty: Richard Hutchins, Hugh Turner, Gary Cohen

This course utilizes case studies and group discussion in the classroom as well as co-curricular events to introduce undergraduate business students to the increasingly important aspects of business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

BMGT 289A: Social Enterprise – Changing the World through Innovation and Transformative Action
Faculty: Melissa Carrier

Thousands of individuals are inventing creative new approaches to social change, the tools of business to build lasting solutions. Where do social entrepreneurs come from? How do they develop their passion for changing the world? Can anyone become a social entrepreneur? This course looks at the history and theory of social change, reviews the skills, strategies, and ideas of effective change agents and gives students the tools to create a blueprint for their ideas for social transformation.

BMGT 411: Ethics and Professionalism in Accounting
Faculty: Steve Loeb

This course discusses and analyzes issues relating to professionalism and ethics in accounting. Among the various topics covered are truth, corporate social responsibility, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the PCAOB, corporate governance, accounting and the environment, and international accounting ethics.

BMGT 468Q: Special Topics Management & Organization: Nonprofit Consulting Practicum
(Elective option for Management Majors)
Faculty: Melissa Carrier, Nicole Coomber

This course allows students to engage in action learning with nonprofit organizations in a consulting capacity to address the organization’s process improvement issues. Students work in multidisciplinary teams and will be paired up with a nonprofit organization. Each team defines the issue(s) facing the organization, chooses an appropriate process improvement methodology to address these issues, and suggests recommendations to the organization on how they might improve the process. The instructors work closely with the student teams and the nonprofit organizations and tailor the learning experience to the specific context. Additionally,
students learn about the unique challenge facing nonprofit organizations—including fundraising, volunteerism and operations—and how this setting shapes the application of process improvement methodologies.

BMGT 482: Business and Government
Faculty: Rotating

By focusing on the complex interrelationships between business and government, this course explores areas in which business and government are allies (cooperative research and financing program) and adversaries (regulation). Emphasis is placed on a strategic management approach by business to government involvement in economic affairs.

BMGT 488V: Transformative Action – Effective Methods for Social Change
(Part of the Social Innovation Fellows Program)
Faculty: Melissa Carrier

This course introduces students to the most effective methods of social change by looking at the social entrepreneurs, innovators and visionaries who are coming up with new methods of solving society’s problems. Students examine traditional methods of activism as well as a new theory of nonviolent social change called “transformative action.” The first few weeks of the course introduce the students to many case studies, and then the course reviews the skills, strategies, and ideas of effective social change advocates in the 21st century. Each student develops an original blueprint for social innovation: a creative proposal for solving a societal problem based on their interest.

BMGT 484: Electronic Marketing
Faculty: Mary Harms

This course aims to understand the importance of a marketing orientation in the development of an online presence for both profit and nonprofit organizations.

BMGT 488W: Social Innovation Practicum
(Part of the Social Innovation Fellows Program)
Faculty: Melissa Carrier

Working in teams of four or five, students immerse themselves in a social issue of common concern through a service practicum with a nonprofit organization or social enterprise. Student projects are developed in partnership with the organizations but the goal of the practicum is two-fold: 1) help the organizations develop a new entrepreneurial service or program to address a specific pressing social need in the community, and 2) provide students with a deep understanding of the root causes of a particular social issue and how such issues can be best addressed through entrepreneurial action.

BMGT 496: Business Ethics and Society
Faculty: Brian Nelson

This course emphasizes a strategic approach by business to the management of its external environment. Students engage in a study of the standards of business conduct, morals and values as well as the role of business in society with consideration of the sometimes conflicting interests of and claims on the firm and its objectives.

GRADUATE COURSES

BUSI 650: Marketing Management
Faculty: David Godes

Students analyze marketing problems and evaluate specific marketing efforts regarding the organization's products and services, pricing activities, channel selection, and promotion strategies in both domestic and international markets.

BUSI 660: Entrepreneurship and New Ventures
Faculty: Brent Goldfarb, David Kirsch

This course provides an introduction to important tools and skills necessary to create and grow a successful new venture by integrating research findings from a range of different perspectives, including psychology, sociology, economics, and history.

BUSI 661: Creativity for Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs
Faculty: Oliver Schlake

An overview of the cognitive foundations of creativity, this course examines many of the preconceived notions about creativity in business and discusses multiple ways in which creativity can help business leaders and entrepreneurs to succeed. Topics include creativity techniques for groups and individuals, mental and organizational obstacles to creativity as well as an overview of electronic tools to increase creative capability.

BUS I667: Cross-cultural Communication and Teamwork
Faculty: Subra Tangirala, Debra Shapiro, Hui Liao

Students develop an understanding of key cultural differences, and how these differences influence the management of individuals, groups, and organizations, eventually providing future managers for developing such competencies.

BUSI 673: International Economics for Managers
Faculty: Wilbur Chung, Yue “Maggie” Zhou

This course focuses on understanding critical aspects of the global business environment that influence firm decisions and behavior. Globalization is present in market competition, capital markets, and managerial talent as evidenced by free trade areas and the formation of economic unions, the volatility in global financial markets, and the continued rise of transnational firms.

BUSI 681: Managerial Economics and Public Policy
Faculty: Rachelle Sampson

This course introduces students to basic microeconomic principles used by firms, including supply and demand, elasticities, costs, productivity, pricing, market structure, and competitive implications of alternative market structures.

BUSI 683: Global Economic Environment
Faculty: Jahangir Boroumand

This class discusses the relationship between national and international economic environments, determinants of output, interest rates, prices, and exchange rates. Topics include an analysis of the effect of economic policies on the firm and the economy.

BUSI 690: Strategic Management
Faculty: Paolo Prochno

This integrative strategic management course focuses on strategy formulation and implementation in domestic and global settings. Industry and competitor analysis, industry and firm value chain, leadership, goal setting, organizational structure and culture. It uses a case study approach to top management and organizational problems.

BUSI 718: Social Venture Consulting Practicum
Faculty: Melissa Carrier, David Kirsch, Rebecca Hamilton, Yi Xu

The ChangeTheWorld.org Social Venture Consulting Program is a 3-credit Smith Experience course. The course consists of semester-long consulting engagements with 501(c)3, social enterprise, and government organization clients who have contracted with the Center for Social Value Creation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business to receive business management consulting services.
The program is designed to help social value driven organizations increase their organizational capacity and social impact by providing them with direct access to free business consulting including but not limited to marketing, financial, operational, or strategic projects. Read more about this course.

BUSI 738: Sustainable Systems Practicum
Faculty: Karen Lipps

The Sustainable Systems Practicum is an experiential, multi-disciplinary research project in the identification, evaluation and recommendation/resolution of problems at the intersection of business and environmental science. In teams of 4 to 6 students, MBA students from the Smith School of Business collaborate with experienced MS students from the Program in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development (CONS) to solve complex problems or research new initiatives in Environmental Sustainability. This is a course that marries the business skills learned in the MBA program with the environmental knowledge of sustainability issues developed in the CONS program to give students critical thinking skills, creative problem-solving abilities, collaborative teamwork and the ability to communicate with leaders in both fields. Read more about this course.

BUSI 758L: Managers in Society: Ethical Leadership
Faculty: Shreevardhan Lele

This course offers an analytical exploration of managerial leadership at the intersection of business and society. Unlike most MBA courses, which assume that the values (or objectives) of the manager and the institutions (or constraints) in which she operates are trivially obvious and unchangeable, this course takes the view that individual managers can indeed select, shape, change, and cultivate specific values and institutions. Ideas are drawn from multiple disciplines including political economy and moral philosophy.

BUSI 758M: Sustainability and Green Business
Faculty: Danielle Wang

The climate of business is changing. Environmental issues are no longer simply a compliance officer’s job. Increasingly, companies need to be environmentally sustainable to be competitive. Environmental issues can impact the bottom-line by affecting operational risks and costs, revenue streams and brand reputations, investment risks and valuations, etc. This course is developed on the concept of triple bottom line management, i.e. to manage three interrelated factors - people, planet and profit – for socio-environmental value creation and business success.

BUSI 758N Strategic Management for Nonprofit & Public Organizations
Faculty: Rob Sheehan

Serving as a successful leader for a nonprofit or public organization of any kind requires an understanding of the strategic management process and a well-developed and managed strategy is a key to an organization’s performance. This course provides an integrated approach to leadership theories and concepts, research, and modern practices related to strategic planning and execution. Leading strategy approaches will be discussed and students will gain a deep understanding of how strategy can be effectively developed, implemented, and managed in these organizations. The course will be relevant for students who want to work for and/or consult with nonprofit and government organizations. Course cross-listed as PUAF 689Z. 

BUSI 758R: Social Responsibility in Business
Faculty: Robert Rhee, Brian Nelson, Danielle Wang

This course examines the various expectations for socially responsible business conduct such as sustainability, stability and the ethical and legal expectations of different corporate constituencies. The course considers the role of individual managers and offers them specific frameworks and techniques for integrating social responsibilities and more traditional business concerns into business strategies which provide sustainable competitive advantages.

BUSI 798: Global Studies Courses
Faculty: Paulo Prochno, P.K. Kannan, Ethan Cohen-Cole, Zhi-Long Chen, Hank Boyd, Hassan Ibrahim

These short-term abroad courses provide in-depth immersion for students to learn about a particular aspect of business and culture of a country. Topics range from environmental stewardship in China, green technologies in the EU, to social issues in South Africa, microfinance and many more.

BUMO 758D: Social Entrepreneurship
Faculty: James Sanders

This course is about using entrepreneurial skills to craft innovative responses to social problems. Entrepreneurs are particularly good at recognizing opportunities, exploring innovative approaches, mobilizing resources, managing risks, and building viable enterprises.

BULM 720: The Green Supply Chain
Faculty: Taylor Wilkerson

In response to international regulation of carbon emissions and increasing corporate responsibility pressures, companies are seeking to develop greener supply chains. Companies such as WalMart have undergone a paradigm shift in how they manage their businesses to emphasize environmental stewardship and due diligence on product sustainability. Students are provided with key concepts and tools for designing and managing environmentally sustainable, low-impact supply chains.

BULM 758D: Competing in Emerging Markets
Faculty: TBD

The course offers a comprehensive look at competing in and with emerging markets, especially (but not only) the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), as they integrate into the global economy. Students will examine the strategies of world-leading companies from both the developed world and the emerging markets.

BULM 758F: Economics of Sustainable Development
Faculty: Rachelle Sampson

Sustainability issues facing firms are multi-faceted and, in most cases, without clear strategic solutions. The goal of this course is to better understand the issues of sustainability in a series of different contexts. Within each context, we examine the underlying market failures that lead to sub-optimal social outcomes along with commonly employed economic solutions to these problems.

BULM 758M: Emerging Economies, Government Policies, and International Trade
Faculty: Jahangir Boroumand

The objective of this course is to enhance managers’ understanding of the economic environment of firms operating in the international economy with emphasis on emerging markets of the global economy. Managers misreading of emerging economies and associated government polices leads to less than optimal strategies by firms to enhance profits or prevent losses in these markets.

BUFN 758G: Sustainability & Investing
Lecturer: Cary Krosinsky

This course will provide a walk through the framework, analysis and metrics involved with the growing practice of factoring sustainability into investment strategy, especially as it pertains to financial measurement of environmental, social & governance risks and opportunities. Students will actively participate in the construction of a model sustainable equity portfolio, as well as how sustainability affects other asset classes, while reviewing macro sustainability trends that will likely affect regions, corporations and public policy.

BUMK 758V: Marketing for Social Value
Faculty: Rebecca Ratner

Key objectives of this course include exposing students to scholarly frameworks, empirical findings and case studies in two primary areas of growing interest to managers: 1) For-profit social value creation (e.g. cause-related marketing, in which consumer loyalty generated by the for-profit's connection to a social cause is a desired outcome), and 2) Social marketing (e.g., in which behavior change in the public interest is itself the desired outcome).

BUDT758F: Google Online Challenge and Analytics
Faculty: Il-Horn Hann

The Center for Digital Thought and Strategy (DIGITS) and the Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) invite applications from MBA student groups (groups of five or six students) to participate in Google’s global online marketing challenge. We will select three groups for the current challenge. Student teams receive US$200 of free online advertising with Google AdWords and then work with local NGOs to create effective online marketing campaigns.
This is a great exercise for students interested in advertising, ecommerce, integrated marketing communication, management information systems, marketing, or new media technologies. The goal for students is to create an effective online marketing campaign in Google AdWords. More information about the challenge can be found online.

Classes offered through the School of Public Policy

PUAF 689Y Theory, Practice, and New Paradigms in Nonprofit Fundraising
Faculty: Noah Drezner

Stemming from the disciplines of economics, psychology and sociology, this course explores the theoretical understandings of fundraising for nonprofit organizations and how they are applied to the practice of raising voluntary support. Students will also investigate different theoretical paradigms in which scholars and scholar-practitioners can approach the study and practice of fundraising. Additionally, students will discover the fundraising theories and practices that engage communities across diverse social identities including, communities of color, LGBT, and gender.

PUAF 798Y Nonprofit Management and Leadership
Faculty: Dr. Bob Grimm

This course provides an introduction to the nonprofit sector and the leadership and management skills required to achieve a social impact. During the semester, students examine and discuss the trends, issues, and challenges facing a nonprofit leader as well as management approaches and innovations by examining case studies and engaging in management simulations. The course includes the opportunity to conduct a mini-consulting project with a nonprofit or nongovernmental organization.