Merrimack College Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This course introduces students to the basics of corporate finance and financial valuation and builds a solid understanding of financial markets and securities. This course focuses on what is corporate finance and how financial assets and firms are valued in financial markets. Its goal is to help the student’s ability to use financial statement information and related disclosures to evaluate the underlying economics of a corporation. Course participants examine the company’s past and current performance, and its competitive environment by collecting, analyzing and interpreting data from the firm’s financial database. Students develop a financial model of the firm, in the form of pro forma financial statements, to forecast the firm’s future performance. These projections in turn become the inputs to the valuation techniques, which include discounted cash flow models and residual income (or abnormal earnings). Credits: 4

Financial statement analysis is essential to evaluate an organization’s performance and provide insights into its operations. Designed to build and strengthen a student’s ability to correctly interpret financial statements, this course is a deep dive into income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements where students learn how to assess a company’s financial health and performance. The course reviews how financial statements are generated, followed by the application and analysis of a range of financial statement analysis tools, such as ratios, common-size financials and rate-of-change financials. Students gain valuable hands-on experience analyzing financial and business information included in the Annual Report, Form 10K, Form 8K and Form 10Q. Credits: 4

This course offers an introduction to portfolio management with a focus on quantitative methods. Major topics include portfolio construction, revision and performance measurement. It examines portfolio construction using constrained mean-variance optimization, as well as performance evaluation using factor models such as the Fama-French three-factor model. Additional topics include the effects of diversification on risk reduction and the costs of inflation, taxes and transaction costs on management of fixed-income and equity security portfolios. The course also covers quantitative approaches to manage specific sources of risk. Students employ historical data to construct back tests to assess the performance of various portfolio strategies.

This course introduces students to mathematical and statistical concepts, integrating financial modeling applications across various finance domains. Quantitative methods and financial modeling are employed to conduct financial analysis, thereby facilitating managerial decision-making. The utilization of quantitative aspects in financial topics and the practical use of tools, including but not limited to Excel, blending data interpretation with technology, enhancing and improving overall analytical skill sets. Credits: 4

The MBA Capstone course offers students the opportunity to engage in consultative projects that address real-world challenges faced by organizations across various industries. Through collaboration with each other and with corporate partners, students apply their academic knowledge to solve strategic problems, gaining hands-on experience in areas such as business transformation, market analysis and operational optimization. The course provides direct access to industry leaders who offer guidance, feedback and professional insights. Additionally, opportunities are integrated throughout the course, allowing students to build valuable connections and enhance their professional presence within their chosen industries. This capstone experience is designed to bridge academic theory with practical application, preparing students for higher-level leadership roles.

The workplace is home to a wide range of legal, compliance and policy challenges that HR professionals must navigate. This course provides an in-depth examination of key U.S. employment laws and regulations. Students gain the skills to address labor-related legal issues in the workplace through a structured analysis approach. Topics covered include employment law fundamentals, compensation and benefits, leave policies, equal employment opportunity, workplace safety and more. Students also explore how employment law shapes HR policies and practices and contributes to fostering a positive and compliant workplace culture. By the end of the course, students are equipped with the knowledge and tools necessary to mitigate risks for both employees and the organization.

This course offers students opportunities to apply analytical methods to enhance people-related decision-making in organizations. Students use human resource (HR) data to evaluate critical HR management questions and issues such as workforce planning, legal compliance, recruiting, hiring and promotion, performance management, training, job design, compensation and career planning. Students learn to solve organization HR challenges using analytics, identify the advantages and disadvantages of analytic options, evaluate scholarly reports and studies, use key analytic tools and understand how to gather, track, store, retrieve, organize, analyze, interpret and present HR data that leads to actionable business decisions. Credits: 4

This course delves into the intersection of strategic leadership and human capital management, providing students with the tools and frameworks to effectively lead organizations in a dynamic and competitive environment. Focusing on the strategic alignment between leadership, organizational culture and human capital, students explore how to drive performance and innovation through the development and management of talent. Topics include leadership theories and styles, organizational design, talent acquisition, employee development and performance management. Students also learn how to create and sustain a high-performance culture that fosters engagement and growth. By the end of the course, students are equipped to lead organizations with a deep understanding of how to leverage human capital as a strategic asset, ensuring long-term success and adaptability in a rapidly changing business landscape.

This course explores the strategic management of human resources in modern organizations, with a focus on talent acquisition and performance management. Designed for future leaders, the course provides a comprehensive understanding of how human resource management (HRM) contributes to competitive advantage. Students examine how to align HR practices with organizational goals, strategy and context to drive success. Key topics include talent acquisition strategies, employee performance management and value creation for customers and shareholders. By the end of the course, students have gained the skills necessary to effectively manage HR functions that enhance organizational performance and deliver long-term value.

The MBA Capstone course offers students the opportunity to engage in consultative projects that address real-world challenges faced by organizations across various industries. Through collaboration with each other and with corporate partners, students apply their academic knowledge to solve strategic problems, gaining hands-on experience in areas such as business transformation, market analysis and operational optimization. The course provides direct access to industry leaders who offer guidance, feedback and professional insights. Additionally, opportunities are integrated throughout the course, allowing students to build valuable connections and enhance their professional presence within their chosen industries. This capstone experience is designed to bridge academic theory with practical application, preparing students for higher-level leadership roles.

Leaders must address the continuing challenges of change and organizational adaptation. This course provides students with practical skills and tools for planning, managing, evaluating and surviving small and large-scale organizational change with applications to emerging business issues, including knowledge management, “learning organizations” and network management. Additionally, students explore the determinants of creativity and innovation at the individual, group, organizational and inter-organizational levels and become skilled at generating novel and useful ideas, implementing their ideas and maximizing organizational performance through psychological and sociological perspectives on management. Credits: 4

Leaders today face highly dynamic business environments characterized by numerous disruptive forces and complex challenges. To be an effective leader in this environment necessitates a new set of skills. In this highly interactive course, students explore leadership theories and practice applying various leadership frameworks, approaches and tools to develop a holistic understanding of leadership at the individual, team and organizational levels. Students also gain valuable insights into their own personal leadership style, how to collaborate with internal and external constituents in a manner that benefits all stakeholders and learn communication strategies, principles and methods that are essential for business success. Credits: 4

This course prepares students to meet the challenges of conducting business and leading organizations in ethical and socially responsible ways. Throughout the course, students develop a deeper understanding of the interaction between personal, team and corporate leadership in the context of supporting ethically grounded economic, social and environmental decisions. Additionally, students gain insights to support their professional development as leaders who are focused on ethically sound business practices, stakeholder interests, strategic philanthropy and making sustainable business decisions. Credits: 4

This course offers students opportunities to apply analytical methods to enhance people-related decision-making in organizations. Students use human resource (HR) data to evaluate critical HR management questions and issues such as workforce planning, legal compliance, recruiting, hiring and promotion, performance management, training, job design, compensation and career planning. Students learn to solve organization HR challenges using analytics, identify the advantages and disadvantages of analytic options, evaluate scholarly reports and studies, use key analytic tools and understand how to gather, track, store, retrieve, organize, analyze, interpret and present HR data that leads to actionable business decisions. Credits: 4

The MBA Capstone course offers students the opportunity to engage in consultative projects that address real-world challenges faced by organizations across various industries. Through collaboration with each other and with corporate partners, students apply their academic knowledge to solve strategic problems, gaining hands-on experience in areas such as business transformation, market analysis and operational optimization. The course provides direct access to industry leaders who offer guidance, feedback and professional insights. Additionally, opportunities are integrated throughout the course, allowing students to build valuable connections and enhance their professional presence within their chosen industries. This capstone experience is designed to bridge academic theory with practical application, preparing students for higher-level leadership roles.

Marketing analytics skills and experiences have become one of the increasing demands by employers for both entry-level and senior-level positions. In this course, students are exposed to and become familiar with basic analytical tools (e.g., Excel, Google Analytics, Tableau) and commonly used analytical methods in the industry to gain data insights and drive business success in a marketing campaign setting (i.e., collect, clean, interpret, present and reapply business data in each of the decision-making processes). Students also collaborate in teams to develop their data soft skills (e.g., developing data sense, brainstorming, communication, project management, data translation and data presentation) along the way to mimic a real industrial analytics team project. Although data soft skills are developed throughout the class, it is heavily technical and applied to help maximize students’ future success in a marketing or data analytics-related career. Credits: 4

This course deals with concepts, methods and applications of decision modeling to address various marketing issues: segmentation, targeting, positioning, new product design, advertising and promotional planning and strategic planning. Topics include connecting with customers, building strong brands, creating value, supply chains and distribution and integrated marketing communications. Students gain practical experience conducting market research and use substantiated facts and inferences to present recommendations and make managerial decisions in a client-based atmosphere. Credits: 4

8 credits

The MBA Capstone course offers students the opportunity to engage in consultative projects that address real-world challenges faced by organizations across various industries. Through collaboration with each other and with corporate partners, students apply their academic knowledge to solve strategic problems, gaining hands-on experience in areas such as business transformation, market analysis and operational optimization. The course provides direct access to industry leaders who offer guidance, feedback and professional insights. Additionally, opportunities are integrated throughout the course, allowing students to build valuable connections and enhance their professional presence within their chosen industries. This capstone experience is designed to bridge academic theory with practical application, preparing students for higher-level leadership roles.

Innovation is the lifeblood of many business domains. The Agile methodology was developed to help manage projects and innovation in fast-paced environments. Originally deployed in software development, the Agile approach is beneficial in many project and innovation management situations. This course covers the many facets of Agile projects and innovation, including user-driven innovation and design, as well as software and online-specific development methods. Additional topics include Scrums and sprints, innovation IdeaScrums, social workflows, and research and product fife cycles. Credits: 2

Design thinking is a systematic approach to innovation and creative problem-solving that can be used in many disciplines. This course introduces the tools and methods that underpin design thinking, providing students with “… the ability to combine empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions and rationality to analyze and fit solutions to the context” (David Kelley, founder IDEO). Included are techniques to understand users’ motivations and to gather deep insights, as well as ways to learn from failure; innovation entails taking risks and trying new things. Also included are introductions to communication methods central to innovation including visual storytelling and video prototyping. Credits: 2

Innovation is at the very core of life sciences, which are based heavily on cutting-edge science and technology. At the same time, innovation is very challenging in life sciences settings, due to the heavily regulated environment. This course introduces students to the tools and techniques used in life sciences settings to allow for innovation to flourish while maintaining the tight controls necessary in a critical-to-life industry. Topics include general innovation tools like ideation and design thinking, as well as more specific tools, such as open innovation and design contests. Additional topics include product lifecycle management and regulated product utilization management. Credits: 2

Innovation is a central force of technology product managers. New technology is at the core of these industries. This course introduces students to the tools and techniques that allow firms to innovate successfully in this ever-changing technology environment. There is a special focus on product-specific development methods like lean product development, virtual design and rapid prototyping, as well as open innovation and ideation. Additional topics include product lifecycle management. Credits: 2

New product development is a continuum of activities starting with the initial conceptualization of a new product through to successful product launch. This course introduces students to the range of activities along the new product development pathway, including ideation and concept development, concept refinement, detailed product design and engineering, design for manufacturability, design for usability, prototyping, scale-up and launch. It introduces multiple tools (used in different industries) to manage product development activities, including phase gate systems, agile development for software, lean development for products, etc. It also introduces scheduling, budgeting and monitoring tools to project and measure new product programs. Credits: 4

A product manager sits at the center of a complex web of interconnections and relationships that define successful products. This course introduces students to the various skills a product manager must deploy for product success, including product definition, positioning, pricing, placement and promotion. It also introduces the relationship skills needed to manage cross-functional interactions and indirect and virtual teams. The course also includes an overview of the financial tools used to guide product realization and financial metrics used to measure product success. Credits: 4

The MBA Capstone course offers students the opportunity to engage in consultative projects that address real-world challenges faced by organizations across various industries. Through collaboration with each other and with corporate partners, students apply their academic knowledge to solve strategic problems, gaining hands-on experience in areas such as business transformation, market analysis and operational optimization. The course provides direct access to industry leaders who offer guidance, feedback and professional insights. Additionally, opportunities are integrated throughout the course, allowing students to build valuable connections and enhance their professional presence within their chosen industries. This capstone experience is designed to bridge academic theory with practical application, preparing students for higher-level leadership roles.