Bachelor of Business Administration

Introduction to the purposes of financial accounting statements and the recognition, measurement, and disclosure concepts and methods underlying financial statements. Focus is on using and interpreting financial statements and on understanding the impact of transactions and events on financial statements and financial ratios.

This course provides an understanding of the corporation, each of the business functions (to include accounting, finance, marketing, technology, management, and planning), and the relations between and among functions in the operation of the firm.

This course develops skills for inquiry into the business environment from a legal and ethical perspective. Students explore the relationships between modern business and the environment, in addition to the ethical issues that arise when diverse interests intersect. Relevant topics will include contracts, commercial law (sales, secured transactions and creditors remedies), forms of business entities (including limited liability companies and corporations), agency, employer-employee relationships, real property concepts, bankruptcy, and negligence and strict liability concepts. Students will examine corporate governance and business ethics, with emphasis on case studies.

This course introduces Operations Research and includes the application of operations research and management science techniques to management decision problems. Operations research techniques and methods can be applied to problems in virtually all-functional areas of business including accounting, finance, marketing, production and human resources. Examples from each of these areas will be covered during the course. A feature of the course is that Microsoft Excel is used to implement some of the techniques covered. This means that you will become proficient in using Excel; the most widely used electronic spreadsheet in business today. (Prerequisite: MATH110, MATH225)

Pre Reqs: College Algebra(MATH110),College Trigonometry(MATH111),Calculus(MATH225)

This course is concerned with the formulation and analysis of business strategy. Business strategy is the set of objectives and policies that collectively determine how a business positions itself to increase its returns and create economic value for its owners and stakeholders. Students will be introduced to analytical techniques for diagnosing the competitive position of a business, evaluating business strategies, and identifying and analyzing specific business options.

Microeconomics is an overview course that covers how households (consumers), firms (producers), and governments interact in competitive and other markets to set prices, and determine what and how much is produced. Key concepts introduced include the role of scarcity and choice, incentives and competition, and the law of supply and demand.

Introduction to Macroeconomics is a survey course that builds on the topics covered and skills developed in ECON101 (Microeconomics) in order to present a complete picture of the economy. Macroeconomics shows how consumers and markets fit into the overall or aggregated economy and provides a framework to assess government policies. Key topics covered will include economic cycles (growth and recession), economic indicators and measures and interest rates and money supply.

This course is an overview study of the concepts and techniques in corporate finance. Topics include investments, financial environment, securities markets, financial markets, financial statements and analysis, working capital management, capital budgeting, cost of capital, dividend policy, asset valuation, and decision-making.

This course is a comprehensive examination of modern practices in the selection, training, job analysis, evaluation, wage setting, incentive principles, merit rating, job efficiency, and labor/management relations of personnel as applied to both private and public sector organizations.

This course provides a technical and organizational foundation for understanding the use and importance of information systems and information technology in today's management environment. This course covers the hardware, software, and infrastructure that support management information systems. Information and decision support systems, knowledge management and specialized information systems, database management systems, telecommunications, the Internet, Intranets, Extranets, and wireless networks will be examined. This course also covers systems development, e-commerce, and the ethical and societal impact of management information systems.

This is an interactive course designed to help students achieve a greater understanding of the statistical methods and models available to analyze and solve the wide variety of problems encountered in business, science, medicine, education, the social sciences, and other disciplines. Successful completion of this course will provide students with a working knowledge of the principles of both descriptive and inferential statistics, probability, averages and variations, normal probability distributions, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, statistical hypothesis tests, and correlation and regression analyses. The emphasis of the course will be on the proper use of statistical techniques and their application in real life -- not on mathematical proofs. Prerequisite: MATH110 - College Algebra.

Pre Reqs: College Algebra(MATH110)

This course is a study of the management process including planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Topics include the classical and contemporary management theories that provide a foundation for the manager in today's business environment.

This course is a comprehensive survey of marketing activities and the function of marketing in our economic system. Course topics include the analysis of markets, competition, consumer behavior, and the assessment of product, price, distribution, and promotion strategies.

This course focuses on the actual tasks and activities of the entrepreneur-from researching venture feasibility, to launching the venture, to managing growth. Covered are descriptions of real entrepreneurs in action, facing the challenges that entrepreneurs must deal with, and making good and even some not-so-good decisions. This study relates the excitement of the entrepreneurial adventure.

This course is a study of the fundamental principles of e-business. Students will learn how to build a successful e-business operation with step-by-step guidance for writing an e-business plan and simplified guidance for the development and management of a start-up customer focused website. Students will select an e-business of their choice and, using worksheets from their textbooks, follow a step-by-step process to develop eight sections of the e-business plan: business description, product and services, marketplace analysis, marketing planning, management and organization, operations, business location and equipment, and financial plans. Students will integrate basic start-up web site design plans and concepts into their e-business plan. The major objective of this course is for every student to apply the principles of e-business, e-marketing and basic website design and develop an e-business plan for immediate application or for future reference.

This course focuses on business user requirement gathering and provides a variety of techniques to prepare and conduct related activities. Students gain insight into determining functional business requirements and determining user work flows in a business.

This course provides a comprehensive review of different types of business requirements, tools and techniques, and documentation suites. Students apply techniques such as Unified Modeling Language’ context and use case, data models, state, activity, sequence, and use cases.

The course provides practical knowledge in documenting user business functions. Students learn how to document business functions in user’s scenarios, develop use cases, and the application of use cases into the development life cycle activities.

This course focuses on project requirements as the basis for managing development lifecycles. Students learn to define project cycle time, measure and estimate project efforts, and set priorities.

This course is designed to prepare you to take a small business from the startup stage to the growth stage. This step is often a huge leap for businesses and requires special skills and management approaches. This course will focus on organizing for growth, intensive marketing for growth, creating growth strategies, and financing growth.

This course focuses on the organization, management strategies, and essential operations of international business and cross cultural management. It provides a managerial perspective and a framework of analysis for examining the similarities and differences in the philosophy and practices of management around the world. Topics include the methods and importance of effective strategic planning when organizing and administering international marketing, finance, and human resource management areas toward efficient business, government, and global market relationships. By focusing on the analysis of national and organizational cultures and the impact of individual behaviors, the course gives a strong basis for managers to successfully manage in different countries and different populations.

An opportunity for Business Administration students to pursue an independent research project or examine a specific area of Business Administration under the mentorship of a single professor. Course is open to upper division students only. Participation is at the discretion of the faculty member. This course will require students to produce a major research paper of approximately 25-30 pages; there will be no examination. Students will submit a proposal prior to the start of the project, an annotated bibliography, and a final paper at week 8, all of which will count toward the final grade. To be eligible for an independent study, students must be enrolled in a bachelors degree program, must have completed 24 hours at APUS toward their current degree program, and should have already contacted a professor and gained approval for the independent study topic. Once these conditions are met the student should contact his/her student advisor. Once the course is open the student must complete an official online registration for the course.

This course provides an in-depth focus and analysis of the four phases of the budget cycle -- formulation, review, execution and audit. It also explores the purposes of budget, including line-item budgeting, performance budgeting, zero-based budgeting and capital budgeting.

This course is designed to give the student a better understanding of the unique problems and opportunities presented by international business. Since the special emphasis of this course is finance, the course will focus considerable attention on specific topics of international finance such as foreign exchange markets and managing exchange rate risk.

This course explores the international issues and problems confronting the human resource professional and enables the student to develop a better understanding of the manager’s roles and responsibilities in the international environment. In today’s global environment and economy, the progressive Human Resource Manager must be aware of not only American laws and policies that govern personnel and organizational management, but also international laws, rules, and accepted norms in the workplace. The unique challenges of dealing with foreign-born employees or with American and indigenous employees in a foreign land are commonplace.

This course is a study of the planning and processes involved in an information system project. Its topics include planning, scheduling, and controlling aspects of a project during its life cycle. The use of project management techniques such as PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Technique) and Gantt charts will be examined in depth as will be other techniques of planning, scheduling and controlling projects. This course meets the topical requirements for the CompTIA Project + Certification.

This course explores the Internet's impact on business and personal dynamics, from a managerial perspective. A review of current literature will examine such issues as: changes in workplace productivity, legal issues arising from company Internet use policies, staff morale in the face of nearly ubiquitous Internet access, institutional liability for employee conduct while on the Internet, telecommuting, and the impact of conducting personal business during work time. Non-workplace issues such as the impact of the Internet on family life, politics and the economy will also be explored.

This course is designed to provide an overview of key individual, group, and organizational issues involved in Virtual Management (technology-assisted employee management). Topics include gauging employer and employee readiness for technology-enabled communication and telecommuting; identifying appropriate job types and flexibility options; applying effective communication strategies and methods when utilizing computers and telecommunication technologies; and implementing and evaluating management procedures and policies in flexible organizations.

This course examines human characteristics and their bearing on the management and resultant performance of organizations. It includes a review of theory and research on personality, motivation, values, stress, leadership skills, power bases, and communication. It is designed to provide an understanding of the attitudes and behavior of subordinates and superiors, as well as important insights regarding one's own responses to the organization.

This course is designed to provide students with a solid foundation about leaders, the leadership process and motivation. Topics include the theories of leadership and motivation, leadership power, leader behavior, leadership characteristics, the role of gender, substitutes for leadership, and dysfunctional leadership. MGMT312 serves as a self-assessment of the student's own leadership and motivation skills, knowledge, and attitudes and addresses the questions: Who am I as a leader? What are my most distinguishing leadership traits? What leadership style am I most comfortable being around? How do I influence others? and How do I motivate others?

This course is a study in the theory and techniques of communication within and between organizations. It takes an analytical approach to the development of content and presentation in management communications with an emphasis on the relationship of creative and logical thinking to the solution of management problems through written communications.

This course explores consumer behavior from determining consumer needs and wants, the process by which they are satisfied, and the environment in which the behavior occurs. The objectives of the course are to introduce the student to concepts developed in psychology, economics, and sociology and their relationship to consumer behavior, to involve the student directly in the study and analysis of consumer behavior, and to develop in students the ability to translate what can be learned into marketing action implications.

This course is a study of the conduct of marketing research to provide information to be used in the decision making process. Course topics include problem definition and solution in a marketing context, data collection methods, sampling, research design, statistical techniques in the analysis of market research information, and survey planning.

This course presents the analytical and decision-making processes involved in formulating, implementing, and controlling a strategic marketing program for a given product-market entry. It includes discussions of customer, competitor, and environmental analysis; market segmentation and targeting; competitive positioning; implementation; and control. Because the course assumes that the student is already familiar with many of the concepts and analytical tools relevant to these topics, it goes beyond a simple review of definitions and procedures to examine strategic implications. The course also explores how marketing interacts with other levels of strategy and with other functional departments within an organization.

This course is designed to develop marketing decision skills in the global context. The course focuses on international marketing theory and practice from the point of view of the marketing manager and the requirements of a business in the international marketplace. The emphasis is on the application of tools and methods of international marketing practices.This course builds on skills developed in previous course work and assignments by integrating these with the issues and concepts of international marketing. Consequently it is highly recommended that students taken MKTG300 prior to registering for this course.

This course concentrates on the technical side of the Internet, examining network types, protocols, browsers, search engines, email communication and personal information management, multimedia on the Web, Internet services and tools [newsgroups, telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and instant messaging], Internet security (encryption, authentication, firewalls, malware, virus detection and prevention, spyware, updates and patches), and IT project management. This course also explores emergent Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking (MySpace), user created content (YouTube), Wikis, Virtual Worlds (Second Life), and online gaming. Students will need access to Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (or higher) with Outlook Express. This software is not provided by the course material grant and must be purchased/provided by the student. This course covers the Internet Business Foundations curriculum of the CIW Foundations certification.

This course is designed to provide a solid foundation for undergraduate study in the online environment. Students will be introduced to learning theory, the tools available in the online classroom and campus, and online research. Identification of personal learning style allows students to improve their study/learning techniques and prepares them to succeed in college level courses. Students will be introduced to formatting and citation styles. APUS policy and procedure is addressed. There is an emphasis on written communication to assist students in the transition to the online environment.

The Capstone course is a senior level course designed to allow the student to review, analyze and integrate the work the student has completed toward a degree in Business Administration. The student will complete an approved academic project or paper that demonstrates mastery of their program of study in a meaningful culmination of their learning and to assess their level of mastery of the stated outcomes of their degree requirements. Students should complete ALL Core and Major courses prior to this course. Student must have SENIOR standing to register.