MBA in Applied Sport Management
Program Course Descriptions

The MBA degree requires 39 credit hours of graduate study to be completed in 24 months. Certain prerequisite accounting and math knowledge and skills are necessary for successful completion of the program. Competency may be demonstrated through completion of overview courses or documented work experience.

Required course of study for the MBA in Applied Sport Management:

1. BM575 - Organizational Behavior
2. BM543 - Marketing Management
3. BM540 - Management Accounting
4. BM545 - Finance for Managers
5. BM530 - Leadership in Times of Change
6. BM576 - Human Resource Management in Sport
7. BM565 - Communication Management in Sport
8. BM546 - Sport Law and Risk Management
9. BM655 - Sport Business in the International and Global Economy
10. BM580 - Operations Management
11. BM605 - Governance and Administration of Sport Facilities and Events
12. BM680 - Strategic Management
13. BM695 - Capstone Research Project

COURSE 1: BM575 - APPLIED TECHNIQUES IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
This course surveys the major theories in organizational behavior, including theory of learning organizations, and theories of organizational change, decision making, and advanced concepts in team development. The course also provides techniques for management activities such as negotiating agreements, turning confrontation into cooperation, and conflict resolution. Students will act as a consultant to a real company and make meaningful recommendations to senior management as the final project for the course.

COURSE 2: BM543 - MARKETING MANAGEMENT
This course focuses on a wide variety of marketing concepts, including building on and managing profitable customer relationships and creating a competitive advantage. In addition to the classical “Four P’s” (product, price, positioning, promotion), this course also covers managing marketing information, building strong brands and brand equity, consumer and business buying behavior, segmentation, product life-cycle strategies, advertising and promotion, and socially responsible marketing around the globe. During the course, students will consult for a real company. Through lectures, case studies, practical exercises, and research, students will have the skills and information needed to make meaningful recommendations that solve critical marketing problems.

COURSE 3: BM540 - MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
This course helps you understand the importance of internal accounting data in making sound business decisions from the perspectives of the manager and the accountant. You will examine both roles; how the accountant prepares reports and how the effective manager uses these reports in decision-making, evaluating, planning and product costing as well as strategic implications. It incorporates the use of spreadsheet and/or accounting software. Analysis and evaluation of balance sheets, P & L income statements, cash flow statements and ratios are emphasized. Case methodology will be applied.

COURSE 4: BM545 - FINANCE FOR MANAGERS
Terminology, theory, and analytical techniques of corporate financial management are discussed in this course. Specifically, the course will address the valuation principles such as time-value of money, investment-value and required rates of return, and the valuation of securities. Topics covered under the long-term investment decisions will include capital expenditure decisions, risk, and control in capital budgeting. The course will also include topics of short-term financial management such as working capital policy, short-term financing decisions, contribution accounting, and management of accounts receivable and inventory. Cases discussed in management accounting will be revisited to show how finance managers make decisions.

COURSE 5: BM530 - LEADERSHIP IN TIMES OF CHANGE
The various theoretical frameworks that contribute to the study and practice of leadership in contemporary organizational environments are explored. Emphasis will be placed on the ability to effect positive and sustainable change in a pluralistic and fast moving society. Students will explore four types of vision essential for a leader: organization, future, personal, and strategic. Emerging research and perspectives on leading strategic development, teams, change, corporate responsibility, and organizational design will be explored. The importance of effective communications in times of change will be included.

COURSE 6: BM576 - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SPORT
This unit builds directly on the Organizational Behavior unit, and takes a look at the increased growth, interest, and complexity in human resource management in sport in recent years. This unit puts significant emphasis on managerial competencies, the strategic importance of human resource management, and the implications of legislative, governance and ethical issues in terms of volunteers, employees and customers of sport organizations.  This emphasis will be accomplished by understanding individual differences in abilities, personalities, values and motivations inherent in each group in terms of organizational justice, job design, staffing, leadership, performance appraisal, reward systems, and internal marketing.  Each of these areas will be evaluated in terms of the two most important outcomes of human resource management – satisfaction and commitment.

COURSE 7: BM565 - COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT IN SPORT
This unit will build on many of the marketing concepts covered in the sport marketing management unit, with a specific focus on communication relations. It is designed to introduce the postgraduate student to the various modes of communications within an organizational structure and develop an understanding of their influence on the decision-making processes. This will be accomplished on two levels. First, from sport promotions where an investigation of the elements of the promotional mix will focus on public relations (media relations, sports information, and sport journalism) and personal contact (community relations, socialization, word-of-mouth), but will also include elements from advertising, sponsorship, licensing, incentives, and atmospherics. The second focus will include a comprehensive investigation of the need and current applications of information technology and database management in sport organizations of all levels. The operating structures, procedures, regulatory environment, rules, and contemporary issues of information technology will be examined as related to these organizational environments. Students will analyze the mediums and application of information and communication technology in meeting the demands for the real time delivery of goods and services to a selective set of customers, fans, and/or members.

COURSE 8: BM546 - SPORT LAW AND RISK MANAGEMENT
This unit provides an in-depth examination of areas of law and risk management that are particularly relevant to sport. From a sport law viewpoint, developments in negligence law, contract law and constitutional law as they apply to sport are considered, and recent developments and trends are studied. In the area of risk management, this unit identifies current issues confronting the sport industry, and also provides a framework for developing risk management strategies that will assist sport managers in setting guidelines, policies, plans and procedures - making the sport industry safer and less litigious.

This unit will cover sport from an international and global perspective, providing students with a basic understanding of the role of governance structures in professional and amateur sport, as well as taking a look at the business of sport outside of the domestic marketplace. Sport management is part of a continuously evolving international and global business environment, where nations, governments, economic systems, and business cultures interact, compete and sometimes cooperate in the promotion of sport. Although approaches vary, each sport organization seeks to provide income, status, and success for those it represents.

COURSE 10: BM580 - OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The focus of this course is on how operations can provide a competitive advantage for the firm, and how operation strategies connect with marketing and other functional strategies. You will develop a foundation in the concepts of process analysis and improvement, and explore ways that outstanding quality can provide a strategic advantage and improved profitability. The fundamentals of project planning, capacity analysis, and supply chain management are examined, along with information technology’s impact on today’s business operations. Skills learned in the forecasting and demand analysis course will be an integral part of operations management. As a class project, you will reengineer a process that cuts across functional areas of your company, resulting in a significant improvement. Computer applications include acceptance sampling and reliability, linear programming and transportation analysis, control charts, and scheduling.

This unit will build on the operations management unit and focus on the relationship between sport facility management, sport event management, and project management. The content of the unit is designed to apply project management systems to sport facility and event management. The unit deals with planning, scheduling, organizing, and controlling sport facilities and events, including event development, construction, systems, new business, production layout, and special events. A foundation on how to properly build sports events into successful and financially viable ventures for any level–from the community to the global stage will be covered. Included will be connecting facility and venue management to event management, event operations and logistics, facility and event programming and scheduling, and facility and event marketing. Specific topics will include the development of strategic sport facility and event management plans, preparing and controlling facility and event logistics, negotiations and contracts, securing participants, spectators, and media coverage, risk and crisis management issues, promotions, and funding.

COURSE 12: BM680 - STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
The course focuses on how to build value-creating business strategies and how those strategies must be adapted to changing markets and technologies. You will practice your skills – and utilize the knowledge gained from previous courses – by participating in a computer simulation project. Your team will develop and implement a business strategy (applying the concepts learned in the accounting, finance, demand analysis and forecasting) in a state-of-the-art computer simulation.

COURSE 13: BM695 - CAPSTONE RESEARCH PROJECT
Students will act as a consultant to a real business and analyze a problem or opportunity at that business. Drawing on the skills developed over the course of the program and their business acumen, students will construct research problems, generate and test hypotheses and make recommendations based on their findings. Each student will produce a consultant's report and recommend an action plan based on at least three of the four major content areas: Organizational Behavior, Accounting and Finance, Operations Management, or Marketing.