30-credit MSBA Curriculum

REQUIRED COURSES (for students starting fall 2022):

53:716:502 Business Analytics

Analytic competency is becoming tremendously important in the business world and is often the factor that distinguishes leading
firms in any industry. This course is intended to provide an introductory overview of how firms implement data-driven decision-
making. Students will learn statistical concepts, use spreadsheet modeling, and learn through a mix of lectures, cases, and class
discussion. Students are required to have a functioning computer with Microsoft Excel installed. Within Excel, you must have
DATA ANALYSIS and SOLVER functionality. The course’s primary goal is to coach students on “fact-based decision making”
and enable them to carefully plan and run “business experiments” to make informed managerial decisions.

53:620:678 Visualization and Data Analytics

This course will introduce the use of R programming for processing large datasets and applying various statistical learning methods.
An emphasis on using data visualization techniques to visualize the data in R and Tableau. Students will learn how to conduct data
wrangling, build statistical learning models, and create basic graphs of geographic visualizations. We will work with case studies
and data from a variety of open data sites and other sources. Students will get a chance to practice using large data sets that contain
approximately a million records during the semester.

53:623:517 Data Management and Business Intelligence

This course focuses on the design and management of the data resources of an organization and the extraction of business
intelligence from the data for managerial decision making. The basic concepts and techniques of data management and mining data
will be examined with real-world examples and cases to place these techniques in proper context. The course delivers adequate
technical detail with hands-on training, while emphasizing the interpretation, organizational and implementation issues relevant to
managers. Prerequisite: 53:716:502 Business Analytics.

53:716:545 Machine Learning Applications in Business

The focus of the course will be to introduce basic concepts in machine learning and data-analytic thinking to students, with an
applied business orientation. Students will understand how to use data to competitive advantage and to build and evaluate models
for decision-making. Companies today have access to vast amounts of data from their business operations. Data Science is the craft
of extracting patterns from this data and using available information for competitive advantage. This course represents an
introduction to data science and data analytic thinking. Students will learn to leverage data to answer business questions relating to
classification tasks (e.g., will this credit card prospect default or not?), prediction (e.g., how much will this customer spend/year?)
and similarity profiling (what do my most profitable customers look like?). Note: Students must be comfortable installing packages
independently and navigating in a computing environment. Important: The course assumes the student already has some basic
familiarity with the Python programming language as well as a working knowledge of Jupyter notebooks.

ELECTIVE COURSES (for students starting fall 2022):

53:010:660 Accounting Analytics

This course develops students’ data extraction, data transformation, data analysis, data interpretation, and data visualization skills.
Topics include fraud detection, Benford’s Law, managerial accounting analytics, and financial accounting analytics. This course
incorporates a substantial data analytics class project. Prerequisite: non-credit course 53:010:550 (or undergraduate Intro to
Financial Accounting 52:010:101 and Intermediate Accounting 52:010:305).

53:390:580 Fintech and Financial Innovation

The course provides a comprehensive overview of new financial technologies. Such technologies combine traditional investment
practice with the ever-increasing power of computation to facilitate the achievement of highly customized objectives. The course
covers the rise of big data analytics (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) as well as the rise of automated investment
advisers and algorithmic trading. We also discuss the role of the Blockchain in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Etherium, and
their implications for investment management practice and financial services.

53:390:581 Financial Data Analytics

This course provides a broad and practical introduction to the modern methods of Financial Data Analysis. The course emphasizes
the use of modern analytical techniques to extract insights from the most commonly used financial data. Using a hands-on approach,
students will develop deep practical intuition into the nature of financial returns, bond valuation, and stock pricing. Using a

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programming language, such as “R,” students will build financial models using a mix of market and accounting information, build
optimally weighted portfolios, learn the basics of risk management, and learn simulation techniques, such as Bootstrap and
Resampling. Prerequisite: 53:390:506 Financial Management (Note: LinkedIn Learning course, Foundations of Finance,
required as a prerequisite).

53:390:582 Investment Management and Machine Learning

This course provides a broad and practical introduction to the modern methods of Investment Management. The course emphasizes
the use of big data and modern analytical techniques of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to improve the performance of
investment management. We start with the introduction to Python and financial data. We then apply Python and machine learning
algorithms to the fundamental topics on investment management, such as bond valuation, stock pricing, derivative pricing, portfolio
construction and optimization, international asset allocation, Monte Carlo simulation, and performance measurement. Prerequisite:
53:390:506 Financial Management. (Note: LinkedIn Learning course, Foundations of Finance, required as a prerequisite).

53:623:510 IT Strategy and Project Management

Information technology (IT) is an important driver and enabler of the dramatic transformation of the business landscape. This course
is designed to provide concepts and framework to develop technology strategy for supporting corporate strategy. The course also
introduces traditional and agile project management skills for successful selection, planning, and monitoring of projects. Case
studies and hands-on assignments reinforce concepts, which students can directly apply in their work environment.

53:630:509 Database Marketing

Use of customer databases to develop classification models with extensive use of the SPSS software package includes a comparison
of traditional RFM (regency/frequency/monetary) versus other more advanced approaches, such as logistic regression and decision
trees, in maximizing the profitability of marketing campaigns. Students will learn how to build models that predict buyer behavior,
as well as assess and improve model performance. Note: Students must purchase SPSS Premium software package from Rutgers
software portal (approximately $100).

53:630:533 Digital Marketing Strategy

This course covers development and management of digital marketing strategy, and the uses of digital media technology, including:
social, mobile, and web to enhance customer equity, brand value, and ROI within the framework of an organization’s overall
marketing strategy.

53:630:534 Strategic Marketing Analytics

This course prepares students to develop the analytical skills marketers require to monitor, grow, and sustain competitive advantage.
Students will develop abilities in aligning business objectives with metrics; utilizing data visualization, modeling, and text mining
techniques; analyzing quantitative and qualitative data; and drawing data-driven consumer insights. The applications will emphasize
the use of analytics to help make strategic marketing decisions.

53:630:535 Social Media Strategy

This course explores how to use social media marketing to achieve strategic marketing goals. Using a mix of theoretical and
practical exercises, students will learn to deploy social media as a strategic marketing asset. Objectives include learning and
applying social media principles and evaluating how an organization’s social media presence adds strategic value. Students will also
learn to implement a social media plan, connecting strategic goals to tactical objectives and the social media tools used to listen to
and engage with consumers. The course also provides the skills needed to manage and measure social media activity.

53:630:xxx Special Topics: Text Mining

Text Mining introduces students to methods of analyzing text data to provide business insights for firms with code-free text mining
toolkits. The first part of the course focuses on strategic issues as well as learning basics on how to prepare text data for analyses.
We will begin by framing text analytics questions, understanding sources of text data, and generating preliminary insights by coding
text data. We will learn how to encode and preprocess text data for automated text analyses. Then the course proceeds to focus on
automated text analyses. We will cover explorative text analytics using word analyses (including word frequency analysis, keyword
analyses, and text parsing), text visualization, and topic modeling. The last part of the course focuses on text classification and
predictions, for example, understanding customer opinions from review comments with sentiment analysis. There are different
methods for text classification and predictions, ranging from the very simple to the very sophisticated. We will cover unsupervised
dictionary approach as well as more advanced supervised machine learning approach. Prerequisite: 53:716:502 Business Analytics.

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53:716:513 Operations and Supply Chain Management
This course aims to (1) familiarize students with the major operational issues confronting managers, and (2) provide students with
concepts, insights, and tools to deal with these issues. Topics include inventory management, capacity planning, forecasting, quality
management, lean systems, supply chain management and logistics. Proficiency requirement: Excel for Business Executives.

53:716:550 Supply Chain Analytics

This course illustrates how the field of data analytics can be applied to optimally manage supply chains. Students learn to apply data
driven decision making methodology to the field of Supply Chain management. Topics encompass all portions of a supply chain,
including sourcing, procuring, buying, making, moving, and selling. Topics include designing and planning supply chains,
transportation analysis, facility and warehouse location models, demand and inventory management, and supply chain risk analytics.
Case studies and hands-on assignments will introduce students to current business applications and innovative use of these ideas.
Prerequisite: 53 716 502 Business Analytics

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Specializations available within the MSBA (optional):

1. Accounting and Financial Management: (complete 3 of the following courses)

 Accounting Analytics (53:010:660)
 FinTech and Financial Innovation (53:390:580)
 Financial Data Analytics (53:390:581) Prerequisite: 53:390:506 Fin Mgmt
 Investment Management and Machine Learning (53:390:582) Prerequisite: 53:390:506 Fin Mgmt

2. Marketing and Social Media Management: (complete 3 of the following courses)

 Database Marketing (53:630:509; not eligible if took 52:630:387)
 Digital Marketing Strategy (53:630:533)
 Social Media Strategy (53:630:535)
 Social Media & Sentiment Analysis (53:716:540)
 Strategic Marketing Analytics (53:630:534)
 Special Topics: Text Analytics (53:630:xxx) Prerequisite: 53 716 502 Business Analytics

3. Supply Chain and Operations Management: (complete the following 3 courses)

 IT Strategy and Project Management (53:623:510)
 Operations and Supply Chain Management (53:716:513)
 Supply Chain Analytics (53:716:550) Prerequisite: 53 716 502 Business Analytics

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Note 1: Fin Mgmt is not a prereq for Fintech. For those classes with Fin Mgmt as a prereq (Financial Data Analytics, Inv Mgmt &
Machine Learning, etc.), students can satisfy the prereq requirement by taking the following LinkedIn Learning course (which is
free to matriculated Rutgers students): https://www.linkedin.com/learning/finance-foundations-2018/the-essence-of-finance?
resume=false&u=76115650
Note 2: Students that start fall 2022 and onward will follow the curriculum of 4 required and 6 elective courses. Students that have
started prior to fall 2022 are not required to follow this curriculum and will be required to complete 10 MSBA courses.