Business Analytics Concentration

Large amounts of data are the lifeblood of successful organizations today. Leading organizations across industries harness and use data-driven insights to compete, innovate and achieve important strategic objectives. Quickly making sense of the extracting value from vast amounts of data is a critical skill in emerging era of big data and analytics. Managers must be able to use analytics to find and exploit critical opportunities for adding value and improving performance in the large volumes of diverse data created by organizational systems, external data sources and digital technologies. With more positions related to business intelligence and business analytics, employers demand graduates who know how to use data and analytical tools to drive decisions and can effectively promote the use of analytics in their organizations. The objectives of the business analytics concentration are to equip students with strong analytic skills and knowledge beyond the core MBA courses to they can thrive in this new predictive analytics environment. Program graduates will be able to:

1. Plan, organize and manage data analytic projects with an organizational environment.
2. Analyze organizational environments to identify and exploit potential sources of relevant data that is required to support organizational process monitoring and decision-making processes.
3. Apply an appropriate mix of data analysis tools and methods to transform data into actionable insights that drive business decisions and actions.
4. Appreciate the broader ethical and societal implications of the burgeoning application of data and analytics.

Concentration Requirements

Required courses for Business Analytics Concentration

QMB 612	Decision Modeling and Analysis	4
ITM 615	Data Mining for Business	4
	One of the following:
ECO 611	Econometrics	4
FIN 645	Advanced Portfolio Management	4
FIN 660	Applied Corporate Finance	4
ITM 619	Enterprise Systems	4
QMB 660	Advanced Forecasting and Predictive Analytics	4

Total Credit Hours: 12

Students pursuing two concentrations must take a minimum of two courses from the list above that are different from the courses in the other concentration. Only one course can overlap with another concentration.