Flexible MBA Specialization in Entrepreneurial Marketing
Add a specialization in entrepreneurial marketing.
Innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship play an important role in the creation of wealth and the advancement of living standards throughout the world. Whether starting your own business, helping an established company to create a new market, or taking a marketing or sales job in an entrepreneurial company, you need to routinely engage in the act of market creation.
The entrepreneurial marketing specialization is designed to find the “hole in the marketplace,” the unarticulated needs that can be satisfied by creative use of technology. The curriculum will empower you to unlock the secret doors to future growth through marketing toolkits. This program is geared toward both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who have a passion for innovation and business. The courses will cultivate the foundation skills needed to lead marketing strategies in entrepreneurial companies where science and technology form the core products and services.
Entrepreneurial marketing curriculum highlights
Required courses
BU.420.710 Consumer Behavior (2 Credits) required course
This course provides you with a solid foundation in consumer decision making based on theoretical and empirical findings from the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Topics include consumers’ knowledge and involvement, attention, comprehension, learning, attitude, and purchase intention. Emphasis on cognitive learning, social influence and persuasion, and behavioral science provides an overview of the various methods used to drive behavioral change and social impact in the marketing of products, services and social issues. Also explored is the practical impact of consumer behavior analysis on marketing mix strategies, market segmentation/positioning, brand loyalty, persuasion process, and promotion.
BU.410.601 Marketing Research (2 Credits)
This course is an introduction to fundamental concepts, processes, and techniques in marketing research. Then apply these tools to solve business problems and differentiate good research from bad research. The topics in this course cover the whole research process from defining research problems, selecting appropriate research designs and research methods and conducting data analysis to making strategic recommendations. The course will also build on the foundations of statistics and introduce more advanced statistical tools relevant to marketing decision making.
Electives
BU.420.730 Advanced Behavioral Marketing (2 Credits)
From determining consumer needs to ensuring customer satisfaction, marketing begins and ends with the consumer. In this advanced behavioral marketing course, explore classic as well as the most recent scientific research in marketing, psychology, and behavioral economics on judgment and decision making. Readings include primary empirical research articles, business journal articles, and research reviews. Develop your ability to understand and influence what people want, how people decide what and when to buy, and whether people will be satisfied or dissatisfied with their decisions. These psychological insights not only are particularly useful for marketing management decision making such as target marketing, brand positioning, and marketing communication, but also shed light on common decision biases beyond marketing. In addition, examine the methodology of behavioral research to build the tools you will need to interpret scientific findings and base decisions on them.
BU.430.710 Branding and Marketing Communications (2 Credits)
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design — or a combination of these — intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers, and to differentiate those of the competition. The essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a brand to its environment. Although the relevant environment is very broad, encompassing social and economic forces, the key aspect of the brand’s environment is the industry (or industries) in which it competes. Therefore, the goal of competitive strategy for a brand is to find a position in the industry where the brand can articulate a compelling value proposition, defend itself against competitive forces, and leverage communication resources to sell the brand message and build brand equity.
In this course, examine how a favorable brand and memorable brand experiences can influence a firm’s ability to withstand competitive pressures and thrive in dynamic market conditions. Study brand management from the consumer perspective to highlight the importance of customer perceptions in bringing brands to life and the role of brand knowledge in building brand equity. Become acquainted with cutting-edge frameworks, concepts, and tools that have been adopted across industries and around the globe to build lucrative brand franchises. And consider the role of marketing communication vehicles and platforms in effective brand management.
BU.460.710 Business-to-Business Marketing and Channel Strategy (2 Credits)
This course provides a managerial introduction to the strategic and tactical aspects of business marketing decisions and marketing channel strategy. Examine the strategic concepts and tools that guide market selection, successful differentiation in business markets, and supply chain management. A mixture of lectures, discussions, cases, videos, and readings are used to examine how product and service decisions are designed to deliver the B2B value proposition, how pricing captures customer value, how value is communicated to and among customers, and how marketing channels are used to make this value accessible to target customers. Compare and contrast how the strategic and tactical processes of developing and managing value-generating relationships differ between B2B and B2C markets. You will also gain understanding of how to manage channel power, conflict, and relationships.
BU.121.610 Negotiation (2 Credits)
This course provides you with the foundational knowledge and skills needed to negotiate. Designed around a series of research-based negotiation exercises, the course exposes you to a variety of negotiation situations to build the foundation of two fundamental approaches to negotiation. By reflecting on these exercises in light of negotiation theory, you will develop an awareness of your personal negotiation style, including its strengths and weaknesses. By the end of the course, you will be able to negotiate in an effective, ethical, and culturally appropriate manner.
BU.460.730 New Product Development (2 Credits)
While developing new products and services is vital to the growth of any company, it is also one of the most risky business decisions. This course examines the strategies and processes used by leading companies for successful new product development. It starts by identifying consumers' pain points, then practical techniques are introduced to navigate the processes of ideation, market analysis, new product development, and commercialization. Real-world examples are presented to showcase the applications of these concepts and techniques.
BU.430.720 Pricing Analysis (2 Credits)
Pricing is one of the most important and least understood business decisions. This course aims to equip students with proven concepts, techniques, and frameworks for assessing and formulating pricing strategies. The objective is to prepare you to address strategic and tactical pricing issues and identifying profit-boosting changes in pricing practices across a range of professional contexts — as product/service managers, business unit managers, management consultants, entrepreneurs, and merger and acquisition advisors.