This course introduces Entrepreneurship and Business Planning. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: analyze the entrepreneurial process through which business ideas are evaluated; identify the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs; demonstrate an awareness of strategies supporting entrepreneurship; distinguish between business ideas and opportunities; write a formalized business plan; write a marketing plan; examine their personal entrepreneurial potentials; know how to finance their business ventures; demonstrate an understanding of team-building dynamics. (Business Administration 305)

This seminar provides an introduction to scholarship in a growing research community: the sociologists and sociologically-inclined organization theorists who study issues that relate, at least in a broad sense, to the interdisciplinary field of inquiry that is known as "strategy" or "strategic management" research. The course is not designed to survey the field of strategy. Rather, the focus is on getting a closer understanding of the recent work by sociologists and sociologically-oriented organization theorists that investigates central questions in strategic management. In particular, we will be concerned with identifying and assessing sociological work that aims to shed light on: (a) relative firm performance; (b) the nature of competition and market interaction; (c) organizational capabilities; (d) the beginnings of industries and firms; (e) the diffusion of transfer of ideas and practices across firms; and (f) strategic change.

The purpose of this course is to: Introduce you to key marketing ideas and phenomena. Develop your skills in marketing analysis and planning. Provide you with a forum (both written and oral) for presenting and defending your own recommendations and critically examining and discussing those of others.Emphasis is on theory and practice that draws on market research, competitive analysis, and marketing science.

Design and execution of human resource management strategies. Two central themes: (1) How to think systematically and strategically about aspects of managing the organization's human assets, and (2) What really needs to be done to implement these policies and to achieve competitive advantage. Adopts the perspective of a general manager and addresses human resource topics (including reward systems, performance management, high-performance human resource systems, training and development, recruitment, retention, equal employment opportunity laws, work-force diversity, and union-management relationships) from a strategic perspective.

This course is the capstone of the business major, because it incorporates elements from all of the core courses you should have already completed. Almost every topic should be familiar to you to some degree; however, Strategic Management ties them all together. This course begins with an introduction to the field and the definition of some important terms and concepts. You will then move on to identifying goals and formulating strategies before addressing implementation topics. This course will conclude with strategies for the 21st century. This course should be taken after all core courses have been completed and, ideally, near the end of your completion of the elective courses.

This course is intended to be an extension of course 15.902, Strategic Management, with the purpose of allowing the students to experience an in-depth application of the concepts and frameworks of strategic management. Throughout the course, Professor Hax will discuss the appropriate methodologies, concepts, and tools pertinent to strategic analyses and will illustrate their use by discussing many applications in real-life settings, drawn from his own personal experiences.

A project subject that teaches students how to create, carry out, interpret, and analyze a market research questionnaire. Emphasis on discovering market structure and segmentation, but students can pursue other project applications. Includes a user-oriented treatment of multivariate analysis (factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, conjoint and cluster analysis).

A computational and application-oriented introduction to the modeling of large-scale systems in a wide variety of decision-making domains and the optimization of such systems using state-of-the-art optimization software. Application domains include transportation and logistics, pattern classification, structural design, financial engineering, and telecommunications system planning. Modeling tools and techniques covered include linear, network, discrete, and nonlinear programming, heuristic methods, sensitivity and postoptimality analysis, decomposition methods for large-scale systems, and stochastic programming.

Subject provides a conceptual framework for thinking about taxes. Applications covered include mergers and acquisitions, tax arbitrage strategies, business entity choice, executive compensation, multi-national tax planning, and others. Aimed at investment bankers and consultants who need to understand how taxes affect the structure of deals; managers and analysts who need to understand how firms strategically respond to taxes; and entrepreneurs who want to structure their finances in a tax-advantaged manner.

The Team Project has the goals of (1) developing teamwork and leadership skills and (2) learning from the analysis of a change initiative in a real-world company using concepts from other core courses. This class has no regular class schedule or weekly readings. Almost everything is oriented around your team and your project, with only a few deadlines. Each team is responsible for analyzing a recent, ongoing, or anticipated initiative at a real company. Examples might be a strategic reorientation, organizational restructuring, introduction of a new technology, or worker participation program. From the course home page: This course is closely integrated with other MBA core classes: readings are assigned through Organizational Processes (15.311) and oral presentations are given in Communication for Managers (15.280).

Our linked subjects are (1) the historical process by which the meaning of technology has been constructed, and (2) the concurrent transformation of the environment. To explain the emergence of technology as a pivotal word (and concept) in contemporary public discourse, we will examine responses--chiefly political and literary--to the development of the mechanic arts, and to the linked social, cultural, and ecological transformation of 19th- and 20th-century American society, culture, and landscape.

Focus on theoretical work for studying operations planning and control problems. Topics vary from year to year, and include inventory theory, sequencing theory, aggregate production planning, production scheduling, multistage production/distribution systems, performance evaluation, and flexible manufacturing systems.

Subject discusses the broader trends in the labor market, how urban labor markets function, public and private training policy, other labor market programs, the link between labor market policy and economic development, and the organization of work within firms.