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Master of Business Administration

Campus MBA Emphases

Our MBA program offers areas of emphasis in accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, information technology, and renewable energy. You need a total of 9 credits for either an emphasis or general electives in the MBA Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.  Students who graduated from the College of Business at UNR cannot enroll in 600 level courses if they took them at the 400 level at UNR.

Note that MBA students can also pursue other areas of emphasis by taking graduate courses of their choice outside of the College of Business Administration. For additional information on developing an emphasis in an area other than business, please contact the MBA Office.

Also note that BADM 793 (independent study) is among the available courses to MBA students as either electives or as courses for an emphasis. For guidelines to do an independent study, click here. For BADM 793, you need to have a faculty advisor from the College of Business. Prior to registering for BADM 793, you should contact the MBA Office to discuss the details of the work involved and to get the contact information of a faculty advisor. Once the scope of the work for BADM 793 is worked out, the MBA Office will provide you with the information on how to register in the course.

Accounting Emphasis

There are two areas of accounting emphasis in the MBA Program: Financial and Tax.

Financial Emphasis

The study of financial accounting concerns the rules, practices, and conventions, referred to as Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP). GAAP is the standard used by companies who report their financial results to external parties including financial institutions, regulators, and shareholders. A solid understanding of GAAP is helpful for a career in the areas of finance, administration, and accounting. The 3-course financial emphasis will give you a solid understanding of current GAAP.

Advisor: Dr. Sonja Pippin
Email: sonjap@unr.edu

• ACC 601 - Financial Reporting I (Prerequisite: BADM 710)
• ACC 602 - Financial Reporting II (Prerequisite: ACC 601)
• ACC 603 - Financial Reporting III

Tax Emphasis

The 3-course tax emphasis offers the MBA student both a thorough grounding in the Federal income tax regulations governing individuals and business entities and an analytical framework through which to analyze decisions with tax implications.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Sonja Pippin
Email: sonjap@unr.edu

• ACC 610 - Federal Taxation (Prerequisite: BADM 710)
• ACC 611 - Taxation of Flow-Through Entities (Prerequisite: ACC 610)
• ACC 789 - Taxation of Business Entities II (Prerequisite: ACC 610)

Entrepreneurship Emphasis

Entrepreneurship involves turning an idea into profit. This can occur with a startup or within an existing business. To see profit in an idea requires a breadth of business understanding, and to obtain profit from an idea requires the ability to execute. An emphasis in entrepreneurship provides grounding in evaluating business ideas and much detailed exposure to the practical steps necessary to form and execute a business plan.

Faculty Advisors: Professor Mark Pingle and Chris Howard

• BADM 794 - Value Creation and Measurement
• ENT 693 - Entrepreneurial Marketing
• ENT 601 - New Venture Creation Or
• ENT 602 - Entrepreneurial Finance Or
• ENT 603 - Applied Entrepreneurship

Finance Emphasis

The general areas of study in finance are: corporate finance, investments, and financial institutions. The areas, respectively, involve decisions within the firm, analysis of a wide range of securities for inclusion in an individual or institutional portfolio, and an understanding of the types of markets securities trade in and their regulation. The finance emphasis offers courses in each of these areas and specialization in Corporate Finance (BADM 745, BADM 746, BADM 749, BADM 792, BADM 793, and FIN 604) and Investments (BADM 743, BADM 744, and FIN 610).

Faculty Advisor: Professor Sheri Faircloth
Email: sherif@unr.edu

• FIN 604 - Financial Management Theory and Practice (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• FIN 610 - Financial Derivatives (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• FIN 620 - International Finance (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 742 – Research Methods of Finance (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 743 - Investment Management (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 744 - Securities Analysis and Portfolio Management (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 745 – Commercial bank Management (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 746 – Corporate Treasury Management (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 749 - Seminar in Finance (Pre-requisite: BADM 741)
• BADM 793 - Independent Study in finance (Pre-requisite: Approval of Faculty Advisor and the MBA Office)

Information Technology Emphasis

The Information Technology emphasis helps students learn how innovative information systems help organizations achieve sustainable strategic advantages. In addition, this emphasis explains how organizations can both protect and leverage their existing technology, properly implement new projects, and manage the organizational change that accompanies new systems. Independent study encourages the application of coursework to real world organizational issues.

MBA students who select an emphasis in Information Management can tailor their program to focus on specific interest and work needs. Some suggested three course clusters are:

• Project Management (IS 645, IS 746, IS 788)
• Business Intelligence (IS 675, IS 682, IS 752)
• Management of IT (IS 752, IS 788,  789)

Other clusters are possible, drawing from 600 level and 700 level IS courses, subject to prerequisites and approval by the MBA coordinator and the IS program.

Faculty Advisor: Professor Bill Kuechler
Email: kuechler@unr.edu

• IS 645 – Project Management: Principles and Practice (Pre-requisite: BADM 750)
• IS 670 – Computer Security, Controls, and Information Assurance (Pre-requisite: IS 350)
• IS 746 – Project Management: Advanced Topics (Pre-requisite: IS 645)
• IS 752 – Issues in the Current Technical Environmental (Pre-requisite: BADM 750)
• IS 788 – Issues in Change Management (Pre-requisite: IS 301 or BADM 750)
• BADM 793 – Independent Study in information systems (Pre-requisite: Approval of Faculty Advisor and the MBA Office)

Renewable Energy Emphasis

Renewable energy development has received increased attention in the last decade as government policymakers and entrepreneurs seek opportunities to profitably reduce reliance on fossil fuel usage both for energy security and environmental reasons.  These online courses address select topics that business managers and entrepreneurs in the renewable energy field must consider when assessing new markets and making the business case for developing new energy capacity.

Faculty Advisor: Jill Wallace
Email: jwallace@unr.edu

Select any three courses from the following list of courses recommended for MBA students:

• ENGR 600 - Alternative Energy Fundamentals (recommended pre- or co-requisite for the other renewable energy courses, offered online each semester)
• BUS 600 - Business Issues in Sustainability and Renewable Energy (offered online each Fall semester)
• ENGR 610 - Renewable Energy Policy (offered online each Summer and Fall semester)
• PSC 751 - Public Policy Analysis (offered online each Fall semester)
• CEE 611/PSC 603E/NRES 612 - Environmental Law (offered online each Summer semester)
• ENGR 620 - Renewable Energy in the Home & Local Community (offered online each Fall semester)

Other Renewable Energy Courses:

• ENGR - Solar and Renewable Energy Utilization (Fall semester)
• ENGR 660 - Fundamentals of Biofuels (Spring semester)
• ENGR 630 - Wind Energy (Fall semester)

For information regarding these courses, visit Online Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Curriculum page.