Master of Business Administration Program

This is the first version of the 2024–25 General Catalog. Please check back regularly for changes. The final edition and the historical PDF will be published during the fall semester.

Professional degree: MBA

Professional certificates: business communication; business fundamentals; corporate finance; finance; financial decision-making; innovation; investment management; leadership; marketing; responsible resource management; risk management and insurance; strategy

Faculty: https://tippie.uiowa.edu/people

Website: https://tippie.uiowa.edu/iowa-mba

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) program provides students with a foundation for future growth and flexibility in professional management. The program, which is fully accredited by AACSB International—the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, enables students to build broad-based professional portfolios of analytical skills, knowledge, leadership, and applied experiences. The curriculum is rigorous, yet learning takes place in a collaborative environment that builds teamwork skills and encourages independent problem-solving.

Students in Iowa's MBA program represent a variety of backgrounds, undergraduate majors, and professional experience. The curriculum is designed for college graduates in any field; previous business coursework is not required. However, full-time work experience is required for admission.

The departments of Accounting, Business Analytics, Economics, Finance, Management and Entrepreneurship, and Marketing all contribute to the Master of Business Administration program through faculty participation and coursework.

Professional Programs of Study

Major

Master of Business Administration

Certificates

The following courses are offered by Tippie Professional Programs. See each program of study page for required and elective courses.

Tippie Professional Programs (MBA Program)

MBA:8110 Marketing Management 2-3 s.h.

Concepts, principles, models of marketing management; focus on strategic planning, management decision-making, and implementation of marketing programs.

MBA:8120 Management in Organizations 2-3 s.h.

How to explain, predict, and influence behavior in organizations; decision-making, leadership, communication, group skills in management positions; motivation, leadership, teams, organizational culture, organizational design, individual differences, organizational change.

MBA:8130 Business Communication 1-3 s.h.

Build executive-ready communication skills in writing, presenting, and visualizing. Learn to communicate effectively, efficiently, and in a compelling manner to capture interest and drive action. Students get practice, feedback, and coaching with personal/individual communication assignments in a variety of formats.

MBA:8140 Corporate Financial Reporting 2-3 s.h.

Contemporary financial reporting practices in the United States; how alternative accounting treatments affect the usefulness of financial information in applied decision settings.

MBA:8150 Data and Decisions 2-3 s.h.

Introduction to business analytics; utilizing Excel to apply descriptive and predictive analytical tools to solve practical business problems using real world data; dealing with uncertainty in decision-making; formal probability concepts and statistical methods for describing variability (decision trees, random variables, hypothesis testing); application of techniques (linear regression, Monte Carlo simulation, linear optimization) to model, explain, and predict for operational, tactical, and strategic decisions.

MBA:8160 Managerial Economics 1-3 s.h.

Models of consumer and firm behavior with applications; market equilibrium and structure; pricing decisions.

MBA:8170 International Economic Environment of the Firm 2-3 s.h.

Basic determinants of aggregate output, employment, wages, unemployment, consumption, investment, international trade flows, interest rates, exchange rates, prices and inflation in open economies; sources and nature of economic growth; effects of domestic and foreign monetary, fiscal policies; effects of trade, exchange rate policies.

MBA:8180 Managerial Finance 2-3 s.h.

Time value of money, applications of present value techniques; stock and bond valuation, capital budgeting, cost of capital calculation, portfolio formation and efficient market analysis, financial statement analysis, pro forma analysis, hedging financial risks. Recommendations: for Professional Program students—MBA:8140 or an undergraduate-level financial accounting or finance course.

MBA:8240 Operations and Supply Chain 2-3 s.h.

Planning and decision-making activities for managing an organization's operations in both manufacturing and services, with an emphasis on production and service delivery strategy, process design, capacity planning, process analytics, queueing, and an introduction to supply chain management including supply chain design and coordination.

MBA:8300 Foundations in Strategy 2-3 s.h.

Key elements of domestic competitive and corporate strategy; industry analysis (understanding the importance of industry for firm performance); strategies for achieving competitive advantage (cost focus, differentiation focus); corporate strategy (corporate scope, horizontal diversification, vertical integration); topics of global strategy, which may include challenges of attaining competitive advantage in foreign markets, such as cross-national distance and liabilities of foreignness, as well as international strategies (replication strategy, adaptation strategy, arbitrage strategy).

MBA:8310 Business Integration 1-3 s.h.

Student teams run an operational business simulation, conduct organizational/industry analysis, assess market opportunities, define strategic direction, compete for company profitability and market share. Prerequisites: 5 of the following are required: MBA:8110, MBA:8140, MBA:8150, MBA:8180, MBA:8240, MBA:8300. Recommendations: completion of all six prerequisites.

MBA:8320 Strategic Business Growth 3 s.h.

Key decisions that leaders must make to significantly grow their business and achieve exceptional profitability in their industry; students create a 10x growth plan for their current business or startup using an applied learning model and based on fundamental principles of scaling a business including leading people, formulating strategy, executing effectively, and managing financial resources; development of an executive-level, actionable growth plan that is ready for implementation. Prerequisites: 5 of the following are required: MBA:8110, MBA:8120, MBA:8150, MBA:8160, MBA:8180, MBA:8300.

MBA:8330 Seminar in Strategic Management I 1-3 s.h.

Introduction to strategic management; the role of marketing, operations, and finance in strategic planning; case studies.

MBA:8430 Communication with Artificial Intelligence and Business Technology 3 s.h.

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs to produce and enhance business writing; developing professional presentation skills with feedback from instructor and specialized apps; optimizing program-generated visualizations for human audiences; and exploring the role of critical thinking when using technology in business environments.

MBA:8500 Seminar in International Business 0-6 s.h.

Issues and challenges facing organizations doing business in international markets; social, economic, political factors, business policies and customs in the global environment; may include travel, study abroad. Requirements: MBA enrollment.

MBA:9130 Leadership Communication and Story 3 s.h.

Learn how effective communication drives effective leadership, including during difficult conversations and crises, and how stories can be used to create a vision and empower others to follow it. Assignments include a mix of individual reflections and experiential group learning activities.

MBA:9300 Strategy in Action 3 s.h.

Focus on a company's current strategic plan and describe the strategy of the firm; conduct an internal analysis to determine whether the firm has the ability to execute the strategic plan with its existing business model and core competencies; develop a strategy map and aligned balance scorecard to identify the most important initiatives and metrics to deliver on the strategy; propose recommendations for how the firm can improve its ability to turn strategy into action. Prerequisites: MBA:8300 and 4 of the following are required: MBA:8120, MBA:8110, (MBA:8150 or BAIS:9100), MBA:8160, MBA:8180.