Atlanta Campus Catalog 2011-2012 - Mercer University

PBA 651b. Legal Issues Affecting Businesses(3 hours)An introduction to the American legal system. Topics include the court system, litigation,constitutional law, contract law, tort law, agency, business organizations and intellectualproperty.PBA 651c. Economic Conditions and Market Fundamentals (3 hours)Essential macro and microeconomic concepts including GDP, wages and employment,and inflation are introduced. Financial markets, interest rates and risk are examined.Topics include supply and demand, elasticity, and market analysis and macro environmentalpolicy.Module 2: Making Decisions that Create Value (9 hours)PBA 652a. Financial Decisions for Corporate Valuation (3 hours)Making internal decisions that create value in the business enterprise is the centraltheme. Topics include competing models about the goal of a firm, investment decisionmaking,financing decisions, evaluating investment proposals and selection of value-creatingprojects as well as corporate valuation.PBA 652b. Quantitative Approaches to Optimizing Operations (3 hours)This course focuses on the concepts and techniques used to optimize business processesand manage projects. Approaches include tools used in making optimal decision andtheir applications including linear programming, decision trees and regression analysis.PBA 652c. Managerial Approaches to Maximizing Resources (1.5 hours)Management styles and decision-making styles used to optimize employee’s productivityare studied and evaluated for organizational effectiveness. The importance of cultureand organizational behavior as well as motivation and human resource practices toenhance business processes are discussed.PBA 652d. Managerial Accounting(1.5 hours)An introduction to the product costing concepts required for managerial decision-making.The course provides an in-depth study of cost behavior, cost allocation and cost estimation.Other topics include transfer pricing, segment elimination and profitability analysis.Module 3: Application of Business Concepts (9 hours)PBA 653a. Contemporary Topics in Management(3 hours)Discussion of current topics facing business managers is the course focus. Issues includemanagement of a diverse work force and understanding the social and cultural issuesthat exist in the global business environment. Responses to these challenges are discussed.Approaches to managing change and legal requirements are examined.PBA 653b. Global Macroeconomics(3 hours)Economic trade theory and commercial policies essential for businesses operating internationallyinclude topics such as the theory of international trade, commercial policies,balance of payments, foreign exchange rate determination and risk management.Macroeconomic policies are evaluated.PBA 653c. Marketing Concepts & Consumer Behavior (3 hours)Marketing environmental factors such as the competition, the consumer, research issues,segmentation concepts, and positioning strategies are examined. This course emphasizesidentification and assessment of the variety of marketing factors that are critical tothe development of efficient and effective marketing initiatives.166 / MERCER UNIVERSITY