Curriculum

The Bay Area Part-Time MBA degree requires 72 units. Students typically take 6-8 units per quarter, and most courses are 1 or 4 units.

• Virtual evening classes twice each week.
• Intensive in-person experiences every other Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at our UC Davis Sacramento Health campus or Bishop Ranch campus in San Ramon.

The schedule for our elective courses, summer courses and other course opportunities will vary by term, such as some occurring in the evening, fully remote or hybrid.    

Expected Bay Area Part-Time MBA Schedule

*As an option, student can take a 10-week Integrated Management Simulation (4 units), which is a more flexible capstone experience based on a simulated management experience.” Learn more about the 10-week Integrated Management Project.

Core Courses*, Self-Guided Concentrations and Sample Electives

You'll be prepared for a range of careers and cultivate your ability to deal effectively with the challenges of a continually changing, increasingly competitive global business environment. Through our core courses, you build a foundation of basic knowledge and skills.

You can choose to pursue a self-guided concentration—business analytics, entrepreneurship, finance/accounting, general management, marketing, organizational behavior, strategy or technology management. 

Our specialized elective courses, independent studies and fieldwork can further your knowledge in a particular field and prepare you for the next step of your career.

Core Courses

Financial Accounting
Introduces the concepts and objectives underlying the preparation of financial statements. Topics include understanding the accounting cycle, measurement and valuation problems associated with financial statement components, consideration of the usefulness of financial statements in the analysis of a corporation's operations.

The Individual and Group Dynamics
Examines basic psychological and social psychological processes shaping human behavior and applies knowledge of these processes to the problem of working with and managing others in organizations. Topics include: motivation, job design, commitment, socialization, culture, individual and group decision making and team building.

Organizational Strategy and Structure
Strategic management of organizations, including analysis of industries, firm resources and capabilities and corporate strategy. Strategy formulation, implementation and strategic decision-making. Firm and industry life cycles and change. Analysis of organizational design and structure including differentiation and integration.

Markets and the Firm
Examines the interaction of consumers, firms and government, and the effect this interaction has on the use of resources and firm profitability. Fundamental economic concepts such as marginal analysis, opportunity cost, pricing, and externalities are introduced and applied.

Data Analysis for Managers
Introduces statistics and data analysis for managerial decision-making. Descriptive statistics, principles of data collection, sampling, quality control, statistical inference. Application of data-analytic methods to problems in marketing, finance, accounting, production, operations and public policy. 

Marketing Management
Analysis of market opportunities, elements of market research, development of marketing strategies, market planning and implementations, and control systems. Consumer and industrial markets, market segmentation, pricing strategies, distribution channels, promotion and sales.

Financial Theory and Policy
Covers the fundamental principles of corporate financial management and capital markets. Major topics include general valuation methods for risky cash flow streams, capital budgeting, asset pricing models, risk management, equity financing, debt financing and dividend policy. 

Managing for Operational Excellence
Explores operations in manufacturing and service sectors from both inside and outside a company. Quantitative methods and their organizational implications are also examined.

IMPACT - Articulation and Critical Thinking + Integrated Management Project

Articulation and Critical Thinking  
Develop competency in business writing and oral presentations. Build critical thinking skills. Topics include behavioral economics, false claims, deductive and inductive reasoning, correlation/causality, business ethics.

Integrated Management Project
Applies classroom learning to solve complex business challenges for real world clients. Student teams learn practical consulting skills while their clients benefit from the student's experience, insights and work product.

Self-guided Concentrations

Customize your education by choosing a general track, or one of eight concentrations. Please see sample courses under each.

• Business Analytics and Technologies
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• Finance/Accounting
• General Management
• Marketing
• Organizational Behavior
• Strategy
• Technology Management

Sample Electives

New Product Development
Why do some companies consistently outperform other companies in developing successful new products and services? Why do so many new products fail in the marketplace? This course introduces students to the major activities involved in developing new products and services. Emphasis is on learning practical skills and techniques that can help students be successful in a product development environment. As part of the course, students may work on a new product development project.

Business Law 
Covers the study of the legal environment of business. Subject matter includes an introduction to the American legal system, legal reasoning, contracts, agency, business organizations, and government regulation. Provides students with a basic understanding of the significant legal issues that confront managers and executives.

Power and Influence in Management 
Most social scientists define power as "the capacity to get what you want over the resistance of others" and influence as "the translation of power into action". Power and Influence in Management examines the bases of subunit and individual power in organizations and the means by which subunit and individual power is translated into influence.

Negotiation in Organizations
Designed to help students develop the ability to effectively negotiate in a competitive business environment. Focuses on negotiation skill-building in the areas of individual conflict management, team management, performance appraisal, corporate impression management and inter-organizational project management.

Marketing Strategies
Examines process by which organizations develop strategic marketing plans. Includes definition of activities and products, marketing audits, appraising market opportunities, design of new activities and products, and organizing marketing planning function. Applications to problems in private and public sector marketing

Management of Innovation 
Focuses on the management of technology-based innovation, including the impact of new technologies on industries, dominant designs, incremental and transformative innovations, and the life-cycle of products. Examines the organization of highly innovative firms, and the relationship of core competencies to both innovation and rigidity. Addresses the relationship of innovation to management practices such as leadership, competitive strategic planning and teamwork by using cases and field studies. Students perform an innovation audit of an area firm.

Leadership
This course will focus on effective strategies for leading and managing companies. CEOs and business leaders are scheduled to speak in class and share their experiences in leadership. The course will include strategies and tools applicable for managers at all organizational levels.

Technology Finance and Valuation 
This course examines venture capital finance and the related practice of research and development finance. The goal of the course is to apply finance tools and framework to the world of venture capital and financing of projects in high-growth industries.

Digital Marketing
Course equips students for a career in digital marketing and social media. Topics include online advertising, search engine optimization, interactive marketing, online privacy issues, e-commerce, social influence, social network theory, measurement of social influence and integrating social and traditional media.