Master of Business Administration (MBA)

MBA 601 Accounting and Finance for Decision Making

This master level course offers students with the foundation of how financial information drives strategic decision-making within organizations. In today's complex and dynamic business environment, financial judgement is essential for effective leadership and managerial decision-making. This course equips students with the knowledge and skills required to navigate the financial aspects of business operations, enabling them to make informed and strategic choices. This course is more than just a theoretical exploration of financial principles; the assigned trainings empower students with practical skills.

MBA 602 Business Analytics for Decision-Making  

This course provides students with the fundamental concepts and tools needed to understand the emerging role of business analytics in organizations and shows how to apply basic business analytics tools, and how to communicate with analytics professionals to effectively use and interpret analytic models and results for making better fact-based business decisions. This course covers descriptive analytics, such as descriptive statistics and visualizing data; and predictive analytics, such as regression analysis, forecasting, and data mining. Emphasis is on applications, concepts and interpretation of results, rather than theory and calculations. Students will use a computer software package for data visualization and analysis.

MBA 603 Leadership and Organizational Behavior

This course addresses issues related to the influence of leadership on the behavior of individuals, teams, and networks in the context of organizational culture. In addition, the course focuses on building productive relationships and manage performance for the long-term success of the organization. Overall, the course equips students with a balance of theory and practice on the major theories and research on leadership and managerial effectiveness in formal organizations. The course presents also presents the leadership in organization in the context of UAE.  

MBA 604 Sustainability and Strategic Decision-Making

This course covers the integration of strategic management principles with a focus on sustainability practices. Students learn how to develop and implement sustainable strategies within an organizational context, considering different environmental factors while aligning them with the overall strategy. Students develop critical thinking and reasoning skills through case studies and class discussions. This course will also give students an understanding of topics such as sustainable business practices, complexities of strategic analysis and formulation, strategic integration of sustainability into business level and corporate level strategies and implementation.

MBA 605 Operations and Supply Chain Integration

The course covers a range of operations management topics that all impact managing supply, managing demand, or both in the context of supply chain management. The emphasis is on managing uncertain demand, both within the firm and across the supply chain.  Topics include: strategies for increasing supply flexibility, managing demand to better match supply, the Newsvendor model, quick response strategies, the order-up-to inventory model, risk-pooling strategies, and supply chain coordination. An introduction to managing demand through revenue management is also provided.

MBA 606 International Business Environment

The course focuses on the problems and opportunities of business in a global context. It examines economic, institutional, cultural, and legal issues faced by companies involved in international business. It further analyzes their effect on business decisions including: product design, production and marketing, human resources strategy, investment analysis, financial strategy and risk management.

The aim of the course is to give students an advanced and practical understanding of why, when and how companies develop their international activities. This course is conceived as a continuation of the reflections from different fields of study, including strategy, international economics (i.e., trade theory, trade policy, etc.), international finance, human resource management, operations management, and other related areas. The course content is positioned at the intersection of these studies. The course will use a number of analytical tools and concepts, and provide many real-world examples through various case studies with a particular focus on GCC and the UAE.

Human Resources Management

MBA 651 Managing People

The objective of the course is to expose students to theoretical (conceptual) and practical (problem-solving) techniques used to tackle human resources management issues in an organization, with an emphasis on the strategic aspects. The course will deal with different approaches to Human Resource Management in the UAE/GCC context. The course will introduce students to the main principles, standards, and methodologies of Human Resources Management. It will explore past and contemporary topics related to the management of human resources that have had a significant impact on organizational performance. The overall objective is to encourage students to start thinking systematically about achieving sustained competitive advantage through the effective management of human resources.

MBA 652 Organization Development

The objective of this course is to help students understand the main principles and techniques required to lead effective and lasting organizational change. The course will cover the conceptual and practical aspects of implementing organizational change, including the various facets and challenges associated with the transition period, with emphasis placed on the UAE and GCC region. Classic and emerging readings will be used to examine micro-level managerial actions as well as their strategic aspects.

MBA 653 Developing Human Capital

The purpose of this course is to provide the student with information and insights into the training and development function in organizations. The training and development function will be viewed from a systems and knowledge-based approach. Further, the entire cycle of training and development of human resources will be examined in the context of the UAE/GCC. The training needs assessment plans will be reviewed to enable learners to appreciate organization’s training functions. The course will further evaluate the contribution of training of human resources to the success of organizations. Specific training methods and techniques will be explored.

Financial Management

MBA 661 Corporate Valuation and Financial Modeling

This is an advanced corporate finance course aims to develop critical thinking skills about development and application of financial models. The course reviews the theory and empirical evidence related to the investment and financing policies of the firm and attempts to develop decision-making ability under uncertain conditions. The approach is rigorous and analytical strategic thinking approach. The course culminates with review, analysis, and formulating financial decisions on cases that address complex challenges facing organizations. The focus of this course is on the valuation of companies. It also aims to develop critical thinking skills for a firm's investment and financing decisions and enhance ability to use capital budgeting techniques under uncertainty, corporate valuation, risk and returns, CAPM, the operation and efficiency of capital markets, dividend policy, and the optimal capital structure of the firm. It also covers long term and short-term assets, and liability management with emphasis on multinational corporations.

MBA 662 Theory and Practice of Islamic Banking and Finance

This course aims at introducing the practice and theory of the Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF) industry. The fact that the banking and finance industry is a subset of an economic system, introduction to the global IBF industry inevitably begins with an introduction to the Islamic economic system first. Hence course starts with an introduction to the basic principles (and the purpose behind them) of the Islamic economic system, followed by the understanding of the basics (and sources) of the Islamic legal system (Shariah) together with the purpose of Shariah. Basic Shariah principles/prohibitions (and the philosophy behind them) followed by IBF are then discussed at length together with the basic ethics/norms prescribed by Shariah. This is followed by a detailed understanding of the Islamic law of contract – the basis on which the architecture of various Islamic modes of financing is built. A thorough coverage of various Islamic financing structures (and their practical applications) includes Murabaha (Cost Plus Sale), Salam (Forward Sale), Istisna (Manufacturing Sale), Mudarabah (Partnership in Profit), Musharakah (Partnership in Profit and Loss), Ijarah (Leasing), Diminishing and Running Musharakah. Liquidity, Investment, and Risk Management functions of a treasury of an Islamic bank are also explained together with the tools used. Specialist topics related to non-banking financial activities include Islamic Capital Markets [Sukuk (Islamic Bonds), Islamic Equity Markets, and Islamic Fund Management] and Islamic Social Financing instruments including Islamic Insurance (Takaful). Throughout the course, relevant industry data/statistics and applied examples are referred to ensure that students remain abreast of the current state of affairs while applying an analytical mindset.

MBA 663 Project Finance: Theory and Practice

Project Finance Theory and Practice involves the raising of funds to finance an economically separable capital investment project in which the providers of the funds look primarily to the cash flow from the project as the source of funds to service their loans, and provide the return of and a return on their equity invested in the project. This is a practical course that provides the students with an opportunity to assess the risk-return character of limited resource projects from multiple perspectives.

Strategic and Digital Marketing

MBA 671 Strategic Marketing Management

This course provides a thorough understanding of the process of creating and implementing a rigorous marketing strategy to achieve long-term competitive advantage in a changing business environment. The course includes an in-depth discussion of marketing processes such as segmentation, targeting, positioning, and relationship building to create and sustain superior market performance. The course focuses on two key issues in marketing strategy formulation and implementation: identifying target markets and creating a competitive advantage. The strategic triangle of customers, competitors, and company is examined in the context of the organization's operating environment. The participants in the course will be encouraged to focus on strategic issues in services marketing in their assignments.

MBA 672 Interactive Media Management: Engagement and Analytics

For businesses of all sizes, social media marketing is a powerful tool for reaching out to potential customers. This course provides a thorough overview of how businesses can achieve their marketing and branding objectives by leveraging the power of various social media networks. Students will become acquainted with the major social media zones as well as the channels, modes, and vehicles for social media participation. Consumer behavior will be examined to determine the motivations for participating in social media activities. This course will cover how to plan and develop actionable social media strategies using various platforms and tools, as well as how to optimize results using analytical knowledge.

MBA 673 Digital Marketing Strategy

The fast-changing digital landscape provides new opportunities for marketers to communicate with their customers. This MBA course provides a comprehensive overview of how organizations can get the most out of digital media and technology to achieve their marketing goals. It develops an understanding of the strategic frameworks to understand how to interact with customers at different touch points in their customer journey. Conducting a situation analysis of an online marketplace, and developing the digital marketing strategies and marketing mix for an online environment are discussed. The course examines concepts like relationship marketing, campaign planning, and developing marketing communications using effective digital media channels. Factors for successful implementation and performance of the digital channel are evaluated.

MBA 700 Capstone Project           

This capstone project is an individual effort where students work closely with a project supervisor to conduct comprehensive research, gather relevant data, and make strategic analyses. It serves as the culmination of their academic journey, allowing them to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout their MBA program. Students will focus on a real-world issue or business challenge applicable to various sectors, and they will present their findings and recommendations through oral presentations. The capstone project offers a unique opportunity to gain practical experience, enhance professional networks, and showcase readiness for future managerial roles.