USC
University of Southern California
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Courses of Instruction

Business Administration (BUAD)

BUAD 020x Survey of Business Administration (3, FaSp) Survey of the important topics in business administration, including marketing, accounting, finance, management information systems, leadership, business communication, and human resource management. Not available for degree credit to USC undergraduates. Recommended preparation: 2-5 years management experience.

BUAD 040 Executive Development (4) Problems and cases in contemporary management and business economics in American society. Graded credit/no credit. Open only to participants in managerial institutes and executive programs sponsored by the Marshall School of Business. Open to USC employees.

BUAD 100x Foundations of Finance and Accounting (2) Accounting information in decision-making from the perspective of users and preparers. Basics of financial asset valuation. Consideration of time-value of money and risk. Graded CR/NC. Not available for major or minor credit.

BUAD 101 Freshman Leadership Seminar (2) Colloquium of leading researchers, authors, and administrators in the Marshall School of Business and other schools at USC. Industry leaders will also be invited to talk about leadership challenges. Registration restricted to freshmen only. Graded CR/NC.

BUAD 102 Global Leadership Seminar (2, Sp) Colloquium of researchers and industry leaders discussing international business and the challenges faced by leaders in a global environment, with a specific focus on China. Graded CR/NC. Open to freshmen global leadership students only. International travel may require additional fees.

BUAD 104x Learning About International Commerce (2, Sp) Provides insight into the opportunities and challenges faced by business professionals operating in a global environment by focusing on international cultural norms. Open only to freshman business and accounting majors.

BUAD 200x Economic Foundations for Business (2, FaSp) Examines fundamental concepts of both microeconomics and macroeconomics as they pertain to business and financial decisions. Not available for degree credit to business majors.

BUAD 215x Foundations of Business Finance (4, FaSp) Principles and practices of modern financial management; use of financial statements; valuation of investment; asset pricing under uncertainty; elements of financial decisions. Not available for credit to business majors. Prerequisite: BUAD 200x and ACCT 410x.

BUAD 250ab Core Concepts of Accounting Information (4-4, FaSpSm) a: Accounting information in decision-making from the perspective of users and preparers; accounting issues concerning income and cash flows. b: Continuation of accounting information in decision making, focusing on accounting issues involving economic resources, debt and equity capital. (Duplicates credit in BUAD 280, BUAD 281, BUAD 305.) Prerequisite: BUAD 250a.

BUAD 280 Accounting I (4, FaSpSm) Accounting information useful for decision-makers surrounding issues concerning income, expense and cash flows; economic resource, debt and equity capital decisions by managers. (Duplicates credit in BUAD 250ab and BUAD 305.)

BUAD 281 Accounting II (2, FaSpSm) Continuation of Accounting I, enhancing management decision-making with strategic product costing, profit planning and standard costs analysis; using data to facilitate any organization’s success. (Duplicates credit in BUAD 250ab and BUAD 305). Prerequisite: BUAD 280.

BUAD 301 Technical Entrepreneurship (3) Starting and managing a technological business: developing a viable concept, market and financial planning, product development, organizing the venture, protecting intellectual property rights.

BUAD 302 Communication Strategy in Business (4, FaSpSm) Theory, practices, and techniques of business communication strategy essential to external and organizational communication; group and interpersonal communication; development of skill in oral and written communication.

BUAD 302T Business Communication for Accountants (4, FaSp) Theory, practices, and techniques essential to communication by accounting professionals; interpersonal communication, written and oral presentations; communication technologies; development of communication strategies for varied audiences. Open to accounting majors only. (Duplicates credit in BUAD 302.) Recommended preparation: WRIT 340.

BUAD 304 Leading Organizations (4, FaSp) The role of leadership in business organizations; concepts and skills for managing oneself and others.

BUAD 305 Abridged Core Concepts of Accounting Information (4, FaSp) Uses of accounting information in decision-making; accounting issues concerning income and cash flows, economic resources and capital. (Duplicates credit in BUAD 250ab, BUAD 280, BUAD 281.)

BUAD 306 Business Finance (4, FaSpSm) Financial problems of business enterprise; function of financial manager; sources of funds; instruments, institutions, and practices of finance; problems of financial management using case studies. Prerequisite: ACCT 410, BUAD 250a, BUAD 280 or BUAD 305.

BUAD 307 Marketing Fundamentals (4, FaSpSm) Develops a managerial viewpoint in planning and evaluating marketing decisions of the firm: products, pricing, channels, promotion, information processing, legal implications, and marketing in contemporary society.

BUAD 310 Applied Business Statistics (4, FaSpSm) Statistical methods for business analysis; data exploration and description; sampling distributions; estimation; hypothesis testing, simple and multiple regression; model building. Extensive computer applications.

BUAD 311 Operations Management (4, FaSpSm) Learn the fundamentals of operations management and acquire skills to analyze, manage and improve production processes. Topics include: project/total quality/materials management and just-in-time production.

BUAD 311T Operations Management for Accounting Majors (4) Learn the fundamentals of operations management and acquire skills to analyze, measure, control and improve production processes. Open to accounting majors only. (Duplicates credit in BUAD 311.)

BUAD 350 Macroeconomic Analysis for Business Decisions (4, FaSpSm) Behavior of economic indicators over business fluctuations, economic growth, monetary and fiscal policy, exchange rate movements. Prerequisite: ECON 203, ECON 205.

BUAD 351 Economic Analysis for Business Decisions (4, FaSpSm) Theory of the firm in the enterprise system; profits, demand, and cost analysis; market competition and resource allocation; problems of size efficiency and growth. Prerequisite: ECON 203, ECON 205 and either MATH 118 or MATH 125.

BUAD 390 Special Problems (1-4) Supervised, individual studies. No more than one registration permitted. Enrollment by petition only.

BUAD 425 Data Analysis for Decision Making (2, FaSpSm) Leveraging large corporate datasets; slice and dice data; dash boards; data mining and statistical tools; neural network; multiple and logistic regression; decision tree; gain inference and decision making; clustering. Open only to seniors. Prerequisite: BUAD 281, BUAD 306, BUAD 307, BUAD 310, BUAD 311; Corequisite: BUAD 302, BUAD 304, BUAD 497.

BUAD 490x Directed Research (2-8, max 8, FaSpSm) Individual research and readings. Not available for graduate credit.

BUAD 491 Honors Seminar (2, max 4, FaSp) Advanced study of a selected topic in business administration. In-depth exploration of relevant theories and methods of analysis. Senior standing with a minimum overall GPA of 3.3 and completion of at least 32 units of upper division BUAD courses with a minimum GPA of 3.5 required.

BUAD 495 Practicum in Business Issues (Internship) (2) Combined classroom discussion and field application of business theories and practices; part-time employment. Project to be jointly defined by student, employer and professor. Junior or Senior standing. Graded CR/NC.

BUAD 496 Leadership Seminar (2, Fa) Designed to expose students to both the study and the practice of leadership and to provide a structural opportunity for leadership skill building.

BUAD 497 Strategic Management (4, FaSpSm) Examination of managerial decision-making, planning, and policy under changing environments; readings, cases, exercises, simulations. Prerequisite: BUAD 250b, or BUAD 281, or BUAD 305; BUAD 304, BUAD 306, and BUAD 307 and BUAD 302 or BUAD 302T; corequisite: BUAD 311.

BUAD 498 Business Field Project (Undergraduate) (1 or 2, max 3, FaSpSm) Unpaid individual or team projects solving real business problems for client companies; situation analyses; statistical analysis; consulting practicum; oral and written presentations. Open to sophomores, juniors and seniors only. Graded CR/NC.

BUAD 499 Special Topics (2-4, max 8, Irregular) Examination of current literature relevant to the total and changing environment in which business operates.