Master of Business Administration (iMBA)

Syllabus

Courses

• Corporate Finance I: Measuring and Promoting Value Creation

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long

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  In this course you will learn how to use key finance principles to understand and measure business success and to identify and promote true value creation. You will learn how to use accounting information to form key financial ratios to measure a company’s financial health and to manage a company's short-term and long-term liquidity needs. You will also learn how to use valuation techniques to make sound business investment and acquisition decisions. Finally, you will learn how to incorporate risk and uncertainty into investment decisions and how to evaluate the performance of existing investments.
  
  Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to:
  • Understand how companies make investment decisions that create value for shareholders
  • Use accounting statements to measure the financial health of a company
  • Forecast and manage a company’s short- and long-term liquidity needs
  • Measure the contribution of a new project or acquisition to shareholder value
  • Incorporate risk into investment decisions using the appropriate discount rates
  • Evaluate the performance of a company or divisions of a company
  
  This course was previously entitled Financial Evaluation and Strategy: Corporate Finance. The course received an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 based on 177 reviews over the period of September 2015 through August 2016. A detailed breakdown of ratings and reviews received for the prior version of the course, which is identical in content to the current course, is provided in the course orientation page.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Digital Media and Marketing Principles

  6 reviews

  4 weeks long, 20 hours worth of material

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  The Digital Revolution has led to a titanic shift in the landscape of marketing communications, while also creating new opportunities for businesses to reach and engage consumers through smart, social, and mobile media technologies. In this course, you will learn about the impacts of digital technologies on marketing communication strategies and practices. By understanding the underlying processes of marketing communication and the core features of new media technologies, you can strategically select the appropriate channels to deliver the right marketing message to the right audience at the right moment.
  You will be able to:
  - Examine marketing as a process of highly strategic communication
  - Understand the impacts of digital media and information technologies on communication and marketing
  - Develop a conceptual understanding of several digital marketing strategies
  - Consider the rise of exciting new technologies, such as AI, Internet of Things, and Mix Reality, as new tools for digital marketing
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into the program and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Digital Media and Marketing Strategies

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long, 19 hours worth of material

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  The proliferation of digital technology gives businesses an unprecedented and diverse new set of tools to reach, engage, monitor, and respond to consumers. The aggregated and voluminous digital data can also be leveraged to better target specific consumer segments. Following “Digital Media and Marketing Principles,” this course aims to give you a deeper understanding of core processes of planning a digital marketing campaign and the role of various digital channels in integrated marketing communication.
  You will be able to:
  - Adopt a holistic and integrated approach to digital marketing planning
  - Develop a purposeful content marketing strategy to achieve your business and marketing goals
  - Effectively mix paid, earned, owned, and shared media channels to discover, reach, and engage your customers
  - Critically evaluate the role social media platforms play in viral and influencer marketing campaigns
  - Evaluate and measure the success of digital marketing campaigns
  - Identify and manage risks in digital marketing
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’s suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into the program and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Marketing in a Digital World

  252 reviews

  4 weeks long, 28 hours worth of material

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  This course examines how new digital tools, such as the Internet, smartphones, and 3D printing, are revolutionizing the world of marketing by changing the roles and practices of both firms and consumers. Marketing in a Digital World is one of the most popular courses on Coursera with over 500,000 learners and is rated by Class Central as one of the Top 50 MOOCs of All Time (https://www.class-central.com/report/top-moocs/).
  
  You will be able to:
  • Understand how digital tools are changing the nature of marketing
  • Explain how digital tools allow consumers to take a more active role in product development, promotion, placement, and pricing activities
  • Obtain a new set of concepts, tools, and stories to enhance your digital marketing efforts
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Managerial Accounting: Cost Behaviors, Systems, and Analysis

  13 reviews

  4 weeks long, 20 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will learn how to use accounting to facilitate and align decisions made by owners, managers, and employees. You will learn how accountants create, organize, interpret, and communicate information that improves internal processes and allows organizations to identify and leverage opportunities to create value within the supply chain and with customers.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Understand what managerial accounting is and why it is an important function for successful businesses
  • Identify problems associated with relying on financial accounting information for internal decision making
  • Organize cost information according to the decision-making needs of the organization
  • Apply activity-based costing (ABC) and recognize circumstances and decisions for which ABC systems are relevant
  • Address common "what-if" questions using cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis and apply CVP in a variety of scenarios
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Managerial Accounting: Tools for Facilitating and Guiding Business Decisions

  5 reviews

  4 weeks long, 24 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will explore how to use accounting to allocate resources and incentivize manager and employee behaviors with these resources. You will also learn how financial and non-financial accounting information facilitates strategic performance measurement and how to integrate this information to continuously improve strategy.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Understand the role of managerial accounting information and use it to avoid common pitfalls in business decisions
  • Understand the iterative and interrelated nature of budgeting and apply the key components to preparing a master budget
  • Evaluate capital investments via a variety of measures
  • Calculate, interpret, and investigate variances
  • Understand decentralization and its advantages and disadvantages
  • Communicate the role of non-financial measures and strategic performance measurement systems
  • Compute and interpret financial performance measures and identify associate issues
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Digital Marketing Analytics in Theory

  35 reviews

  4 weeks long, 20 hours worth of material

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  Successfully marketing brands today requires a well-balanced blend of art and science. This course introduces students to the science of web analytics while casting a keen eye toward the artful use of numbers found in the digital space. The goal is to provide the foundation needed to apply data analytics to real-world challenges marketers confront daily. Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals: Marketing Analytics in Theory is the first in a two-part series of complementary courses and focuses on the background information and frameworks analysts need to be successful in today's digital business world.
  You will be able to:
  - Identify the web analytic tool right for your specific needs
  - Understand valid and reliable ways to collect, analyze, and visualize data from the web
  - Utilize data in decision making for agencies, organizations, or clients
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Digital Marketing Analytics in Practice

  24 reviews

  4 weeks long, 20 hours worth of material

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  Successfully marketing brands today requires a well-balanced blend of art and science. This course introduces students to the science of web analytics while casting a keen eye toward the artful use of numbers found in the digital space. The goal is to provide the foundation needed to apply data analytics to real-world challenges marketers confront daily. Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals: Marketing Analytics in Practice is the second in a two-part series of complementary courses and focuses on the skills and practical abilities analysts need to be successful in today's digital business world.
  You will be able to:
  - Identify the web analytic tool right for your specific needs
  - Understand valid and reliable ways to collect, analyze, and visualize data from the web
  - Utilize data in decision making for agencies, organizations, or clients
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Digital Marketing Capstone

  1 review

  6 weeks long, 13 hours worth of material

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  This four-week Capstone of the Digital Marketing Specialization is designed to help you apply the principles you have learned in the previous courses.
  
  This capstone course is designed to give you hands-on experience in executing a digital marketing campaign for a fictitious firm selling electronics. In the previous courses on analytics and channels, you came up with strategies to identify a firm’s objectives, specify a few key ones, research alternatives to reaching the customer in their decision journey and finally propose a multi-channel digital marketing plan. In this capstone, you will execute a campaign, rather than creating another "plan".
  
  You will use an online simulation to do this. You will be a marketing manager for a firm selling digital cameras online through their webstore. You will be reviewing the products, pricing, margins, and historical sales. You will create a targeted ad campaign after researching appropriate keywords for the products you are selling. You will also review the basics of landing page design and search engine optimization. You will then create and execute an email campaign. Once these campaigns are executed, you get feedback on the KPI's such as revenue, profits, traffic, conversions. You will get an opportunity to redo this campaign, with new strategies, to improve your KPI's in the second round.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Business Strategy

  19 reviews

  4 weeks long, 17 hours worth of material

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  In this course you will learn how organizations create, capture, and maintain value. In doing so, you’ll develop an understanding of how and why this process is fundamental for sustainable competitive advantage. You will be able to better understand value creation, and capture and learn the tools to analyze both competition and cooperation from a variety of perspectives, including the industry-level (e.g., five forces analysis) and the firm-level (e.g., business models and strategic positioning).
  You will be able to:
  - Understand how managers coordinate different functional areas, resources, and systems inside a company and align them with the external environment to enhance overall performance
  - Recognize strategic management tools and frameworks and apply them to real business contexts
  - Process diverse business and industry information to diagnose strategic issues, evaluate strategic alternatives, and formulate a coherent and actionable strategic plan
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Inferential and Predictive Statistics for Business

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long, 19 hours worth of material

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  This course provides an analytical framework to help you evaluate key problems in a structured fashion and will equip you with tools to better manage the uncertainties that pervade and complicate business processes. To this end, the course aims to cover statistical ideas that apply to managers by discussing two basic themes: first, is recognizing and describing variations present in everything around us, and then modeling and making decisions in the presence of these variations. The fundamental concepts studied in this course will reappear in many other classes and business settings. Our focus will be on interpreting the meaning of the results in a business and managerial setting.
  
  While you will be introduced to some of the science of what is being taught, the focus will be on applying the methodologies. This will be accomplished through use of Excel and using data sets from many different disciplines, allowing you to see the use of statistics in very diverse settings. The course will focus not only on explaining these concepts but also understanding the meaning of the results obtained.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Test for beliefs about a population
  • Compare differences between populations
  • Use linear regression model for prediction
  • Use Excel for statistical analysis
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Country Level Economics: Macroeconomic Variables and Markets

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 17 hours worth of material

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  This course discusses how macroeconomic variables affect individuals’ personal, professional, and public activities and lays the foundation for the analysis of the mechanisms that drive macroeconomic variables. It starts by introducing the key macroeconomic variables and explaining how they are defined and measured to interpret macroeconomic data properly.
  
  Then, the course offers a perspective for separating out various parts of the economy driven by different processes and for combining those components to develop a richer view of the whole. In particular, it applies this approach to the analysis of the relationship of the trade deficit with the budget deficit and private savings, offering insights about some key determinants of the balance of payments. The third and fourth modules focus on the analyses of the foreign currency and money markets to provide fundamental models of the interest rate and exchange rate determination. They also discuss how these variables interact with each other and with the macroeconomic conditions, particularly monetary policy, and the expectations about the future trends in the economy.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Systematically assess the national and international economic environment in which you live and work
  • Analyze macroeconomic issues using key tools
  • Be a more effective professional in your line of activity.
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Firm Level Economics: Consumer and Producer Behavior

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 17 hours worth of material

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  All goods and services are subject to scarcity at some level, which requires that society develop some allocation mechanism to determine who gets what. Over recorded history, these allocation rules were usually command based, meaning that the king or the emperor would decide. In contemporary times, most countries have turned to market-based allocation systems. In markets, prices act as rationing devices, encouraging or discouraging production and encouraging or discouraging consumption to find an equilibrium allocation of resources. To understand this process, businesses construct demand curves to capture consumer behavior and consider supply curves to capture producer behavior. The resulting equilibrium price “rations” the scarce commodity.
  You will be able to:
  • Describe consumer behavior as captured by the demand curve and producer behavior as captured by the supply curve
  • Define equilibrium and explain the impact of taxes and price controls on market equilibrium
  • Explain elasticity of demand
  • Describe cost theory and how firms optimize given the constraints of their own costs and an exogenously given price
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Firm Level Economics: Markets and Allocations

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long, 18 hours worth of material

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  In markets, prices act as rationing devices, encouraging or discouraging production and consumption to find an equilibrium. In this course, you will learn to construct demand curves to capture consumer behavior and supply curves to capture producer behavior. The resulting equilibrium price “rations” the scarce commodity. Additionally, the course examines the ways in which markets are subject government intervention and the impacts of these interventions.
  You will be able to:
  • Explain how different market structures result in different resource allocations
  • Model the impact of external shocks to a particular market structure and demonstrate the new equilibrium price and quantity after the impact of this external shock has played out
  • Evaluate the efficiency of an equilibrium
  • Explain when and why the government might intervene with regulatory authority or antitrust litigation to lessen inefficiencies in some markets
  • Describe how information problems can cause inefficient outcomes
  • Understand externalities and consider optimal government response to these market failures
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Designing the Organization

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 13 hours worth of material

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  Organizations are complex and can be difficult to manage well, so managers need tools to help them better understand and deal with the many complexities and challenges associated with organizational life. In this course, you will learn theories, principles, and frameworks that will help you design more effective organizations.
  You will be able to:
  - Analyze organizations from multiple perspectives to better understand business challenges
  - Strategically plan for effective organizational governance
  - Develop systems to plan for growth and change
  - Understand implications of the external environment on business and strategically respond to these factors
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Applications of Everyday Leadership

  5 reviews

  4 weeks long, 15 hours worth of material

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  This course builds upon a conceptual knowledge of leadership by considering applications for more effective negotiation, feedback and coaching, conflict management, and change leadership. By applying a leadership framework to these realistic situations faced by businesses, you will be prepared to lead teams towards solutions in your own business challenges.
  You will be able to:
  - Negotiate effectively and influence others through effective leadership
  - Provide feedback and coaching that is strategically appropriate and influential
  - Manage conflict and lead change in business
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Foundations of Everyday Leadership

  3 reviews

  4 weeks long, 15 hours worth of material

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  In this foundational course, you will learn about the “head and heart” of everyday leadership by exploring dynamics of individual and group decision making and the challenges of managing motivation. Central to the course is forming a nuanced understanding of why and how leadership skills are critical to an organization’s success.
  You will be able to:
  - Articulate why and how leadership skills are so critical to organizational success
  - Use leadership skills to work more effectively with others and organize teams to work more effectively together
  - Apply the foundations of effective leadership skills to everyday situations
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Corporate Strategy

  1 review

  4 weeks long

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  In this course you will learn how organizations create, capture, and maintain value, and how it is fundamental for sustainable competitive advantage. You will be able to better understand economic value creation and value appropriation, and learn the tools to analyze both competition and cooperation from a corporate level perspective, (e.g., through vertical integration, diversification, and geographic scope decisions).
  
  You will:
  • Understand how corporations create, capture, and sustain competitive advantage.
  • Analyze business situations and create a coherent corporate strategy.
  • Understand the fit between corporate strategy and organization structure to improve economic performance.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Managing the Organization

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 12 hours worth of material

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  This course is intended to help you become a better manager by helping you more fully understand and deal with the complexities and challenges associated with managerial life in organizations. You will learn theories, principles, and frameworks that will help you more effectively manage and lead your organizations.
  You will be able to:
  - Analyze common managerial challenges and develop solutions to these challenges
  - Use power effectively and strategically to implement organizational change
  - Understand the foundations of organizational culture and decision-making
  - Navigate common decision-making pitfalls and ethical challenges
  - Apply principles of organization management to common challenges of management
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Managerial Economics and Business Analysis Capstone

  0 reviews

  4 weeks long, 19 hours worth of material

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  The capstone project involves an in-depth analysis of an actual business situation in which you will examine the global economic environment of a business. The final project will be a business plan that uses statistical tools and economic theory to create a comprehensive analysis of the microeconomic and macroeconomic environment in which the focal company operates.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Strategic Leadership and Management Capstone

  0 reviews

  6 weeks long, 10 hours worth of material

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  The capstone is a strategic leadership and management plan where you’ll apply what you will learn to an actual business situation with participation by one or more focal companies. The deliverable will be designed to create value from the perspective of potential employers while achieving pedagogical and experiential goals for learners.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Country Level Economics: Policies, Institutions, and Macroeconomic Performance

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 16 hours worth of material

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  This course examines macroeconomic performance in the short and long run based on the economy’s institutional and policy environment. First, we will develop a model of macroeconomy in the short run when the price level has its own momentum and does not respond much to supply and demand forces. Then, we’ll begin analyzing the long-run equilibrium by examining the foreign exchange market. The third module examines the drivers of aggregate output in the long run and the mechanisms of adjustment from the short run to the long run. Finally, we will discuss the characteristics of desirable macroeconomic policies and the reasons why actual policies deviate from them.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Understand how the market for aggregate goods and services interacts with the money market to shape the macroeconomic equilibrium which determines income, interest rate, and exchange rate in the short run
  • Assess the dynamic effects of macroeconomic policies and understand the roles of globalization, government policies, institutions, and expectations in macroeconomic outcomes
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Exploring and Producing Data for Business Decision Making

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long, 23 hours worth of material

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  This course provides an analytical framework to help you evaluate key problems in a structured fashion and will equip you with tools to better manage the uncertainties that pervade and complicate business processes. Specifically, you will learn how to summarize data and learn concepts of frequency, normal distribution, statistical studies, sampling, and confidence intervals.
  
  While you will be introduced to some of the science of what is being taught, the focus will be on applying the methodologies. This will be accomplished through the use of Excel and data sets from different disciplines, allowing you to see the use of statistics in a range of settings. The course will focus not only on explaining these concepts, but also understanding and interpreting the results obtained.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Summarize large data sets in graphical, tabular, and numerical forms
  • Understand the significance of proper sampling and why one can rely on sample information
  • Understand why normal distribution can be used in a wide range of settings
  • Use sample information to make inferences about the population with a certain level of confidence about the accuracy of the estimations
  • Use Excel for statistical analysis
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Financial Accounting: Foundations

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 13 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will learn foundations of financial accounting information. You will start your journey with a general overview of what financial accounting information is and the main financial statements. You will then learn how to code financial transactions in financial accounting language. In the meantime, you will learn about the most important concept in contemporary financial accounting: accrual accounting. You will then critically analyze how firms recognize revenues. Finally, you will finish the course with an analysis of accounting for short-term assets where you will go into detail on how firms account for accounts receivables and inventories.
  
  Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
  
  • Understand main financial statements and the financial information they provide
  • Write a financial transaction in financial accounting language and understand how this impacts main financial statements
  • Understand how accrual accounting and fundamental accounting concepts work
  • Understand revenue recognition principles and how they impact main financial statements
  • Account for accounts receivables and inventories.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Financial Accounting: Advanced Topics

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long, 13 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will explore advanced topics in financial accounting. You will start your journey with accounting for assets with more than one-year life. You will learn in detail how firms account for fixed assets. You will then move to financing of assets and discuss accounting for liabilities. The course will continue with an in-depth exploration of shareholders’ equity. Finally, you will critically evaluate preparation, components, and analysis of cash flows statement.
  
  Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
  • Account for fixed assets
  • Understand accounting for liabilities
  • Evaluate shareholders’ equity section of a balance sheet
  • Understand preparation and information provided by cash flows statement
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Investments II: Lessons and Applications for Investors

  1 review

  4 weeks long, 19 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will start by reviewing the fundamentals of investments, including the trading off of return and risk when forming a portfolio, asset pricing models such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the 3-Factor Model, and the efficient market hypothesis. You will be introduced to the two components of stock returns – dividends and capital gains – and will learn how each are taxed and the incentives provided to investors from a realization-based capital gains tax. You will examine the investment decisions (and behavioral biases) of participants in defined-contribution (DC) pension plans like 401(k) plans in the U.S. and will learn about the evidence regarding the performance of individual investors in their stock portfolios. The course concludes by discussing the evidence regarding the performance of actively-managed mutual funds. You will learn about the fees charged to investors by mutual funds and the evidence regarding the relation between fees charged and fund performance. Segments of the portfolios of mutual funds that may be more likely to outperform and examples of strategies designed to “earn alpha” will also be introduced.
  
  Learners are welcome to take this course even if they have not completed "Investments I: Fundamentals of Performance Evaluation," as the first module contain a review of investment fundamentals and regression analysis to get everyone up to speed. Also, the course contains several innovative features, including creative out-of-the-studio introductions followed by quick-hitting "Module in 60" countdowns that highlight what will be covered in each module, four "Faculty Focus" interview episodes with leading professors in finance, and a summary of each module done with the help of animations!
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Corporate Finance II: Financing Investments and Managing Risk

  0 reviews

  4 weeks long, 20 hours worth of material

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  In this course you will learn how companies decide on how much debt to take, and whether to raise capital from markets or from banks. You will also learn how to measure and manage credit risk and how to deal with financial distress. You will discuss the mechanics of dividends and share repurchases, and how to choose the best way to return cash to investors. You will also learn how to use derivatives and liquidity management to offset specific sources of financial risk, including currency risks. Finally, You will learn how companies finance merger and acquisition decisions, including leveraged buyouts, and how to incorporate large changes in leverage in standard valuation models.
  
  Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
  
  • Understand how companies make financing, payout and risk management decisions that create value
  • Measure the effects of leverage on profitability, risk, and valuation
  • Manage credit risk and financial distress using appropriate financial tools
  • Understand the links between payout policies and company performance
  • Use derivatives and liquidity management to offset financial risks
  • Pick an appropriate financing package for an M&A or leveraged buyout deal
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Developing a Winning Marketing Strategy

  2 reviews

  4 weeks long, 15 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will learn how businesses create value for customers. We will examine the process by which Marketing builds on a comprehensive understanding of buyer behavior to create value. You will learn the major elements of the marketing mix -- product policy, channels of distribution, communication, and pricing -- and see how they fit within different analytical frameworks that are useful to managers. This will enhance your understanding of how marketing works in the business world.
  You will be able to:
  • Define marketing and describe how marketing creates value
  • Describe the elements of the marketing mix
  • Explain how these elements interact to create value for consumers
  • Use different analytical frameworks to examine how managers solve business problems
  • Evaluate brand extensions
  • Develop a marketing plan proposal
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Developing a Marketing Mix for Growth

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  4 weeks long, 12 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will further examine how businesses create value for customers. In Marketing Management I, you learned the major elements of the marketing mix - product policy, channels of distribution, communication, and pricing - and saw how they fit within different analytical frameworks that are useful to managers. In this course, you will complete a more detailed analysis of these elements in order to conduct a thorough strategic analysis of marketing opportunities and to communicate marketing decisions. This will enable you to see “marketing in action” in the business world.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Define all elements of the marketing mix and explain the role each element plays in creating value
  • Compare different pricing models
  • Evaluate the use of different channels of distribution by existing businesses
  • Critique advertising execution
  • Create a persuasive advertising piece
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Value Chain Management Capstone

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  6 weeks long, 9 hours worth of material

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  The capstone for the Value Chain Management specialization will provide a learning experience that examines how the various segments of a business integrate to create a value chain. The capstone involves an in-depth analysis of an actual business situation. The final deliverable consists of a plan based on a comprehensive analysis of how accounting, marketing, and operations work together to create a value chain. The plan will propose how value creation in organizations and supply chains can be enhanced using the concepts and frameworks learned in the three courses.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Financial Management Capstone

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  6 weeks long, 8 hours worth of material

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  The Financial Management capstone will provide a learning experience that integrates across all the courses within this specialization. You will analyze a situation taking the vantage point of a company and develop a financial management plan (for instance, a global company working in a specific geography chosen by students’ region or country of residence, or other consideration). You will design a deliverable to create value from the perspective of potential employers while achieving pedagogical and experiential goals.
  
  This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

• Marketing in an Analog World

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  4 weeks long, 26 hours worth of material

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  Our new digital world is dramatically changing the way in which products are created, promoted, distributed, and consumed. Although these changes have been revolutionary, we still live in an analog (or physical) world. For example, even today, over 90% of all sales are still conducted in analog stores. Thus, both marketers and consumers must simultaneously navigate both the analog and digital worlds on a daily basis. Although the Digital Revolution has received considerable attention in recent years, the impact of this revolution upon the analog world has been largely ignored. This course examines this issue by asking how the Digital Revolution has impacted marketing in an analog world. The learning approach will be highly interactive, meaning that you will have both the opportunity to engage in a variety of hands-on activities and to participate as a member of a rich learning community.
  You will be able to:
  - Understand the key differences between the analog and the digital
  - Examine four ways in which the analog world has been affected by the digital revolution: domination, resistance, synergy, and transformation
  - Explore the implications of the analog world for both marketers and consumers
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Operations and Supply Chain Decisions and Metrics

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  4 weeks long, 16 hours worth of material

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  In this course, you will learn about the role of operations and how they are connected to other business functions in manufacturing and service-focused organizations. You will learn and practice the use of decision-making frameworks and techniques applicable at all levels, from management-level strategic decisions such as connecting process to the needs of various customer segments, to front-line tactical decisions such as choosing between ordering larger quantities vs. ordering more frequently.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Relate underlying principles to operations management frameworks and techniques
  • Synthesize information to make strategic operations decisions
  • Evaluate processes on different dimensions
  • Apply analytical techniques for tactical operations decision
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.

• Process Improvement

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  4 weeks long, 19 hours worth of material

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  In this course you will focus on process improvement. You will learn how to set organizational priorities for continuous process improvement, how to execute process improvement projects, and how to sustain the initiative for continuous improvements.
  
  You will be able to:
  
  • Relate underlying principles to frameworks and techniques used for process improvement
  • Synthesize information to make decisions for organizational initiatives and process improvement
  • Apply analytical techniques for tactical decisions in a process improvement project
  
  This course is part of Gies College of Business’ suite of online programs, including the iMBA and iMSM. Learn more about admission into these programs and explore how your Coursera work can be leveraged if accepted into a degree program at https://degrees.giesbusiness.illinois.edu/idegrees/.