GCOM 7810 develops an understanding of how to manage IT to create business value through a focus on strategy and finance. IT professionals must understand the specific kinds of value created by IT for their firm's end consumers, and how it in turn produces financial returns. By analyzing a firm's industry and its competitive position within that industry, students learn how to produce technologies that can impact the firm's competitive position.

This interdisciplinary course explores four critical areas at the intersection of business and sustainability: 1) Climate Finance, 2) Conservation Finance, 3) Circular Economy and 4) ESG Investing. In addition to acquiring an understanding of these key sustainability challenges, participants will gain skill in applying analytical tools and techniques to the evaluation of sustainable investment opportunities.

The course will provide a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for effective project and product management.  Students will have a chance to apply these skills by working as a team and conducting projects such as a design thinking team.

GCOM 7840 focuses on the necessary technological, financial, and organizational issues to consider when developing a business case around a transformational, IT-based strategic initiative. Projects of this sort can impact how an organization pursues its strategic goals, and in some cases may also suggest shifts in strategy to pursue new opportunities that are compatible with the firm's resources and capabilities.

Business Analytics, ranging from applied statistics to Machine learning and AI, allows us to describe markets, understand the causal forces that affect businesses, predict the economic future, and prescribe better courses of action.  IT professionals will learn what these tools are, how they work, the resources they require, how to manage projects with analytics components, and how to create and realize value from analytics initiatives.

This course surveys digital technologies that are changing products, services, the way we make decisions and run business operations. While specific topics vary from year to year, examples include innovative ways to manage and visualize data, multi-sided digital platforms, the Internet of Things, digital currencies, and GenAI. Working in teams, students will propose an economically viable application of one or more of these technologies to a real-world business.

This course exposes students to the international issues, business practices, and concerns in their respective global immersion location. Prerequisite: Restricted to MS in Commerce students.

Students taking this course will explore areas and issues of special interest that are not otherwise covered in the graduate curriculum. This course is offered at the discretion of the supervising professor.