Certification Overview
The Graduate Certification in Entrepreneurship is ideal for Amberton students who have the desire to start or grow a new business. The curriculum focuses on fundamental entrepreneurial concepts such as effectively identifying market opportunities, defining target markets, understanding economic trends, promoting products and/or services using effective and appropriate marketing tools, developing strategy, and managing personnel. The four-course core curriculum focuses on best practices for entrepreneurs.
Certification Guide (PDF)
What are the Requirements?
The Entrepreneurship Certification focused on providing the skills necessary to start a new business, requires 4 courses (12 credit hours) including:
- BUS5425 - Entrepreneurship
- MKT6450 - Competitive Marketing Analytics
- MGT6175 - Management Responsibilities & Practice
- MGT6705 - Innovation
Students completing an Entrepreneurship Certification will be able to:
- Understand the skills needed to create, market, and manage a new business venture.
- Understand the processes and procedures of how a small business functions, communicates, and interacts with customers, suppliers, and external companies in day-to-day operations.
- Analyze factors within the internal and external environments, how they impact the organization, and how these factors can be used in creating a competitive advantage.
- Evaluate and understand each of the business functions within a small business (e.g., finance, human resources, legal, management, leadership, strategy, marketing, economics, etc.), and how they integrate to sustain the organization.
- Illustrate the importance of implementing ethical standards and social responsibility within an organization.
Courses: 12 Hours
BUS5425 – Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurship course analyzes how to plan, implement, and evaluate a new business venture. It explores the risks and uncertainties faced by new entrepreneurs, and how to utilize the organization’s strengths and opportunities to achieve success. The course looks at various aspects of business including management, marketing, human resource management, legalities, and finance; and how each of these areas are integrated in a business unit. Finally, Entrepreneurship evaluates new trends within industries, current events, and provides the student with an in-depth understanding of the drivers within today’s business environment.
CAVEAT: No graduate credit will be awarded if BUS4425 has been successfully completed.
MKT6450 – Competitive Marketing Analytics
This course applies data analytics to problems in marketing to better understand customer needs and preferences; and to help organizations accomplish their strategic goals and objectives. Special emphasis will be placed on summarizing marketing data, forecasting new products, pricing strategies, estimating demand, market segmentation, calculating customer lifetime value, retailing, advertising, and internet and social marketing. Students will also learn how to construct models to support decisions in the areas of customer acquisition, engagement, satisfaction, and retention. This course will integrate the fundamentals of marketing analytics with research design best practices related to survey design, execution, and analysis; and qualitative methods including focus groups, case studies, and interviews.
MGT6705 – Innovation
This course explores the discipline of innovation and management. Students will investigate and discuss the changes and challenges in today’s marketplace as a driving force for innovation. Topics include the foundations of innovation, strategically managing and leading innovation, reverse innovation, disruptive innovation, risk versus reward, initiatives and processes, developing talent, social innovation, marketplace challenges, new initiatives, managing innovation, sustainability, and ethical innovation.
MGT6175 – Management: Responsibilities & Practice
This course presents an intensive exploration of management as a systematic, disciplined process used to accomplish organizational goals with emphasis placed on an integration of ethics, accountability and responsibility in leadership and management practices. Topics include elements of the management system, organizational theory, and global management, centralized and decentralized authority, and evaluating various types of work groups and teams.
