Course Descriptions

BUSI 396 Business Communications (3)        
Provides an introduction to business, focusing on the strategy and practice of effective communications in business situations. The course includes individual communication skills assessment and development as well as team-based oral and written communication instruction. Graduate level students may not enroll. Prerequisites: BUSI 305 and BUSI 310.
  
BUSI 305 Financial Accounting (3)         
Covers the preparation, analysis, and use of corporate financial statements; asset and liability valuation and income determination; receivables, inventories, present values, tangible and intangible fixed assets, bonds, leases, shareholder equity, inter-corporate investments, consolidations and cash flow accounting. Graduate level students may not enroll. No prerequisites. 
 
BUSI 310 Leading People in Organizations (3)    
Introduces the sociological and social psychological processes underlying individual and group behavior in organizations and how they can be effectively managed. Topics include leadership effectiveness, team processes, organizational change and innovation, job-related attitudes, work motivation, organizational culture and climate, and cross-cultural issues in management. Graduate level students may not enroll. No prerequisites.
 
BUSI 343 Financial Management (3)        
Develops the basic concepts of corporate financial management and introduces a set of analytical tools to evaluate financial decisions. Employs concepts of time value of money, risk and return, and market efficiency to examine how capital market investors value risky assets. Develops a framework for evaluating corporate investment and financing decisions. Students with a class of Freshman may not enroll. Graduate level students may not enroll. Prerequisites: STAT 280*, BUSI 305 and ECON 100 or ECON 200. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for BUSI 343 if student has credit for ECON 343.

BUSI 380 Marketing (3)                
Introduces the role of marketing in organizations and the principal marketing decisions facing management. Topics include marketing planning and strategy; buyer behavior; development and management of products and services; branding; channels of distribution; sales, advertising and promotional methods; pricing strategy; and the development of integrated marketing strategies and programs. Students with a class of Freshman may not enroll. Graduate level students may not enroll. Prerequisites: STAT 280* and ECON 100 or ECON 200.
 
BUSI 390 Strategic Management (3)         
Examines the strategic management of businesses in market and non-market environments. Key topics include competitive and industry analysis, strategy formulation and implementation, and strategic planning.  Case discussions of real companies are combined with readings concerning the key topics. Students with a class of Freshman may not enroll. Graduate level students may not enroll. Prerequisite(s): BUSI 305. Recommended Prerequisite(s): ECON 100 or ECON 200. Mutually Exclusive: Credit cannot be earned for BUSI 390 and BUSI 471.  

The courses in the program are open to any degree-seeking Rice undergraduate who meets enrollment requirements, not just to students who have declared an intention to complete the minor. 

* Approved alternatives to STAT 280 are: STAT 305 or STAT 310 or STAT 312 or STAT 315 or ECON 307 or SOSC 302 or POLI 395 or PSYC 339, plus any courses cross-listed with these courses.

BUSI 220 E-Teams Experience
Wondering what it’s like to work with a startup? Want to learn a new approach to solving problems? Collaborate on a project contributed by a startup company.  Craft a solution using a design thinking, human-centered approach.

BUSI 221 New Enterprises
In this course, students will learn and experience a process for innovation-based venture development. During the semester, students will form teams and create a plan for a new venture. Credit may not be received for both BUSI 462 and BUSI 221.

BUSI 223 Modeling for Entrepreneurs
The course teaches how to translate a startup business plan into a bottoms up quantitative model of the business and its underlying assumptions. Students will learn how to build a model of cash flows for a startup, how to use that model to track performance and identify errors in the underlying assumptions and adjust, and how to update the model based on realized performance.
 
BUSI 463 Foundations of Entrepreneurship: Strategy and Financing
This course covers entrepreneurial strategy (1st half) and options for financing of startups (2nd half). Strategy: The course provides an integrated strategy framework for entrepreneurs. The course is structured to provide a deep understanding of the core strategic challenges facing start-up innovators, and a synthetic framework for choosing and implementing entrepreneurial strategy in dynamic environments.

A central theme of the course is that, to achieve competitive advantage, technology entrepreneurs must balance the process of experimentation and learning inherent to entrepreneurship with the selection and implementation of a strategy that establishes competitive advantage. The course identifies the types of choices that entrepreneurs must make to take advantage of a novel opportunity and the logic of particular strategic commitments and positions that allow entrepreneurs to establish competitive advantage.

Financing: The course provides an overview of financing options for startups. The course covers crowdfunding, angel investors, accelerators, and the venture capital industry; the organization and operation of venture capital funds; investment methodology; monitoring and portfolio liquidation.

BUSI 464 Social Entrepreneurship
This course introduces students to contemporary concepts, debates, and contexts necessary for analyzing and engaging in the sphere of social entrepreneurship. The course has five distinct parts: 1. Social entrepreneurship overview; 2. Social context and stakeholders; 3. Private sector roles and motivations; 4. Organizational forms and collaborations; and 5. Measurement and impacts (private and public). Students will be exposed to various forms of social entrepreneurship, such as base of the pyramid/microenterprises, private-public partnerships, private-governmental partnerships, voluntary social codes, corporate social responsibility, and ethical consumerism. From this introductory foundation, students will undertake a social entrepreneurship project about a contemporary social problem in Houston: the urban food desert. Students will learn a range of research methods (e.g. quantitative data analysis, ethnography, focus groups). With these research tools and building from perspectives offered by earlier by readings, guest speakers, and field visits, students will problematize, propose, develop, and present competing solutions to the social problem during the final course meetings.

BUSI 469 New Venture Challenge:
Have an idea? Want to bring your product to market? Need advice and mentorship? Ready to launch your startup? Work on your idea and get access to guidance and mentorship from Rice’s entrepreneurship network. We help you launch your company!  Apply (http://hpanahi.web.rice.edu/nvc/) by December 1st.

BUSI 405 - Issues in Financial Reporting I
Building on subject matter introduced in BUSI 305, this course provides students with a deeper knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles and procedures so that they properly account for and present information in financial statements prepared for external users. The student will acquire an understanding of the accounting issues relating to complex revenue recognition issues, inventory costing, long-lived tangible and intangible assets, and discontinued operations. The student should be able to evaluate alternative accounting methods and choose the methods which will best convey the financial information related to the above areas. The student should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the transaction analysis, recording, classification, summarization, and reporting procedures in the accounting cycle, and an understanding of the information contained in the financial statements. Finally, students should be able to demonstrate written communication skills required of accountants. BUSI 305 Financial Accounting is a pre-requisite for this course.
Prerequisite: BUSI 305

BUSI 440 - Auditing
The principles and procedures used by public accountants and internal auditors in examining financial statements and supporting data to verify the accuracy and fairness of the information presented. Specific topics covered include: financial statement, regulatory and contract compliance, internal and operational audits, professional standards and ethical conduct; statistical and judgmental sampling; the audit-impact of information technology; audit risk and internal control structure evaluation; application of procedures in transaction cycles; audit reporting; the importance of professional skepticism; role of the PCAOB in setting and enforcing auditing standards for U.S. publicly traded companies, as well as the issue of mandatory audit firm rotation; role of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board in setting International Standards of Auditing.
Prerequisite: BUSI 305