Business Administration

Bachelor of Science

In the competitive business world, employers are looking for highly skilled professionals who can step up and produce results – both independently and as part of a diverse team. KU’s Business Administration program will prepare you to master those skills and allows you the flexibility to select your focus as you progress. You can choose from six distinct tracks under the umbrella of a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration:

• Accounting often called the language of business, teaches the principles and methods by which organizations maintain their record-keeping systems. Accounting explores the cause and effect relationship that various financial events have on every part of the organization and how accounting information impacts day-to-day management decisions.
• Finance combines practical, real-life concepts of the corporate world to provide a strong foundation in business practices, such as how businesses, financial institutions, and the government raise and invest capital to achieve their goals.
• Management is a dynamic field found in every business and every type of industry. Managers play many roles including leader, liaison, spokesperson, entrepreneur and negotiator. They work with and through others to accomplish the goals and objectives of organizations and the individuals connected with them. Management students study leadership, team building, strategy, and creative problem solving.
• Marketing involves a wide array of activities that promote commerce, benefit organizations and satisfy human needs. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, market research, sales management, product development and management.
• Personal Financial Planning Students completing this track will be prepared to enter the personal financial planning profession in many different areas. They could work for firms that offer comprehensive financial planning services to clients. Or choose to specialize in an area such as insurance and risk management, retirement planning, estate planning, private banking, mutual funds, or employee benefits.
• Supply Chain Management specializes in the logistics of moving products and services through the supply chain. The rapid expansion of warehousing, transportation and logistics firms in the Lehigh Valley and across the United States has greatly increased the need for supply chain and logistics-trained personnel.

Business Minor

Students may elect to add Business as a minor. This program includes 18 semester hours of required courses in business. Click here for more information

Sample Career Options

Student Learning Outcomes

• BSBA in General Business/Core
  1. Oral Communication: Communicate effectively by speaking clearly, concisely and convincingly, using appropriate business conventions for the fields of study.
  2. Written Communication: Communicate effectively by writing clearly, concisely and convincingly, using appropriate business conventions for the field of study.
  3. Interpersonal Skills: Demonstrate effective interpersonal skills, especially working in teams.
  4. Critical Thinking: Data Analysis. Analyze data by using appropriate technology.
  5. Critical Thinking: Decision Making. Analyze issues critically and make relevant decisions by identifying and assessing the significance of key factors and assumptions.
  6. Functional Knowledge: Identity, define and apply current fundamental concepts, principles, and practices in the disciplines of business, including globalization.
  7. Current Issues: Demonstrate knowledge of current business issues.
  8. Ethics: Evaluate ethical, social responsibility and sustainability implications of business decisions.
• BSBA in Accounting
  1. Reporting Framework: Create financial statements that are useful to external decision-makers by applying an appropriate reporting framework (e.g., generally accepted accounting principles).
  2. Effective Business Decisions: Analyze and evaluate problems to facilitate effective business decisions.
  3. Solve Accounting Problems: Apply research skills and technological tools to solve accounting problems.
  4. Ethical Practices: Recognize ethical issues and understand the impact of professionalization in making critical accounting and business judgments.
• BSBA in Finance
  1. Estimate and Evaluate: Identify the inputs needed to value a financial asset and apply a valuation methodology to estimate an asset's intrinsic value.
  2. Summarize and Interpret: Summarize the historic risk-versus-return relationship for financial assets and interpret various measures of risk and reward.
  3. Assess and Justify: Assess the inputs needed and justify the decision-making methodologies used to determine if resources should be allocated to an investment opportunity.
  4. Justify and Consider: Justify the purpose and consider the operations of financial markets and institutions.
• BSBA in Management
  1. Understand and apply human resource management principles, concepts, and paradigms, especially in the areas of recruiting, staffing, training, retention, evaluation, and compensation.
  2. Apply theories of individual and group behavior, i.e., personality, motivation, leadership, and communication to organizational settings and environments.
  3. Examine, analyze and apply the principles of ethics to the relevant issues of the business of society interface.
  4. Recognize, analyze, evaluate and solve strategic challenges in organizations.
• BSBA in Marketing

  1. Understand basic marketing principles and be able to apply them in a global context.
  2. Utilize analytical research techniques to understand the nature of consumers.
  3. Analyze environmental forces and develop plans to utilize marketing principles in order to solve problems.
  4. Demonstrate the added value of social responsibility that comes about when marketing principles are implemented in an ethical manner.

• BSBA in Personal Financial Planning
  1. Demonstrate Understanding: Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the content found within the Financial Planning curriculum and effectively apply and integrate this information in the foundation of a financial plan.
  2. Communicate: Effectively communicate the financial plan, both orally and in writing, including information based on research, peer, colleague or simulated client interaction and/or results emanating from synthesis of material.
  3. Collect: Collect all necessary and relevant qualitative and quantitative information required to develop a financial plan.
  4. Analyze and Evaluate: Analyze personal financial situations, evaluating clients' objectives, needs, and values to develop an appropriate strategy within the financial plan.
  5. Logic and Reasoning: Demonstrate logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to a specific problem.
  6. Evaluate: Evaluate the impact of economic, political, and regulatory issues with regard to the financial plan.
  7. Apply: Apply the CFP Board Financial Planning Practice Standards to the financial planning process.
  8. Analyze and Recommend: Analyze a client's risk propensity, attitudes, capacity, knowledge, and needs.
• BSBA in Supply Chain Management
  1. Understand the concepts and principles of supply chain management.
  2. Apply the analytic skills and information technology to examine the current processes and to increase the efficiency of a supply chain.
  3. Appraise how the environmental forces (such as technological, economic and political forces)
  4. Evaluate the principles and strategy to establish efficient, effective and sustainable supply chain.