Department of Business Administration, SSU School of Business and Economics

MBA with a Concentration in Wine Business (2007)

The MBA in Wine Business consists of the following set of courses:

    • MBA Foundation courses (32 semester units)
    • Wine Business MBA Required courses (24 semester units)
    • Wine Business MBA Elective courses (6 semester units)

A student who has completed the MBA Foundation courses (see below) or their equivalents prior to admission need only complete the Wine Business MBA Required and Elective courses (a total of 30 semester units).

MBA Foundation Courses (32 semester units)

The MBA Foundation courses provide the fundamental knowledge of business principles to prepare students for the study of business at the graduate level. This set of courses is taken at the undergraduate level. The Foundation courses include the following:

    • BUS 230A and 230B Principles of Accounting (8)
    • BUS 344 Organizational Behavior (4)
    • BUS 360 Introduction to Marketing (4)
    • BUS 370 Introduction to Managerial Finance (4)
    • BUS 211 Business Statistics (4)
    • ECON 204 and 205 (previously 201A and 201B) Introduction to Economics (8)

Foundation courses may be waived for competencies demonstrated by the undergraduate courses or their equivalents listed above or by examination. All courses listed at the 200 level may be taken at a junior college. All courses listed at the 300 level must be taken at a four year institution at the upper division level. If acceptable equivalents of these courses have been taken at another institution, but the total units earned do not sum to 30 semester units, the student must take supplementary business courses to achieve the 30-unit minimum. A student needing one or more foundation courses will be admitted as a Conditionally Classified Student.

Wine Business MBA Required Courses (24 semester units)

As the title signifies, the Required courses for the Wine Business MBA are a cluster of graduate business courses that must be taken by all students in the Wine Business MBA. These 3-unit courses are intended to provide the graduate with those skills necessary to become an effective leader and manager in today’s business environment. The Required courses include the following:

    • BUS 516 Seminar in Operations Management
    • BUS 519 Management Information Systems
    • BUS 530 Financial Statement Analysis
    • BUS 540 Strategic Human Resource Management
    • BUS 545W Global Wine Business
    • BUS 560 Seminar in Marketing Management
    • BUS 570 Seminar in Managerial Finance
    • BUS 591 Seminar in Strategic Management
      or BUS 592 Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation


Wine Business MBA Elective Courses (6 semester units)

A Wine Business MBA student must complete 6 units of Wine Business MBA Elective courses to graduate. Elective courses are typically worth 3 units each. All directed studies and internships in the Wine MBA concentration (BUS 595, 596, and 599) are required to focus on wine business related topics.

    • BUS 555W Sustainability in the Wine and Hospitality Industry
    • BUS 565W Marketing and Sales Strategies for Wine
    • BUS 595 Special Studies in Business Administration
    • BUS 596 Graduate Internship
    • BUS 599 Master's Degree Directed Research


Wine MBA Program Special Requirements

Analytical Writing Requirement

All candidates entering SSU as graduate students who do not score at least 4.00 on the analytical writing portion of the GMAT must pass the CSU Written English Proficiency Test (WEPT) either during their first semester or before completing the foundation courses.

Transfer Credits

Up to 6 units of approved graduate level work may be transferred to meet part of the 30 units for the MBA. Graduate courses equivalent to our foundation courses will not be accepted to meet elective or required MBA courses. Transfer credits will normally only be accepted from AACSB accredited universities. Transfer courses must be approved by the MBA Coordinator. Be sure to get approval prior to taking any transfer courses.

Grades

All courses applied to the program must be completed with an overall GPA of 3.00, and no course for which a final grade below C is assigned may be used to satisfy this requirement. Graduate programs must be completed in no more than 7 years, which is computed as 14 semesters.

Wine Industry Experience

All candidates for the MBA program in Wine Business will be expected to have completed 24 units of wine related coursework or 24 months of wine industry work experience, or any combination thereof, before being admissible to the MBA program in Wine Business.

Culminating Project

All candidates for the Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Wine Business must complete a culminating project. The culminating project will be a group project completed as part of the capstone course (BUS 591 or BUS 592). This culminating project should be a faculty approved topic relating to Wine Business, and show evidence of originality and independent thinking. A project report and public defense of the project are required.


Last modified 04.23.2008 . Tracy Navas