Master of Business Administration
Mount Saint Mary's College
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 Research Portal

Master of Business Administration graduate students have access to an extraordinary array of subscription and other resources to meet their professional, academic, and research requirements. These resources allow our graduate level business students to retrieve full-text reference materials in all the major areas of business, including business and financial news, U.S. and international company financial information from government or private sources, market research, industry reports, actual SEC filings and reports, peer review journals, statistical sources, bibliographies, and other database collections.

Master of Business Administration: Subscription Databases 

 

AB/INFORM Global is one of the most comprehensive business databases on the market. It includes in-depth coverage for over 2,890 publications, with more than 1,920 available in full text the database offers the latest business and financial information for researchers at all levels. As a MBA student at Mount Saint Mary’s College, you may use this resource to find out about business conditions, management techniques, business trends, management practice and theory, corporate strategy and tactics, and competitive landscape. Further, your access includes their “Archive” database which provides the complete runs of key business and management journals, providing a unique historical perspective on hundreds of topics, including corporate strategies, management techniques, marketing, product development, and industry conditions worldwide. 

Blackwell Synergy provides MBA students access to over 3 million articles across 1400 journals. This massive archive, combined with some 6000 OnlineBooks and major reference works—plus industry leading databases. Research may also be conducted alphabetically by the name of the business journal, or vis the following business sub-categories: 

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

Lexis Nexis is a very expensive subscription based database, available to Mount MBA students, comprising one of the world’s largest full-text collection of public records, unpublished opinions, forms, legal, news, and business information. 

Business Source Elite provides Mount MBA students the full text coverage of over 1,000 business publications and economics journals, including nearly 500 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 1,750 journals.

FirstSearch's Disclosure and Worldscope  subscription datadases provide comprehensive directory information on companies publicly traded on U.S. exchanges. In addition, MountMBA students also have full access to their following specialty databases:

  • BusDateline: Regional information vital to businesses,   Nevada's perceived advantages compared to Delaware. 
  • BusIndustry: Business and industry facts, figures, and key events, and
  • BusManagement: Practical aspects and approaches to business management  

Master of Business Administration: Public Databases

 

Business Administration Subject Guides

 

Study Review and Guides by QuickMBA

Accounting

  • Financial Accounting
    Basic introduction to financial accounting. Defines financial accounting, compares to managerial accounting, lists underlying assumptions, and provides an example of recording transactions.
  • Underlying Assumptions and Principles
    A description of the basic financial accounting assumptions, principles, and modifying conventions.
  • Single Entry Bookkeeping
    Describes the simple single-entry bookkeeping system and why it is inadequate for many organizations.
  • Double Entry Bookkeeping
    An introduction to the double entry system that is the foundation of modern accounting.
  • The Accounting Equation
    The fundamental accounting equation and an example showing how it remains in balance after each transaction.
  • The Accounting Cycle
    The steps of the accounting cycle, from the initial transaction to preparation of the financial statements and closing entries.
  • The Source Document
    The purpose of the source document, examples of source documents, and their role in the accounting cycle.
  • Journal Entries
    The basics of the general journal and journal entries and the role of special journals.
  • The General Ledger
    The purpose of the general ledger and how to post transactions to the ledger accounts.
  • Debits and Credits
    An introduction to debits and credits and how to avoid confusing them.
  • The Trial Balance
    How to calculate the trial balance and use it to identify errors in the accounting process.
  • Adjusting Entries
    Types of adjusting entries and how to make them.
  • Closing Entries
    The role of closing entries in the accounting process and the procedure for making them.
  • The Financial Statements
    An introduction to the balance sheet, income statement, statement of retained earnings, and cash flow statement.
  • Accounting Standards
    A short description of financial accounting standards groups and authoritative bodies, including FASB, its predecessors, and other accounting standards groups.
  • The Balanced Scorecard
    The Balanced Scorecard is a relatively new management accounting system that includes financial and non-financial performance measures. This article introduces the Balanced Scorecard and describes each of its four measurement perspectives.

Business Law

Economics

  • Price Elasticity of Demand
    Defines price elasticity of demand, discusses the implications of elastic and inelastic demands, and lists some factors that influence a product's price elasticity of demand.
  • Industry Concentration
    Discusses two common methods for measuring the concentration of firms in an industry - the concentration ratio and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index.
  • Game Theory
    Overview of game theory, including the elements of a game, a game theory framework, bimatrix games, extensive form games, strategic form game representation, signaling and threats, and auctions.
  • Auctions
    Lists several auction types and briefly discusses the effect known as the winner's curse.

2. Macroeconomics

  • Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
    Introduces gross domestic product, its calculation, nominal vs. real GDP, and GDP vs. GNP.
  • Consumer Price Index (CPI)
    Describes the consumer price index and some of its limitations.
  • The Business Cycle
    Defines the concept of the business cycle, how it is tracked, some significant expansions and contractions in history, and the debate over whether the business cycle has diminished in recent years.
  • Unemployment Rate
    Definition of the unemployment rate, the natural rate of unemployment, and limitations of the employment rate measurement.

1. Microeconomics

Entrepreneurship

  • Definition of Entrepreneurship
    Presents a definition of entrepreneurship and contrasts entrepreneurship to small business.
  • Business Plan Outline A sample business plan outline that lists topics frequently covered by business plans.
  • The Business Model
    The role of the business model and the six components found in most business models.
  • Attracting Stakeholders to Your Venture
    Minimizing downside exposure, finding risk-tolerant stakeholders, selling potential stakeholders on the venture, and maintaining stakeholder commitment.
  • The VC Pitch
    Tips for making a successful pitch to venture capitalists, including finding the right venture capital firm, building credibility, and delivering your presentation.
  • Dealing with the Press
    How to deal effectively with the press. Discusses the building of relationships with reporters, understanding the implications of declining an interview, and terms of engagement.
  • Open Innovation
    Henry Chesbrough's concept of open innovation, leveraging both internal and external ideas to commercialize technology.

Management

  • The Trusted Leader The concept of trusted leadership, as proposed by Robert Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau in their new book, The Trusted Leader.
  • 3-C Leadership Model A leadership framework proposed by Paul B. Thornton, the 3-C model identifies challenge, confidence, and coaching as the three cornerstones of leadership. 
    PEST analysis fits into the environmental scan. Provides some examples of the political, economic, social, and technological factors of the external macroenvironment.
  • Managing People
    Topics on managing people in work environments, including behavior modification, job design, the principal agent problem, reward systems, and group influences. 
     
  • Expectancy Theory
    Explains the expectancy theory of motivation and how motivation can be modeled as the product of three perceptions. 
     
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
    A book summary of Stephen R. Covey's #1 national bestseller on personal effectiveness. Includes a list of the 7 habits. 
     
  • Inside Chinese Business
    A summary of Ming-Jer Chen's book on understanding Chinese business. Explains the concept of Chinese "business families", Western vs. traditional Chinese business practices, and guanxi networks. 
     
  • CEO Express
    The executive's interface to the Internet, CEO Express organizes the content you need and parses it down into a format that you can use efficiently.

Marketing

  • Marketing Plan
    This is a bare-bones marketing plan template. It contains headings for the basic essentials including situation analysis, market segmentation, alternatives, recommended strategy and its implications.
  • Market Segmentation
    An introduction to market segmentation and some bases for segmenting consumer markets and business markets.
  • The Marketing Mix
    Diagram of the 4 P's of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) and a list of some of the decisions to made for each.
  • The Product Life Cycle
    An overview of the product life cycle and marketing mix decisions for each stage.
  • The Product Diffusion Curve
    Shows the bell-shaped curve describing product diffusion and the different groups of consumers that can be characterized by the curve.
  • Positioning
    Al Ries and Jack Trout popularized the concept of product positioning. This is a summary of the ideas put forth in their marketing classic, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
  • Marketing Warfare
    A summary of Al Ries and Jack Trout's marketing bestseller viewing marketing from a military perspective. Principles of offensive, defensive, flanking, and guerrilla marketing strategies are presented.
  • Market Share
    Calculating market share, reasons to increase market share, drivers of market share, and why a firm might not want to increase market share.
  • Marketing Strategy
    Overview of marketing strategy issues, strategic decision making using marketing research results, multi-product resource allocation, product diffusion, and product management strategies.
  • Marketing Research
    Marketing research, including problem definition, research design, data types and sources, sampling plan, data collection, data analysis, and reporting of the results.
  • Questionnaire Design
    Covers the questionnaire design process for the marketing survey, including question structure and wording, response types, question order, and the testing of the questionnaire.
  • Conjoint Analysis
    A brief introduction to conjoint analysis, including how it can improve the accuracy of determining consumer preferences and the steps involved

Operations

  • Supply Chain Management
    Topics in supply chain management, including inventory management, accurate response, supply chain structure, and make-to-order.
  • The Bullwhip Effect
    An introduction the phenomenon of the bullwhip effect observed in supply chains. Lists some causes and countermeasures.
  • Inventory Management
    Describes a fixed time period inventory model for generating optimal order quantities in the presence of demand variability.
  • Vendor Managed Inventory
    A discussion of the features of the Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) approach and the challenges that must be overcome for successful implementation.
  • Make-to-Order Production Systems
    Some factors that a firm should consider when deciding whether to implement a make-to-order production system.
  • Quality and Productivity
    Production system topics, including benefits and costs of inventory, conveyor belt and production cell systems, variability, and queues.
  • Linear Programming
    Includes a problem formulation checklist, linearity tricks, sensitivity analyses, simulations, and more.
  • E-Business
    A short listing of e-business publications and resources.

Statistics

  • Central Tendency
    Introduces the mean, median, and mode, and summarizes when each measure is most appropriate for describing the typical value of data.
  • Dispersion
    Covers methods of measuring variation in data, including range, average deviation, variance and standard deviation.
  • Standard Deviation and Variance
    Defines standard deviation and variance. Explains their advantages over other measures of dispersion and how to calculate them for both populations and samples.
  • Probability
    Discusses concepts of probability, outcomes and events, the law of addition, conditional probability, and the law of multiplication.
  • Permutations and Combinations
    Counting methods for determining the number of ways that members of a group can be arranged when order is a distinguishing factor (permutations) and when it is not (combinations).
  • StatSoft Electronic Statistics Textbook
    Statistics reference covering a wide range of concepts and applications, including basic concepts, ANOVA, cluster analysis, data mining techniques, discriminant analysis, experimental design, factor analysis, linear regression, multidimensional scaling, quality control charts, and more.

Strategy

  • The Strategic Planning Process
    An overview of the strategic planning process including mission statement, environmental scan, strategy formulation, implementation, and control.
  • Business Vision and Mission Statement
    Uses a framework proposed by Collins and Porras to describe three components of business vision including core values, core purpose, and visionary goals.
  • Hierarchical Levels of Strategy
    Describes the role of strategy at the corporate level, business unit level, and functional or department level of the firm.
  • PEST Analysis
    How a
  • SWOT Analysis
    The role of SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) in strategic planning, including an overview of the TOWS matrix.
  • Competitive Advantage
    Explains the concept of competitive advantage, using a diagram to illustrate how distinctive competencies and positional advantages create superior value.
  • Porter's Five Forces
    Discusses the five forces, including rivalry, the threat of substitutes, buyer power, supplier power, and barriers to entry.
  • Porter's Generic Strategies
    Introduces the three generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Discusses issues related to multiple strategies, and compares the three strategies with respect to their ability to defend against the five industry forces.
  • Value Chain Analysis
    The value chain as proposed by Porter. Describes value-creating primary and support activities and how value chain analysis can be useful in developing a competitive advantage.
  • Vertical Integration
    The benefits and drawbacks of vertical integration, situational factors influencing the decision, and alternatives to vertical integration.
  • Horizontal Integration
    The concept of horizontal integration, its advantages, and pitfalls.
  • Ansoff Matrix
    Igor Ansoff's product-market matrix for corporate growth. Presents some considerations for selecting the optimal growth strategy.
  • BCG Growth-Share Matrix
    Describes the portfolio planning matrix that classifies business units as Cash Cows, Stars, Question Marks, and Dogs.
  • GE / McKinsey Matrix
    The GE / McKinsey portfolio matrix, including some factors that contribute to industry attractiveness and business unit strength.
  • Core Competencies
    A summary of C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel's concept of core competencies and implications for corporate management.
  • Global Strategic Management
    Discusses the sources of competitive advantage, the nature of competitive advantage in global industries, types of international strategy, analysis of global cost structures, globalization of service businesses, emerging economies, global knowledge management, and country management.
  • Porter's Diamond of National Advantage
    Diagram of Michael Porter's model of national advantage with explanations of the individual points of the diamond framework and the diamond as a system, concluding with an example from the Japanese fax machine industry.
  • Foreign Market Entry Modes
    A summary and comparison of the four major modes of foreign market entry, including exporting, licensing, joint venture, and foreign direct investment.

Career Support

The Business Administration Department at Mount St. Mary's College is committed to supporting our students’ career development.

Resume and Interviewing Videos

Watch Job Search Minute videos for quick information on a variety of topics, from resumes, cover letters, and interviewing tips. Note that all of the videos are streamed through a Flash video player, so you need to have the latest version of Macromedia Flash installed on your computer. To download it, please visit Adobe.

Interviews

Online Video Practice Interviews

  • Prepare for your interview using the InterviewTrue system, which includes over 1,000 questions and a 42-point self-assessment tool.
  • Competitive Interview Prep 
    No, you can't cram the night before and "ace" your interview. Take the time to fully prepare yourself for interview success.
  • Mastering the Interview 
    What really counts in the interview...and how to master your next one!
  • Dressing for Interview Success 
    Campus fashions don't cut it here. Get the straight scoop on dressing the part.
  • Fifty Standard Entry Level Interview Questions 
    Review these most common interview questions in preparation for your interview.
  • Candidate Interview Questions
    The interviewer is not the only one who should be asking the questions. You should be ready as well. Here is a complete list of what to ask.
  • Job Fair Success 
    The reality of the job fair meat markets...and how to rise above the crowds!
  • On-Campus Interviewing 
    How to choose the best companies to interview with on campus...and make each count!
  • Phone Interview Success 
    It's not "just a phone call"--it's a real interview. Prepare properly so that it's not your last...
  • Company Site Interview Success 
    The company site interview is your moment of truth. This is usually your make or break for getting an offer.
  • After the Interview 
    Don't sit by the phone waiting for the offer after the interview...do your part to generate job offers.

Want to know how much you're worth? Or would you simply like to research the starting salary for a variety of different positions? Salary is just one component of the overall offer, but it's usually the most important one. Take the time to do your research up front, so that you're ready and prepared when the offer comes. 

  • Salary Calculator
    Use an online salary calculator to find entry level (and experienced) salaries for thousands of positions, all listed by location.
  • Salary Negotiation
    Learn how to evaluate your offer and negotiate your salary like a pro.
  • Cost-of-Living Wizard
    Compare the cost of living and salary differentials for more metro areas throughout the U.S.