Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Law

All programs offered by the Foster College of Business, Bradley University, are accredited by the AACSB International: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

FACULTY Associate Professor Stephens (chair); Professors McGowan, Marcum, McDowell; Associate Professor Blair; Assistant Professors Smith, Young, Zheng

The Department of Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Law curricula provide students with the educational experiences of reasoning, problem solving, and decision making so that they, through balanced programs, will be qualified to accept responsible positions in business and the public sector.

Specific departmental objectives include the following: (1) To give students the historical perspective necessary to understand the evolution of business in a global, social, political, economic, and technological environment; (2) To excite students about new ideas and knowledge; (3) To provide students with a basic understanding of entrepreneurship, information technology, and the legal environment of business; (4) To develop well-informed individuals who understand their ethical and social responsibilities in business situations; (5) To enable students to understand the operation of our business and economic systems; (6) To develop the ability to think clearly, analyze carefully, and express thoughts and conclusions logically; and (7) To help students develop competence in a major field of study.

Students enrolling in the Department of Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Law must select and complete the requirements for one of the following majors: (1) entrepreneurship, (2) management and leadership with a concentration in business law, (3) management information systems, (4) MIS with a concentration in business analytics, (5) MIS with a concentration in cybersecurity or (6) business analytics. The department also offers minors in business analytics, business law, cybersecurity, and management information systems.

Entrepreneurship Major

Bradley ranked in the top 25 in the nation for entrepreneurship according to The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine (among over 2,000 schools reviewed) four times since 2011. The entrepreneurship major prepares students to create, own, manage, or work successfully in small and emerging businesses or to enhance opportunities in large organizations. Students learn how to research new product or service ideas, determine their feasibility, and develop business plans necessary to launch a business, a new product, or a new service. They develop the skills to operate a business once it is started, grow the business, and eventually sell it or pass it on to the next generation. The major helps students understand the functional areas of business and apply the theory to the unique situations found in small or growing ventures. Students with an entrepreneurship major are also prepared for careers in consulting, working within a family business setting or in large firms to assist them in discovering and exploiting opportunities. The objectives of the entrepreneurship major are to:

Introduce students to the nature of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.
Expose students to the excitement and challenges of owning one's own business.
Discover, evaluate and exploit opportunities.
Develop the ability to analyze ideas for new products or services and determine their
feasibility and commercialization potential.
Develop the ability to produce a well-designed and credible business plan to use in
soliciting external funding.
Create an awareness of angel investing, venture capital, public offerings, and other
methods of financing high-growth ventures.
Develop the knowledge and skills needed to operate a business on a day-to-day basis.
Understand the uniqueness of the functional areas of business as they relate specifically
to small and emerging businesses.
Provide opportunities for hands-on learning from emerging businesses through an
optional entrepreneurship internship.

Requirements

Requirements for the entrepreneurship major are as follows:

ENT 280 Entrepreneurial Creativity
ENT 281 The Entrepreneurial Career
ENT 382 Entrepreneurship Startups
ENT 383 Managing Entrepreneurial Growth
ENT/FIN 384 Entrepreneurial Finance or ATG 314 Cost Accounting
ENT 482 Entrepreneurial Experience
ML 350 Managing for Results in Organizations
6 hours chosen from the following courses:

BLW 347 Law and the Entrepreneur
BLW 360 Business Intellectual Property
ENT 385 Technology Entrepreneurship
ENT 386 Social Entrepreneurship
ENT 387 Family Business
ENT 289/389 Topics in Entrepreneurship
ENT 488 Internship in Entrepreneurship
ENT 499 Independent Study in Entrepreneurship
SEI 200 Topics in Entrepreneurship and Innovation*
SEI 210 Practicum in Entrepreneurship and Innovation*
SEI 300 Topics in Entrepreneurship and Innovation*
SEI 310 Practicum in Entrepreneurship and Innovation*
SEI 330 Technical Creativity and Innovation

*With approval by the ETL Department chair.

Entrepreneurship majors must satisfactorily complete at least 15 hours of BLW, ENT, MIS, or ML-prefixed courses at Bradley University. Students should note that some courses are offered only once each year. Students should consult with their advisor to ensure that the correct courses are taken.

Management And Leadership With A Concentration In Business Law Major

The Management and Leadership with a Concentration in Business Law major provides a solid grounding in the skills and concepts necessary to meet the complex and challenging tasks of management. Students who are uncertain of their career goals will find that this major provides excellent preparation in business for a wide range of job opportunities. Additionally, students are well prepared for graduate-level business (MBA, DBA, PhD) or public administration (MPA) programs, law school, and other graduate school programs.

Requirements for Management and Leadership with Business Law Concentration

PSY 101 Principles of Psychology
BLW 342 Legal Environment of Business
BLW 345 Law of Business
BLW 446 Employment Law
M L 300 Organizational Environments
M L 353 Operations Management
M L 356 Human Resource Management
M L 357 Leading Organizations
M L 358 Managerial Decision Making

Two of the following:
- BLW 347 Law and the Entrepreneur
- BLW 355 Labor-Management Relations OR CON 394 Construction Labor and Unions
- BLW 395 Real Estate Law
- BLW 360 Business and Intellectual Property OR COM 330 Communication Law and Ethics
- ECO 310 Labor Economics OR 362 Economics and Law
- PLS 317 International Law OR PLS 459 Constitutional Law OR PLS 460 Constitutional Law

3 hours of M L, BLW, ENT, or MIS approved elective course(s)

Management with business law concentration majors must satisfactorily complete at least 15 hours of BLW, ENT, MIS, or ML-prefixed courses at Bradley University. Students should also note that some courses are offered only once each year.

Management Information Systems Major

Management information systems (MIS) is an exciting field that combines people skills with technical skills. The MIS major blends business functions with computer information technology. It enables students to be successful in developing, managing and securing technology based business applications. Organizations have become much more data driven. For many firms, data is their business. The MIS major teaches students how to manage this vital resource.

This major prepares students for some of the nation’s fastest growing career opportunities in fields such as systems analysis, cybersecurity, and business analytics. Graduates of the program can expect interesting and challenging job opportunities in a dynamic field. Typical graduates’ first jobs are in technical and information related fields as support specialists, analysts or consultants. The MIS major can be a fast track to management positions or the basis for advanced graduate work. After gaining experience, graduates transition into leaders of technical teams and then assume technology management positions.

The MIS major differs from other “computer” majors. It emphasizes interactions between the business and information technology requirements of organizations. While knowledge of computer systems is a necessary part of the program, a larger portion is devoted to serving the data, information and security needs of business professionals.

The student can acquire competence in a number of areas as a generalist or with a concentration in either cybersecurity or business analytics.

Requirements

To major in MIS, a student must earn a minimum of 28 semester hours credit in courses with the following requirements:

Required Courses for a General MIS Major:

MIS 272 - Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs.
MIS 276 - Ecommerce Strategy and Applications - 3 hrs
CS 101 - Introduction to Programming - 4 hrs
CS 102 - Data Structures - 3 hrs
MIS 375 - Business Systems Analysis and Design - 3 hrs
MIS 478 - MIS Capstone Consulting Project - 3 hrs
MIS Electives OR Courses approved by the Department Chair - 9 hrs

Required Courses for a Concentration in Cybersecurity

The concentration in cybersecurity prepares graduates to manage the security of networks and information systems. Students gain experience with conducting technical and socially-engineered penetration tests. In this concentration, students perform security assessments for local business clients in order to identify security risks and provide recommended steps for remediation.

MIS 272 - Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs.
MIS 276 - Ecommerce Strategy and Applications - 3 hrs
CS 101 - Introduction to Programming - 4 hrs
CS 102 - Data Structures - 3 hrs
MIS 375 - Business Systems Analysis and Design - 3 hrs
MIS 478 - MIS Capstone Consulting Project - 3 hrs

Choose (9) hours from the following:

MIS 373 - Applied Networking Theory - 3 hrs
MIS 379 - Information Systems Security - 3 hrs
MIS 383 - Advanced Ethical Hacking - 3 hrs
Course approved by the Department Chair - 3 hrs

Required Courses for a Concentration in Business Analytics

The concentration in business analytics prepares graduates for positions in which professionals help businesses make critical data-driven decisions. This includes the ability to collect, distribute and share data throughout an organization, apply text and visual analytical techniques and implement unique hardware and software.

MIS 272 - Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs
MIS 276 - Ecommerce Strategy and Applications - 3 hrs
CS 101 - Introduction to Programming - 4 hrs
CS 102 - Data Structures - 3 hrs
MIS 375 - Business Systems Analysis and Design - 3 hrs
MIS 478 - MIS Capstone Consulting Project - 3 hrs

Choose (9) hours from the following:

MIS 374 - Database Management and Administration - 3 hrs
MIS 471 - Business Analytics Software and Applications II - 3 hrs
MIS 473 - Business Analytics Software and Applications III - 3 hrs
Course approved by the Department Chair - 3 hrs

Business Analytics Major

Business analytics is a multi‐faceted field that has evolved due to the development of technology associated with the creation and collection of large data sets. Not only is the volume of data increasing but the velocity of data analysis happens in real time and the variety of data has exploded including both structured (e.g. quantitative data) and unstructured (e.g. text and social media) data sets. Organizations have become much more data driven. For many firms, data is their business. The BA major teaches students how to manage this vital resource.

The BA major will prepare students for a variety of data analytics positions within a plethora of organizations. Typical graduates’ first jobs are positioned as business analysts, database analysts, data analysts or data architects. Graduates of the program can expect interesting and challenging job opportunities in a
dynamic field.

The BA major differs from the MIS concentration in business analytics in that it has a deeper focus on quantitative methodologies across a variety of fields such as the decision sciences and economics. The major offers students the opportunity to explore data science by requiring the development of programming languages for analytics and providing opportunities to explore data science fundamentals. Yet it differs from data science in that the emphasis is on learning and using the off-the-shelf tools of analytics to solve problems in a business context.

Requirements

To major in Business Analytics, a student must earn a minimum of 27 semester hours credit in courses with the following requirements:

Required Courses for a Business Analytics Major:

CS 141 - Introduction to Python - 3 hrs
MIS 272 - Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs
ECO 319 - Econometrics - 3 hrs
QM 364 - Decision Support Systems - 3 hrs
MIS 374 - Database Management and Administration - 3 hrs
MIS 471 - Business Software and Applications II - 3 hrs
MIS 473 - Data Visualization for Business - 3 hrs
MIS 490 - Capstone for Business Analytics - 3 hrs
And choose one of the following:
- ML 356 - Human Capital in Organizations - 3 hrs
- QM 326 - Business Forecasting - 3 hrs
- CS 360 - Fundamentals of Data Science - 3 hrs

Business Law Minor

The Business Law Minor provides students with understanding of some of the social, ethical, political, and cultural foundations of law and how law impacts almost every business decision. Students will obtain critical analytical skills needed in their careers and/or to excel in law school and will become better prepared to identify and manage potential legal problems in the practice of their profession or career.

The minor is open to all majors and is comprised of 15 semester hours of study structured as follows. Students whose major is from the Foster College of Business must have at least 12 hours in courses that are unique from those used to fulfill their major requirements.

I. Social, Ethical, Political, and Cultural Foundations of Law (3 hours)
Select one course from the following:

AAS 200 Introduction to African-American Studies - 3 hrs.
ECO 310 Labor Problems - 3 hrs.
ECO 362 Economics and Law - 3 hrs.
HIS 300 The United States Since 1945 - 3 hrs.
HIS 304 Women in American History - 3 hrs.
HIS 307 Early American Republic - 3 hrs.
HIS 315 U.S. Social Movements - 3 hrs.
HIS 316 African American History Since 1877 - 3 hrs.
PHL 203 Logic - 3 hrs.
PHL 347 Ethics - 3 hrs.
PLS 105 Introduction to American Government - 3 hrs.
PLW 101 Introduction to the Legal Profession - 3 hrs.
SOC 212 Sociology of Diversity - 3 hrs.
WGS 200 Introduction to Women's Studies - 3 hrs.

II. Business Law Foundations (3 hours)
Required:

BLW 342 Legal Environment of Business - 3 hrs.

III. Business Law Applications (9 hours)

A. Select at least 6 hours up to a maximum of 9 hours from the following:

BLW 289 Topics in Business law - 1–3 hrs.
BLW 345 Law of Business - 3 hrs.
BLW 347 Law and the Entrepreneur - 3 hrs.
BLW 355 Labor-Management Relations - 3 hrs.
BLW 389 Topics in Business law - 1–3 hrs.
BLW 395 Real Estate Law - 3 hrs.
BLW 446 Employment Law - 3 hrs.
BLW 360 Business and Intellectual Property - 3 hrs.
BLW 489 Topics in Business Law - 1–3 hrs.
BLW 498 Independent Studies - 1–3 hrs.

B. Students who have at least 6 hours and less than 9 hours from category A may take the remaining hours from the following:

ATG 477 Federal Taxes - 3 hrs.
ATG 526 Fraud Examination - 3 hrs.
CIS 580 Digital Society and Computer Law - 3 hrs.
COM 330 Communication Law and Ethics - 3 hrs.
CON 380, Construction Contracts - 2 hrs.
CON 394 Construction Labor and Unions - 3 hrs.
I M 350, Intellectual Property Law and New Media - 3 hrs.
NUR 510 Legal Issues in Nursing - 2 hrs.
PLS 459 Constitutional Law - 3 hrs.
PLS 460 Constitutional Law - 3 hrs.
PLW 300, Pre-Law Internship - 1–6 hrs.

MIS Minors: Management Information Systems, Cybersecurity, and Business Analytics

To qualify for more than one MIS minor, no fewer than 9 s.h. of courses required for any of the desired minors must be unique to that minor and not used to satisfy the requirements of the other minors.

Business Analytics Minor

Many professional disciplines require analytics knowledge. The purpose of the business analytics major is prepare students to gather, cleanse and analyze data for decision making. There are many new and important features associated with modern business analytics: (1) dealing with large and messy data sets, (2) figuring out how to distribute and share the data throughout an organization, (3) mining the data and exploring non-obvious relationships, (4) text and visual analytical techniques and (5) many new hardware and software platforms (tools). Organizations from all sectors of society are looking to leverage data as never before. Therefore, an ever increasing demand for trained professionals in the fields of organizational analytics is occurring. The minor is open to all majors across campus. The minor requires 15 hours.

Required courses

MIS 173 Introduction to Business Analytics - 3 hrs.
MIS 272 Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs.
MIS 374 Database Management and Administration - 3 hrs.
MIS 471 Business Analytics Software and Applications II - 3 hrs.
MIS 473 Business Analytics Software and Applications III - 3 hrs.

Cybersecurity Minor

A minor in cybersecurity will offer students with majors or interests in security the option of adding significant knowledge, skills and abilities in information security. The purpose of the minor is to prepare students to deal with threats to computers and information. The minor prepares students to manage the security of networks and information systems. Students gain experience with conducting technical and socially-engineered penetration tests. In this minor, students perform security assessments for local business clients in order to identify security risks and provide recommended steps for remediation. The minor is open to all majors across campus. The minor requires 15 hours.

Required courses

MIS 173 Introduction to Business Analytics - 3 hrs.
MIS 272 Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs.
MIS 373 Applied Networking - 3 hrs.
MIS 379 Information Systems Sescurity - 3 hrs.
MIS 383 Advanced Ethical Hacking - 3 hrs.

Management Information Systems Minor

A minor in management information systems will provide an opportunity for students to enhance their knowledge and credentials in the use and development of computer software and/or hardware. The minor will provide students with an opportunity to be employed in the IS field, give them the skills that will make them the ideal liaison between IS professionals and experts in other functional areas of an organization, and the technological base to become valuable “power users” of essential software applications, such as spreadsheets, databases, and e-commerce tools. The minor will allow the student to develop focused expertise in one of the distinct fields that comprise the breadth of the information systems professional. The minor is open to all majors across campus.

The minor requires 15 hours.

Required courses

MIS 173 Introduction to Business Analytics – 3 hrs.
MIS 272 Business Analytics Software and Applications I - 3 hrs.
MIS 276 Ecommerce Models and Applications - 3 hrs.

Elective Courses (choose two from the following)

MIS 373 Applied Networking - 3 hrs.
MIS 374 Database Management and Administration - 3 hrs.
MIS 375 Business Systems Analysis and Design - 3 hrs.
MIS 378 HCI and Usability Testing - 3 hrs.
MIS 379 Information Systems Security - 3 hrs.
MIS 383 Advanced Ethical Hacking - 3 hrs.
MIS 389 Advanced Topics in Management Information Systems - 3 hrs.
MIS 471 Business Analytics Software and Applications II - 3 hrs.
MIS 473 Business Analytics Software and Applications III - 3 hrs.
MIS 478 MIS Capstone Consulting Project - 3 hrs.

This is the official catalog for the 2020-2021 academic year. This catalog serves as a contract between a student and Bradley University. Should changes in a program of study become necessary prior to the next academic year every effort will be made to keep students advised of any such changes via the Dean of the College or Chair of the Department concerned, the Registrar's Office, u.Achieve degree audit system, and the Schedule of Classes. It is the responsibility of each student to be aware of the current program and graduation requirements for particular degree programs.

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