Academics
Master of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership
Department of Management | McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship
Earn your Master’s of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MS-ENLD). This is the ideal program for any individual who would like to combine the academic prowess of Mays Business School with their natural affinity for entrepreneurship and problem-solving. The MS-ENLD program will equip you with the knowledge and experience needed to fuel your future career.
MS-ENLD students will learn how to successfully create and manage new ventures and how to drive innovation within existing enterprises. Graduates of the MS-ENLD will enter the workforce ready to assist in the planning and launch of new venture start-ups, serve as leaders in high-growth firms, or become corporate intrapreneurs capable of improving an organization’s innovative capacity. Our graduates are not idle employees, rather they take an active role in contributing to an organization’s long-term success.
- Program Fee’s are subject to Board of Regents approval
Interested in more information about the MS-ENLD program? Contact us via e-mail or at 979-845-4851.
APPLICATION INFORMATION
- Applications Open: Oct. 15, 2023
- Priority Application Deadline: Dec. 2, 2023
- International Applicant Deadline: Feb. 17, 2024
- Domestic Applicant Deadline: March 16, 2024
MS-ENLD Curriculum
Required Courses in Entrepreneurship (12 hours total)
Course | Title | Hours |
MGMT 632 | Technology Commercialization | 3 |
MGMT 637 | Foundations of New Ventures | 3 |
MGMT 638 | Strategic Entrepreneurship | 3 |
MGMT 640 | Creativity and Innovation | 3 |
Required Courses in Management (12 hours total)
Course | Title | Hours |
MGMT 633 | Organization Change and Development | 3 |
MGMT 639 | Negotiations | 3 |
MGMT 658 | Managing Projects | 3 |
MGMT 675 | Leadership | 3 |
Elective Courses
(choose four from the following, 12 hours total)
Course | Title | Hours |
MGMT 635 | Employment Regulation | 3 |
MGMT 655 | Survey of Management | 3 |
MGMT 679 | International Business Policy | 3 |
MGMT 680 | Business and Corporate Strategy | 3 |
MGMT 685 | Directed Studies | 3 |
FINC 644 | Funding New Ventures | 3 |
ISTM 660 | Applied Predictive Analytics for Business | 3 |
MKTG 650 | Analyzing Consumer Behavior | 3 |
MKTG 656 | Branding and Marketing Communication | 3 |
MKTG 671 | Product Innovation | 3 |
MKTG 673 | Services Marketing | 3 |
SCMT 611 | Statistical Foundation of Data Analytics | 3 |
Note: Individual course requirements subject to change; students who have received credit for undergraduate versions of these courses may not be eligible to choose them as electives in the MS-ENLD; additional electives may become available.
Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship
A Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship and technology commercialization provides a base understanding of new business planning, key issues encountered when developing commercial applications for new technical discoveries, the general legal aspects of intellectual property protection, fundamental business start-up and securities laws and the management of creativity and innovation in organizational settings. To complete the certificate program, you would need to successfully complete four of the following eight courses for a total of 12 hours.
Students seeking the Graduate Entrepreneurship Certificate should plan to complete the certificate requirements throughout their degree programs. Attempting to complete the certificate or saving certificate courses to be completed in just one or two semesters may result in the student being unable to complete certificate requirements due to high demand for entrepreneurship courses, as course availability cannot be guaranteed.
All certificate programs are tracked through the Office of the Registrar and have to be added to the student’s record through a request in the University Adjustment System (UAS).
Adding the Certificate:
Students wishing to pursue the certificate are encouraged to officially add it as soon as possible in order to have preregistration access to certificate courses.
Students initiate the request to add the certificate with their major advisor/department contact, who then enters the Additional Curriculum Request (code: CTG-ENTR) in the University Adjustment System.
Once the advisor/department contact makes the entry, students should allow 1-2 weeks for the certificate to be reflected on their student record in Howdy.
For additional information about the certificate, contact Dr. David Flint at gflint@mays.tamu.edu.
Course Work
Choose four from the list below:
MGMT 637 – Foundations of Entrepreneurship
This course addresses: (1) the process of launching a new venture; (2) the process by which opportunities can be discovered and selected; (3) the attributes of entrepreneurs and new venture teams; (4) the process of developing a business plan, including the related resource requirements; and (5) core entrepreneurial strategies; including business-level, organizational design, marketing, and financial. The course generally strives to develop the competencies, concepts, and operational tools that are relevant to creating and implementing new ventures.
MGMT 632 – Technology Commercialization
This course focuses on technology, the process of evaluating the viability of raw technology, and the process of converting the raw technology into commercially viable products and services. Additionally, the course includes a module on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program. The course generally strives to develop the competencies and skills needed to evaluate the commercial viability of technology, and to bring viable technologies to commercial success.
MGMT 638 – Strategic Entrepreneurship
This course is about entrepreneurship involving the establishment and management of new ventures by corporations or independent new venture teams. Firms create value by identifying opportunities in their external environment and then developing a competitive advantage to exploit them. Strategic entrepreneurship involves simultaneous opportunity seeking and advantage seeking behaviors. The course describes opportunity seeking, advantage seeking and the balance between these two that is critical for organizational success. The course examines the development of an entrepreneurial mindset and culture, managing resources strategically, developing and exploiting innovation, along with a number of other important topics (e.g., international entrepreneurship).
MGMT 640 – Managing for Creativity and Innovation
This course examines factors that may foster or stifle individual, team, or organizational creative performance, and presents techniques that may improve the student’s creative thinking skills. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.
FINC 644 – Funding New Ventures
This course provides an introduction to the general phenomena of small business and entrepreneurship. The central focus of this course will be to provide students an understanding of entrepreneurship and the financing of entrepreneurial ventures. The course will address the types of financing available at different stages of the new venture. Classification 6 students may not enroll in this course.
MGMT 675 – Leadership in Organizations
Review of research on procedures, styles and methods of leadership, supervision, management and administration; all aspects of leader role behavior, both in practice and in research; areas in need of further research. May be repeated for up to 3 hours of credit.
MGMT 639 – Negotiations in Competitive Environments
Understanding prescriptive and descriptive negotiation theory as it applies to dyadic and multi-party negotiations, to buyer-seller transactions, dispute resolution, development of negotiation strategy and management of integrative and distributive aspects of the negotiation process.
MGMT 658 – Managing Projects
Application of management processes to complex interdisciplinary organizational environments through the study of program and environment; master typical project management microcomputer software for project planning; resource allocation; project budgeting; and control of project cost, schedule, and performance.
Track for PPA Students
The Professional Program in Accounting, a five year integrated program offered by the department of accounting, offers students the opportunity to become a highly skilled professional, ready to compete, succeed and lead in today’s high-technology, global and competitive environment.
The Entrepreneurial Leadership track provides students with the skills vital to an individual’s efforts to act entrepreneurially, either within an existing organization or when launching a new venture. Graduates of this track will have developed an entrepreneurial mindset which will provide opportunities with international accounting firms, corporations and financial institutions.
It consists of four sequenced three hour classes that are designed and offered beginning in the students senior fall semester completing in the students spring graduate year.
Choose 4 of the courses listed below:
MGMT 632 Technology Commercialization
MGMT 637 Foundations of Entrepreneurship
MGMT 638 Strategic Entrepreneurship
MGMT 640 Creativity and Innovation
MGMT 675 Leadership Development
FINC 644 Funding New Ventures
This consists of the same classes in option 1, plus three more that are critical for the students’ success in Entrepreneurial Leadership.
The required courses are:
MGMT 639 Negotiations in Competitive Environment
MGMT 675 Leadership Development
MGMT 620 Strategic Human Resource Management
MGMT 633 Organizational Change and Development
MGMT 658 Managing Projects
FINC 644 Funding New Ventures
Course Themes
Theme 1: Conceiving Opportunities
MGMT 640 – Managing Creativity and Innovation
This course examines factors that may foster or stifle individual, team or organizational creative performance. The course also presents techniques designed to improve the student’s creative thinking skills.
Theme 2: Exploiting Opportunities
MGMT 637– Foundations of Entrepreneurship
This course addresses: (1) the process of launching a new venture; (2) the process by which opportunities can be discovered and selected; (3) the attributes of entrepreneurs and new venture teams; (4) the process of developing a business plan, including the related resource requirements; and (5) core entrepreneurial strategies; including business-level, organizational design, marketing, and financial. The course generally strives to develop the competencies, concepts, and operational tools that are relevant to creating and implementing new ventures.
MGMT 632 – Technology Commercialization
This course focuses on technology, the process of evaluating the viability of raw technology, and the process of converting the raw technology into commercially viable products and services. Additionally, the course includes a module on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program. The course generally strives to develop the competencies and skills needed to evaluate the commercial viability of technology, and to bring viable technologies to commercial success.
Theme 3: Managing Opportunities
MGMT 638 – Strategic Entrepreneurship
This course is about entrepreneurship involving the establishment and management of new ventures by corporations or independent new venture teams. Firms create value by identifying opportunities in their external environment and then developing a competitive advantage to exploit them. Strategic entrepreneurship involves simultaneous opportunity seeking and advantage seeking behaviors. The course describes opportunity seeking, advantage seeking and the balance between these two that is critical for organizational success. The course examines the development of an entrepreneurial mindset and culture, managing resources strategically, developing and exploiting innovation, along with a number of other important topics (e.g., international entrepreneurship).
MGMT 675 – Leadership in Organizations
Review of research on procedures, styles and methods of leadership, supervision, management and administration; all aspects of leader role behavior, both in practice and in research; areas in need of further research. May be repeated for up to 3 hours credit. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.
MGMT 639 – Negotiations in Competitive Environments
Understanding prescriptive and descriptive negotiation theory as it applies to dyadic and multi-party negotiations, to buyer-seller transactions, dispute resolution, development of negotiation strategy and management of integrative and distributive aspects of the negotiation process. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.
MGMT 633 – Organizational Change and Development
Organizational change theory, processes and models; the role of change agents; organizational diagnosis and intervention; culture, process, strategy, structure and technology changes in organizations; evaluation research on organizational change; problems and issues in organizational change. Prerequisite: MGMT 630 or equivalent.
MGMT 620 – Strategic Human Resource Management
Survey of human resource management from a strategic perspective. Formulation and implementation of human resource strategy addressed for areas including: planning, recruitment, selection, placement, training, development, appraisal, compensation, labor relations, international human resource issues and legal compliance and ethical.
MGMT 658 – Managing Projects
Application of management processes to complex interdisciplinary organizational environments through the study of program and project management; adoptions of traditional management theories to the project environment; master typical project management microcomputer software for project planning; resource allocation; project budgeting; and control of project cost, schedule and performance. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.
FINC 644 – Funding New Ventures
This course provides the students with a general financial understanding of small business and entrepreneurship. The central focus will be on the financing of entrepreneurial ventures. Additionally, the course will address the types of financing strategies used at different stages of the venture.