BS in Business Management

With a Specialization in Sustainable Business

The major program offers students a solid foundation of essential business concepts and applications with a focus on sustainable business practices. The major follows Stony Brook's philosophy of business education. Courses are practical and project oriented. Students are expected to develop a portfolio of projects that demonstrate their knowledge and expertise to prospective employers. We emphasize experiential learning that includes interacting with the local business community, internships, and team class projects.

Along with courses in statistics, decision sciences, and general management, students study the fundamentals of four business functions: accounting, finance, marketing, and operations, understanding their relation to, and impact on, environmental issues and sustainable systems and outcomes. In addition, majors will take four advanced (300 and 400-level) courses to complete a concentration in business sustainability. These specialization courses will include such topics as marketing research, marketing for new sustainable products and services, environmental impact of business, supply chain environmental management, project management, and marketing strategy.The knowledge gained in the specialization will give students practical experience that will help them find employment in sustainable marketing and/or corporate environmental operations and analysis.

Business majors are also required to minor in a discipline outside of business, which at Southampton includes minors in Ecosystems and Human Impact, Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning, Sustainability Studies. In addition to providing the student with a broader education, the minor can also provide students with complementary knowledge in their business concentration. Business does not operate in isolation from other disciplines but looks to the arts and sciences for insight into such important business topics as leadership, ethics, consumer behavior, information systems, mathematical models, and international relations, along with environmental impact, policy, and planning.

Acceptance to the Major in Business Management: Qualified freshman and transfer students who have indicated their interest in the major on their applications are accepted directly into the major upon admission to the University. Students who did not apply for the major and those who were not accepted into the major when they entered the University may apply to the major at any time during their academic career provided that their cumulative grade point average (including, for transfer students, coursework completed at other institutions) is 3.10 or higher.

The major in Business leads to the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Business Management Completion of the major requires successful completion of 15 business courses (10 core courses, 4 electives in specialization and 1 elective in general management,) and a minor (or another major) outside of business. The major requires approximately 67 credits including 45 credits in business and 21 credits for the minor requirement. Most core courses and the general management electives taught in Southampton will relate the course topic in some way to concerns about sustainability.

Sample Curriculum

Core Courses
BUS 112 Introduction to Business and Environmental Sustainability
ECO 108 Introduction to Economics
BUS 215 Introduction to Business Statistics
BUS 220 Introduction to Decision Sciences
BUS 210 Financial Accounting
BUS 330 Principles of Finance
BUS 346 Operations Management
BUS 349 Principles of Marketing and Sustainable Products and Services
BUS 347 Business Ethics
BUS 441 Business Strategy or BUS 353 Entrepreneurship

Business Electives in General Management - Select one from the following:

BUS 301 Corporate Communications
BUS 340 Information Systems in Management
BUS 351 Human Resource Management
BUS 401 Negotiations Workshop
BUS 440 International Management

Business Electives in Sustainable Business Specialization - Select four from the following:

BUS 358 Market Research
BUS 373 Supply Chain and Environmental Management
BUS 368 Marketing New Sustainable Products
BUS 374 Environmental Impact of Business
BUS 448 Marketing Strategy
BUS 370 Lean Practices in Operations

NOTE: Business majors must take the MAT 122 Overview of Calculus with Applications course or a higher level calculus course as a prerequisite for Introduction to ECO 108 Economics, BUS 215 Statistics and BUS 220 Decision Sciences. MAT 122 also satisfies a General Education requirement (DEC C)

Also, note that the business minor is available at Southampton. For the minor, students must take 7 business courses from the list above including Introduction to Business and Environmental Sustainability and at least 4 courses at the 300 or 400 level. All courses on this list beyond the "Introduction to" courses and Financial accounting are at the 300 and 400 level.