MBA in Strategic Management
NEW! 3 Concentrations Available
CHC’s affordable MBA offers flexibility of schedule, making it accessible for all interested students. In addition to the MBA in Strategic Management curriculum, students can now choose to specialize in one of three optional concentrations: Accountancy, Healthcare, or Ministry Leadership.
View the CONCENTRATIONS tab to learn more about these unique and exciting new offerings!
Program Overview
The Chestnut Hill College Master’s in Business Administration degree is offered 100% online, and can be completed in less than one year for those with an undergraduate or graduate business degree. The asynchronous, self-study design allows professionals to complete their MBA in as little as 1 year, with a recommended schedule of 6 credits per 8-week term.
An MBA in Strategic Management is a powerful tool for those seeking to make their mark in the business world. Individuals equipped with an MBA acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in leadership roles and make informed decisions that drive organizational success. The MBA in Strategic Management centers around formulating strategies, a deep understanding of strategic planning, honing analytical capabilities, and developing sound decision-making techniques. These are just some of the skills students in Chestnut Hill College’s brand new, fully online MBA in Strategic Management will acquire, all while having access to real-world professionals and entreprenuers in the classroom and the plethora of connections the Philadelphia market has to offer.
Our MBA in Strategic Management is designed for students from any background looking to advance their career in our ever-changing business world. With courses delivered through Chestnut Hill College’s accelerated online platform that offers adults flexibility to curate innovative business knowledge, students will advance their strategic mindset and become leaders within high performing teams and organizations.
Non-Business Majors
For those returning to school without an undergraduate business degree (for example, Nurses, Lab Technicians, Human Service professionals, etc.) CHC offers a self-study pre-requisite program with four, 5-week modules to prepare students to take a final Assessment Exam. Once students pass this Exam, they may move forward with the MBA. Pre-requisite modules include:
- Foundations of Accounting: the objectives of this course are to help students: 1) understand what is in financial statements and what the statements say about a business, 2) identify the business activities that caused the amounts that appear in the statements, and 3) understand how, when, and at what amount the effects of manager and employee actions will appear in the statements.
- Foundations of Finance: this course discusses the management of the financial affairs of the industrial enterprise. Emphasis is placed on working capital management, current asset management, capital budgeting, stock and bond valuation, and capital structure decisions. It serves as an introduction to the principles of financial management and the impact of the financial markets and institutions on that managerial function. Major topics include the environment of financial management, time value of money, capital and cash budgeting, the relationship of risk to return, cost of capital, leverage, and evaluation of alternative methods of financing.
- Foundations of Statistics: this course enables students to develop the capacity to undertake independent statistical investigations, including the assumptions and limitations of their application. The course will provide practical skills to allow students to meaningfully interpret the results of various hypothesis tests, and to understand probability distributions and sampling methods commonly applied when collecting data.
- Foundations of Economics: this course introduces basic economic concepts and institutions and their application in the American economy. The course focuses on economic decision-making processes on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, and the impact it has on the consumer, businesses, and the government.
Learning Objectives and Course Curriculum
CHC’s MBA in Strategic Management program offers a comprehensive understanding of the field, preparing students for strategic decision-making and leadership roles. The program combines core courses, specialization options, and practical application through case studies.Students will gain complete understanding of, and proficiency in, fundamental concepts of management theory and practice in the following areas:
- Accounting
- Finance
- Information systems
- Data analytics and information literacy
- Artificial Intelligence
- Organizational behavior
- Problem solving and decision making
The core courses provide the foundation of the program, delving into principles and theories of strategic management. Specialization options cater to a variety of interests and career goals, allowing students to focus on specific areas within strategic management, such as global marketing or supply chain management. Real-world case studies and practical application bolster theoretical learning, providing hands-on experience that enhances learning and industry readiness. The curriculum can be found below:
- Ethical and Legal Perspectives in Business
- Strategic Management (AI component)
- Global Marketing (AI Component)
- Data Analytics
- Supply Chain Management (AI Component)
- Human Resources for Leadership
- Financial Analysis
- Project Management
- Entrepreneurial Economics
- Capstone
Please note: The below curriculum is for students taking the standard track. See the Concentrations tab for specific information on the curriculum for those in the ministry leadership, accountancy, or healthcare management tracks.
STMG 610 – Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business
Credits: 3
This course develops skills for inquiry into the business environment from a legal and ethical perspective. It will explore the relationships between the ethical perspectives and the modern business environment. Relevant topics include contracts, commercial law, business organizations, employment law, bankruptcy, negligence and strict liability concepts. The goal of the course will be to examine difficult and complex problems and to be familiar with the dynamics of ethical business practices.
STMG 620 – Strategic Management with AI Component
Credits: 3
This course introduces the key concepts, tools, and principles of strategy formulation and competitive advantage. It reviews managerial decisions and actions that affect the performance and survival of business enterprises. The course takes a general management perspective that views the business as a whole and examines policies in each functional area as they are integrated into an overall competitive strategy. Additionally, this course will provide the student with a set of strategy and management frameworks that firms utilize when assessing how to implement AI in their own organizations, how to use AI as a competitive tool in the marketplace, and how to interact with government regulators and other stakeholders.
STMG 630 – Global Marketing with AI Component
Credits: 3
This course will highlight how global marketing can reach and impact customers around the globe. The course will examine how global marketing concepts support marketing decision making through artificial intelligence. Students will learn the importance of marketing strategies and plans that include advertising, social media marketing, digital marketing and digital robotic technologies. Upon completion of this course students will understand how marketing research can affect global marketing decision making and strategic plans.
STMG 640 – Data Analytics
Credits: 3
This course discusses the fundamental techniques of data analysis, emphasizing complex and/or large data sets. Students learn to gather, analyze, and interpret data to drive strategic and operational success in technology-based companies. Upon completion of this course students will have the ability to apply data and analytic principles to real-world problems and understand the data analytics lifecycle from problem definition to solution development.
STMG 650 – Supply Chain Management with AI Component
Credits: 3
Students will learn the components of supply chain management while examining the importance of artificial intelligence. This course discusses the importance of managing operations efficiently and effectively through LEAN Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Supply Chain management looks to provide students with tools to manage highly effective operations divisions while maintaining quality management oversight and driving performance metrics.
STMG 660 – Human Resources for Leadership
Credits: 3
This course develops skills for an understanding of how human resource decisions contribute to organizational effectiveness and a firm’s competitive advantage. This knowledge can be applied in small, medium, and large firms, as well as non-profits. It examines the techniques, policies, processes, strategies, and practices used by companies and managers to leverage their human capital effectively and efficiently.
STMG 670 – Financial Analysis
Credits: 3
Within this course, students will learn how to analyze financial documents and information for evaluating companies within a real-world perspective. This course will also cover an analysis of operating budgets, an introduction to capital budgeting, capital structure analysis, and financial statement analysis. Students will understand the importance of evaluating short- and long-term financial strategies.
STMG 680 – Project Management
Credits: 3
This course examines strategies used to effectively complete projects through people and stakeholder groups and the role of the project manager as leader in the agile and predictive approaches. Students will develop strategies to address and manage the project team’s expectations and other stakeholder groups.
STMG 690 – Entrepreneurial Economics
Credits: 3
This course discusses the application of economic theory to practice managing new businesses by combining elements of strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurial finance courses. Includes an examination of both strategic decisions of entrepreneurs (pricing, advertising, deterring entry) and the practical issues (funding, business plans, patents).
STMG 698 – Capstone
Credits: 3
Students must complete a pre-approved original project focusing on a specific problem within an organization. The capstone project involves identifying and investigating a problem or innovation, researching, and identifying “best practices” and other strategies and innovations, preferably in their current or intended area of practice. The capstone is an integrative project that draws on core learning outcomes of the program.
The MBA in Strategic Management offers optional concentrations in the following fields:
- Accountancy
- Healthcare
- Ministry Leadership
Read more on each concentration below.
Accountancy
The MBA in Strategic Management with a concentration in accountancy will help prepare current (and future) accounting professionals for the CPA exam and for promotions within their current career or future careers.
The courses will provide students with additional knowledge on topics covered in the CPA exam as well as the twelve additional accountancy credits needed to take the CPA exam. By taking the MBA in Strategic Management with an Accountancy Concentration, students will have the necessary 150 credits to apply for the CPA exam.
Requirements for the MBA in Strategic Management w/ Accountancy Concentration
In addition to the courses required in the MBA in Strategic Management, the following accounting courses will be inserted in place of similar management courses.
1. Accounting Regulations & Professional Responsibility (replaces Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business from standard MBA curriculum)
- This course will review elements of business law, including agency concepts, contracts and contract defenses, and the Uniform Commercial Code as it applies to offer and acceptance. It will examine government regulation of business (employment taxes, worker classification laws, Bankruptcy, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Additionally, the course will discuss the ethics and professional responsibilities of accountants
2. Taxes and Business Strategy (replaces Human Resources for Leadership from standard MBA curriculum)
- This course discusses the federal income tax system and laws applicable to both individuals and businesses. It reviews the rules that pertain to the federal income taxation of Regular C Corporations, Partnerships (and limited liability companies LLC), S corporations, and not-for-profit organizations. It will analyze tax implications on incomes, gifts, and estates. The course will also review how taxes affect business strategy and financing decisions.
3. Financial Statement Analysis & Reporting (replaces Financial Analysis from standard MBA curriculum)
- Financial Statement Analysis builds upon introductory accounting courses. It will prepare the student to interpret and analyze financial statements for tasks involving credit and security analyses, lending and investment decisions, and other decisions that must rely on financial data. It will examine financial reporting issues in terms of their effect on assessments of a firm’s profitability and risk. Emphasis will be placed on the interpretability and understandability of financial and business communications, which includes understanding the major corporate reporting mechanisms.
4. Advanced Auditing (replaces Entrepreneurial Economics from standard MBA curriculum)
- Advanced Auditing will build an understanding of audit and the required risk assessment, including the review of selected topics in financial statement auditing and assurance services. It will focus on the collection, analysis, and evaluation of audit evidence, auditing procedures and tests, assessment of risks, required disclosures, and reports. The course concentrates on developing professional skepticism and judgment skills as critical thinking skills through the review of auditing inventory, management estimates, and fair value measurements.
Healthcare
The MBA in Strategic Management with a concentration in healthcare will help prepare current (and future) healthcare professionals for promotions within their current healthcare career or the ability to change careers and become managers in healthcare companies, healthcare service firms, or private healthcare corporations, to name a few.
The courses will provide students with the industry and academic knowledge of a business environment within healthcare.
Requirements for the MBA in Strategic Management w/ Healthcare Concentration
In addition to the courses required in the MBA in Strategic Management, the following healthcare courses will be inserted in place of similar management courses.
1. Strategic Management in Healthcare with AI component (replaces Strategic Management w/ AI component from standard MBA curriculum)
- Strategic Management in Healthcare prepares healthcare professionals to effectively manage and lead healthcare organizations. Topics covered include organizational performance, strategy, organizational design, and program operations.
2. Healthcare Marketing with AI Component (replaced Global Marketing w/ AI component from standard MBA curriculum)
- Healthcare Marketing provides the healthcare professional with the fundamentals of marketing healthcare services. It discusses industry and environmental factors that affect the healthcare sector (growth rate, shifting demographics, globalization, technology, and customer demand). It connects marketing principles to innovation, operations, and strategy in the healthcare industry.
3. Healthcare Finance (replaces Financial Analysis from standard MBA curriculum)
- Healthcare Finance equips healthcare leaders with the ability to understand the application of financial theories, concepts, and models to health services systems with an emphasis on the role of financial principles and analysis to decision-making. It reviews the art of negotiation that promotes the integration of finance and managed care structures, such as health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and independent practice associations (IPAs).
4. Entrepreneurship in HealthCare (replaces Entrepreneurial Economics from standard MBA curriculum)
- This course examines sources of healthcare innovation, the many different types of healthcare customers (patients, doctors, hospitals, insurers, regulators), and the “investing” community. The course will also review the challenges of healthcare entrepreneurship.
Ministry Leadership
The MBA in Strategic Management with a concentration in Ministry Leadership will help prepare current and future leaders in both the church and parachurch (i.e., faith-based nonprofit organizations) to be effective, even entrepreneurial stewards of the ministries they lead. This concentration will also address the growing number of ministry leaders who are bi-vocational; that is, leading ministry while simultaneously working in the for-profit sector. Finally, as demonstrated below, it will meet this critical need with a program offering that is somewhat unique in the market and likely to be highly preferred over existing options.
Requirements for the MBA in Strategic Management w/ Ministry Leadership Concentration
In addition to the courses required in the MBA in Strategic Management, the following ministry leadership courses will be inserted in place of similar management courses.
1. Vocational, Ethical, and Professional Perspectives for Ministry Leaders (replaces Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business)
- This course, similar in some respects to Ethical and Legal Perspectives in Business, provides ministry leaders tools to define their own vocation for this unique role, the opportunities to be more fully formed and developed within that vocation, and the ethical and professional boundaries within which ministry leaders must operate within an increasingly complex organizational and cultural context.
2. Communication Strategies for Ministry Leaders (replaces Global Marketing w/ AI component)
- This course provides ministry leaders with tools to create and lead effective strategies of external and internal communication in the unique context of a ministry organization, where public communication is often considered a core function of organizational leaders. This course supports a strategic assessment of the place of one’s ministry within one’s community and the means of communicating that mission to stakeholders, both external and internal.
3. Organizational Assessment for Ministry Leaders (replaces Data Analytics)
- This course provides ministry leaders with tools to do comprehensive, multi-directional assessments of one’s own ministry organization or others, as well as the skills to assess or create specific programs within those organizations as a result. It provides students with guidance regarding the kind of leadership most needed in different organizational contexts and the opportunity to assess their own preferred organizational settings.
4. Change, Conflict, and Governance for Ministry Leaders (Replaces Supply Chain Management w/ AI component)
- This course provides ministry leaders tools by which to lead strategic change initiatives within an organization and to navigate the creative conflicts that often arise from such. It also addresses the role of governing bodies in ministry organizations and the considerations that require an ongoing distinction between management and government, management and leadership, and leadership and followership.
Sample Academic Course Plan for Full-time Students (Four Courses/Semester)
Note: This is a sample and for planning purposes only. The content below is only tentative, based on each semester’s schedule. Credits referenced are the credits taken per semester. The program is a total of 30 credits, taken over three terms.
Fall Start Course Plan
Total Credits: 30
| Fall I | Fall II | Spring I | Spring II | Summer |
| STMG 610 – Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business (3) | STMG 630 – Global Marketing (AI component) (3) | STMG 650 – Supply Chain Management (AI component) (3) | STMG 670 – Financial Analysis (3) | STMG 690 – Entrepreneurial Economics (3) |
| STMG 620 – Strategic Management (AI component) (3) | STMG 640 – Data Analytics (3) | STMG 660 – Human Resources for Leadership (3) | STMG 680 – Project Management (3) | STMG 698 – Capstone (3) |
| 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits |
Spring Start Course Plan
Total Credits: 30
| Spring I | Spring II | Summer I | Summer II | Fall I | Fall II |
| STMG 610 – Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business (3) | STMG 630 – Global Marketing (AI component) (3) | STMG 650 – Supply Chain Management (AI component) (3) | STMG 670 – Financial Analysis (3) | STMG 690 – Entrepreneurial Economics (3) | STMG 698 – Capstone (3) |
| STMG 620 – Strategic Management (AI component) (3) | STMG 640 – Data Analytics (3) | STMG 660 – Human Resources for Leadership (3) | STMG 680 – Project Management (3) | ||
| 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 3 total credits | 3 total credits |
Summer Start Course Plan
Total Credits: 30
| Summer I | Summer II | Fall I | Fall II | Spring I | Spring II |
| STMG 610 – Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business (3) | STMG 630 – Global Marketing (AI component) (3) | STMG 650 – Supply Chain Management (AI component) (3) | STMG 670 – Financial Analysis (3) | STMG 690 – Entrepreneurial Economics (3) | STMG 698 – Capstone (3) |
| STMG 620 – Strategic Management (AI component) (3) | STMG 640 – Data Analytics (3) | STMG 660 – Human Resources for Leadership (3) | STMG 680 – Project Management (3) | ||
| 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 6 total credits | 3 total credits | 3 total credits |
If you have any questions, please contact your advisor.
*Please note: The above course plans are for students taking the standard track.
If you choose the accountancy concentration:
- STMG 610 Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business is replaced by Accounting Regulations & Professional Responsibility
- STMG 660 Human Resources for Leadership is replaced by Taxes and Business Strategy
- STMG 670 Financial Analysis is replaced by Financial Statement Analysis & Reporting
- STMG 690 Entrepreneurial Economics is replaced by Advanced Auditing
If you choose the healthcare concentration:
- SMTG 620 Strategic Management w/ AI component is replaced by Strategic Management in Healthcare w/ AI component
- STMG 630 Global Marketing w/ AI component is replaced by Healthcare Marketing with AI Component
- STMG 670 Financial Analysis is replaced by Healthcare Finance
- STMG Entrepreneurial Economics is replaced by Entrepreneurship in HealthCare
If you choose the ministry leadership concentration:
- STMG 610 Ethical & Legal Perspectives in Business is replaced by Vocational, Ethical, and Professional Perspectives for Ministry Leaders
- STMG 630 Global Marketing w/ AI component is replaced by Communication Strategies for Ministry Leaders
- STMG 640 Data Analytics is replaced by Organizational Assessment for Ministry Leaders
- STMG 650 Supply Chain Management w/ AI component is replaced by Change, Conflict, and Governance for Ministry Leaders
See the Concentrations tab for specific information on the replacement courses and the curriculum for those who choose the ministry leadership, accountancy, or healthcare concentrations.
A strategic management MBA opens the door to a wide range of career opportunities. Graduates can explore roles in strategic planning, consulting, leadership positions, and entrepreneurship among other areas. Upon graduation, students will possess a comprehensive understanding of strategic management principles to empower them to lead organizations towards success, make informed decisions, and effectively manage teams. For those interested in entrepreneurship, a strategic management MBA provides a solid foundation to start a business or embark on entrepreneurial ventures.Job potential for MBA graduates of this program are wide-ranging and can include:
- Financial Manager
- Marketing Manager
- Computer and Information Systems Manager
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- Medical and Health Services Manager
- Chief Executive Officer
- Human Resources Manager
- General and Operations Manager