Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship Academic Programs
The Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship (SME) department gives future professionals the communication, leadership, and strategic thinking skills to successfully develop and manage businesses worldwide.
Undergraduate Programs
Entrepreneurial Management Major and Minor - This major is designed for students who are interested in starting a new business (entrepreneurship), helping existing organizations to develop new business opportunities (intrapreneurship), or creating positive social impact through the development of new ventures (social entrepreneurship). Curriculum is designed to range from introductory problem-solving concepts and self-exploration through the development and implementation of real business opportunities with a broad range of elective courses from across campus. The objective is to provide experiential and applied learning opportunities that develop the mindset, skills, and competencies that enable students to create their own opportunities and function as entrepreneurs or as innovative leaders in entrepreneurial or high potential firms.
International Business Co-Major and Minor - This co-major supports a primary Minnesota Carlson major by providing students with exposure to international breadth in areas such as economics and globalization and deepens their knowledge of a given region by a semester study abroad, language proficiency, and coursework specific to where they are studying. The student learns how business is done within a culture and the importance of understanding the nuances of working across multiple cultures. Recognizing that career placement and early stage career success depends on strong skills (e.g. accounting, marketing, finance, human resources, operations, information systems, or entrepreneurship), the international business major must be completed with another major or co-major in the Carlson School of Management. Students who desire to work in international business will often begin in their primary major and with experiences and language skills, move into roles where they have responsibility for working with partners or offices internationally.
Strategic Management Minor - Strategic management involves decisions about the set of goal-directed, coordinated commitments and actions that a firm undertakes to gain and sustain superior performance relative to competitors. It includes diagnosing the competitive challenges facing a firm, formulating strategies (including corporate, business, international, etc) to address the competitive challenges, and devising a coherent set of actions to implement a firm’s strategy.
Knowledge of strategic management complements students’ mastery of particular functional or operational areas, and allows Carlson graduates to understand how their functional roles and activities in a firm relate to the firm’s overall strategic objectives.
Social Impact in Business Minor - The Social Impact in Business Minor focuses on environmental sustainability, ESG, and other social issues in relation to business. Given that issues of sustainability and social impact cut across all functional areas of business, the minor includes including courses from across multiple departments within Carlson, rather than being siloed within a single department. This minor will unify these resources and cultivate graduates who can integrate principles of sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and social innovation into decision-making in business.
This minor will launch Spring 2027. Interested students should talk to their academic advisor.
University-Wide Minors
Entrepreneurship Minor - The Entrepreneurship Minor enables students outside of the Carlson School of Management to combine Carlson School entrepreneurship courses and approved elective courses from their own college. Students have the flexibility to complement their major and career interests by selecting from a broad range of courses on innovation and entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneurship minor helps students on their journey to become entrepreneurs interested in starting a new business or helping organizations to develop new business opportunities. The objective of the minor is to provide learning opportunities for the innovative leaders of tomorrow.
Management Minor - The Management Minor is for students in majors outside of the Carlson School of Management to gain a comprehensive exposure to the business world while developing knowledge in a focus area that complements their major and career goals. Through this minor, a student has the opportunity to build versatile business foundations by taking courses in Microeconomics, Statistics, Accounting, and Excel. These foundational courses prepare the students to be successful in any focus area they choose.
Questions can be directed to the Minnesota Carlson Advisors at [email protected].
Graduate Programs
MBA with specialization in Management provides students with vital knowledge and understanding of how to analyze the changing competitive landscape faced by organizations, the leadership skills to develop and implement action plans to provide organizations with a competitive advantage, the entrepreneurship skills to recognize and develop new business opportunities, and the managerial skills necessary to successfully deal with the challenges of innovation, manage a diverse workforce and navigate the political landscape within a firm.
A specialization in management is an ideal choice for students who wish to launch their careers in consulting, general management, new business development or simply catapult their career to the next level. For students who seek to enter management careers through a functional path such as marketing, finance, operations, information technology or human resources, management is an excellent dual specialization.
MBA with specialization in Entrepreneurship and Innovation provides students with vital knowledge and understanding of the fundamental principles through which new ideas and technologies are brought to market, either through entrepreneurial startups or through corporate ventures. The specialization includes a set of courses designed to guide students through the innovation journey: from idea generation and opportunity identification, through designing and developing the new venture, to funding, product development, testing, managing a growing business, and finally, successfully undertaking new ventures and innovation within an existing company. Whether students are interested in starting a new venture or growing an existing idea, this specialization offers a focus on understanding how successful innovations are developed and commercialized.
A specialization in entrepreneurship and innovation is an ideal choice for students who are considering founding their own new ventures or pursuing careers in related areas, such as venture capital, corporate development, consulting, or corporate venturing. The Business Management Minor will enhance the preparation of graduate students to enter into organizations with a solid foundation of knowledge in key business disciplines. The minor is flexible and designed to suit the particular needs and interest of the student through completion of a broad range of business core (foundation) and elective courses.
University-Wide Graduate Business Management Minor
The Business Management Minor will enhance the preparation of graduate students to enter into organizations with a solid foundation of knowledge in key business disciplines. The minor is flexible and designed to suit the particular needs and interest of the student through completion of a broad range of business core (foundation) and elective courses.
Graduate Certificates in Management and Entrepreneurship
The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Graduate Certificate and Strategic Management Graduate Certificate allow graduate students to upskill without committing to a full degree program. Many of our certificate programs can be completed in one year. You can enhance your marketability for the next step in your career and prepare for leadership opportunities.
- In addition, our MBA program offers several opportunities for experiential learning. One such opportunity is the course New Product Design & Business Development. This is a two semester course available to full-time and part-time MBA students. MBA students may register for one or both semesters (ENTR 6041 and ENTR 6042). Alternatively, full-time MBA students may enroll in the Carlson Ventures Enterprise, which enables students to work on a variety of innovation-related projects. Both the NPDBD course and the CVE experience enable students to work on live projects for sponsoring companies.
PhD Program
The PhD in Business Administration with a concentration in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship focuses on the external relations between the organization and its environment as well as the internal processes of organizational adaptation and change.
It covers three broad areas of concentration: strategy; organizations; and business, government, and society with a strong international element.