Item 112-2005-R0901  ATTACHMENT

September 27-28, 2001

 PROPOSED MINOR IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

OBJECTIVES AND NEEDS

1.       Program Centrality - Centrality to or enhancement of the institution's approved mission and institutional objectives to be achieved by the addition of this program.

The establishment of a minor in entrepreneurship and small business management within the College of Business at Montana State University-Bozeman (MSU-Bozeman) is central to the land grant mission of the institution. The land grant mission of MSU-Bozeman mandates the support of professional schools including the training and graduation of business professionals. Specifically, the Morrill Act establishing the land grant universities stated that these institutions were created "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes on the several pursuits and professions in life." In today's modern economy the corollary to the "industrial classes and professions" is the broad business economy. Consequently, the land grant mission of MSU mandates establishing and supporting a professional school of business with up-to-date curricula and programs. (http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/www/ls_grant/morrill1.htm)

The proposed minor in entrepreneurship and small business management (ESBM) is just such a curriculum improvement that will expand the skills and competencies of our graduates as needed to increase the economic opportunities in Montana and the Northwest. Specifically, the ESBM minor is designed to provide added, distinct value to the accounting, finance, management and marketing business graduate. Rather than competing as a plain-vanilla finance graduate who has expertise in banking, finance, investments and the management of financial institutions, the finance graduate who selects the ESBM minor will possess the added capability to start a new business or contribute to new business development in existing organizations.

The ESBM minor will include the following course of study totaling 30 credits:

• BUS 201 (3 credits): Managerial Communications - Strategies for written, oral, graphical, and nonverbal communications in business organizations.
• BUS 222 (3 credits): Principles of Accounting II - An introduction to the phase of accounting that is concerned with providing information to managers for use in planning and controlling operations and in decision-making. Specific topics include manufacturing cost, cost-volume-profit relationship, budgeting, relevant cost, and service department allocation.
• BUS 301 (3 credits): Management and Organizations - Design and control of organizations: work groups, individual behavior, interpersonal relations, communication, leadership, organizational structure, decision making, planning, control, staffing, motivation, and international issues.
• BUS 341 (3 credits): Principles of Marketing - Marketing management decision-making in the product, price, promotion, and distribution areas. The behavioral, legal, ethical, competitive, technological, and economic environments as they affect decisions in the domestic and international organization.
• BUS 351 (3 credits): Principles of Finance - Study of the principles of finance with emphasis on the application and integration of financial concepts in decision-making.
• BUS 361 (3 credits): Introductory Business Law - American legal institutions, constitutional law, federalism, and roles and processes of the branches of government. Concentration on aspects of contract law and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Survey of law of torts, product liability, agency, intellecual property, partnerships and corporations.
• Take one of the following:

• MKTG 342 (3 credits): Market Research - The application of scientific research methods to marketing problems. The emphasis is on survey design and data analysis for market segmentation studies.
• MKTG 345 (3 credits): Personal selling techniques applied to outside sales. Sales organization including structure, training, motivation, and compensation. Evaluation of sales goals and individual performance.

• MGMT 462 (3 credits): Entrepreneurship and Venture Financing - This course covers various aspects of financing an entrepreneurial venture. Major topics include attracting seed and growth capital from sources such as individuals, venture capital, investment banking, government, and commercial banks.  Among the issues discussed are valuing a company, going public, selling out, acquisitions, bankruptcy, different legal forms of organization, partnerships, and taxes.
• MGMT 461 (3 credits): Growing and Managing an Entrepreneurial Firm - The course focuses on managing growing companies in an increasingly professional manner, while maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit that brought the company to its current growth position Subject matter is organized around the following themes measuring economic performance and obtaining information for management decision making; management control systems for innovative companies; short- and long-run planning in owner-managed businesses; and entrepreneurship and managing (professionalizing) growing companies.
• MGMT 4xx (3 credits): Entrepreneurial Experience - A practical course in which students work independently, with guidance from the instructor, on entrepreneurial projects. Faculty supervise field studies on an ad hoc basis.

The ESBM minor will be delivered on campus at MSU-Bozeman. Class sizes at the 300 level in the college typically are set at 35 students, while 400 level courses are targeted at 25 students.

2.       Need for Program - Justification should focus on documented need in the appropriate service area for the program � national, statewide, regional, or community: provide objective data, studies, the results of institutional needs assessments appropriate to the program's nature and the expected outcomes and performance of its graduates.

The need for the ESBM minor has been communicated to the College of Business by a number of important primary stakeholders including students, parents, other on-campus constituents, employers and members of the regional business community.

Prospective students, current students and alumni have repeatedly asked why MSU-Bozeman does not have more course work and some type of degree designation in entrepreneurship. While prospective students are forced to select out-of-state alternatives for a major degree in entrepreneurship, many of the students who have made the decision to attend MSU Bozeman are also interested in courses in entrepreneurship and small business management. Evidence of this level of interest is given through the enrollments in the two upper-division management (MGMT) electives currently offered in the college that cover entrepreneurship and small business management topics. The table below summarizes the enrollments for MGMT 461, Small Business Management, and MGMT 462, Entrepreneurship, for the period 1991-1999. These enrollments indicate a sustained interest by current business students.

Since these courses qualify as electives towards the MGMT option degree requirements most of the students currently taking MGMT 461 and 462 come from the management option within the College of Business. If the entire ESBM minor were available additional students from all four of the business options: accounting, finance, management and marketing would be attracted. Other students from across campus in computer science, electrical engineering, and other majors have expressed interest in a minor in business that relates to entrepreneurship.

3.            New Courses the program will add to the curriculum.

The ESBM minor includes a requirement for one new course, MGMT 4xx, Entrepreneurial Experience. Dr. Michael Reilly, a tenured member of the Marketing faculty, will supervise the students taking this course. Each student will work on an independent project with an entrepreneur-in-residence at the tech hatch incubator housed in the NASA Tech Link Center adjacent to the MSU-Bozeman campus.

ADEQUACY, ACCREDITATION AND ASSESSMENT ISSUES

1.      Adequacy of present faculty, facilities, equipment, and library holding in support of program, compared to known or anticipated minimum standards for accreditation.

The current accreditation of the College of Business through AACSB International, the leading professional accrediting body for colleges of business, will not be affected by the creation of this minor degree program. The current full accreditation which was reaffirmed in 1998 will not be changed or altered by the creation of the minor.

2.      If special accreditation will be sought, timetable and costs associated with attaining and sustain full accreditation status as well as the level needed for each to fulfill anticipated minimum standards for accreditation.

No additional accreditation will be sought, and the addition of minor degree programs will not change the requirements or the accreditation status of the college.

3.      Assessment Plan: how the program will "fit" within the institution's internal, approved assessment process and specifically address the major assessment components of academic performance and program relevancy to student-society needs; complementing the guideline provided to campuses by the OCHE and the intra-campus Committee on Outcomes Assessment (ICOA).

The institution uses a decentralized model for student outcome assessment.  MSU-Bozeman policies are described on the campus web site (http://www.montana.edu/aircj/assess/).  As part of the campus policy the College of Business has implemented an assessment plan as required.  Details of this policy include assessment of business content, communication skills and problem-solving skills. Feedback is collected on a regular formal basis from students, alumni and employers.  Details of the college plan are available at the MSU-Bozeman web site (http://www.montana.edu/aircj/assess/majors/majors9899/plan/Business.html)

The effectiveness of the proposed minor will be evaluated as a portion of the business content assessment. Surveys of students, alumni and employers will include sections on entrepreneurship which will provide a valid measure of the effectiveness of the ESBM minor.

IMPACT ON FACULTY, FACILITIES, COSTS, STUDENTS, AND OTHER DEPARTMENTS AND CAMPUSES

1.      Additional faculty requirement, including qualifications, salary, and recruitment.

No additional faculty will be needed to support the proposed ESBM minor. Except the Entrepreneurship Practice course, the minor is composed of existing courses in business and computer science. Dr. Reilly will supervise the one new course; consequently, no new faculty will be needed.

2.      Impact on facilities.

Capacity of the existing facilities is adequate to meet the requirements of the proposed ESBM minor. The library, computer laboratory and classroom resources that will be needed do not exceed the current needs of the College of Business. Over time, capital improvements that occur to meet the dynamic needs of the business curricula will be adequate to satisfy the marginal needs of the ESBM minor.

3.      Cost, to be submitted in detail for the first year, for the biennium, with an estimate of continuing costs of the program over a five-year period. These costs should reflect new faculty, increased library costs, space requirements, equipment, other facilities needs, and sources of funding. Institutions will be expected to demonstrate how the needed resources will be drawn from existing budgets, and how and which programs will be suspended or terminated to generate the needed resources (if necessary).

No new sources of funding will be needed to support the proposed minor in ESBM. Increased student demand for the current courses, along with the staffing of the new course will be funded through increased SCH generation. The central administration at MSU-Bozeman has committed to budgeting processes through which budget dollars can be reallocated at the margin to programs that are growing. Additional sections, if needed, will be funded directly by ongoing college instructional budgets. Even if the ESBM minor attracts new SCH to business and computer science, the increases may simply make up decreases in overall enrollments across the university.

4.      Impact on enrollment, numbers of students (both graduate and undergraduate) with lower and upper division course breakdowns, and the number expected to graduate over a ten-year period.

It is hoped that new enrollments for the ESBM minor will create student demand of approximately 25-35 students for each of the courses included in the minor. This increase in demand will occur gradually over time, stabilizing after approximately four years. However, these additional enrollments are not likely to strain current capacity since it has been predicted that overall business and campus enrollments will soften and decline in the next decade. An analysis of the high school populations in MT and in the primary feeder states to MSU-Bozeman suggests that growth in the number of graduating high school seniors will level off by 2003, and begin to decrease at that point in time. (Source: US Dept. of Education High Graduation Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999038.pdf).

In light of the regional softening of university enrollments the creation of new program offerings such as the ESBM minor may be critical to maintaining stable enrollments. At MSU-Bozeman the number of new entering students is expected to decline unless we recruit students successfully from competing schools, particularly in other parts of the nation. College bound populations are expected to increase in other regions of the country so out-of-region recruitment will be increasingly important. The addition of the ESBM minor will help in recruiting out-of-state students and thus in stabilizing enrollments in the existing business and computer science courses.

The future viability of the minor in ESBM is assured by the fact that the courses already have a primary market from current student demand. The creation of the new minor will simply broaden the target market for the existing courses. The target student population is junior level students from all majors across campus but primarily business, engineering, the sciences and bio-agriculture.

5.      Relationship to other programs on campus, including the inter-departmental implications of this program's addition to the curriculum, and/or to the role other departments play in contributing courses to this program.

The proposed minor in ESBM will support and enhance the enrollments in other campus programs and departments. The minor is designed to be a valuable addition to a number of majors with a particular emphasis as a complement to the business options of accounting, finance, management and marketing. Input was solicited from the deans of engineering and agriculture in designing the curricula of the ESBM. It is anticipated that the minor will make positive contributions to the capability of the business graduates who elect to complete the ESBM program, and to the revenues of the university.

6.      Relationship to other institutions.

Many business programs include a minor, or a major, in entrepreneurship or small business management. The minor proposed at MSU-Bozeman will not compete with entrepreneurship degree programs within the state of Montana since no other Montana University System campuses offer a degree program in entrepreneurship.

Regional schools that currently offer entrepreneurship or related programs are summarized below.