Go Beyond What’s Expected

Business Administration, MBA


We need people like you to be the business leaders of tomorrow. Accelerate your career, pursue your passion.

Take your career to the next level with Lenoir-Rhyne's ACBSP-accredited, 36-credit hour MBA program, which provides exceptional opportunities for professional development and advancement in a wide range of areas in business, commerce, and organizational leadership.

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Take the next step toward completing your MBA degree at Lenoir-Rhyne University.

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Take the next step toward completing your MBA degree at Lenoir-Rhyne University.

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You may begin program studies any semester—summer, fall, or spring term. The MBA program is offered at LR’s Hickory and Asheville campuses and online through synchronous course delivery. Full-time students generally can finish their degree in four semesters. Any practicum experiences can be completed close to home at your convenience.

Information Sessions


Join the MBA program for an online information session with the program coordinator, David Jones, Ph.D., and graduate admission counselors. During the session you will have an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the admission process, financial aid and program requirements.

Choose from Nine Specializations


All MBA students complete a thorough core in business, including coursework in accounting, management, marketing, organizational behavior, supply chain operations, communication, and managerial economics.

You can choose to complete a general MBA or specialize in a specific area of interest that matches your career goals and aspirations.

  • Accounting

    This concentration exposes students to coursework in several areas of accounting, which allows them to broaden their perspectives of accounting theory and application. Students who complete the Accounting concentration will be eligible to sit for the CPA and Certified Management Accounting examinations upon graduation.

  • Business Analytics and Information Technology

    With the increasing importance of data analysis and information technology in the business world, this concentration trains students in the technology and quantitative skills needed for the ever-growing and constantly-converging fields of Business Analytics and Information Technology. Emphasis is placed on data analysis, project management, and business systems. Students who complete the BAIT concentration will be eligible to sit for the PMP® examination upon graduation.

  • Entrepreneurship

    This concentration is designed to provide students with the tools and experience necessary to facilitate development not only as leaders, but also as an innovators, in their chosen business fields. Students will immerse themselves in a curriculum tailored to enrich their learning and cultivate both an entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial mindset. 

  • Executive Management

    A concentration designed for mid-level managers with prior business or military experience, the Executive Management program is focused on growing careers. This concentration offers flexible courses taught by expert faculty and includes learning and networking opportunities from leading business executives.

  • Global Business

    In a complex and ever-evolving global business environment, this concentration will help shape students into effective managers through a range of courses that explore finance, economics, and cross-cultural business practice. This concentration provides broad preparation in business administration with advanced study focused within the context of an international business framework.

  • Healthcare Administration

    In a fast-paced industry that has growing demand for competent, well-qualified managers, the Healthcare Administration concentration will teach students to distinguish, understand, and differentiate key concepts which serve as the underlying foundation to be productive in the healthcare arena. Students will earn expertise and competencies grounded in strong, select Healthcare Administration courses that are essential in building robust applications in the healthcare landscape.

  • Innovation and Change Management

    As innovation and change management become increasingly necessary in the business world, students in this concentration explore subject matter that prepares them for creative and strategic thinking, fosters innovation in leadership, and promotes calculated improvement across all business sectors.

  • Social Impact

    The MBA in Social Impact is built for those interested in industries related to philanthropy, NGOs, nonprofits, mission-driven for-profit companies and other business models. This program will cover topics such as design thinking and other strategies to help you to be the best you can be for your stakeholders.

Cortney Hildebran Cooke

My favorite thing about LR is the people. All of the students and staff are so friendly and the campus community is wonderful. The overall campus experience is what makes me love LR.

Cortney Hildebran Cooke '20, MBA 2021

Why Choose Lenoir-Rhyne University


  • Student-Centered Approach
    The MBA program takes a student-centered approach by focusing on application-based instruction that directly relates to your areas of interest and future career goals. The program is designed to provide you with direct contact and a close professional relationship with faculty members who bring real-world experience to the classroom setting.
  • Relevant to Today's Business Needs
    Learn decision-making skills and tools. Faculty are professionals with work experience in their field. Class simulations take you from the classroom to real business projects. Work with your professors on projects with local businesses and organizations, including conducting audits of businesses under the supervision of your professor.
  • Start Your MBA as an Undergrad
    The Accelerated Master's Degrees program provides an opportunity for LR undergraduates to seamlessly matriculate into graduate programs by beginning coursework toward their master’s degree during their senior year, earning their master’s degree in a shorter period of time and saving money.

Program Philosophy & Emphasis


The MBA program features a managerial orientation with a focus on decision-making and not mere analysis, an emphasis on individual creative problem-solving skills, a global business perspective, and an emphasis on ethical conduct in management.

The MBA program focuses on five core beliefs that constitute the program's educational emphasis.

  • Managerial Emphasis
    Provide you with lessons and applications that help you manage people and resources to achieve results.
  • Decision-making Orientation
    In an environment of imperfect and incomplete information, you must be prepared to understand the risks and rewards of decision-making and to be responsible for the consequences that ensue.
  • Creative Problem-Solving
    Business leaders must engage individual creativity and innovation; more importantly, they must be able to develop the creative abilities of those in their employment.
  • Global Perspective
    As the world's economies grow ever more closely linked, thinking globally enhances opportunity and confronts competitive realities.
  • Ethical Leadership
    Quality decision-making requires that business leaders always consider the ethical components for all stakeholders, cultivated by means of a reflective and thoroughly considered set of moral principles.

The College of Business and Economics is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP). 

Program Accreditation


The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) is a leading specialized accreditation association for business education — supporting, celebrating and rewarding teaching excellence. ACBSP accredits business, accounting and business-related programs at the associate, baccalaureate, master, and doctorate degree levels worldwide.

View ACBSP Accreditation

Program Requirements

Graduate students in business may choose to focus at least twelve (12) hours of elective courses in a concentration. The following MBA concentrations require the general MBA core and degree electives from the approved list as follows:

MBA Concentrations

The following MBA concentrations require a modified MBA core and degree electives from the approved list as follows:

News & Events

Student holds a sign reading 'We are community'

The Bear community came together for the seventh-annual Bears Give Back event and raised a record-setting $847,320 to support current and future students.

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Carly Godfrey

As a child, Carly Godfrey '23, MBA '24, learned to swim at LR. Years later, a spot on the swim team would bring her back to learn so much more and make way for a bright future.

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