BU MMH—Innovation and Entrepreneurship

MMH students are required to complete 32 credit hours (8 courses) of study, including 16 credit hours in four required courses taken during the fall semester to learn fundamental hospitality operation knowledge as well as leadership skills. After completion of the required courses, students build their professional skill set through 16 credits in four specialized courses in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration. 

Full-time students can complete the MMH degree in as little as one three-semester year. 

In addition to coursework, the MMH program involves a summer internship that allows students to dive headfirst into practical experiences that give them advanced knowledge and useful skills in the hospitality industry. If a student already has relevant hospitality experience, the internship requirement can be waived.

MMH students are required to complete four prerequisite courses: HF701, HF711, HF762, and HF733, before taking any other elective courses. These required courses lay a solid foundation for students to understand the hospitality industry and business operations. Through the four required courses, students can expect to learn:

• Tools and skills to analyze and solve problems in daily hotel, lodging, and restaurant operations
• Essential financial and accounting skills to budget, invest, and evaluate business decisions
• Marketing tactics and skills to gain customer loyalty, increase brand equity and improve profitability
• Leadership skills and human resources knowledge to hire, manage talent, and build a healthy company culture

Full Master of Management Curriculum

After completing the required courses, MMH students in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration take four additional courses, 16 credit hours, to develop essential skills specific to hospitality entrepreneurship. 

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration classes are designed specifically to launch the students’ intellectual ability to respond to disruptors, create disruption, strategize creatively, and think entrepreneurially. Explore the Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration coursework below.

From the impact of Uber, Airbnb to COVID-19, the class covers the most recent hurdles and trends in hospitality. In this course, students use case studies, media coverage to examine the dramatic changes encountered by the hospitality industry. Students discuss how entrepreneurs take innovative strategies to resolve business problems.

This course examines how managers and leaders create the condition for innovation at different levels. The course deep dives into the processes that managers need to put in place to enable organizations to execute an innovation strategy. In doing so, students learn how to balance the challenges of organizing, managing, and leading innovation with the need to produce concrete outcomes within the organization. This class also assesses how design contributes to innovation in product, process, and business models. At the end of the class, students work in groups to explore the solutions to rescue innovations in trouble with turnaround teams.

This is the capstone course for students in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration. In this course, students work in teams to create a concise Pro Forma Business Plan for a start-up hospitality enterprise. By accomplishing a capstone project, students deepen their understanding of hospitality entrepreneurship and innovation as a professional business system.

The Independent Study is designed for students to assemble the elements of all three concentration-specific courses into one comprehensive and effective business plan. Students choose a hospitality asset or product that they are passionate about and apply the knowledge they learn from the Entrepreneurship course and Design Thinking and Innovation course to saving the struggling hospitality product.

We understand that many working professionals need to maintain full-time employment while pursuing a Master of Management in Hospitality degree. Thus, our MMH program allows students to finish their degrees on a part-time basis. To accommodate part-time students’ work schedules, we offer evening classes that students can take after work hours.

Part-time students follow the same program structure as full-time students; however, part-time students may take only one or two classes per semester. Therefore, part-time students may finish their MMH degree in two years, while full-time students are able to complete their degrees within a year.

Our MMH Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration empowers students with robust business skills and industry knowledge to launch their own start-ups or to take any leadership roles in hospitality. 

For those looking to start a business in the hospitality industry, such as a restaurant, hotel, travel agency, or online booking agency, a Master of Management in Hospitality degree with a concentration in Innovation and Entrepreneurship is the perfect place to start your entrepreneurial journey. Being an entrepreneur means you need to wear many different hats, from product management to customer service. Earning an MMH degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at BU prepares you to gain the skills needed to grow your business.

There are also many advantages of being an entrepreneur, such as flexibility, independence, and autonomy. You can decide the business model, the operation, products, services, and business hours. What’s more, you don’t necessarily have a limit on your income—you are paid what you earn.  

If being a business owner is not your path, earning an MMH degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship can still lead to other lucrative careers. Examples of career opportunities in the hospitality industry include product manager, finance manager, and management analyst. Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, product managers can earn an annual income of $107,480, finance managers at $129,890 per year, and management analysts at $85,260 per year.

Boston is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world and has numerous employment opportunities in hospitality. Businesses such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, and convention centers thrive in this city and its surrounding metropolitan area. 

To connect our students with the top hospitality employers in Boston, we provide useful career resources to help students to find their career paths. The School of Hospitality Administration‘s close relationship with hospitality companies opens more doors for our students to find internships as well as full-time positions upon graduation. Explore how our Career Services can help you find better opportunities. 

Our Marriott Career Center also provides support to our students, including useful career information, access to job openings, networking events, and career workshops that assist in job searching. With the career resources available, 100% of our 2018 and 2019 MMH graduates achieved industry placement within three months of completing the program.

Ready to start your application for the Master of Management in Hospitality program with an Innovation and Entrepreneurship concentration? The following is a list of materials that must be submitted with the online application:

• An official copy of your undergraduate transcript
• 2-3 letters of recommendation
• Resume or CV
• A one- to three-minute video
• 500-700 word written personal statement 

Standard test scores such as GRE and GMAT are not required in the application. However, international applicants must submit TOEFL or IELTS scores to demonstrate their English proficiency. They must meet the minimum requirements of 84 on the TOEFL or 6.5 on the IELTS. 

Full List of MMH Degree Application Requirements