Business

What Is Business?

Business is the study of organizational leadership, strategic decision making, project management, and more. Business administration is a far-reaching discipline that touches on various aspects of entrepreneurship including ethics, financial planning, business law and more.

The Best Colleges and Universities for Business Degrees

To view the entire list of top business schools, including schools offering online degrees and a breakdown of the best business colleges and universities in your state, visit our look at the Best Colleges and Universities for Business Degrees.

Are you interested in exploring other college majors and programs? Don’t miss our comprehensive guide to college degree programs.

You can also check out the best business schools in the U.S. or in the the world for earning an MBA.

For a dynamic, real-time listing of the most influential biology schools in the world, use our Custom College Ranking.

Business Degrees

What Will I Study as a Business Major?

As a business major, you’ll study foundational topics in business including organizational psychology, theories of leadership, macro- and microeconomics, the fundamentals of accounting, business ethics, and more. You’ll likely also have a chance to pursue your own concentration-whether your interest is in sales, promotions, international business, and more.

What Can I Do With a Degree in Business?

A business degree is a highly versatile point of entry into a wide range of fields whether you plan to pursue a management role in a large company, start your own enterprise, work in an administrative role for a large retail chain, serve as a human resources specialist, provide third-party consultation to organizations undergoing transformation, and much more.

Did you know that there are a number of degrees that can help to future-proof your career? These are the degrees that prepare you to compete for jobs in tomorrow’s workplace. They are versatile, have a projected growth rate of at least 8% for all jobs between 2020 and 2030, and are either complimentary to the rise of automation, or represent functions that can only be performed by human beings. Those degrees are:

• Marketing and Advertising
• Business Administration
• Organizational Leadership

How To Get a Degree in Business

• Find out How to Major in Business Administration.
• Find out What you can do with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA).

The Best Online Business Degrees

Business is the single most popular subject-specific discipline at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. A growing number of reputable colleges and universities are satisfying demand for this degree by providing an array of high-quality online business degree options. Using our InfluenceRanking engine, we’ve identified the best among them. Check out our growing set of rankings for online business degree programs at every level of education.

Best Online Associate in Business Degrees

• Best Online Associate in Business Administration
• Best Online Associate in Business Management

Best Online Bachelor’s in Business Degrees

• Best Online Bachelor’s in Business Administration

Best Online Master’s in Business Degrees

• Best Online Master’s in Business Administration
• Best Online No-GMAT MBA Programs
• The Best Online No-GRE MBA Programs
• Best Online Master’s in Executive MBA
• Online MBAs that Can be Completed in One Year

Best Online Business Doctorate Degrees

• Best Online DBA Doctorate in Business Administration Programs

Controversial Topics in Business

There are many competing philosophies on how to build, lead, and succeed in business. These competing ideas lead to no shortage of philosophical and policy debates. We’ll do our best to provide objective and fact-based information on the controversies pertinent to the business discipline.

1. Outsourcing
2. Labor Unions
3. Social Security
4. Minimum Wage

Who Are the Current Top Business Leaders?

The following are the top business leaders in the field today according to our machine-powered Influence Rankings, which are drawn from a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia/data, Crossref, and an ever-growing body of data.

• Warren Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, as well as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Widely considered one of the most successful investors in the world, Buffett’s net worth is estimated at over $104.4 billion as of August 2021.
• Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, business magnate, and the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX as well as an early-stage investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. A centibillionaire, Musk is one of the richest people in the world.
• Mark Zuckerberg is an American media magnate and internet entrepreneur, known for co-founding Facebook, Inc., as well as serving as its chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder.
• Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-born American billionaire businessman, media tycoon, and investor. Through his company News Corp, Murdoch owns hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets in the US, UK, Australia and beyond.
• Richard Branson is an English business magnate, investor, and author, best known for founding the Virgin Group in the 1970s. Today, his company controls more than 400 enterprises in various fields.

Interviews with Top Business Leaders

• Alex Rogers discusses decriminalizing the use of marijuana, practical applications, and cannabis business conferences in our interview, The Business of Cannabis.
• Alex Rogers discusses medical marijuana, the legalization of weed, and the growing cannabis industry in our interview, The Growing World of Weed.

Great Books About Business

The following are the most influential books in the field of business administration today according to our backstage Ranking Analytics tool, which calculates the influence of various sources in both academics and popular culture using a numerical scoring of citations across Wikipedia/data, Crossref, and an ever-growing body of data

1. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl SandbergSheryl Sandberg offers insights on how women can climb the corporate ladder.
2. The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger Martin lays out the author’s analysis of “design thinking,” a unique approach to problem solving in the context of business innovation.
3. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: The Dastard’s Guide to Fame and Fortune by Shepherd Mead is a satire in the form of a pseudo-instruction manual, loosely based on real manuals that proliferated in mid-level management offices in the 1950s, and offers tongue-in-cheek advice to employees about how to get ahead in their careers.
4. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne explores the search for new business opportunities in brand-new market spaces.
5. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits by C.K. Prahalad observes that because the base of the pyramid-the world’s poor-is so large, there is a huge opportunity for global corporations to do well in terms of profits while at the same time doing good by investing in developing countries.

For a full list of the top books in the field of business today, check out The 25 Most Influential Books in Business 2010-2020.