A hot bed for logistics, technology, construction, healthcare, and leisure/hospitality, Riverside County is a place where business leaders have built a massive and diverse economy.
Known as the heart of Southern California wine country where championship golf courses, Coachella, and luxury resorts are the big draw, you can bet that among the 2.5 million residents of Riverside, Palm Springs, Moreno Valley, Temecula, and Corona are professionals who have put down roots to tap into the area’s diversified industry base.
And as home to four top-flight business schools, you can be sure that more than a few of them hold MBAs they earned right here in Riverside County.
To put the size of Riverside County’s economy into perspective, its gross regional product (GRP), valued at $104 billion, is by itself bigger than many multi-state regions, putting it among the top 1.5 percent of all counties in the US. Riverside County serves as a major manufacturing base for Southern California and is home to operations for multinationals like Amazon, Nestlé, and Walmart.
But it’s not just those big legacy corps that are driving the economy here. Fearless trailblazers feed the entrepreneurial spirit that lives and breathes in Riverside County. In an environment this big and multifaceted, managers and leaders from every corner of the economy rely on a combination of new school wile and classic critical thinking to remain agile and adaptive. And that means the MBA is the final word on career-readiness.
Riverside Is California’s Next Technology Mecca, Expected to Add 100,000 New Tech Jobs by 2030
Riverside isn’t content just being a major player in industries like manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. It’s a regional anchor for technology development and high-tech manufacturing too.
The tech sector is supported by a growing talent pool emerging from the region’s respected universities and business schools and housing costs that are the envy of the rest of California—residents of Los Angeles and Orange counties are migrating here to take advantage of affordable real estate. As a result, Riverside County’s tech sector added some 15,000 new tech jobs in 2024 alone, largely in the areas of cybersecurity, clean tech, and healthcare technology.
Riverside County Innovation reports that by 2030, tech companies here will create 100,000 new jobs. Some of the tech startups here quickly making a name for themselves include FarmSense Inc., which has created real-time sensors to help the ag industry make smarter pest management decisions, and Saru Recycling LLC, which created waste management units able to sort waste at the time of disposal and track waste data through an online web platform.
But startups aren’t the only reason Riverside County has become a swiftly growing tech hub. Established companies like Starz Electronics, a lithium-ion battery manufacturer, and Ohmio, an autonomous vehicle manufacturer, have chosen Riverside County to set up shop.
City initiatives like the Riverside Innovation District and incubators and accelerators like ExCITE Riverside have helped jumpstart companies here that have been running for years now. In fact, ExCITE Riverside alone has backed some 30 startups in the region since 2015.
Why Riverside County Has Some of the Best Online MBA Programs and Campus Options in California
Anchored by the Inland Empire, the metro region just east of Los Angeles that comprises the cities of Riverside and San Bernardino, Riverside County is an ideal location for studying business in a lot of ways. According to the RivCo Office of Economic Development, it’s the fastest growing large county in California. It also had the third fastest growing labor force in California and the second fastest growth among all California counties between 2020 and 2021. That represents a lot of potential talent in a lot of industries.
Riverside County is home to more than 74,000 businesses, a growing number of which are Fortune 500 companies. Global names like IBM, Fender, AT&T, Skechers, and Karma have chosen Riverside County for their regional offices or headquarters. Its prime location and outstanding infrastructure system includes no less than five major freeways and the BNSF and Union Pacific Railways, which allow for a near-limitless level of industrial development to take place here. It’s now one of the largest and fastest-growing industrial markets in the nation.
And the county’s startup ecosystem is alive and well too, thanks to initiatives like the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, which supports business development through its iHub incubator and accelerator, and the Riverside ExCITE Ecosystem, a collaboration between business leaders and the City of Riverside, County of Riverside, and the University of California Riverside Office of Technology. These partnerships provides support for high-tech startups in the form of co-working space, networking, workshops, and mentoring. No less than 18 colleges and universities in the region continue to pump out a skilled workforce that supports its growing industries.
It’s no surprise that business schools delivering premier MBA programs are a significant part of the equasion here.
Home to both small, private institutions and major schools like UC Riverside, MBA programs in Riverside County produce business professionals with the skills to lead businesses in an environment that’s evolving fast. And those schools are also part of that evolution.
UC Riverside’s Flagship MBA is delivered through the school’s nationally ranked School of Business, which recently opened a state-of-the-art instructional center to meet the school’s rapidly growing enrollment. UC Riverside has long been an economic engine for the county in many ways. The OASIS Initiative created by the university’s Office of Research and Economic Development works to develop public-private partnerships and contribute to the economic development of Inland Southern Californa.
Accredited Online MBA Programs and Campus Options in Riverside, Moreno Valley, Corona, and Throughout Riverside County
Riverside County is home to four MBA programs that are designed with today’s students in mind. Offered with options to specialize in areas like finance, information systems, accounting, and business analytics, and offering flexible delivery options that include online and hybrid classes, Riverside’s MBAs check every box.
And while traditional MBA programs among Riverside County’s universities are available, MBA programs tailored to mid-career professionals and rising executives are also a standard offering here.
California Baptist University
Dr. Robert K. Jabs School of Business
Riverside, CA
Website
- MBA (Accounting, Business Analytics, Healthcare Administration, Management) (on-campus, online)
- Accreditation: ACBSP
La Sierra University
Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business
Riverside, CA
Website
- MBA (Health Care Management, Marketing, HR Management, Finance, Sports Management, Customized) (on-campus)
University of California-Riverside
School of Business
Riverside, CA
Website
- MBA (Accounting, Business Analytics, Finance, Information Systems, Management, Marketing, OP and Supply Chain Management) (on-campus)
- Accreditation: AACSB