MSc Innovation,
Entrepreneurship & Management

This module provides a grounding in financial analysis, both accounting and risk assessment, suitable for those wishing to specialise in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Economics is a theory of decision, how to choose from a range of possible alternatives. This module focuses on decision-making within the firm and its market environment. It covers the main economic models and their utilisation.

This module provides an introduction to key concepts and evidence of effective marketing, so that businesses serve customers better. It analyses adoption and diffusion processes and explores the consumption of new products and services.

Drawing on theory and research evidence, this module assesses roles and the behaviour of the people who work in a business. By the end of the module you will have an understanding of the complexity of organisations and be aware of key issues in contemporary HR management.

Strategy is about creating, maintaining and reinforcing organisational purpose, direction and accomplishment. This module examines theories and evidence about strategic management. You will apply the knowledge learnt to live case studies of your choosing, demonstrating familiarity with, and competence in, the use of strategy tools and techniques.

The focus of this module is to give you a practical yet theoretically grounded collection of tools you can use to be an effective leader and developer of people - one who considers the impact of their decisions on the firm's internal and external stakeholders, while earning the respect, appreciation and gratitude of the people who work with and for you in your future career. This module is designed to introduce you to advanced concepts in developing leadership skills to be successful in organisations. The module will allow you to develop new insights into advanced topics frameworks to better understand their ‘own’ leadership style and develop their ‘own’ leadership capabilities.

Module description TBC 

This module provides a stimulating and integrated view on the practice of entrepreneurship and new venture creation. The central aim of the module is to de-mystify entrepreneurship and demonstrate that many of the skills and competencies required to launch and grow a successful business can be learned and practiced. You will scout or develop a first venture idea at the start of the spring term with practical workshops and individual team coaching sessions to help guide you. In the summer term, you will research your business idea and either write a business plan, or a report explaining the insights that have led to a negative business case, i.e. abandoning an entrepreneurial idea. You will present your plan or negative business case to peers and a panel of academic and investor judges in a competition held at the end of the summer term.

This module introduces you to the concept of design thinking, and the tools and techniques that may be adopted to take an initial idea and transform it into something that can be developed into a marketable product or service.

This module equips you with an understanding of the main issues in innovation strategy and an awareness of the key features of success. You will also gain an appreciation of the relevant skills needed to manage innovation at both strategic and operational levels, and learn from evidence of the success of different approaches.

This module covers the ways that growth-oriented ventures secure the financial resources they need and how they develop capabilities to outperform their competitions and internationalise. The module will help you understand the success factors of high growth ventures before and after their initial public offering (IPO).

This module focuses on the development of innovation skills at the individual level. Students will first complete a diagnostic of their innovation capabilities and develop a personal development plan to improve upon these. Throughout the programme long module, students will practice different behaviours associated with innovation and reflect upon these.

In this project-based, team-oriented module, you will explore applications of artificial intelligence technologies that will improve or transform existing financial, health and other systems, markets and methods, by spending dedicated time building new business models, products or technical concepts.

In this module you will explore consumer psychology and how consumer behaviour can be shaped. The module examines consumer psychology theories and current findings to learn how to apply these to develop marketing techniques that cut through the noise, shape or alter consumer behaviour, and help build and sustain consumer loyalty.

Design and innovation place particular emphasis on human factors, or the study of the way humans behave physically and psychologically in relation to certain environments, products, or services. Understanding humans requires basic knowledge in psychology, which is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, and specifically those impacting behaviours in a given context. This module provides you with basic tools to consider human behaviour and experience to affect impactful design solutions to global challenges.

Recent development in internet, digital media and social networks have greatly reshaped consumers' behaviours in information consumption, entertainment and communication. Consequently, marketing activities and strategies need to evolve with and adapt to the growing presence of online consumer behaviours. This module teaches you the current approaches to conducting marketing activities online, as well as at least basic understanding of the underlying technology.

This one week block module is designed to help current and emerging leaders and owners of family business understand the special challenges of family enterprises and manage the strategic and personal challenges that are ever present in this form of business entity. Through a series of lectures, case studies, activities, interactive presentations and discussions with a number of visiting family business owners sharing their experiences, you will have a rich experience in understanding the “how to” and the “how not to” of Family Enterprise.

The module focuses on various aspects of data science in order design products from data. It first defines and introduces data products, as well as alternative ways to design with data. It looks at the varied ways to generate value from data, by going through relevant concepts within modern data science (e.g. descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics). Overall, the module provides you with the right skillset to go from ideas that involve data to outcome that bring added value to the user of that data.

To be confirmed. 

This module explores the brave new world of social innovation and how businesses can tackle social problems through social innovation. While achieving business success and creating social welfare have often been seen as oppositional, a new generation is challenging this by trying to use business as a force for good. These social innovators tackle social problems in two main ways: by becoming social entrepreneurs who lead social enterprises (businesses that seek to fulfil a social mission), or by becoming social intrapreneurs who seek to achieve social change within the for-profit firms that employ them. Through this module you will be equipped with the tools to become a social innovator.

This module will develop your understanding of the principles, strategies, and tactics of effective negotiation and professional relationship management.

This one week block elective navigates the fintech competitive landscape and outlines corresponding management strategies for firms to deal with the fintech innovation. You will learn how new entrants to the financial sector devise entrepreneurial strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of traditional financial services by leveraging cutting edge technologies such as blockchain, Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as discussing how industry incumbents respond to the competition by integrating innovation at various levels such as technology licensing, joint venture, or merger and acquisition.

The marketing landscape is changing at an astonishing rate as a result of new emerging technologies, granular data availability and ever-growing analytics tools. Today’s marketing requires the use of data and quantitative approaches to support strategic decisions in rapidly evolving online and offline environments. Coding, machine learning tools, big data analytics and insight generation are becoming the new ‘must have’ skill set for marketing managers.

Taking a very hands-on approach with case study discussions and real-world datasets, this module aims to equip you with a working knowledge of analytics and big data applications in marketing. The ultimate goal is to help today’s business leaders transform their organisations by seizing the opportunities that big data and analytics present.

The module’s practical orientation will allow you to learn sophisticated data analytics in an applied, easy-to-understand, and accessible manner. You will learn how to leverage value from data and focus on deriving actionable managerial insights.

Success in both entrepreneurship and innovation depends on the successful execution at project level. This module will focus on the processes of project selection, assessing and managing project teams, stage gate processes and project evaluation.

Digital is transforming firms, sectors, and our lives in fundamental ways. A combination of new technologies, business models and ecosystems is altering solutions and creating new offerings, generating significant value, while also disrupting existing firms.  During this module, you will focus on strategy and leadership in digital environments, combining cutting edge research with deep field experience.

A significant element will be the engagement with senior leaders across different industries, who will share and discuss their perspectives and experiences. It will start by focusing the nature and characteristics of digital innovation, from the role of data and analytics as a strategic asset to platform-based competition, new business models and user engagement.

It will then explore how digital tools are being leveraged strategically by entrepreneurs to create opportunities for entry, scale and impact. It will also examine how leaders in established firms are driving digital transformation. The following topic is execution, exploring the alignment between strategy, organisational design, technology, and markets to scale success. The module will equally analyse the organisational and cultural elements that foster change and sustain competitive advantage.

The final section goes beyond the firm boundary and considers the ecosystem as a critical element for business success in a digital environment and how to orchestrate and nurture its development

This module enables you to understand, critique, and create games and playful experiences for entertainment and social issues like health, education, sustainability, or social change. It introduces key concepts, aspects, and methods of game design and play experiences through rapid making and critiquing of analogue games. Part two combines critical readings, discussion, and an applied game design sprint to convey how games and playful experiences can create change, and how to translate this into a design for a societal issue.

This module will introduce a new set of frameworks to apply to 'current wicked problems' in areas such as sustainability, space exploration, AI, healthcare, and more. 

To further develop and test these new systemic innovation heuristics, you will work closely on projects with Wicked Acceleration Labs’ industrial and academic partners such as:

Airbus

MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence

NATO's Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA)

Shell

Stanford's Gordian Knot Center

Telefonica

World Economic Forum

This module will be delivered in-person via a highly experiential modality, including teamwork ‘outside of the building’ in between sessions. There may also be ad-hoc workshops and lectures with experts and sponsors in the specific challenge domains.

The optional one-week Global Immersion will give you the opportunity to experience first-hand the social and cultural dynamics of business in another country. The trip will consist of a number of visits to different companies across a range of industry sectors, as well as social and cultural activities. Offering excellent networking opportunities, you will travel with students from other programmes across the Business School.

Please note that students will be required to pay additional costs.

The Business Startup module is your chance to apply your knowledge and skills to a specific aspect of a startup’s business development. This can be completed on an individual basis or as part of a team. 

Before the start of this module, you will submit a proposal which will be checked for suitability by the Programme Director. If accepted, you will be allocated a coach - who brings with them a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur or investor - to monitor your progress on the module. The Business Startup is assessed via an individual portfolio containing evidence and self-evaluation of the achievement of the learning outcomes of the module. 

This is a substantial team-based project undertaken for a real client. It gives you the opportunity to apply the programme material to the solution of a real business problem, and to gain valuable consulting experience.

The Individual Research Report is the primary choice for students who have a firm offer to study on a doctoral programme or are in the process of applying to a doctoral programme, in lieu of the Startup Project, Work Placement or Consulting Project. Under exceptional circumstances, students not planning doctoral study can complete the Individual Research Report. You must secure a supervisor to be considered. 

The Work Placement is an opportunity to experience and operate in a real-world situation. You are required to secure your own work placement, which will be checked for suitability by the Programme Director.

The Work Placement is assessed via two parts: (i) an individual portfolio containing evidence and self-evaluation of the achievement of the learning outcomes of the module; and (ii) an analysis of the industry that the business operates in. This is an individual project that can be completed within or outside of the UK, subject to approval. 

With the Extended Work Placement you will access additional work placement opportunities, including longer summer internships in the UK and worldwide. You will gain deeper work experience credentials and boost your marketability with potential future employers. The Extended Work Placement contributes to the development of your managerial potential by applying problem solving techniques to a challenging business situation in which you are fully immersed. The focus is on developing your skills in managing real business tasks, drawing on the knowledge and skills achieved in other modules of the programme.  Read more about the extended term here.