MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship / Course details

This course provides an introduction to the nature of innovation, why firms innovate, and how innovation can be managed, especially in firms. The course is taught through a mixture of lectures and seminars. The lectures cover a range of topics concerning the management of innovation, including motivations for innovating, how firms can protect their innovations using intellectual property rights (such as patents and trademarks), the nature and organisation and management of “research and development” (R&D), the management of creative people, processes and teams, the management of product, service and experience innovations, the adoption and use of “open innovation”, and the adoption and use of modularity in innovation.  The seminar classes involve discussions focused on case studies, which use a mixture of real and fictitious companies to discuss various aspects of managing innovation. These discussions closely complementing the topics covered in the lectures to reinforce the ideas and give them practical application.   

BMAN71471 Programme Req: BMAN71471 is only available as a core unit to students on MSc IME

The unit is an introduction to the nature of innovation within firms, their motives for innovation, and how innovation is managed.  It covers fundamental issues such as the organisation of innovation and R&D within the firm, managing creative people, how and why firms collaborate with other firms in networks and strategies to build and protect their own position.  The role of standards and the impact of disruptive technologies are also discussed.

On completion of this course unit, students should be able to:

• Understand the nature of innovation processes and become familiar with the characteristics of technologies;
• Understand the principles involved in managing innovation and the development of technology in firms and the ways in which business strategies and technological competencies interact;
• Appreciate a range of frameworks, and the strengths and weaknesses of them, that are used in analyses of the strategic management of technology;
• Have an appreciation of the concepts and ‘tools’ needed to analyse firms’ innovation and technology strategies, and know how to use these concepts/tools critically in a project analysis of a real firm's activities; be able to cross-link knowledge about firms’ management of technology and innovation to broader government regulation, competitiveness and economic issues.

Group Coursework (35%)

Written Examination (65%)

Written and/or verbal comments after students have given a group or individual presentation

Tidd, J., and Bessant, J., 2013. Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change, Wiley, 5th edition.

Dodgson, M., Gann, D. and Phillips, N. (2014) The Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management, Oxford University Press.

Schilling, M.A. 2017. Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, 5th edition. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Informal contact methods

In the first instance, students should approach the professor after lectures or seminars to raise any questions or concerns they many have.  Additional support will be provided if required.