BUSI46A15: STRATEGIC INNOVATION (FT)

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• To provide a critical understanding of the dynamic patterns of technological change. These patterns emerge at the interface between internal forces (strategy, marketing, R&D management, operations and knowledge management) and external forces (consumers' adoption of new technologies, regulatory and ethical frameworks, availability of funding for science and technology, national or local approach to societal change). The course will explore the interplay between these forces and discuss frameworks/tools that managers can use to shape or influence the process of technological change.
• This course will address the macro and micro aspects of the relationship between technological change, knowledge, management and strategy.
• This is designed as a level 4 elective module, building upon topics introduced in the core modules of the MBA.
• This is not a technical course addressed to engineers, scientists and R&D people only. This course is for everybody curious to understand how innovation and technology change the context in which company live, prosper and die and what managerial and strategic tools/techniques managers have to control and shape to their own advantage the direction of change. Innovation is about the emergence, diffusion and application of the most powerful competitive force: new technologies. However, change comes in disguise and we often fall pray of Charles Duell's mistake (Charles H. Duell: Commissioner of the US Office of Patents, urging president William McKinley to abolish the Patent Office in 1899): "Everything that can be invented has been invented", with the consequence that organisations engage in management of incremental change rather than embracing radical approaches.

• What is breakthrough innovation? - static models of innovation: "technology-push" and "market-pull" models, invention and innovation, radical and incremental models.
• The evolution of breakthrough innovations: evolutionary models and Christensens disruptive/sustaining model of innovation.
• The diffusion process and the danger of the chasm: traditional and social network-based approaches to diffusion of innovation.
• New product development: how to manage technological innovation within organisations; a review of the historical approaches to new product development.
• Current trends in the management of innovation including: brokering and modularity in breakthrough innovation; emergent innovation and self-organisation; open innovation; the role of communities and lead-users; innovation markets.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module students will have a critical understanding of:
• the dynamics of technological change and its evolutional properties;
• the basic principles of knowledge management.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module students will be able to:
• critically evaluate techniques for the management of technological innovation within organisations.

Key Skills:

• In addition, students will have the opportunity to further develop the following key skills:
• Written communication; planning, organising and time management; problem solving and analysis; using initiative; computer literacy;
• presentation of complex topics;
• group interaction and group dynamic;
• case studies analysis.

• Learning outcomes will be met through a combination of lectures, groupwork, case studies and discussion, supported by guided reading. The written assignment, 2500 words in total, will require students to answer specific question(s) designed to test their critical understanding of relevant concepts. The group presentation, requiring evaluation of a chosen technology in the context of relevant strategic innovation frameworks, will also test students' ability to work effectively in collaboration with others and to critically assess the relevance and validity of others' views.

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