BUSI3342: Innovation Accelerator

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• BUSI3232 Dissertation, BUSI3332 Advanced Topics in Critical Organisational Studies, BUSI3422 New Venture Creation Project AND BUSI3412 Strategising for Sustainable Futures

• The module aim is to:
• To enable students to apply the major theories of innovation to the development of a technology or startup firm
• To equip students with the skills needed to research, scale-up, and disseminate commercialisation strategies for innovations and technologies within a commercial market place.
• To appreciate from theoretical perspectives the principles and practice of managing innovation and technology at an advanced level.
• Develop Innovation Management capabilities (e.g. forecasting and planning capabilities) and encourage broad awareness of factors impacting technology development in modern organisations.
• Advanced ability to apply relevant analytical tools to assess innovation strategies to pursue commercialization opportunities.

• Indicative Content
• Areas of application academic and commercial knowledge of start-up phases for new technologies, business models, and new ventures. This will include:
• The role of innovation in the evolution of new markets, the fluid phase of technological uncertainty, the emergence of the dominant design and establishment of variety-based forms of innovation.
• Invention and innovation, radical and incremental models of innovation.
• The influence of architectural and modular innovation on competitive markets
• The role of alliances and strategic maneuvering in establishing new markets
• Christensens disruptive/sustaining model of innovation.
• How innovations are communicated and diffused across social systems and to the potential adopters of technologies; The diffusion process and the danger of the chasm: traditional and social network-based approaches to diffusion of innovation.
• Assets of the firm and innovation management; Intellectual capital, and intellectual property strategies to gain competitive advantage from innovation
• New product development: static models of innovation, technology-push and market-pull models. How to manage technological innovation within organisations; a review of the historical approaches to innovation and new product development
• Distributed innovation, open innovation, and the implication of diversity on innovation and technology management. Technology brokering and recombinant innovation.
• Breakthrough innovation: current perspectives in the management of innovation, the shift from economic models based upon scarcity to abundance and the role of The Long Tail concept to innovation management.
• Technology-led vs Design-led innovation. The role of design in maximising competitive advantage from innovative technologies

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Subject-specific Knowledge:
• An advanced contextual knowledge of innovation as a key organizational process in modern companies, and how innovation can shape and determine new industries and markets.
• A deep and critical appreciation of theoretical debates and practical context involving the process in which new technologies and innovations are developed.
• Critical appreciation for the complex nature of industrial context, knowledge management and the emergence of creativity.
• Advanced managerial competencies to craft and analyse innovation strategies, by enhancing critical capabilities to analyse the contradictory motors of change and often paradoxical logic associated with planning for innovation.
• Be able to critically evaluate the impact of innovation on organisational strategy.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Subject-specific Skills:
• To have acquired skills of independent research and project management.
• To be able to demonstrate an ability to present and analyse data in a clear and appropriate manner.
• To be able to demonstrate an ability to present arguments and conclusions in an extended and coherent form.

Key Skills:

• Written communication - through summative assessment.
• Planning, Organisation and Working to deadlines.
• Problem Solving and Analysis - e.g. by designing research, manipulating concepts and applying analytical skills.
• Initiative by gaining access to relevant sources.
• Computer literacy - by production of the dissertation in word processed form, accessing literature and other sources via electronic means, relevant use of computer based experimentation and data analysis methods.

• The learning outcomes will be met through a series of lectures, seminar discussions and presentations, together with guided reading.
• The assessment of the module, by written assignment and group presentation, is designed to: test the acquisition and articulation of knowledge; test conceptual understanding and skills of application and interpretation within the business context
• Formative assessment is in two forms: evaluation of, and feedback on, work undertaken during the tutorials; and through feedback on the preparation of the project outline, draft chapter, and tutorial discussions.
• Summative assessment is in three sequential parts: Technology Enterprise, Market Analysis, and Business Model Configuration

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