Business Administration MBA

In this module, you will examine the complex cycle of financial reporting, management accounting, corporate financing, and investment within a business.

You will learn how good financial stewardship ensures that financial resources are in the right place, at the right time, and in the right form to sustain the business in meeting the needs of its stakeholders.

You will enhance your financial literacy through the practical experience of developing financial reports, analysing risk, recommending financing, and making investment decisions.

Core to your ethos will be environment, society, and governance (ESG) objectives, sustainable value creation, and responsible investment.

Experienced professionals will share their insights into global capital markets, micro-finance, and funding in the non-profit sector.

In this module, you will gain an advanced understanding of the function of a wide range of markets for the production, exchange, and consumption of goods and services.

We will examine how people perceive the choices available to them, and assess the associated risks, to make optimal decisions.

We will also explore the nature of competition in dynamic markets, and the approaches that companies take to gain temporary and lasting advantage.

Change is at the heart of our teaching. You will learn about innovation and the impact of disruptive technologies, such as digital platforms that create new markets, and how transformation occurs whilst protecting consumers and building market resilience to achieve lasting social good, and how greater environmental awareness is impacting and changing market behaviours.

Designing, forming, and leading organisations provide people with essential livelihoods. Doing this with a shared sense of purpose enables the organisation to amplify its social good across many markets and countries.

Within a good governance structure, we examine what leaders do to motivate and empower employees, shape cultures, drive change, resolve conflicts, and increase inclusion using power and effective decision-making.

We will explore a range of human interaction techniques including motivation and rewards, job design, teamwork, and leadership. From this, you will enhance your team-working skills, leadership profile, and your interpersonal effectiveness.

You will hear from experienced and successful leaders about the challenges they faced in their careers and the lessons that were learned leading to their improved practice.

We are all consumers and the targets of marketing activity from many organisations. But do we really understand why these companies do what they do for us? How do they know what products we want, how much we are prepared to pay, where we want to buy them, or how we want to be spoken to?

You will explore how companies create valuable relationships in a context of changing consumer behaviour, varied needs, dynamic market conditions, and unrelenting global competition.

This takes place in an era of improving professional standards as the marketplace rewards ethical marketing, transparency, customer engagement, and responsible consumption.

You will learn through case studies and from discussions with a range of expert practitioners.

Well-designed and well-managed operational systems that align with an organisation’s strategy are central to achieving and sustaining high levels of performance.

We focus on contemporary and emerging practice across the industrial, service, public, and not-for-profit sectors, emphasising high-performing operational processes capable of delivering an organisation’s products and services efficiently and effectively.

You will be able to assess the challenges in managing complex operations, projects, and supply chains to deliver high-quality outcomes, using Lean techniques and Six Sigma. You will understand the critical importance of IT and digitally enabled systems in supporting strong operational performance.

We share insights from business and industry, including analysis of contemporary case studies and expert practitioner views to drive business agility, rapid fulfilment, and customer-focused product variety while promoting resource sustainability and operational resilience.

Strategy is the practice of how an organisation fits within its chosen environment to ensure sustainability, competitive advantage in the good times, and resilience in more challenging times.

You will develop strategic analyses both for the external competitive environment and for the organisation’s internal resources and competencies, establishing priorities for where and how to focus development resources.

Ever mindful of current and emerging global competition you will use creativity and nuance to make clear the organisation’s strategic purpose, giving clarity of role to key stakeholders, and ensuring transparent governance.

Experienced practitioners will share their successes and failures of developing and delivering business, societal, and international strategic interventions. You will learn from a dynamic blend of case studies, cutting-edge research insights, and guest speakers.

Identifying, defining, and solving problems is key to a thriving society and economy.

Whether working individually, within an organisation or setting up a new business, it is your entrepreneurial skills that will enable you to establish new sources of value.

Challenges and opportunities come in many forms. Whether it is the need to develop a circular economy, expand clean technologies, enable regeneration, or ensure resource sustainability for future generations, this module gives you the opportunity to make your mark.

Using the University’s Ingenuity™ creative problem-solving model, you will work in teams, mentored by experienced entrepreneurs, to address a practical entrepreneurial challenge.

This module will integrate your thinking to build your business planning and pitching skills.

How do business leaders recognise their need to be responsible and accountable for their environmental and social impacts? How can they develop effective strategies to address sustainability challenges such as climate change, and how can those strategies play a fundamental role in core company performance and success?

This sustainable business simulation tackles these questions in an innovative way. Students gain first-hand experience of leadership roles in sustainability, and the complexities of creating sustainability strategies to ensure ‘shared value’ for companies, their stakeholders, and the environment. They learn how to defend those strategies in a board conference with experienced business practitioners, and how to approach a sustainability crisis through a simulated press conference with real journalists.

All MBA students complete a management project, giving them the opportunity to put theory into practice. You spend up to six months on a management project exploring current business issues and applying the theories and techniques learned during your MBA to resolve them.

You have three options. Either:

• apply for a project with a real business (company-based management project)
• do a desk-based project
• write a business plan

The specific topic is subject to an approval process. Course members enrolled on a specific MBA variant must undertake a Management Project related to their named variant.

This module examines ethical issues and dilemmas, covering a range of complex and controversial problems relating to business in a global economy. The main concepts and theories underpinning the business ethics field will be introduced, and you shall have the opportunity to apply these to business situations.

More specifically, the module explores pertinent issues of human rights, globalisation and sustainable development, and places these within different philosophical and cultural perspectives. The module also explores the role of professionals from an ethical perspective, and situates these explorations within a political-economic framework.

This module focuses on the key digital technologies that are producing revolutionary change in business right now. Wherever you work – finance, retail, government, manufacturing, consultancy or any service role – your industry and your job is being changed by disruptive technologies as organisations become data-driven.

New uses of data are radically changing how firms produce products and services, how they interact with customers and how they partner together. But the change has just started – this module can help you take advantage of the changes to come.

We will look at the underlying business ideas which drive and make use of technologies like big data analytics, The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, social media, Web 2.0, and cloud computing. We will discuss how they are being used by different firms to transform their capabilities, their business models and their performance. We will look at how to use these technologies in business examples, the firms that you are interested in and in your own jobs.

This module aims to promote self-directed learning on emerging issues for the future of management. You will be consulted on potential topics during semester one and the process explained. You will be expected select a topic for your studies from a selection that should demonstrate the relevance and importance of the topic for your future business ambitions or personal career development.

The module examines the ethical and practical justifications for the idea that companies should operate in the interests of shareholders and also the counter arguments in favour of a stakeholder perspective.

The module then deals in turn with the major financial decisions made in organisations (capital budgeting, capital structure, dividends, mergers, working capital). Decisions are analysed first in the context of well functioning capital markets. Capital market imperfections and behavioural biases on the part of managers and investors are then considered.

Game theory is used to analyse and predict the outcomes of complex situations involving strategic interactions, ie interactions in which the right choice for us depends upon the choices made by others, and our choices affect how others behave. Managers face strategic interactions within the firm (with other divisions and subordinates) and outside the firm, with suppliers, competitors, customers, regulators, and even capital markets. Examples include pricing decisions in oligopolistic markets, entry or exit decisions, incentive schemes, and optimal timing to release information.

In this module, you will learn the essential tools of game theory, discover their use by applying them to a variety of business situations and cases, and find out which are its limitations. It aims at developing your ability to think ahead and to take into account other people’s possible responses to your actions. More importantly, we’ll discuss how to choose or design the best “game”. After all, “successful business strategy is about actively shaping the game you play, not just playing the game you find” (Brandegurger and Nalebuff, 1995).

The aim of this module to understand the different factors that support innovative performance within firms. First, we look at innovation from an industrial perspective, showing how innovations of product, process and organisational structure can create and destroy markets. Then we consider innovation within an organisation, showing how innovation can be used to address social, environmental and governance challenges. Finally, we look at innovation from a managerial perspective, highlighting the entrepreneurial practices necessary to sustain innovation. We draw upon live cases of innovation within small, fast-growing firms and learn from approaches used to re-vitalise larger firms.

Participants choose which firm they wish to work upon and research the historical innovation performance of that firm and recommend a change programme for senior managers to act upon. This equips participants with the knowledge to manage innovation within their sector of interest and helps build their capability to respond to uncertainty and change.

The International Study Tour (IST) offers an exciting opportunity to appreciate the dynamics of contemporary business practice in an international context. It comprises a mixture of preparatory classroom learning and research, and field visits to organisations in the destination country, and meetings with senior managers.

The IST provides a great opportunity to reflect on the application of theory to practical business management issues in different environments, namely national, corporate and consumer cultural contexts and business environments. A range of sectors, industries, and company sizes are included to maximise alignment to students’ interests.

The IST has visited USA and China. The destination each year is based on the benefit that the destination country adds to the experience but may be affected by regulatory and logistical constraints. Assessment mirrors the innovative nature of the module and includes reflection on personal learning.

The module will include the following topics:

• The meaning, nature and evolution of the field of leadership in an organisational, social, environmental and multi-cultural context
• Critical issues in leadership, including how leaders are selected, development tools that are available, and issues of evaluation - leadership development, styles, motivations and competencies
• Leadership skills for building teams and securing involvement and participation - working collaboratively, ethically and effectively to support a partnership approach to leadership and management development
• Leadership and strategic change - the key roles that leaders play in creating visions and strategies and the implementation of leadership and management strategies to meet current and future organisational demands
• Leadership and sustainable strategic management
• Leading change - how leaders influence and persuade others and the key challenges that organisations and individual managers face

Varying in size and type, projects are literally everywhere. They are vital to all sectors and all business functions and are key platforms for improved performance and enhanced competitiveness. However, many projects are not easy to plan, manage or control, and may fail; they may overshoot the deadline, go over budget, or not meet the specifications. Risks and uncertainty and the choice of the right methodology, further complicate planning and control and affect the chances of successful project completion.

The module develops knowledge of the most important project planning and control methods and techniques, both traditional and contemporary. It enhances understanding on how the variety of project management methods work through in-class applications, readings, and the use of relevant software. It addresses broader issues and challenges of managing projects successfully, including stakeholder engagement and management, risk and uncertainty, the contribution of projects to innovation, and the development of a portfolio strategy.

Why focus on business-to-business marketing? It is believed that between 50% and as much as 80% of all marketing related jobs and associated economic activity are in business markets. New perspectives in business marketing have emerged that focus on intangible resources, the co-creation of value, and relationships in networks of organisations rather than the traditional buyer-seller dyadic view of markets and marketing.

The aim of this module is to provide an introduction to the main theoretical and managerial concepts and issues in the area of business-to-business marketing and strategic market relations. We explore the complex dynamics of networked relationships between buying and selling organisations. Such networks offer organisations the opportunity to learn and create value in novel and innovative ways. However, they also constrain the actions of individual organisations in the network. Thus, strategic market relations require firms to understand how to build, manage, and leverage their market relationships.

Venture Capital and Private Equity (VC&PE) provide risk capital to firms at various stages of their life cycle, from selecting early-stage young firms to identifying late-stage investment opportunities such buyouts.

This module examines how VC&PE firms operate from both the investor and investee perspective. It looks at due diligence, firm section, structuring deals, valuation, managing portfolio firms, and exit. Cases discussed range from seed funding to management buyouts (MBOs) and bolt-ons to turnarounds and are often accompanied by industry experts in class.