BEMM114: Managing Operations
Summary:
The aim of the module is to introduce you to the importance of the operations functions of an organisation and how operations performance can impact on the success of the whole organisation. The module discusses the role played by operations managers in setting an operations strategy through which products and services can be designed and delivered. The module focusses not only on systems, processes and facilities in the production and flow of goods and services, but also on the general principles an organisation can use to guide its decision-making. Particular attention is given to operational objectives, capacity management, project management and the process choice decisions facing organisations in pursuit of 'delighting' the ever demanding customer; the customer who today typically expects; quality, value for money, and consistently excellent customer service.
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BEMM394: Entrepreneurship: New Venture Creation
This module introduces both the theoretical and practical aspects of entrepreneurship and new venture creation. It adopts various perspectives to provide a holistic picture of the entrepreneurial process, including, but not limited to, the practical aspects of the intellectual, behavioral, and emotional demands of starting a new venture. The module is intended to provide rigorous insight into the realities of entrepreneurial activity and an understanding of the role that small and medium-sized businesses play in the modern economy. This may be achieved by creating a new independent firm or organizing a new enterprise within an existing firm.
If you already have an idea for a new business or are working on one, this module offers an opportunity to develop, refine, and test it.
Additional Information:
Internationalisation
You will have the opportunity to develop the ability to think globally and understand international cultures through working on global sustainability problems with classmates from diverse cultures. Diverse teams enable understanding of global problems from multiple perspectives and the development of viable solutions.
External Engagement
This module draws on academic and entrepreneurial experts to enrich your learning journey.
Sustainability
You are encouraged to tackle sustainability-related issues in your group activities and individual assignments.
Employability
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BEMM801: Entrepreneurship: Business Simulation
This module is integrated with a sophisticated simulation package that allows you to gain an authentic learning experience whilst running a business as an entrepreneur. Underpinned by experiential learning and gamification, this module is designed to allow you to learn a wide range of aspects about running and growing a business in a simulated environment.
This practice-based module will focus on the various functions of a business at different stages of development to equip you with tacit knowledge of the complex nature of running and growing a business. You will have the opportunity to enhance your understanding on how the decisions you make will generate impact on the various aspects of your business by running the day-to-day activities for your business in the simulation.
No prior knowledge skills or experience required to take this module as the simulation itself offers very detailed instructions and explanations for various concepts. No pre-requisite and co-requisite modules needed.
This module is suitable for business specialist and non-specialist students; however, it is worth noting that those without a business background may find that it takes longer to get familiarised with the business concepts.
This module is recommended for interdisciplinary pathways.
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BEMM833: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Practice: Pre-Incubator
This hands-on module is a defining component of the MSc Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme. It immerses you in the early exploratory and ideation stages of venture development, guiding you through the mindsets, tools and processes that underpin innovation and entrepreneurship. You will dive into the pre-incubation process of discovering unmet opportunities, generating purpose-driven venture ideas, investigating those ideas, and conducting market validation. Teaching is delivered through an integrated blend of preparatory lectures and highly interactive workshops. These include experiential activities and opportunities for formative feedback that build foundational knowledge in business models, market sizing, finances and revenue streams, and pitching skills.
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BEMM834: The Entrepreneurial Mindset
The Module explores how entrepreneurs think, interpret their environment, and act under conditions of uncertainty. Aimed at postgraduate students from a range of backgrounds, the module combines theory, practical exercises, and structured reflection to help students develop a clearer understanding of their own approach to opportunity, creativity, and decision-making. Across a series of sessions, we examine key themes such as entrepreneurial cognition, opportunity recognition, creativity, leadership, motivation, and the role of networks and social capital. We also consider the less visible aspects of entrepreneurial life, including resilience, dealing with setbacks, values-driven action, and the ethical and contextual challenges entrepreneurs face.
Learning on the module is highly applied. Students engage in workshops, case discussions, simulations, and reflective tasks that connect academic ideas to real-world entrepreneurial practice. Activities such as opportunity-spotting, decision-making scenarios, minimal viable product (MVP) design, network mapping, and values-driven reflection help students test and develop their own entrepreneurial thinking. A reflective learning journal runs throughout the module, encouraging students to explore how their mindset evolves over time.
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BEMM836: Scaling Innovation: Translating Ideas into Practice
Scaling opportunities maximises the potential value that can be created by an innovation (e.g. a new product) or new enterprise. Too many innovations and start-ups (both new ventures and opportunities within established organisations) get stuck and don't achieve their full potential. They fail to scale, particularly in uncertain BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear, and Incomprehensible) contexts.
This capstone module is the final experience of the programme, designed to bring together and mobilise the knowledge and skills that you have acquired throughout the curriculum. The key aims of the Scaling Innovation: Translating Ideas into Practice module are to:
1. Synthesise your knowledge through the integration of theories, models and practices from individual modules
2. Apply your knowledge to create a detailed Scaling Plan
The early stages of the module provide an overview of the challenges in moving innovation to scale. We will provide a framework for developing and implementing a strategy, stress testing a product or service, preparing the organisation for scaling, and bringing together a value network to drive the success of a validated but “not successful yet” project.
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BEMM839: Unlocking Innovation
Research demonstrates that innovative organisations outperform those that fail to innovate, whatever environments they are operating in. Innovation is often misunderstood as a distinctive "flash of genius," but for successful organisations, it is a disciplined management process essential for survival in a volatile global economy.
Unlocking Innovation serves as the backbone of your study of innovation and its management, moving beyond buzzwords to master the fundamental mechanics of bringing new value to life. In the module you will adopt the core process model (Search, Select, Implement, and Capture) to navigate the journey from a raw idea to a market-ready reality. You will learn how to scan the environment for opportunities (Search), make tough strategic choices on where to invest resources (Select), manage complex project development (Implement), and sustain value from your efforts (Capture).
The module bridges the gap between academic theory and practical application. Whether you aspire to launch and scale a disruptive start-up or drive transformation within an established multinational or public sector organisation, you will develop the "dynamic capabilities" required to manage risk, navigate uncertainty, and turn global challenges into competitive advantages.
The management of innovation is professionalising fast. This is your essential toolkit for becoming a proactive innovation manager in a digital, sustainability-focused world.
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BEMM841: Protecting Innovation
Innovation operates within competitive and dynamic environments shaped by rapid socio-economic change associated with technologies such as artificial intelligence, sustainability challenges, market uncertainties, evolving innovation policies, and geopolitical pressures. In this context, the ability to protect innovation is central to long-term organisational success.
In this module, you will explore how organisations and governments protect, manage, and responsibly share innovation while safeguarding it from imitation and misappropriation. You will examine both the strategic importance of innovation protection and the practical tools organisations use to secure and sustain competitive advantage.
The module introduces formal and informal protection mechanisms and covers key contemporary themes, including national and regional innovation strategies, innovation policies, intellectual property (IP) regimes, global production networks, and technology sovereignty. These topics provide the foundation for understanding how innovation protection strategies are shaped by technological, economic, geopolitical, legal, and related contexts.
Through case studies, applied exercises, and analytical discussions, you will learn how organisations and governments protect innovation, anticipate and respond to emerging risks and uncertainties, opportunities and shifts in the innovation landscape.
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BEMM842: Rethinking Innovation
Description - Summary of module content
Innovation is at a crossroads, fuelled by growing demands to rethink its core assumptions and reimagine its role in shaping fairer, more sustainable futures. Once centred on markets and profit, innovation is now expected to confront accelerating social and environmental crises. This module offers a dynamic, research-led dive into the cutting-edge innovation approaches and practices that seek to drive transformational change for people and planet.
Through research led case studies, interdisciplinary theory and contemporary frameworks, you will examine how innovation can challenge power, reshape systems and generate diverse forms of value. The module equips future leaders with the critical tools and imaginative capacity needed to drive ambitious and systemic change.
Module aims - intentions of module
Innovation is at a crossroads. Once narrowly focused on markets, profit and technological progress, it is increasingly called upon to address urgent social, environmental and ethical challenges. This module equips you to rethink innovation from the ground up, exploring approaches that go beyond business-as-usual and embrace transformative potential for people and planet.
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BEMM858: Advanced issues in Resourcing, Talent Management and Reward
Central to organisational success is an ability to attract and retain the right talent committed to adding value to the organisation and its stakeholders, as well as to design employee reward policies to support strategic organisational goals. This module focuses on strategic and practical aspects of both resourcing and reward. This will enable you to critically discuss resourcing and reward practices, show the relationship between these two HRM functions and apply appropriate strategies for managing issues related to people resourcing and reward.
The resourcing and talent management aspect provides you with an opportunity to explore the different aspects of people resourcing practices that are used throughout the employee life cycle, namely employee attraction, assessment, selection, retention, release, flexible working and strategic talent management. You will be able to critically evaluate the key features of HR practices which will include the ability to attract, retain and exit people from the organization. You will also be introduced to the ways that organisations seek to build their ‘employer branding’ and to position themselves strategically in the labour market in relation to their competitors.
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ENSM021: AI and Emerging Technologies
This module examines artificial intelligence (AI) as a general-purpose and discovery-enabling technology and explores how it is accelerating the emergence of new materials, systems, and forms of innovation across science, engineering, and industry.
In addition to understanding AI enabled applications, the module focuses on how AI is reshaping the nature of innovation itself, from traditional market-pull approaches toward increasingly powerful forms of technology-push innovation, where advances in computation, data, and learning systems generate novel possibilities ahead of explicit market demand.
Designed for non-technical innovators, the module develops AI literacy, strategic insight, and ethical judgement. Participants learn how AI and converging technologies - from advanced materials and autonomous systems to digital platforms and intelligent infrastructure - can be governed, translated, and deployed to create sustainable organisational and societal value.
The aim of this module is to develop innovators who can:
• Understand AI not only as an application technology, but as a driver of discovery and system-level change
• Critically evaluate how AI reshapes innovation processes, from R&D to commercialisation
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