Online Business Studies 2024-2025

This short course is designed to enable the candidate to develop a broad knowledge and understanding of the skills and practices which will be needed to establish, develop and maintain a business as a self-employed person.

All research is underpinned by ontological and epistemological assumptions of some form. The choice of research philosophy is an important step in the research development process. On completion of this course, students will be able to critically reflect on the foundations of research styles and be able to identify and justify an appropriate research design and theoretical approach for their own project, which will enable them to conduct academically rigorous research. This course bridges the gap between the master’s level research skills and the doctoral level.

This course bridges the gap between master’s level research skills and the doctoral level. The course examines the issues involved in designing and conducting research in a business area. The course examines a variety of research philosophies and methodological approaches commonly applied with business research as well as the skills required to conduct in-depth critical and systematic literature review. It utilises a research orientated set of readings and examples. The course will also be of interest to those undertaking a professional or work-based doctoral project such as a DBA.

The course will apply theoretical and practical content to explore the key concepts of Marketing in Management to provide students with an understanding of, coordinating and controlling marketing activities. The aim is to provide you with an understanding of the role of marketing and relevant critical strategies in establishing, developing and maintaining customer value.

This theoretically informed and practical course aims to explore the key concepts and theories of consumer behaviour. At the end of the course students will have an understanding of:    

- The activities individuals undertake when obtaining, consuming and disposing of products and services

- The consumer as an individual: Understanding motivations, psychographics, demographics and cognitive processes.

- Social and group aspects of consumer behaviour: The role of friends, family and reference groups.

- This will be achieved through a combination of lectures, seminars and directed private study.

This course provides an opportunity to explore and develop an understanding of your own ladership behaviour. Through seminars, group activities and discussions we investigate how personality, past experience, current situations and culture shape the way each of us behave in a leadership role. Using this information as a starting point we then explore how different leadership theories and approaches can be used as a frameworks for developing a deeper understanding of leadership behaviour. You will also have an opportunity to assist you in the development of your own approach to leadership.

The concepts of change and innovation have never been more topical, especially given the commercial context of fierce business competition, shorter product life cycles and more demanding customers. Increasingly, long-term commercial success is based on an ability to manage change, to act creatively and to promote innovation; These processes interconnect and overlap and often present major challenges to modern organizations; We address these issues through providing detailed case illustrations ranging from the workplace to the wider business market. Learning is encouraged through interaction, reading, investigation, video and case analysis, and critical discussion.

Through a combination of lectures, tutorials, workshops, debates and in-course assessment, this course encourages students to critically reflect upon: Social theory and its relevance to marketing communications; Concepts and contemporary thought within the practice of marketing communication; expressive practice.

The course provides both a strategic orientation and tactical orientation:

Strategic:

§  How to align digital strategy with a wider business strategy

§  The value that (internal and external) research and analytics can bring to digital marketing decisions

Tactical:

§  Assess the quality of any website based on a range of important measures

§  Benchmark a website’s performance against online competitors

§  Investigate the potential of a business idea for a given market sector

§  Present digital marketing research and advice to a generalist audience

§  Understand the potential commercial value of social media

§  Interpret onsite analytics in support of business objectives

This course aims to:

• Provide an appreciation of why scenario thinking is needed, what it is based on and its impact on understanding business or policy needs.

• Provide the required management thinking skills and experience of developing plausible scenarios based on your own uncertainties and insights as well as other delegate’s uncertainties and insights.

• Provide a critical understanding of the complex nature of the global business environment and to encourage engagement in a process of multi-future thinking.

The focus of this course is on teamwork in employing organisations, the issues we’ll cover - the principles of effective team performance, team leadership, team participation - are applicable to team activities in most types of setting. In work organisations, teams and team working has long featured in discussions and research about the effective design of work and jobs and the factors associated with high performance in teams.

An effective marketing plan is critical to a company competing successful in its target markets. Hence, learning the skills and knowledge to develop an effective marketing plan is important for a career in marketing. The course shall explore critical issues in the marketing planning process (identifying target audience and then develop a market strategy to target the identified segment), as well as equip students with a step-by-step guide on how to develop a marketing plan. 

This course will cover strategies for effective brand management.

This module investigates the concept of the business model and how and why organisations need to regularly challenge the way in which they do business in order to remain relevant and competitive.

This module will focus on five main themes:

• The Business Module and its Component Parts
• The Ten Types of Innovation
• Business Model Patterns
• Disruptive Thinking
• Testing and Evaluating New Business Models

The focus of this module is not on personnel but on processes. The application of processes, methods, knowledge and skills enables us to achieve our objectives.

This module will focus on five main themes:

• Planning for Success

• Work Breakdown

• Estimation: Time, Resources and Cost

• Scheduling

• Project Delivery and Evaluation