MSc Economics & Strategy for Business: Electives

This module will address the topic of sustainability from a strategic perspective, with a particular emphasis on decision-making and trade-offs. Topics covered include: the drivers of the sustainability debate; the business case for sustainability; sustainability and competitive advantage; sustainable strategies; sustainable business models; sustainable value creation; sustainable investing and sustainability disclosure.

This module develops the relationship between macroeconomics, banking, other nonbank financial intermediaries, international finance and financial markets. The module delivers a deep insight and advanced knowledge of the wider world of global business, international finance, financial intermediaries and the financial markets.

The aim of the module is to analyse principles of microeconomics and their application to healthcare, and to examine issues of efficiency and equity and their application to healthcare.

This module provides you with an understanding of the principal challenges facing energy businesses in the modern world, and how you should respond to them. It aims to ask whether, and how, business can provide secure supplies of energy at a reasonable cost to consumers with minimal damage to the environment while still making a profit.

Firms, workers and consumers have to act in situations where they are dealing with a party that knows more than they do, such as the insurance applicant who may be a poor driver or the manager who knows more about the markets her firm is operating in than its shareholders. We discuss the tools that economists have developed to analyse these problems and recommend solutions that encourage people to act in ways that don’t take too much advantage of their superior information.

When, why and how do people buy (or not buy) a product? When you stop to think about it, product decisions are made every day, some with or without much thought. Successful marketing leaders develop a core understanding of how their current and prospective customers are driven by psychological factors and react to marketing activities.

In this module, you will develop an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour through the cutting-edge ideas that are gaining prominence in academia. You will apply these key concepts to develop and evaluate marketing strategies– to ultimately – predict and change consumer behaviour. Learn via case discussions, guest lectures, experimental demonstrations and projects.

This module introduces you to the concept of design thinking, and the tools and techniques that may be adopted to take an initial idea and transform it into something that can be developed into a marketable product or service.

This one week block module is designed to help current and emerging leaders and owners of family business understand the special challenges of Family Enterprises and manage the strategic and personal challenges that are ever present in this form of business entity. Through a series of lectures, case studies, activities, interactive presentations and discussions with a number of visiting family business owners sharing their experiences, you will have a rich experience in understanding the “how to” and the “how not to” of Family Enterprise.

Effective business strategy begins with a clear understanding of the strategic context. This module gives you that “big picture”, geopolitical context. It also offers you a unique toolkit to deal with the geopolitical surprises – “black swans”- of the future (black swans like Brexit, COVID and negative oil prices). Strategy frameworks that everyone else knows and perspectives formed by attention-grabbing media won’t give you an edge; understanding the geopolitical forces driving business, governments and societies will.

This module explores the brave new world of social innovation and how businesses can tackle social problems through social innovation. While achieving business success and creating social welfare have often been seen as oppositional, a new generation is challenging this by trying to use business as a force for good. These social innovators tackle social problems in two main ways: by becoming social entrepreneurs who lead social enterprises (businesses that seek to fulfill a social mission), or by becoming social intrapreneurs who seek to achieve social change within the for-profit firms that employ them. Through this module you will be equipped with the tools to become a social innovator.

This one week block elective navigates the fintech competitive landscape and outlines corresponding management strategies for firms to deal with the fintech innovation. You will learn how new entrants to the financial sector devise entrepreneurial strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of traditional financial services by leveraging cutting edge technologies such as blockchain, Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as discussing how industry incumbents respond to the competition by integrating innovation at various levels such as technology licensing, joint venture, or merger and acquisition.

The elective is designed to introduce you to the issues raised by corporate mergers, acquisitions and restructurings and acquaint you with theoretical and applied insights into the field.

This elective examines the role of private equity financing as a type of financing, and the critical issues that the parties (investors, banks, managers, entrepreneurs/shareholders) involved in a transaction will face during the investment process and their negotiations. Topics covered include fundamental analysis, applications and models related to private equity professionals, management and the entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this module is to provide a strong theoretical framework, practical applications and tools to Business School students interested in private equity finance and investments covering the topics of Raising Equity and Debt Finance, Growth Capital Finance, LBO Finance, Distress, Project & Infrastructure Finance. Through this module, students will learn about the PE market and new trends, finance instruments and structures, the applications of these tools in companies’ acquisitions, the role of the investment banks or the private equity funds in the equity and debt-raising process, the financial and legal structuring and the valuation process executing an investment, risk and returns analysis.

Success in both entrepreneurship and innovation depends on the successful execution at project level. This module will focus on the processes of project selection, assessing and managing project teams, stage gate processes and project evaluation.

This module introduces the Python programming language as a tool to support financial and managerial decisions in business. Python has gained a reputation as one of the top choices for applying computational methods in finance because of its readability, portability, and rich third-party libraries. The module will focus on the application of Python for the preparation, analysis, and visualisation of financial data sets.

This one week block module provides you with an understanding of how buyers make buying decisions and how to organise seller activities to stay aligned with these expectations during the buying process. You will learn how to organise the sales function within a company, as well as understanding how to manage the organisation of sales and put the correct metrics in place to manage this function.

The aim of this module is for students to gain proficiency in analysing, developing, and implementing marketing strategy. The module will cover foundational marketing concepts and their application to various business problems, with an emphasis on ongoing changes in markets. This module develops a general management viewpoint in planning and evaluating marketing decisions, from both a strategic and tactical perspectives. It will help students understand how marketing decisions contribute to business performance and are affected by organisational and environmental influences.

Shared elective with MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management

This module covers the ways that growth-oriented ventures secure the financial resources they need and how they develop capabilities to outperform their competitions and internationalise. The module will help you understand the success factors of high growth ventures before and after their initial public offering (IPO).