Innovation Management

Overview

Successful innovation at the firm level is increasingly regarded as key to both productivity growth and enhanced competitiveness while also acting as a driver of economic growth. Innovation is considered crucial for firms’ survival while research has further demonstrated that innovating firms grow faster, have higher productivity and are more profitable than non-innovators. Innovation is, however, an uncertain process and the strategies and processes associated with innovation require a specific set of resources, skills and competencies. Generally, most firms do not have well developed or professionally managed innovation strategies and as a result, they fail to innovate and create new value. This module demonstrates the strategic imperative for innovation and analyses the innovation management function.

This module provides an integrative view of the management of innovation, comprising industrial, organisational and managerial perspectives. In doing so, it aims to critically evaluate the main concepts, measures and indicators of innovation activity and to assess the importance of innovation to both individual businesses and the wider economy.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this module students should be able to:

• Explain and critically reflect on innovation and why it is crucial to competitive advantage and organisational success.

• Conceptualise and critically explore the context and process of innovation management.

• Analyse innovation management in a variety of organisations using examples from the world’s most innovative firms.

• Critically evaluate innovation management and provide recommendations for change demonstrating appropriate judgement

Skills

In addition to the above this module provides opportunities for the student to develop the following cognitive and transferrable skills:


• Ability to synthesise, analyse, interpret and evaluate information from a variety of different sources (academic literature, lecture material, quantitative and qualitative business and market information, government publications, web-sites, bibliographic searches).

• Ability to apply critical thinking skills to a variety of different situations (through case study material, problem solving tasks).

• Ability to apply conceptual and empirical tools to business scenarios and use appropriate techniques to present and analyse company data.

• Effective communication (through essay writing, podcast creation and group discussion).

Assessment

Students must achieve an overall mark of 40% in the module to pass