Business and Management with a Year in Industry - BA (Hons)

This module will cover the key concepts of microeconomics and theories related to the individual, firm and industry in the short and long run, underpinned by existing evidence on past and current economic trends in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world.

• Key microeconomic concepts such as opportunity cost and equity versus efficiency

• Supply and demand; elasticity

• Cost and revenues

• Profit maximisation under different market structures

• Input markets; labour and capital

Management Principles aims to provide an understanding of the challenges of managing people within complex work organisations. The experience of work and employment are being affected by rapid change as a result of a number of factors including new technology, the growth of global competition and the changing demographic profiles and values of the work force. These developments are considered within an historical context. An exploration of their implications for management practices and organisational forms will also be conducted.

Students will be introduced to the main concepts and theories through readings and discussions of the main authors in the field. Case studies will be used to show how these concepts can impact upon management decision making within work organisations.

The aim of this module is to give students a solid grounding in key statistical techniques required to analyse effectively business data and data relevant for business. Indicative content:

• Maths and statistical skills for business; revision of algebra and basic mathematical functions.

• Summarising data with histograms, bar charts, frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and dispersion.

• Spreadsheets: features and functions of commonly-used spreadsheet software including: workbook, worksheet, rows, columns, cells, data, text, formulae, formatting, printing, , charts and graphs, data management facilities,

• Probability: The relationship between probability, proportion and percent, addition and multiplication rules in probability theory and Venn diagrams.

• Common Probability Density Functions.

• Sampling and its use in inference, and applications of sampling in business management.

• Regression and correlation: scatter plots; simple regression; interpreting computer output.

• Forecasting using spreadsheets.

• Hypothesis testing using z-scores and t-scores

• Simulations- random number generation

The module introduces to students the importance of marketing in competitive and dynamic environments. The key topics of the module are:

• The marketing concept

• The marketing environment

• Market segmentation & targeting

• Brand development and management

• Management of the marketing mix

• Marketing research and new product development

• The implications of internationalisation for marketing managers

• Ethical issues in marketing

The module will cover various aspects of the changing international business environment, and their impact upon business operations and strategy. It will give students an appreciation of the business difficulties faced; the variety of factors influencing the choices and compromises that have to be made in international businesses, and the implications of those for the future viability and effectiveness of the organisations concerned.

An list of topics is given below:

• Globalisation: Definition, Evolution, Implications for countries, firms and people

• The International Business Environment: World Institutions, Patterns of International Trade and FDI Activities

• The Triad: European Union, United States, Japan - Investment, Trade, Relations

• Developing and Emerging Economies: Opportunities and Challenges

• Cultural Frameworks for International Business

• Entry Modes: Theory and Practice

• Internationalisation Theories

• International Expansion Strategies

• International Stakeholders – Ethical Issues

This module will develop core understanding and skills of using Microsoft Excel, a market leading analytical tool and software package. It covers the way in which enterprises such as businesses, not-for-profit organisations and governments utilise quantitative data to obtain insights for decision-making. Techniques will be taught and delivered with case studies and simulated datasets.

Topics to be covered include:

• Microsoft Excel functions and formulae: Nested functions, filters, lookup functions, and logical functions

• Data visualisation: Graphic operations

• Data analysis and statistical analysis: conditional formatting, Solver, Add-ins and Trend analysis

• Excel Macros: defining, recording, assigning, running and storing, etc.

This module aims to give students a better understanding of the importance of accounting in the modern world and how accounts are produced and regulated to produce meaningful information for all internal and external stakeholders.

This module provides fundamental knowledge of a range of business organisations, business purpose, ownership types and stakeholder influence. It further introduces organisational structures, functional areas and the impact of the external environment on business. Furthermore, this module introduces the many factors that shape the nature of organisations operating in an increasingly complex business environment such as innovation, internationalisation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Module participants explore this dynamic nature of business and consider successful existence within modern organisations through studying and applying employability skills such as leadership, teamwork, and resilience.

Managing People and Teams aims to provide an understanding of the key concepts within management theory. This core knowledge is applied to a range of organisational settings so that the influence of management theory on management practice is understood. The role played by specialist management functions within Human Resource Management (HRM) and Employment Relations is investigated.

Students will be introduced to the main concepts and theories through readings and discussions of the main authors in the field. Case studies will be used to show how these concepts can impact upon management thinking and decision making within work organisations.

Indicative topics are:

• Groups and teams

• Motivation in the workplace

• Communication theory and practice

• Power and control

• Job design

• Flexible working practices

• Diversity in the workplace

• Managing learning

• Managing change

This module aims to develop a critical understanding of project management to enable students to recognise the importance of the discipline in a variety of organisational and functional contexts. Students should develop a critical understanding of the concepts employed in project management at strategic, systems and operational levels, and an appreciation of the knowledge and skills required for successful project management in organisations. The module adopts the Project Management Institute (PMI) approach to delivering projects, and is structured as follows:

1. Introduction to Project Management

2. Scope Planning

3. Time Planning

4. Cost Planning

5. Risk Planning

6. Earned Value Management

7. Human Resources Management

8. Agile Project Management

9. Benefits Management

Information Systems (IS) are at the heart of every business and pervade almost every aspect of our lives (work, rest and play). Information Systems are treated in this module within the context of the social sciences, offering students a management and organisational perspective on the role of IS in business and how they are managed. This module is not technically orientated but designed to show how information systems are conceived, designed, implemented and managed in contemporary organisations.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the methods and approaches used by managers to exploit new digital opportunities and position their organisations to realise enhanced business value. By the end of this module, students will be equipped with the necessary tools to deal with current business issues including digital transformation through information systems and emerging business models via technological innovations.

This module will require students to develop the ability to use appropriate techniques of analysis and enquiry within the management of operations, and to learn how to evaluate alternatives and make recommendations.

Indicative topics of the module are:

• Strategic role of operations and operations strategy

• Design of processes and the implications for layout and flow

• People, jobs and organisation

• Capacity planning and scheduling

• Inventory control

• Supply chain management, lean systems and digital operations

• Quality planning and managing improvement

This module will cover the core principles of macroeconomics; including the measurement of key macroeconomic variables and limitations to existing practices. Students will consider competing theories related to the macro economy in the short and long run and their overall consequences for the business environment. This will be underpinned by existing evidence on past and current levels of macroeconomic indicators in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Indicative topics are:

• The Macro economy – as a system: the circular flow (including injections and withdrawals), national income measurement, economic growth and international comparisons

• Macroeconomic variables: GDP, unemployment, inflation, money supply and balance of payments

• The open macro economy; including imports and exports; the role of exchange rates and trade theory.

• Macroeconomic theories: including the classical approach, the Keynesian demand management approach and monetarism

• Macroeconomic policies: demand versus supply side economic management

This module aims to enable students to understand the social and economic changes that have raised the status of enterprise, small business and entrepreneurial ventures in the global economy. It examines the diverse nature of entrepreneurs, their characteristics and motivations, as well as the barriers and issues facing entrepreneurs when planning and establishing a new venture.

The key topics of the module are:

1) Factors that have influenced the growth of the enterprise culture in the UK.

2) The role and relevance of SMEs in the UK economy; definitions of SMEs; statistical information; Government policies and initiatives, and support agencies.

3) Whether entrepreneurs are born or made; whether enterprise skills can be taught or learned, and whether entrepreneurs differ from business owners and other managers.

4) Enterprise and innovation development in organisations.

5) Differences in attitudes, objectives, skill requirements and business strategies between small and large firms.

6) Surviving the early stages of business development, including failure rates in new and small enterprises and barriers to growth and development.

7) The planning process for starting a new venture – including risks and liabilities; problems and pitfalls, and potential profit and success.

8) The protection of ideas and intellectual capital.

9) Funding a new enterprise, including via 'friends, family and fools', business angels and venture capitalists.

10) Enterprise in different contexts, including corporate enterprise, public sector enterprise and social enterprise.

This module will review contemporary approaches to marketing research design, data collection and analysis. A range of customer, market and competitor analysis techniques will be explored from conventional marketing research techniques as well as from ecommerce, geodemographic and new-media sources. Students will also develop an understanding of the importance of effective performance measurement (i.e., making marketing more accountable). Students will further develop their appreciation of market information and intelligence and acquire the specialised skills needed to plan, manage and report marketing research studies.

The key topics of the module are:

- Marketing research planning and process

- Research design and data acquisition

- Qualitative and quantitative consumer research

- Data analysis

This module explores the ever-changing trends of retailers both in the UK and globally. It will explore the dynamics of multi-channel retailing following the development of on-line retailing. It will also consider the store design and visual merchandising techniques that influence the characteristics of the retail brand and environment, which encourage a satisfying retail experience. The learner will understand how to analyse and interpret how the location of products in line with store purchasing and marketing policies influences sales and profit. The complexities of store management will further be explored.

The key elements of the curriculum are as follows:

1. The dynamics of retail management and the macro environment

2. Retail theories and strategic approaches

3. Store formats

4. Store location and international factors

5. E-Retail

6. Store design and visual merchandising

7. Store operational management

8. Customer service and the customer experience

9. Commercial management and selling skills

10. Case Studies of Food and Fashion retailing

The law affects the commercial world in many ways. This module focuses on the importance of law in governing transactions between individuals and businesses; what is required for legally compliant contracts; what the law expects of organisations in terms of protecting the consumer, and how businesses manage and avoid disputes. By enabling students to become familiar with those parts of the law they are most likely to encounter in their careers and in business the module helps them better understand the obligations that parties have to each other in law.

Indicative topic areas are:

• The English Legal System

• The Legal Process and Dispute Resolution

• Law of Contract – including:

• Formation

• Contract terms

• Vitiating elements, such as misrepresentation and economic duress

• Performance and discharge of contract, including frustration

• Common law and equitable remedies, including damages

• Consumer Protection

This module begins by looking at the role of investments and finance in an organisational context. It then considers the role of financial markets and the links between investors and businesses. Students will learn different investment appraisal techniques used in capital budgeting decisions, such as NPV and IRR. The module also covers the basics of any investment decision, such as the relation between return and risk. In the second part of the module, student will learn about short and long term sources (i.e. capital structure) of finance available to businesses and how to determine the cost and value of each source of long-term finance.

Topics covered include:

- Short-term and long term investment appraisal and capital budgeting techniques

- Estimation of return and risk in the context of portfolio theory

- Short-term finance and working capital management

- Long-term finance and the cost of each source of finance

- Capital structure and weighted average cost of capital

- Interaction of investment and financing decisions

The Year in Industry to which the module relates provides a structured opportunity to combine appropriate developmental work experience or entrepreneurial activity with academic study. The Year in Industry experience allows students to develop and reflect on managerial and / or professional practice in real and often complex situations, and to integrate this with the study of the relevant subject(s) of their main programme. Where relevant, they develop, reinforce and apply professional and / or technical expertise in an employment or entrepreneurial context.

The ability to integrate this work based learning with the modules of Stages 1, 2 and 3 is a high level cognitive task. The particular combination of the student's degree programme and choice of modules together with the great variety of increasingly diverse Year in Industry situations make the "curriculum" of each Year in Industry unique. The unifying features, with which the project for this module is concerned are integration of theory and practice, and the development of the student as an independent learner and reflective practitioner.

This background is why the report for the module has to be linked to the Year in Industry portfolio.

The assembly, content and organisation of this activity are assessed in BUSN6990 Year in Industry Experience. This module assesses how effectively the student can use this to demonstrate integration of theory and practice, self-assessment of achieved learning and reflection on this.

The Year in Industry experience provides you with a structured opportunity to combine work experience or entrepreneurial activity with academic study.

The Year in Industry allows students to develop and reflect on managerial and/or professional practice in real and often complex situations, and to integrate this with the study of the relevant subject(s) of your main degree programme.

Where relevant, students develop, reinforce and apply professional and/or technical expertise in an employment or entrepreneurial context. The placement portfolio requires students to document their experiences in relation to both their university studies as well as to a wide range of employability skills.

In addition, the portfolio allows demonstration of professional development through the collection and presentation of relevant evidence.

To be able to undertake this module it is necessary for the student to secure a placement or to have validated a Business Start-Up during Stage 2.

The Business Start-Up should build on the student's planned business activity as developed and validated by the ASPIRE Business Start-Up Journey.

The particular combination of the student’s degree programme and choice of modules together with the great variety of increasingly diverse Year in Industry situations make the "curriculum" of the Year in Industry essentially unique.

This module documents and assesses the evidence of Year in Industry learning being achieved.

Leadership and Corporate Strategy aims to provide an understanding of strategic analysis, strategic decision-making and strategic processes within organisations. The module content comprises two complementary components. The first involves the understanding and learning of the main strategic management concepts and theories. The second implies its application in organisations.

These two core components of the course are then divided into four main sections:

1) Strategy development: comprising topics on how strategies are developed;

2) Strategic decision-making: introducing students to concepts and theories on strategic methods; evaluation (including risk assessment and management), and implementation and change;

3) Strategic context: introducing issues of leadership and their impact on strategy;

4) Strategic content: comprising topics on management issues such as resource management.

Topics on this module include:

1) Strategic leadership

2) Identification of strategic issues and options

3) Evaluation of strategic options

4) Implementation of strategic options

For each of these topics the students will be introduced to the main concepts and theories. Further to that, contemporary issues of businesses and case studies will be used to show how these concepts affect the strategic management of organisations.

This module examines recent developments in marketing thinking and market strategy development. It focuses on the dynamic aspects of market strategy development, and current issues such as relationship and Internet marketing.

The key topics of the module are:

• Marketing orientation and the marketing planning process

• Strategic thinking and barriers to planning

• Models for assessing the macro and micro environments and internal environments, including PESTLE, SOSTAC, Porter's 5 Forces, customer, competitor and channel analysis

• Core competencies, capabilities and assets utilising innovation auditing and brand equity analysis to value chain and financial techniques

• SWOT and TOWS analysis to clarify the key issues and constraints

• Marketing operations and globalisation

• Formulating strategy utilising such models as Ansoff’s growth matrix and Porter’s generic strategies

• STP approach

• Stages in project management in developing and implementing a marketing plan

• Measures for controlling the plan

The aim of the module is to develop an understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability informed by ethical theory and stakeholder perspectives. Students will have the opportunity to familiarise with essential readings and cases in CSR to enable them to recognise key issues raised by stakeholder groups. such as shareholder activism; socially responsible investment; employee discrimination; working conditions; ethical issues in marketing; management; consumer protection; gifts/ bribes; accountability; collaboration with civil society organisations, and corruption of governmental actors. The module will therefore contribute in building an understanding of contemporary social issues in business by highlighting the importance of a collaborative approach with internal and external stakeholder groups.

Indicative topics are:

- Business Ethics

- Corporate Social Responsibility

- Sustainability

- Social responsibilities of sectors and industries

- Stakeholders of organisations, including:

Employees

Suppliers

Competitors

Shareholders

Civil society

Government

- Implementation of socially responsible and sustainable programmes and initiatives

Would you like to volunteer for a cause you believe in while learning useful skills and gaining real world experience? If you would this is the module for you!

Social Justice Practice provides an opportunity for you to gain practical experience of the voluntary and community sector and combine it with academic study of the sector and related theoretical concepts such as social capital, social justice, volunteering, altruism and philanthropy. Lectures also cover topics such as the role, management, financing and governance – essential knowledge if you are planning to work in a wide range of different professions.

Students undertake at least 100 hours of voluntary work with a charity in Kent or Medway during the academic year. Once you sign up for this module you will be invited for an interview to discuss your volunteering plans and so you can find out more about the module and the volunteering you plan to do for it. Register in the usual way and you will be invited for an interview towards the end of the summer term (late May or early June).

The law affects the commercial world in many ways. This module focuses on how businesses fulfil their legal obligations to customers, suppliers and their workforce. As well as exploring how businesses are structured and the duties on directors and partners it also considers the legal obligations individuals and organisations have over those to whom they have a duty of care. The module further covers the main laws governing the employment of staff and contractors. By applying the law to real-world business situations students are able to fine-tune their problem solving skills and their ability to construct well-reasoned and persuasive arguments.

The module covers the following topic areas:

• The English Legal System, Legal Process and Dispute Resolution;

• Law of Negligence – including general principles and negligent mis-statement

• Law of Business Organisations - classification of business organisations; main principles applying to general and limited liability partnerships and registered companies, and directors' duties

• Employment Law - the general scope of the legal obligations owed by employers to employees, including the employment contract, discrimination and dismissal

The understanding and application of enterprise knowledge is seen as a transferable skill that can have cross-school application within the University, in that it has relevance to students from a broad range of academic disciplines who might be considering self-employment after graduation.

The curriculum is based on the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (National Standards-setting body for small business) Standards for Business Start-up, but has been expanded to include contemporary issues such as Intellectual Property and recent legislation.

The module will include the following areas of study:

1) Why firms become insolvent – economic financial and operational reasons for business failure; risks & liabilities; skills requirements for business ownership; self-development planning; sources of advice, and support for businesses.

2) The new business planning process and format - developing and evaluating the business idea, and producing a business plan for potential lenders.

3) Financial aspects – budgetary planning and control; cash-flow and working capital; understanding financial accounting and key financial documents; break-even analysis; credit control, and debt recovery.

4) Market research, competition and barriers to market entry - identifying customers; market segmentation; planning the sales and marketing processes; customer perceptions and customer care, and developing quality standards for the business

5) Legal issues - reporting requirements; UK & EU law relevant to small businesses; business formats and trading status and their respective risks and liabilities; insurance; insolvency, and intellectual property rights such as patents and copyright.

6) Planning and employing staff - planning and obtaining premises; physical and financial resources, and the phased implementation of the business plan.

A synopsis of the curriculum

The curriculum is organised into two parts.

Part I:

Understanding the European Business Environment (Autumn)

The European Business Environment (PESTEL), History and Development of the EU, Political and Institutional Framework of the EU. Impact of EU policies on business operations: from Single Market to Single Currency, EU Competition and Social Policies, Regional Policy and Industrial Policy, EU Trade Policy.

Part II:

Doing Business in the 'New' Europe (Spring)

Formulating a European Business Strategy, Identifying Market Opportunities and Evaluating Modes of Entry. Understanding the impact on business of cultural diversity. Management within a European environment. Finance, Marketing and HRM issues for European Business.

The law affects the commercial world in many ways. This module focuses on the importance of law in governing transactions between individuals and businesses; what is required for legally compliant contracts; what the law expects of organisations in terms of protecting the consumer, and how businesses manage and avoid disputes. By enabling students to become familiar with those parts of the law they are most likely to encounter in their careers and in business the module helps them better understand the obligations that parties have to each other in law.

Indicative topic areas are:

• The English Legal System

• The Legal Process and Dispute Resolution

• Law of Contract – including:

• Formation

• Contract terms

• Vitiating elements, such as misrepresentation and economic duress

• Performance and discharge of contract, including frustration

• Common law and equitable remedies, including damages

• Consumer Protection