BA Hons Business Analysis and Technology & Marketing

The module will provide you with a balanced introduction to economics which will be based on a programme of systematic directed reading, supplemented by experiments and exercises undertaken in tutorials. 

The module uses the innovative CORE (Curriculum Open-Access Resources in Economics) Econ resources, which provides a complete introduction to economics and the economy. CORE Econ teaches about the economy and economics by starting from a question or a problem about the economy - why the advent of capitalism is associated with a sharp increase in average living standards, for example - and then teach the tools of economics that contribute to an answer. This innovative approach ensures that students understand how the tools of economics can help us understand the modern economy. 

The second half of the module is the study of how analytical thinking, scientific method and associated tools can be used to help decision making. This Business Analysis element of the module will provide an overview of where methods and tools are widely used across a large range of industries including the manufacturing, retail, healthcare, financial services, travel, and electronics industries, as well as in local and national government. 

Examples of where Business Analysis is put into practice are: 

• the management of new building projects
• the design of efficient transport systems and plant layouts
• personnel scheduling
• allocation of resources and financial modelling and forecasting

This area of expertise can help to reduce costs, increase revenues, improve customer service, increase efficiency and can even save lives. 

The aim of this module is to provide you with a solid foundation and understanding of the theories and principles underlying marketing and entrepreneurship. A combination of the subjects will be taught to enhance understanding of the way the two disciplines address issues related to both the macro and micro-environment contexts of markets and entrepreneurship.

Marketing is everywhere in contemporary society. It plays a central role in business as it is concerned with the creation and retention of customers. The module is designed to give you a foundational understanding of marketing and a critical introduction to the topic of marketing in both theory and practice through a series of lectures and workshops.

In your first-year class you will explore the core concepts of value and exchange. You will learn what marketing is and its core principles such as analysing the marketing environment, developing a marketing strategy, and dealing with the marketing mix i.e., product, price, place, and promotion. You will learn how organisations develop a customer centric approach to marketing and how that can create a competitive advantage in a dynamic business environment.

The assessment for this module will involve individual coursework.

In this module, you will be exposed to concepts and ideas from economics, sociology, psychology, geography and other social sciences, all in the context of the competitive business environment.

Entrepreneurship too is a complex process involving many different skills and activities, though it is based upon a 'mindset and process by which an individual or group identifies and successfully exploits a new idea or opportunity. For this part of the module, you'll be working in teams to learn about the ideation process, which forms the foundations of new venture creation, in our Creative Challenge.

This module includes two thematic parts which run in parallel across the semester. One part, Introduction to Tourism Studies, introduces tourism management as both, international business and as a global cultural phenomenon.

It provides insights into key concepts and theories to understand the intricacy of this industry in commercial, cultural and environmental terms. The other part, Managing People, focuses on the contemporary and practical issues of how people are organised and managed in the workplace and examines different theoretical perspectives which help our understanding of the complex relationship between the employer and the employee in the contemporary business environment.

This module will provide you with an introduction to finance and accounting, covering the basic concepts and practicalities of corporate finance, the principles of valuation, financial management and business investment, the role and purpose of company accounts and their usefulness, security analysis, risk and returns from investments, and personal finance.

At all times the module content will be linked with financial behaviour and events in the real world.

This module introduces learners to the field and practice of international business and management.

Drawing on classical and recent debates in theory and practice including, but not limited to commercial concerns, learners will be equipped with an understanding of the foundational principles and developments of the subject.

In the module, we consider how international business and management is researched, and facilitate a critical understanding based on real-life case studies in international contexts. This module gives learners the capacity to look at the past, present and future in organisations and provides the foundations for intellectual progression in the subject, and broadly, for year two and beyond.  

The ICE Pathway - “Innovation, Commercialisation & Entrepreneurship”, where you'll learn about the Foundations of 'What is Business’.  Alongside:

• Personal & Professional Development: Who am I? How Do I learn? How do I lead & work in a team?
• Knowledge & Practice: What is a business/organisation? Why does this matter? How does this affect society?
• Experiential Learning: Real-world cases & clients; team-based and student-centred Learning approaches

This class aims to support you in developing key skills that are important to both your academic and future career. These include skills associated with:

• research
• data analysis
• critical writing
• team working
• communication

Topics

Semester 1 topics include:

• Working in Business Organisations
• Working Business Research & Consultancy
• Working Internationally
• Working in the Third Sector
• Rhetorics & Oratory

Semester 2 is about developing the proposal of Management Development Programme 3; with a presentation and a final report.

Class description

The second year concentrates on developing understanding through industry-specific contextualisation. Sessions are weekly and three hours in length.

The sessions are thematically linked to the pathways for individualised experience in third year whilst also drawing on the theoretical knowledge developed in Management Development Programme 1. In order to develop understanding, organisations will deliver a half-day session. This consists of a one hour plenary introduction where the company and case study are introduced. This is followed by the group sessions where you undertake activities in relation to the case study set by the company.

This class is one of the two undergraduate Business Analysis & Technology classes before the Honours year that apply various approaches to operations management problems. Following on from the fundamentals in the first year class, this class introduces you to the subject of operations management in detail and provides opportunity for you to apply some of the basic decision analysis techniques, including simulation, in this context.

This class forms a bridge between the first year class and more advanced classes in Enterprise Resource Planning, Business Process Outsourcing, the role of ICT in business environment, etc.

The class will seek to combine conceptual and technical skills, and it will provide the basis for a series of classes in third and Honours years, especially in areas of Business Process Integration with ERP, organisational innovation and E-commerce.

Many of the fundamental concepts of marketing are based on an ability to understand consumers and how these concepts can be implemented more effectively when adequate information about the market and potential consumer behaviour is available.

In this module you will explore factors that influence consumer behaviour and shape consumption practices. The module will draw upon psychological theories to examine how memory, social influence, personality, attitudes and learning influences consumers. You will develop an understanding of consumer behaviour from both managers and consumers perspectives.

The module will also introduce you to key concepts and techniques in market research and how market research can be used to understand consumers changing behaviours. The module will provide you with an in depth understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods and prepare you for practical market research projects.

You will also gain an opportunity to acquire an industry recognised qualification from the Market Research Society.

The assessment for this module is a combination of individual and group coursework.

The service sector is large and a growing feature of the UK economy. In addition, most manufacturing, and product-based organisations (e.g., IBM) encompass extensive service functions as well as product operations. As consumers, we purchase services everyday- be it retail banking, shopping at a supermarket, going to a restaurant, visiting the hairdresser, using transportation services, or engaging with experiential services such as tourism, sports, theatre. Therefore, it is important to understand the problems and challenges in designing and delivering high quality services for customers and businesses.

This module will encourage you to explore and reflect on real world services. The module will help you understand the unique characteristics of services and how service organisations require a distinct approach to marketing strategy both in its development and in its execution. You will draw upon your foundational learning knowledge of marketing in Year 1 such as the marketing mix and further learn about the extended marketing mix.

The module will also provide you with insight into service retailers. You will learn about key elements of service retailers that influence the development of retail strategies and the interaction between consumers and retailers at both in-store and online operational levels. You will also develop an understanding of the dynamic nature of supply chains and innovative distribution channels. You will explore different retail contexts and the supply chain relationships required to create value alongside strategies for sustainable practices.

The assessment for this module is a combination of individual and group coursework.

The third year of centres on individualised experience in an organisational context through one of the following pathways:

• Internship/Charities - gain practical experience in a private or third sector organisation. You need to negotiate and locate your own organisation and experience – this is one of the key learning points of the pathway.
• Research and consultancy - a facility for local small businesses to gain from the experience and expertise of those within Strathclyde Business School. You work on two live business consultancy projects (one in each semester) and, as a team of six, develop solutions and strategic initiatives for the local SME economy.
• International experience – only available for students who are undertaking an international exchange for either one semester or full year.
• Vertically Integrated Projects - working on a cross-faculty basis to research longitudinal projects (including the ‘Bill Gates Toilet Challenge, Solar Panels for Gambia and Enterprise in Schools) you work with a team of students from all levels of study (first year undergraduate to final year PhD) to further the work of the project.

In addition, you’re required to undertake a social responsibility element (this accounts for one quarter of the overall workload).

These have been designed to provide support to the Curriculum for Excellence and the Widening Access to Higher Education programme. There are no formal classes for Management Development Programme 3 although there is pathway support with the pathway leads and tutor support.

The first part of the course will introduce and build experience in two problem structuring methods, SODA and Soft Systems Methodology. The second part will establish an overall understanding of how supply chains work as well as appropriate modelling approaches to address various operational challenges. The third part of the course will introduce basic mathematical optimisation modelling and present how it can be used to tackle problems in different business systems, including applications in supply chains.

The fourth and final part of the course will introduce the students to the ideas of Multi-criteria Decision Analysis to make students aware of the importance of carefully defining objectives when intervening in business systems. Overall, the course will equip students with the qualitative and quantitative analytic skills and techniques in order to make action recommendations for performance improvements in complex business systems.

In this module, you will develop a comprehensive picture about knowledge and innovation. It goes to the very basis of what constitutes knowledge and knowledge work, and based on this, develops the notion of creativity, as creation of new knowledge, and subsequently conceptualises innovation as new value created from the new knowledge.

Every business, organisation and media outlet relies on traditional and digital communications to communicate their products and services to consumers and businesses. As the change and consumption of different media continues to increase, there is a demand for graduates to embrace new technologies and engage in innovative content creation for traditional and digital marketing communications.

In this module you will explore the various forms of traditional and digital marketing communications. You will gain an understanding of the strategic role of marketing communications and the integration of both traditional and digital communications to develop a marketing communications plan. You will further explore the role of social media marketing and mobile marketing in the digital world and learn how to develop a digital marketing campaign using a range of digital tools such as SEO, PPC, Google AdWords etc.

The assessment for this module is a combination of individual and group coursework.

The module aims to equip you for a career in strategic marketing in various industries. It is important for marketers to obtain a good understanding of various perspectives on marketing strategy and to develop the ability to evaluate, design and implement a sustainable and profitable marketing strategy. 

In this module you will learn strategy formulation and planning aspects associated with strategic marketing in domestic and international contexts. The module will further stimulate your thinking around questions such as:

1. Why some products or services succeed and why others fail?
2. What are the challenges involved in designing and implementing a profitable and sustainable marketing strategy?

The assessment for this module is a combination of individual and group coursework.

This module builds upon your understanding of information systems. It'll provide you with the opportunity to develop analytical approaches for mining data using commercial software that'll be intellectually challenging and useful.

This module focuses on the methods used for mining data, complementing the other Honours modules that provide business context and processes.

This module investigates the application of sophisticated business technology systems to the management and, more particularly, integration of business processes.

In doing so, it builds directly on the knowledge and skills acquired as part of Management of Business Processes and, in a more indirect manner, on modules like Technological and Organisational Innovation, Information Systems in the Knowledge Economy, and Information Systems Support for Managers.

Identifying and managing risk is a fundamental skill required by managers. Many models exist for supporting risk assessment and this is a major area of interest within the Management Science department.

This module will introduce you to the general concepts of risk and common measures used as well as considering ways of modelling and interpreting technical risk within the context of managing complex systems in areas such as transportation, aerospace, health.

It'll develop knowledge and skills introduced in years 1-3 in operations, statistics and modelling modules by integrating and extending them within the context of risk assessment.

An important aspect of this module is the experiential learning element, where you'll work in teams on management science projects, directly for external clients.

The clients will introduce their problems, provide information during the project, and listen to your recommended solutions. These client projects will be chosen to highlight the differing nature of individual practice, allowing comparisons between qualitative and quantitative projects to be explored.

Alongside the experiential learning will be a reflective element, which will focus on issues relating to client, consultant relations and implementation of management science, as well as addressing more conceptual issues relating to problem structuring, modelling, data collection, and choosing and mixing methods in the light of your growing experience.

Professional and ethical considerations will be highlighted, introducing you to the areas of agreement and debate within the profession. This module will also include an individual or small group project, where you'll select a technique or method they haven’t previously studied to research in more depth, mirroring professional development that they will undertake in practice. This component of the module will be managed through learning contracts.

The importance of brands raises significant questions of how to develop brand equity and how to communicate a branding strategy of differentiation, value and identification. The role of the Brand Manager is reviewed along with formulating the necessary communication strategies to build brand equity and secure market share.

More recent approaches in this vein suggest that the traditional Brand Management approach is all too limited, leaving many questions unanswered. Consequently more recent approaches address the co-construction of brand value, through viral branding, using social media, co-branding and brand extensions. In this respect, the principles of branding are now being applied beyond simply new product development, to such strategies as places, communities and countries.

Other key strategies that may be discussed include, luxury branding, nation branding, business-to-business branding and corporate brands.

This course aims to build foundational knowledge of traditional commercial-oriented Marketing, by examining applications of Marketing in a social context. Each year millions of pounds are spent world-wide to combat health and social problems such as HIV/AIDS, smoking, drug and alcohol abuse and rising obesity levels. At the same time excessive consumptions burdens society with building landfills and increasing pollution. Meanwhile there are still people who consume 'too little' and who suffer from hunger.

The class considers recent research in a variety of Social Marketing contexts and material is continuously updated to ensure that students gain an understanding of the most relevant and critical Social Marketing trends.

This class provides students with an understanding of some of the contemporary issues and challenges in understanding consumers. Building on the undergraduate Consumer Behaviour class, this module aims to develop students’ ability to analyse consumer behaviour in a variety of situations and to explore the complexity of 21st century consumption.

The class reviews consumer trends and the significance of consumer culture, and then explores topics that are the focus of recent research attention. Current topics include consumer identity (possessions and body image); consumer vulnerability; postmodern consumers; consumer tribes; consumption spaces; consumers and celebrities and consumers and ethics.

This class provides you with an opportunity to study and apply marketing principles and concepts to a sector that has gained increasing significance in society world-wide. We’ve witnessed the emergence of a sports culture in many countries. This, in turn, has led to the emergence of sport as a global industry.

Sport is one of the most important sectors in the UK in terms of spectator interest, participation and consumer spending. It is also a varied industry consisting of sports products as well as sports services, spectator sports, sports media and sport-related travel.

The class will create a learning environment in which students can enhance their knowledge of relevant marketing communications theories and develop the necessary analytical, creative and decision-making skills required to effectively manage IMC in a variety of contexts.

This class examines the theoretical underpinnings which help explain the operations of such enterprises, covering both international business strategy and international business management. This will be achieved by exploring contemporary issues in academic thought and international business practice.

Electronic commerce has had a major impact on the management of organisations and the business environment in which technology is used. This class seeks to explore this growing area, and provide a critical appraisal of the relationship between electronic commerce, technology and business model that has been adopted.

The explores the inter-relationship that exists between a theoretically grounded understanding of technological adoption and the changes that have been created by electronic commerce.

This class explores sustainability and the role of marketing in society as an agent of change. Marketing as a discipline is often tarnished by the assumption that it focuses on encouraging overconsumption, driving sales for sales sake and is misleading the public. Whilst this is often true, marketing also has a substantial role to play in tackling the biggest challenges in our society, and in particular driving societal discourse and market change towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This class builds from a foundation of evidence-based marketing, driven by systems thinking, understanding full product and service life cycles and fact-led decision-making. Ensuring the claims made and communication approaches employed are substantiated, well-designed and targeted at change for good. A number of different techniques are explored to identify and exploit vectors for change through different approaches to understanding market systems, targeting key stakeholders to drive change, and marketing tactics for reshaping market, organisational and consumer behaviour. The class is an advanced marketing class, assuming a sound grounding in areas of consumer behaviour, branding, strategic marketing and marketing research as a foundation on which more advanced concepts can be built.