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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Business School : Common Courses (Management School)

Postgraduate Course: Innovation Management and Design Thinking (MBA) (CMSE11218)

Course Outline
SchoolBusiness School CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThis course examines the processes and activities involved in managing innovation in firms. A key aim is for students to understand the strategic and operational issues that affect the innovation process across the different range of innovation problems that firms can confront.
Course description Four aspects of innovation will be discussed: product innovation and design; service innovation and design; information systems innovation an design; and business model innovation and design. The course will begin with the tactical exploration of activities involved in new product development, to the organisation and management issues associated with service and information systems innovation, and ending with the analysis of the strategic issues involved in appropriating the benefits of this innovation effort through business model design. The course will also be asking the students to consider the role that design thinking plays in managing innovation, particularly but not exclusively in what concerns product design. The course will with also involve the practical application of the frameworks, concepts and principle learnt to real case problems.

Syllabus
The course will cover four main topics:
Product innovation & design; focus on the activities involved in new product development & product design.
Service innovation & design; focus on exploring some of the new approaches through which firms develop and design new services
Information systems innovation & design; focus on the strategic issues involved in the design and development of new information systems
Business model innovation & design; examine the way in which firms can design their organisational and financial architecture to deliver and capture value from their innovations.

Student Learning Experience
The course will include a practical session where students will work on a real case problem which will require them to apply the framework, concepts and tools to deal with a particular innovation problem.
The course will be delivered over 5 days through a mix of lectures and practical workshops, complemented by directed reading and practical assignments which requires the application of innovation and design concepts to solve a complex innovation management problem.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Understand and apply critically the activities involved in products, services, information systems and business model innovation.
  2. Discuss critically four aspects of innovation: product innovation and design; service innovation and design; information systems innovation and design; and business model innovation and design.
  3. Understand and discuss critically the links between innovation and the wider strategic and operational issues within the firm.
  4. Diagnose barriers to innovation in a company setting.
Reading List
There is no required single text; instead, students should read a variety of different materials for the different subjects including:
Bettencourt, L.A.., Brown, S.W. and Sirianni, N.J. (2013) The secret to true service innovation, Business Horizons, 56, 13-22
Buchanan, R. (1992) Wicked Problems in Design Thinking, Design Issues, 8(2), 5-21
Osterwalder, A. and Pigneur, Y. (2010) Business Model Generation, Wiley, New Jersey
Johnson, M.W., Christiensen, C.M. and Kagermann, H. (2008) Reinventing your business model, Harvard Business Review, 86(12), 57-68
O'Cass, A., Song, M. abd Yuan, L. (2013) Anatomy of service innovation: Introduction to the special issue, Journal of Business Research, 66, 1060-1062
Martin, R (2009) Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage, Harvard Business Press, Boston
Ulrich, K.T. and Eppinger, S.D. (2012) Product design and development, McGraw Hill, New York
Verganti, R. (2009) Design driven innovation: Changing the rule of competition by radically innovating what things mean, Harvard Business Press, Boston
Yoo, Y., Henfridsson, O. and Lyytinen, K. (2010) The new organising logic of digital innovation: An agenda for information systems research, Information Systems Research, 21(4), 724-735
Pollock, N. and Williams, R. (2009) Software and organisations: The biography of the enterprise-wide system or how SAP conquered the world, Routledge Studies in Technology, Work and Organisations, Routledge, London.
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J. (2013) Managing Innovation, 5th edition, Wiley, Chichester.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Cognitive and Subject Specific Skills:
Diagnose barriers to innovation in a company setting.
Apply a range of innovation and design tools to generate product, service, information system and business model innovations.
Frame and tackle complex challenges using design thinking skills
Recommend appropriate strategies for the development and design of different types of innovations.

Transferable Skills:
Build written communication skills, and independent study and research skills.
work effectively in collaboration with others with different backgrounds, experiences and skills.
KeywordsDesign Innovation Product Services
Contacts
Course organiserDr Raluca Bunduchi
Tel: (0131 6)51 5544
Email: Raluca.Bunduchi@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Angela Muir
Tel: (0131 6)51 3854
Email: Angela.Muir@ed.ac.uk
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