LBUSI7241 Managing Innovation Projects Course Descriptor

Course Overview

Innovation and change are integral to the success and sustainability of organisations in today’s dynamic business environment. This course provides a comprehensive overview of theories, frameworks, and practical strategies for effectively managing innovation and leading change within organisations, exploring the intricate interplay between creativity, adaptation, strategies, entrepreneurship and project management.

To be innovative, organisations need to create an enabling environment and behold the capability to manage innovation projects effectively, but also with respect to regulatory and ethical standards. This course aims to equip students with the knowledge and skill sets required to successfully manage innovation, including emerging technologies. The course will explore the intertwined relationship between innovation and change. By gaining the understanding of different types of innovation, sources of innovation, technology entrepreneurship and commercialisation, and change processes, students will develop the knowledge of managing the different stages of innovation project life cycles, factoring in the human side of innovation and change management. The comprehensive perspective of innovation and change management will ensure the benefits of innovation are captured and sustained.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable, Employability or Professional Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and a range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, and discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

A range of additional resources (e.g. readings, tasks, assignment briefs, and/or discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

Teaching and learning strategies for this course will include:

• Lectures: Instructor-led classes.
• Seminars/workshops: Interactive sessions on project management principles, focused on applying theoretical concepts.
• Experiential Learning: It is anticipated that this course would include an impact challenge.
• Online Resources/VLE: Flexible learning with study materials.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150, including 40 scheduled hours.

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessments are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Formative

Formative assessment in this course could be, for example, discussions (whether in class or online) about how to manage a particular barrier that innovation may present within an organisational environment, and collaborative work between students on how a project manager could be of assistance to overcome it.

Summative

The Presentation could be, for example, an oral discussion of evaluating and critiquing the development and diffusion of a chosen technological innovation underpinned by innovation theories.

The Written Assignment could be, for example, a practical report on how to conceptually develop and implement an innovative solution to a real-word challenge, from outlining the challenge to developing and commercially launching the innovation, all underpinned by project management, innovation and change management theories and independent research. This course would also lend itself to an impact challenge.

Further information can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or during office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

• Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. R. (2020). Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change (7th edition). John Wiley & Sons.
• Hayes, J. (2022). The theory and practice of change management (6th edition). Bloomsbury Academic.
• Christensen, C. M. (2016). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harper Business.
• Brown, T. (2018). Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation. Harper Business.
• Chesbrough, H. (2019). Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Pink, D. H. (2018). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. Riverhead Books.

Journals

• Journal of Product Innovation Management
• Journal of Business Venturing
• Journal of Innovation Management
• International Journal of Innovation Management
• Journal of Engineering and Technology Management

Indicative Topics

Students will study the following topics:

• Innovation strategies and frameworks
• Technology and digital innovation
• Types and processes of managing innovation
• Creating an innovative environment and strategy
• Technology entrepreneurship
• Open innovation
• The need for change
• Change processes and change agents
• Diffusion of innovation
• Managing innovation risks and uncertainties
• Sustaining and scaling innovation

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