BSc (Hons) Management with Entrepreneurship

This module will introduce you to key theories, insights and methods within Organisational Studies. In particular, it will critically examine different organisational forms, processes and contexts.

The module places an important emphasis on the meaning and content of organisational strategies. It will help you develop the tools you need to analyse an organisation’s positioning within the marketplace, and think/plan strategically in order to make it more competitive.

You'll gain an understanding of strategic management and appreciate the interrelated dynamics of both strategic and organisational research and practice.

This module introduces students to microeconomics, macroeconomics and the context of economic analysis. Students will get a good grounding in microeconomic theory and will understand the principles used in mainstream rational choice and perfect competition theory.

The course will cover preference theory, demand and supply, income and substitution effects, cost and revenue curves, perfect competition and partial equilibrium theory. The focus here is the internal consistency of neoclassical microeconomics as exemplified in rational choice theory and competitive markets, and its use of logic. Arguments showing the context and limited nature of neoclassical economic tools in explaining the economic and social reality will be discussed throughout these weeks. 

Then students will be taught topics of macroeconomics. In this section, the focus will be on the following specific concepts: national accounting, inflation, unemployment and business cycles. The analysis of these concepts will be through the use of contemporary schools of economic thought (New Classical, New Keynesian, Post Keynesian, and Monetarist) and their analytical frameworks. By viewing these concepts through these different frameworks, the student is introduced into open-ended discussions on these topics as different answers are equally valid as long as students can clearly identify the theoretical frameworks that he/she is using.

Finally, students then will learn about the social, political and business context of economic theory through the discussion of case studies and real-world examples.

The objective of this module is to introduce you to key concepts and theories in the field of entrepreneurship, and to different kinds of entrepreneurial processes, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial businesses. It also examines how context and culture shape entrepreneurial activity.

This module is an introduction to marketing. By the end of the module you will have a knowledge of the role of marketing within organisations and within society, and of the principles of marketing management.

Conceptually, the module is divided in two sections. The focus of the first section is to understand what marketing and its role within society. In the first five weeks, you will be introduced to the definition of marketing, the role of marketing within organisations, the value of marketing within organisations and society, the history of marketing, the role of marketing in constructing the consumer society, and the relationship that marketing has with society (i.e. marketing ethics, and sustainability).

We will study both traditional and critical/interpretativist theories of marketing.

In the second half of the module, you will be introduced to foundational topics in marketing management. You will also be introduced to marketing strategy through an brief overview of the 4Ps of marketing - Product, Place, Promotion and Price.

This module covers the core concepts of both finance and accounting. It will introduce students to the important financial and managerial accounting principles that are necessary when running any type of organisation- whether it is manufacturing, merchandising, service, non-profit, or government. It will give students an understanding of how management accounting information is used by managers in their planning and control activities and, is designed to prepare graduates for a variety of professional managerial roles in both the public and private sectors. It covers topics such as financial accounting and reporting, foundation and tools for management accounting, strategy development and using costs in decision making, costing systems and activity-based costing, managing customers, processes and life cycle costs, and using budgets for planning, coordination and control. In the financial component of the module, students will look at the three traditional accounting statements, balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. The module has two distinct elements: managerial finance with a focus on understanding financial statements, and management accounting with an emphasis on costing, budget and control. The lectures in the module will be supplemented by several assignments designed to develop and enhance practical skills.

In this module, subtitled ‘Everything is a Text’, you will consider the value of different types of texts and ways of imparting knowledge and ideas. You will reflect upon your identities as learners and future professionals in the world, considering a range of contexts: the academic/educational context, personal settings and the eco-systems that you live and work in. These reflections will be used to inform your practices as academic learners.

You will explore academic literacies, different ways of knowing and consider what counts as ‘legitimate’ knowledge. You will engage with critical thinking, making arguments and establishing criteria to defend intellectual positions and these skills will be acknowledged as social practices that produce and reinforce meaning and frameworks of understanding and knowledge.

Furthermore, you will engage with a wide range of academic and non-academic material, individuals and environments in order to contribute to discussions regarding attitudes and assumptions about ideas and experience, including within labour markets, cultural hegemonies, distributions of power and the relationship between the individual and society. In this way, the social interactions, relationships and contexts that underpin academic literacies in higher education will be made explicit.

You will discuss these ideas with students and tutors from the different subjects at Goldsmiths, and learn to be part of the wider university community. You will also be able to submit an assignment which could be a written, graphically designed, audio, video, or negotiated project. You will get to choose the assessment that best shows what you can do.

This module, subtitled ‘Researching Our World & Lives’, builds on the conceptual and contextual foundations of Identity, Agency and Environment 1.

You will learn how to conduct academic research and will be offered the opportunity to broaden and deepen your understanding of the relationship between your own interests, skills, values, career and non-career aspirations, the concepts, theories and contexts of your discipline, and the world.

You will reflect upon your identities as researchers, and learn how the research skills you’ve acquired both within your studies and the world more generally can be related to problem-solving in a wide range of contexts. You will consider your agency as researchers, what you can and cannot research, the ethical issues involved, and think reflexively about your position as a researcher in a range of environments and eco-systems.

Formal conventions of academic research and writing will be integrated into your individualised contexts and goals, enabling the expression of ideas and perspectives that may challenge the status quo. The module will encourage creativity, activism, decision-making and the formation of judgements leading to action-planning in relation to research topics and types of evidence, and professional planning.

You will learn to critique your own subject disciplines. Interdisciplinary sharing of knowledge will ensure that assessment and learning practices provide you with the opportunity to develop new lines of thinking and knowing, within formative collaborative learning and research communities.

Entrepreneurial Finance builds thorough theoretical and practical knowledge of how to:

• raise business finance from different sources
• manage funds and relations with investors
• plan the exit strategy of the business making entrepreneurs/investors extract economic value from their investment.

In this modules, you'll be introduced to different sources of financing and financiers, and will analyse different strategies for attracting, securing and managing finance which may vary according to business model, business type and amount of financing required.

You'll learn how to use different tools for managing funds and at different stages of business development (start-up, growth, exit). Using the best available evidence, real-world examples, case studies, guest speakers (e.g., investors, banking professionals), videos, and through weekly in-class or online practical exercises and pieces of assessment, you'll apply your learning to develop strategies for raising and managing entrepreneurial finance.

This module is organised around the concepts and processes relating to the sourcing and management of entrepreneurial finance during the early stages of business development. Through in-depth readings, discussions, and more hands-on practical work, you'll learn how to value a new business venture and calculate the amount of money needed to launch/run the business.

In the first half of the module, you'll evaluate the financing options available to new ventures from internal/personal options, to more traditional external options (loans versus equity investments) and less traditional financing options such as crowdfunding, microfinance and peer-to-peer lending. Throughout this process, you'll analyse the risk-reward trade-offs of the different financing types.

You'll also critically reflect on the potential barriers to finance for different entrepreneurs/businesses (e.g., women, ethnic minorities, young people) and ways of managing them.

In the second half of the module, students will focus more on the processes around raising and managing finance. You'll learn about the different cycles of investment, legal agreements around investment, harvesting, pitching to investors, formulating a financial plan and devising a crowdfunding campaign. You'll also be introduced to some of the different tools for managing the finances of the new business venture.

The objective of this module is to introduce students to some of the key factors that shape entrepreneurial behaviour, with a special focus on entrepreneurial cognitions and emotions. It provides insights in to why some people start up and grow businesses, while others do not. To provide a rich understanding of this area, the module draws from research across the fields of Psychology and Micro-sociology, as well as from Management and Entrepreneurship generally.

This module is organised around the idea development process, particularly as it relates to generating business ideas, recognising and evaluating business opportunities, and relationships between these concepts. Students will reflect critically on the different definitions, theories and empirical work on business ideas and opportunities, where they come from (e.g., sources of change, trends) and how they are shaped. They will learn how to generate and identify their own business ideas and opportunities using different approaches (e.g., problem or human-centered). Students will also learn how to evaluate these ideas/opportunities, applying both business-focused and person-focused criteria. Using business focused criteria, they will be required to carry out an in-depth feasibility analysis which necessitates research across several areas that are central to the business idea – e.g., the product/service, industry-target market (customer needs), the organization/management and finance. Person-focused criteria will take in to consideration the experience of the student/entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial mindset, background factors and other characteristics.

This module will provide you with the tools you need to conduct both qualitative and quantitative market research and to translate this research into consumer insight.

After reviewing well known data collection methods and distributions, the module will be divided into three sections. The focus of the first section is quantitative data analysis. Specifically, the module will look into inferential statistics such as hypothesis testing, correlations, T-Test, ANOVA, regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. You will learn how to use SPSS to conduct inferential statistics.

In the second part, you will learn qualitative data analyses. Specifically, you will learn different coding techniques used in the market research industry, and how to use qualitative data to extrapolate broader insights into your markets.

Finally, you will learn how to translate both qualitative and quantitative market research outputs into consumer insights. The overall aim is to enable you to evaluate different types of market research, and be able to understand and use research output for solving marketing problems such as segmentation, targeting, positioning, marketing strategy and consumer behaviour.

This module will help students to develop a career plan and prepare for their employment search. It will cover practical aspects such as writing a CV, a cover letter and application forms and developing an internet presence through websites such as Linkedin. It will give students the tools to prepare for interviews, including case interviews, assessment centres, and psychometric tests. It will cover the development of soft skills such as leadership and networking skills as well as the development of commercial awareness through business case studies. The students will also be introduced to current theories of career development and employability.

Our academic departments are developing exciting elective ideas to allow you to broaden your education, either to develop vocationally orientated experiences or to learn more about contemporary society, culture and politics. You’ll be able to choose safe in the knowledge that these modules have been designed for non-subject specialists and to bring students from different disciplines together. For example, you may want to take introductions to areas such as Law, Education, the digital industries, the creative industries,think like a designer or understand the history and politics behind our current affairs.

This module is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of leadership and talent in organisations. Moreover, students will learn about methods for assessing leadership potential and talent, along with approaches to enhancing leadership ability and talent. The module will also cover use of technology in leadership development and talent management. By using case material and practical examples, students are introduced to the importance of theory and research-based practice in these fields.

• Understand key concepts relating to international business, describe the key players in international business, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of globalization 
• Examine the international business environment and the different dimensions (political, legal, technological and cultural) that affect the operations of international businesses
• Understand the international monetary and financial environment
• Examine different strategies for entering in to foreign markets and analyse organizational design, control and structure in international business contexts

This module will introduce you to the psychological theories and research on how organisational, team-level and individual characteristics affect productivity and mental health. This module will also consider the limitations of our understanding of these issues and how occupational psychology theory and research is trying to overcome them. 

This module provides students with an in-depth understanding of the new venture creation process from design and planning, to launch and development, and a deep appreciation for the kinds of decisions that entrepreneurs are required to make at each stage. The purpose of the module is to familiarise students with key aspects of the venture creation process in order to prepare them for starting up their own businesses. This is achieved by combining aspects of business planning with some of the realities of starting up a business. Through readings, case studies, guest speakers, videos, and weekly in-class practical exercises, students will apply their learning by developing a business plan and participating in a business simulation.

This module is organised across two terms and in to two parts. In the first half of the module the emphasis is on the business planning process and understanding the purpose, scope, effectiveness, structure and presentation of the business plan. In this part of the module, students will learn how to clarify the business concept and opportunity, articulate business goals, and set realistic timescales. Focusing on a specific business idea, students will be required to research and write up a business plan which covers aspects of the business concept relating to the management team and personnel (areas/positions to cover, expertise required, recruitment/training plans and costs), market and competition, marketing and sales (segmentation, position, sales methods and forecasting), financial planning and forecasting, the capacity and efficiency of operations, and business exit. They will learn how to craft an executive summary and formulate a business plan that serves both as a road map for staff, and a key tool for attracting finance to the business. They will learn about important legal issues surrounding the new business venture, from the choice of legal entity, to legal agreements (employment contracts, intellectual property), and taxation. They will also discuss the value of, and criticisms around, business planning and how these can be addressed. In the second half of the module, students will participate in a business simulation whereby they will set up and run a business for a simulated number of years. Applying their learning in the first part of the module and developing further their critical thinking and problem solving skills, students will be required to answer questions around sales and marketing, finance, operations and the organisation, and evaluate the consequences of those decisions. Decision-making will be reinforced by research and analysis, using different forms of data and evidence.

This module serves to critically examine existing research on the content and processes vital to the management and growth of small and entrepreneurial businesses. It synthesises research on the experiences, ambitions and concerns of entrepreneurs and small business owners and elaborates on the different processes and strategies required to develop businesses; this occurs through in-depth readings, interactive in-class discussions, activities, presentations, and individual/group work focused on real businesses.