BSc (Hons) Business with Financial Management (BMS, Sri Lanka)

This module is designed for business students to develop a non-technical understanding of the key aspects of corporate financial theory and practice. The module covers the core aspects of raising capital and determining financing, though to investing capital in major corporate decisions, and finally returning value to shareholders.

Specifically you will study in the module; Sustainable Value Management, Stock Market Efficiency, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Portfolio Theory, International Cost of Capital, Capital Structure Decisions, Dividend Policy, Corporate Valuation and International Merger & Acquisition activity.

The module has a focus on business responsibility of all of those areas, concentrating on professional codes of conduct in areas such as the banking industry, accounting and similar finance areas, and the types of dilemmas that graduates could face in professional practice. This module will develop you as a critical and reflective practitioner. In the module you will become more aware of the issues that responsible businesses face when attempting to implement financial concepts and theories into practice.

On completion of this module you will have produced a reflective learning journal (in the form of a Blog) based on your evaluation of theory to real world scenarios. As part of that journal will have watched and reflected on appropriate financial documentaries and movies which explore responsible financial management issues. Finally you will be apply your academic knowledge to a real world case and be able to critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth.
critically evaluate the tensions between the financial academic theories as a responsible business attempts to maximise shareholder wealth.

You will learn how to read and critically interpret both the financial information and narrative content of company reports. To do this, you will study the theory and context of corporate reporting, including ethical issues, and the international framework for reporting, as well as very practical techniques such as ratio analysis. Building on the calculation of ratios studied in previous modules, you will use ratios to help you analyse a company’s performance by selecting appropriate comparators and considering the figures in the context of a company’s industry and its business strategy. You will also consider the role of integrated reporting and sustainability reporting.

You will study impression management theories and apply these to evaluate how companies present themselves in their corporate reports.

The syllabus includes:
• regulatory and ethical framework, including the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting
• Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) and convergence towards International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• the constituent elements of financial statements: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, statements of changes in equity, notes to the accounts and accounting policies, and how to interpret these
• other elements of the annual report, such as the corporate governance report and auditor’s report, and how to interpret these
• progress in integrated reporting and sustainability reporting
• efficient market hypothesis, and how the market views the information in corporate reports
• impression management in corporate reporting
• current issues arising

The aim of this module is to encourage engagement with Organisation Theory through offering a comprehensive account of ideas, perspectives and practices of organisation. You will learn to analyse organisations, people and organising practices through critical employment of Organisation Theory which challenges conventional understanding of organisations. You will learn to explore the impact of recent trends in Organisation Theory and Practice on people and their behaviour in organisations.

The module links topics on Organisation Theory and Practice:
• Introduction to Organisation Theory, and implications for practice: overview of three main perspectives (Modern, Symbolic and Contemporary)
• Organisation Theory:
o Theorizing relationship between Organisation and its environment
o Theorizing different perspectives on Culture and Organisation, and managing across cultures
o Theorizing organisational (physical and social) structure
o Theorizing power, control and conflict (including the feminist perspective)
o Theorizing Identity and organisational behaviour
• Applications in practice:
o Organisational Design, Sustainable Organisational Design
o Organisational learning, tacit knowledge and knowledge management
o Organisational change, change management, and sustainable development
o Aesthetics and organisations, performance, narrative, theatre and organisation
o Managing culture, people and behaviour in organisations, and managing across cultures

Upon completion of the module you will gain an in-depth understanding of:

o The major perspectives on Organisation Theory
o ‘Critical’ organisation theory and management practices
o The recent trends in organising practices
o Theory and practices involved in working in multi-cultural organisations with an awareness of ethical considerations.
o How to form your own construction of knowledge on organisations, managing people and their behaviour

The dissertation module aims to equip you with the necessary intellectual and practical skills for undertaking an individual student-led, ethical investigation into an applied business (or the named degree) problem or issue. In addition, the dissertation aims to equip you with key transferable, employability skills, including: time management, project management, communication (written and verbal), negotiation, persuasion and influence, discovery, initiative, creativity and innovation in problem-solving, analysis.

The module is student-led but you are supported by, initially, weekly lectures and seminar-workshops which provide an introduction to undertaking Business-Management research followed by one-to-one or small-group supervision meetings.
The lectures and seminar-workshops will cover the following topics:
1. Developing a research aim/question (focusing and scoping the research)
2. Developing a literature review
3. Writing a research proposal
4. Researching ethically
5. Quantitative research techniques
6. Qualitative research techniques
7. Quantitative analysis techniques
8. Qualitative analysis techniques

Upon completion of the module you will be able to:
1. Conduct independent and ethical academic research involving the application and critical evaluation of appropriate theories and models,
2. Engage critically with relevant literature to establish a framework in which to analyse and synthesise the results of your primary or secondary research
3. Generate / collect relevant primary or secondary data using an appropriate and justified method
4. Analyse your data using an appropriate and justified method of analysis
5. Recognise the ethical implications of your work
6. Critically evaluate the source of your data and the method you adopted

1. How strategic recommendations are likely to be evaluated by various stakeholder groups that place a different interpretation on the measurement of business success.
2. Understanding the concepts and frameworks of Endogenous Strategy that apply to a company’s Capabilities, Competences and Resources.
3. How to synthesise key concepts in the Resource-based View of Strategy (RBV) and apply them to companies in competitive markets.
4. How Sustained Competitive Advantage (SCA) can be achieved and maintained in an era of finite resources and increasing demand for sustainability.
5. How Innovation can be managed and applied to Products, Processes, Business Models and Sustainability.
6. How Sustainability can be incorporated into successful Strategy Formulation, Strategic Implementation, and Business Model Innovation.
7. How Leadership impacts upon strategic decision making.
8. Understanding how the concepts of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility can be applied to meet the challenges of Ethical Business Management in the future.
9. How to successfully write compelling and influential strategic briefing documents based around the structure adopted by this module.