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

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

This module will extend your knowledge and understanding of marketing acquired from your previous studies into the marketing strategy area (approach and application). You will learn to apply the principles and techniques of marketing strategy across a wide range of goods and services in different markets. You will learn to use models which help marketing managers to make more informed decisions (e.g. new product development, brand repositioning, deletion, sales force management and communication techniques). You will undertake analysis of complex situations via the use of case studies and learn how to present solutions through group discussions. The ability to think strategically will be expressed in the production of marketing plans.
Within this module, you will cover three main areas associated with contemporary marketing strategy:

1) Designing appropriate marketing strategies:

• Assessing internal and external environments
• Strategic marketing decisions: choices and mistakes
• New product development
• Branding strategies
• Relational and sustainability strategies

2) Implementation of strategies:

• Implementing services marketing strategies
• Delivering customer value
• Sales management strategies
• Retail management strategy
• Marketing metrics

3) Emerging areas in contemporary marketing strategy:

• Internal marketing
• Marketing across the border
• Social and ethical strategies
• Internet marketing

On completing the module you will be able to critically evaluate the usefulness of marketing knowledge in business decision making and apply marketing theory strategically. You will also develop the skills required for effective Integration of learning from marketing and other business areas into a plan for solving business problems.

This module is designed to develop your skills in understanding how one-to-one forms of marketing communications, across offline and online channels, can be combined into an overall campaign with the ability to generate new customers and enhance existing relationships. To do this, the module is broken into three distinct themes:

Theme One - Principles of Direct and Digital Marketing: In this part of the module you will cover the fundamental practices in the direct marketing field, which will include acquisition and retention strategies, customer profiling and segmentation, database marketing, permission marketing and personalisation, relevant legislation and marketing metrics.

Theme Two - Digital Media: In this section you will explore the range of communications media available, ranging from traditional offline channels (such as direct mail and telemarketing) through to the ever-growing range of digital media options (including social media, email, web design and mobile commerce).

Theme Three - Campaign Planning: Here you will be introduced to the principles of campaign design, from initial context analysis and goal setting through to campaign implementation and evaluation. You will be encouraged to combine different marketing communications tools as part of an integrated campaign.

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.