Digital Business MSc
1 Year Full-Time | September Start

In this module you will learn about a comprehensive range of research methods and business analytics techniques. This will equip you with the knowledge and practical skills necessary for you to conduct research at Masters’ level and prepare you to complete a Master’s Dissertation, Consultancy Project or Management Enquiry. By the end of the module you will know how to apply both quantitative and qualitative data collection and business analysis techniques. In quantitative techniques you will learn about sampling, questionnaire design, statistical inference, and hypothesis testing while qualitative techniques covered will include methods such as interviewing and focus groups. Analysis methods such as content analysis and thematic analysis will also be covered. In addition, you will gain some understanding of research philosophy (positivism and interpretivism) and research ethics and you will be able to write a research proposal to bring these ideas together.
Furthermore, this module will provide clear, critical, and analysis of data, you will also be able to consider the use of analytics implementation skills, where you will be introduced to analytics software such as SPSS. SPSS statistics analysis is one of the powerful solutions that is designed to help businesses and researchers to solve problems by various methods (geospatial analysis, predictive analytics and hypothesis testing).

Studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This

module is designed to support your transition to postgraduate level study in the use and practice of subject specific skills around assessments

and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to further develop your abilities to read and study effectively

for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your

use and application of language and communications skills suitable for a postgraduate level of study.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding postgraduate assignment briefs.

• Developing advanced academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.

• Practising advanced ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’

• Planning and structuring postgraduate level academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).

• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.

• Speaking in postgraduate seminar presentations.

• Presenting your ideas

• Giving discipline-related postgraduate level academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.

• Postgraduate level speed reading techniques.

• Developing self-reflection skills.

In this module you will develop a critical understanding of the laws relating to data management. Whilst the focus will be on data protection in the UK and Europe, you will be encouraged to bring in examples from other jurisdictions providing an international perspective on data management. You will examine the development of data protection law in England and Europe, the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the EU Directive on Data Protection (the Directive), the Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. The module will take a critical look at the legal framework that governs data protection and privacy both regionally and internationally. This module covers the following topics: the history and development of data protection law; key definitions within the legislation and how they have been interpreted and applied; the data protection principles which govern legal regulation and practice; the rights which are created by the Act and Regulation, who they are granted to and how they might be enforced; the obligations which are imposed on organisations over how they process personal data; how the exemptions in the legislation apply to domestic law; how notification arrangements work and how the data protection regime is enforced, in particular looking at the powers of the Information Commissioner.

This option is offered as an alternative to the NBS Masters’ Dissertation on all 1-year MSc programmes and in the second semester of year 2 on the 2-year programme variants with Study Abroad and with Advanced Practice (if the students select an Internship in semester 1), again as a Dissertation alternative. It is also offered as alternative to the Management Investigation on the MBA.

On this consultancy based module you will enhance your individual effectiveness and employability skills by locating the learning and development in an organisational context. In doing so, you will promote personal and group development, commercial awareness, and a range of inter-personal, intellectual and practical skills and knowledge centred on and demonstrated through a group negotiated real-time work-based project.

The content of the management report will be unique. The nature and scope of the area of your investigation will be defined and agreed in collaboration with the organisation and the University supervisor. The syllabus will include:

• Conducting research in organisations.
• Identifying researchable questions.
• Consultancy and project management skills.
• Research methods and doing a literature review
• Presentation, communication and report writing skills.
• Analysing findings.
• Writing recommendations and action plans.
• Reflecting on work based experiential learning.

In undertaking this project based module, you will critically reflect and evaluate upon organisational practices and their relation with academic theory, and in doing so, provide practical and actionable recommendations through an investigative management report.

The assessment for your module consists of a Group Consultancy Report (7,000 words) and Final Client Presentation, weighted at 60%, alongside an Individual Assignment comprising a Literature Review (4000 words) and a Reflective Learning Statement (2,000 words), weighted at 40%.

In this module you will gain an understanding of the academic skills that are required to produce a Masters Dissertation. By the end of the module you will have written a 15000 word Masters dissertation. The areas included are:

• Justification for the choice of topic
• Appropriate understanding, awareness and critical analysis of existing and up to date literature evidenced by a comprehensive and well-referenced literature review with an extensive reference list
• Selection, justification and application of an appropriately rigorous methodology - including limitations of the approach selected
• Clear statement of the findings of the research
• Critical analysis of the findings
• Explicit links between the analysis and the conclusions supported by critical argument
• Evidence of original work or thought for example in the form or context of the data collected, analytical process or application of findings

This module aims to provide you with the knowledge and skills to understand how digitalisation, across the whole economy and government and the third sector, has resulted in wide-spread changes. These changes have led to wide-spread benefits, but also a series of challenges that impact on the ability of individuals and organisations to benefit from the digitalisation that is occurring.

The module is delivered through a lectures and workshops, covering the following issues:

• The scale and scope of electronic commerce
• ICT-mediated business models
• Digital platforms – growth, ‘winner takes all’ strategy and strategies
• Models of information systems within organisations
• Digitalisation – drivers, challenges and changing socio-technical structures
• Data – monetisation, flows, uses within organisations

Through this module you will gain skills to enable you to analyse and appreciate the emergence and development of digitalisation within organisations. On completing the module, you will appreciate the scope and dynamism of digitalisation.

This module uses digital business challenges to develop your professional mindset, capabilities and attributes. Particularly, the module will help you to learn about the specific challenges faced by organisations due to digital changes on the market and/or those faced by different industry sectors on a daily basis as well as about the benefits from digital innovations in their business functions. Each challenge will involve you working in teams to achieve specified aims and will focus on contemporary real world digital problems identified in the local community, internationally and within the business community.

You will be involved in 4 challenges and be supported through lectures and seminars that will deliver relevant theory and practice on: ethical issues related to digital business and innovation (security, privacy, surveillance), organisational barriers related to adoption of digital business (cultural, structural, skills and competencies, lack of change management strategy), characteristics of digital innovation (disruption to an existing business, technology complexity), digital market and/or industry structure (market landscape, regulatory risks) and/or digital governments and digital public services (and how digital affects these services).

During the process you will use your understanding of your digital mindset to enhance your skills profile in relation to the global graduate market.

This module aims to expose students to main concepts, frameworks and theoretical debates in innovation studies and innovation management and then enable them to apply these insights into rapidly changing contexts in digital markets. The module will develop your critical understanding of the broad impact of digital transformation on businesses, as well as challenges of implementing digital innovation within specific real-world contexts. You will build knowledge and skills necessary to identify elements of radical and incremental technological change and follow their effects on the emergence of digital markets and new market structures.

This module will provide an understanding of how digital technologies provide new and exciting business opportunities and corresponding challenges. You will learn how businesses are required to adapt and change the ways they create and deliver value to their customers and how they monetise those.

You will learn why certain businesses are more successful than others, why they grow faster or why they are more profitable and the role of their business model to create and support their competitive advantage in an ever-changing business world.

Topics that will be covered include:
• Digital competitive advantage, what is it, how it is created and sustained
• Digital value network and ecosystems
• Digital Business survivability
• Open innovation and its relationship with competitive advantage
• Business model innovation
• The role of funding resources and crowdfunding / crowdsourcing
• Growth strategies

This module focuses on contemporary issues in the area of technology and digital business. These issues are topical, challenging, and diverse in character, ranging from the introduction of new technologies such as NFT to the ethical and data governance issues that surround today’s digital business. Their dynamic and multi-faceted nature mean that their impact on businesses, governments and society is not straightforward, creating opportunities as well as challenges.

In this module you will critique the contemporary issues identified by students. You will gain the skills to enable you to analyse and evaluate the emergence, development and importance of the contemporary issues discussed. On completing the module, you will appreciate the scope and dynamism of digital business and be able to apply tools and techniques to analysis contemporary issues.

This module explores how to integrate coaching as a strategic approach within an organisational development strategy.

This module takes the learners through a structured exploration of how public services and digital government require different conceptual and practical approaches to addressing issues of organisational performance and considers the key building blocks of an effective strategies and frameworks for achieving this. Students will consider the key elements of strategy via relevant case study organisations: the strategic imperatives for digital services; the role of leadership; internal vs external assets and resources, creating a collaborative culture through;1:1 and team based approaches; supervision and evaluating effectiveness and return on investment.

This module has relevance for professionals seeking to develop an internal strategy and for practitioners/consultants supporting a client organisation.

Practical elements will focus on a combination of team supervision approaches to compliment the 1:1 capabilities developed elsewhere in the programme.

The module culminates in a written recommendation for a case organisation that seeks to create a culture, implement an integrated coaching strategy or further develop aspects of an organisations coaching capability. Alongside you will create a personal learning log and personal development plan that captures areas for future development in relation to your role in organisational coaching.