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Study modules using SAP and IBM enterprise systems practices and tools.
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Digital technologies have changed how organisations are making business by enabling them to transform their activities and create innovative value propositions. The MSc Digital Business, Innovation and Management programme offers a range of opportunities to help you understand how to harness technology, manage its effects to gain competitive advantage, open up new business markets, and streamline core organisational processes.
On this 12-month programme, you will be introduced to the ever-changing digital landscape, and learn how different technologies contribute to new ways of thinking for digital businesses. You will benefit from hands-on experience of core technologies that underlie modern digital businesses, and you develop your knowledge in examining the role and impact of information and technology in contemporary organisations. You will also gain an in-depth understanding of the distinctive challenges associated with management in a digital world.
The knowledge you will gain will provide you with the skills to assess the business ecosystems, analyse organisational cultures and behaviour, and understand their impact on the implementation of digital innovation within real-world business challenges.
In the final element of your Master's programme, your Dissertation project will be a chance to bring together and demonstrate all the learning you have acquired throughout the programme. The Dissertation project can take one of a number of formats; either a Consultancy Project, Research Dissertation, or Start-up Project, as detailed in the course structure.
Students on the programme have previously worked on consultancy dissertation projects with IBM and Porsche, among other firms.
2:1 Hons degree (UK or equivalent) in any discipline.
We may also consider non-standard applicants, please contact us for information.
If you have studied outside the UK, we would advise you to check our list of international qualifications before submitting your application.
Work experience in a related field would be welcome, but is not essential
We may ask you to provide a recognised English language qualification, dependent upon your nationality and where you have studied previously.
We normally require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test. We also consider other English language qualifications.
If your score is below our requirements, you may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language programmes.
Contact: Admissions Team +44 (0) 1524 592032 or email pgadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk
You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.
Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
This module is concerned with recent, emerging and still evolving technologies. All are of great significance for our working lives and are becoming increasingly so for other aspects of life. These sessions will explore where the technologies have come from, how they are evolving and why they are so significant. The module will introduce the underlying technologies and services that enable digital business processes to be accomplished. For larger extent, these technologies will enable different types of innovations to take a place in technology-driven organisations. Holistically, the course can be thought of as covering an introduction to the technologies and services that are utilised for modern digital business applications.
Digital business is today's leading way of doing business. The superstars in the business community are those whose platforms can create connected ecosystems such as Microsoft and Google. Any going concern needs to understand how to enhance the digital if it is to survive and thrive in today's fast-moving consumers and corporate world. To this end, the module presents a variety of frameworks and case studies that help the student formulate a comprehensive understanding of digital business. A closely related and important part of digital business is digital marketing. The module offers traditional marketing coverage with a twist, by focusing on the Internet and other technologies that have had a profound effect on marketing. The lectures are interactive, multi-modal, and real world that involve various exercises that help you understand and employ the various frameworks.
The strategic significance of Information Systems (IS), is important, difficult, complex and interesting to analyse, because there many ways that IS can lead to strategic advantage. Not only can IS support an organisations strategy, it can also create strategic choices. IS now extends into every enterprise and every citizen, and is the basis of emerging business models from sectors as diverse as taxicabs (e.g. Uber and Zipcar) to banking (crowdfunding). Managers are increasingly asking themselves if everyone has access to IS then how can organisations get strategic advantage from IS? Indeed an organisations information systems strategy now increasingly forms the basis of many innovations in products, processes and business strategies.
Consulting and project management cannot be separated from organisational change practices and innovations in information technologies. Whether it is consulting about IT systems and projects, or consulting about organisational changes more widely that require changes to IT systems and the use of IT systems to manage the project, technology is omnipresent in the work of a consultant and project manager. It is in this context that the module aims to offer an understanding of what management consulting and project management entails, in particular focusing on ways of diagnosing and interpreting complex organizational problems and processes through the lens of consulting, and engaging in strategic project management.
The module will broaden students’ awareness of different consulting approaches and perspectives as well as provide an opportunity to reflect upon their strengths, limitations and underpinning assumptions and implications. In addition, you will be introduced to various concepts within strategic project management, particularly in relation to developing a business case, risk management, stakeholder engagement, requirements management, needs analysis and benefit realisation.
Through the module and its assessment students will develop a richer understanding of ways of engaging in IT consulting and project management that meets the requirements of business – with case studies helping students understand ways of succeeding and also causes of failure.
Organisations in the contemporary world are receiving a constant and increasing flow of information as a result of becoming more globally connected through processes of digitalisation. This necessitates new and more flexible management practices than have been used in the past to be developed. Critical and reflective understandings of the interrelated nature of information, technology and organisation are fundamental for the development of these management practices.
The module begins by introducing students to the interdisciplinary academic approaches to digital technologies, organisational practices and innovation processes that underlie the programme. It then provides study-skills training that will help students better understand the academic requirements and expectations of the programme. In the second term there are sessions on research methods to help you appreciate both ways of doing research and the related ethical issues and challenges. Insights gained regarding research methods and related issues will be important for undertaking dissertation research projects and will be assessed as part of the dissertation module.
The module also includes a series of masterclasses with industry experts as part of a guest speaker series.
Industry experts / guest speakers will be invited for masterclasses with students on the module.
The aim of this module is to provide students with an understanding of ways to think about the role of technology in creating futures for companies and society, including the techniques that can be used to analyse and design futures.
The module deepens students’ understanding of how different potential futures might be understood, predicted, and brought into being. In order to do so, the course will look at the role played by different ideas about the relationship between technologies and the future both historically and in the present, as well as practical methods that are used in organisational contexts to attempt to anticipate the futures that technologies might enact. The module presents the current approaches surrounding the design of innovative IT artefacts as well as planning for the evaluation of the artefacts.
The lectures are interactive, multi-modal, practical and real world that involve various exercises that help you understand and employ the various ways of thinking about futures, analysis and design concepts.
The final element of the Master's programme, and the most substantial single piece of written work, is the dissertation. This involves a sustained piece of individual research, which can take one of a number of formats. It is your chance to bring together and demonstrate all the learning you have acquired throughout the programme.
A consultancy project dissertation involves students working with a designated company to address a particular challenge they face using research and insights from the programme. A consulting project is typically done by a group of not more than three students. While the client deliverable is a team output, the dissertation also involves an individual piece of written work. Places on the consultancy project dissertation module are awarded competitively as there are a limited number of projects each year.
This module aims to familiarise students with the notion of system integration and the ways companies can respond to their integration needs. Most importantly it provides the students with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with an ERP system and run a virtual company using the system.
This module aims to introduce to the students the art of IT architecting using the latest technological topologies. IT architecture plays a central role on the enterprise design and act as a blueprint for strategic and operational business development. The students will learn how architecture is important for defining structural, behavioural and functional aspects of both of the enterprise and IT systems.
The final element of the Master's programme, and the most substantial single piece of written work, is the dissertation. This involves a sustained piece of individual research, which can take one of a number of formats. It is your chance to bring together and demonstrate all the learning you have acquired throughout the programme.
A research dissertation involves a student identifying and academic research question and then conducting original data collection through fieldwork to address the question. Or it can involve a student tackling a self-defined research problem/question using a combination of academic literatures and skills developed through the programme.
‘Better’, ‘stronger’, and ‘more decisive’ leadership is often highlighted as the key to improving organisational performance and resolving social problems. Yet, traditional understandings of what constitutes ‘effective leadership’ - especially charismatic and transformational models - have failed to live up to expectations.
This module seeks to rethink leadership by firstly, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of three primary conceptual frameworks: heroic (leader-centred), post-heroic (follower-/culture-centred) and critical (power-centred) perspectives. It aims to develop knowledge and skills in the critical evaluation, interpretation and practice of leadership in organisations and societies. Secondly, the module seeks to encourage you to apply these different theories and perspectives in the reflection and development of your own leadership approach within your own context.
The module aims to enhance students’ knowledge about leadership dynamics enacted in diverse settings.
The final element of the Master's programme, and the most substantial single piece of written work, is the dissertation. This involves a sustained piece of individual research, which can take one of a number of formats. It is your chance to bring together and demonstrate all the learning you have acquired throughout the programme.
The start-up plan version of the dissertation involves a student using academic research relevant to the programme to inform the development of a business start-up plan.
What is meant by change management and how to analyse organisational change is an important, contested and complex question. It is the focus of this course.
In recent decades, management gurus, consultants, politicians and academics have talked about a transformation of the workplace but what does this mean? A series of change initiatives have emerged such as Teamworking, Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering which can be understood as part of this transformation and a means to achieve it. This course aims to challenge accepted and simplistic understandings and practices associated with change. Our contention is that to understand what is going on necessitates a reflexive and critical appreciation of the contradictions, complexities and paradoxes of organisational change and interventions that seek to secure change.
The course aims to provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of key ideas and perspectives in the management of organisational change. Throughout the course we will introduce concepts, theories and cases from studies of managers and organisations. Our focus is upon the development your abilities to analyse change management critically, systemically and reflectively.
As managers and others seek to initiate, implement and account for the impacts of change projects it is important that taken for granted assumptions and simplistic solutions about organisational life are both articulated, understood and rethought. Throughout the course prevailing assumptions in the managerial literature are examined and evaluated from a range of advanced social scientific perspectives. By the end of course you should have developed an understanding of the complex and contested nature and practice of the management of organisational change.
Location | Full Time (per year) | Part Time (per year) |
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Home | £15,650 | n/a |
International | £26,250 | n/a |
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2023 and 2024, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses. Fees for students starting in 2025 have not yet been set.
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
For most taught postgraduate applications there is a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.
For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, the tuition fees for subsequent years of your programme are likely to increase each year. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
You may be eligible for the following funding opportunities, depending on your fee status and course. You will be automatically considered for our main scholarships and bursaries when you apply, so there's nothing extra that you need to do.
Unfortunately no scholarships and bursaries match your selection, but there are more listed on scholarships and bursaries page.
If you're considering postgraduate research you should look at our funded PhD opportunities.
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We also have other, more specialised scholarships and bursaries - such as those for students from specific countries.
Browse Lancaster University's scholarships and bursaries.
Join our on-campus open day this February to talk to students and lecturers and find out how and when to apply.
Book my placeThe information on this site relates primarily to 2024/2025 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
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