Business Economics - BA (Hons)

The module aims to provide you with the numeric skills you will require as you embark on your economic undergraduate studies, as well as preparing you for a graduate placement or career within this discipline.

You will be initially introduced to the discipline of economics, the range of careers that are open to graduates from this discipline as well as the key employability skills valued by employers. You will then be introduced to the key quantitative and qualitative skills you will require to transit onto subsequent modules and progress your studies.

Within this multi-disciplinary module, you’ll work with colleagues studying other programmes within the Business School, exploring how to run a business effectively through a business simulation. You’ll run a virtual business, and – with support and guidance – respond to business issues and challenges, rectifying them as you will when it comes to facing such situations in real life.

This module will teach you the fundamental economic principles, theories and models. You’ll learn to evaluate the impact that external micro, macro and international environments have on the activities and performance of businesses.

Here you will learn to use data as an aid when it comes to making business-sensitive decisions, demonstrating a good understanding of good practice in the process. You’ll perform basis statistical and mathematical calculations, strengthening your data presentation skills.

Applied Economics will teach you to explain and summarise the contribution of economic theory to real-world economic problems, using scenarios you’ll encounter in real life to enhance your decision-making and problem-solving skills.

This module will teach you to input, manipulate and extract data and information from a discipline-specific financial software. You will undertake a project report and explain the types, purpose, benefits and risks of financial information systems. As part of the module, you gain industry qualifications, such as the Microsoft Office Specialist – Excel qualification.

Here you will apply knowledge to specific economic situations, solving problems using mathematical and graphical methods. You’ll look at different evidence and arguments, and develop the skills you need to undertake further economic courses.

This module focusses on the tools and techniques used by Operation Managers within service and manufacturing institutions to ensure activities are cogent with corporate and market objectives. 

The module requires you to apply a range of operations management tools and techniques to given scenarios in order to produce a range of verbal, written and numerical solutions focussed on the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of an operation’s processes.

This module will provide an introduction to the role of Strategic Development in an organisation.

Strategic Development is a vital activity in all organisations, with accountants playing a key role in the process. The module will cover the key areas of Strategic Development:

• Strategic Analysis
• Strategic Choice
• Strategic Implementation

Appropriate economic models will be selected in order for you to analyse macroeconomic problems. You’ll demonstrate knowledge and understanding of macroeconomic concepts, theories and models at an intermediate level. 

This module is consistent with the philosophy of the programmes where it is delivered as it presents a comprehensive coverage of the main techniques of analysis for economics, business and financial-type data involving the application of regression analysis. You will be given the opportunity to experience how econometrics can be used to empirically study and answer questions across a variety of disciplines.

This module is designed to allow you to develop your problem solving skills in creative ways. The module will explore understandings of creativity and how creative thinking can make a difference. Problem solving is an important skill for more effective study and employability. This module will examine what a problem is (a gap between where you are and where you want to be) and the importance of imaginative fact finding and redefinition.

Contemporary Business: Practice and Solutions investigates current issues that impact upon business organisations. This will provide you with a greater awareness of critical business issues. This module examines some of the many issues affecting businesses today - broad issues such as global warming, migration issues and demographic shifts, which impact on all firms and individuals. It also looks at more specific management issues, such as labour shifts (outsourcing, off-shoring and re-shoring), teleworking and other modern 'slavery' practices.

The module offers you with an opportunity to explore and understand how entrepreneurship and innovation contribute to economic and social development. You will become aware with the theory and practice of entrepreneurship in different international contexts through illustrative case studies. Further, you will develop an understanding of the different issues underlying enterprise creation, motivations and strategies of entrepreneurs in diverse settings including corporate, social, women’s and ethnic minority entrepreneurship.

Our understanding of the economy is contested. Reflecting this there are discernible schools of economic thought which vary in the extent to which they recommend government intervention, and in their understanding of market processes. In recent years economics has experienced a period of introspection in the light of the global financial crisis, which impacted the wealth of almost all nations.

Moreover climate change represents a real and immanent threat which the free market seems unable to arrest. It is now broadly recognised that economic history and an appreciation of “worldly philosophy” (the history of ideas about the economy) are necessary elements in a robust economics curriculum, both preparing students for work as practitioner economists, and developing your critical faculties as a person.

The aim of this module is to provide an understanding on the application of economic analysis to key sustainable development goals such as environmental sustainability and economic development. It equips students with the knowledge and tools required to analyse and critically discuss the trade-offs between the three pillars of economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability. This module introduces students to key concepts, literature and debates to investigate relationships between macroeconomics policies, poverty and environment.

This module will introduce you to the language spoken by accounting professionals. You will gain an understanding of how financial statements are prepared. This is key to being able to interpret the financial position and performance of companies using ratio analysis. This module will also give an insight in to how standard costs are developed for products and services and how they are key to the budgeting process.

This module is open to BLSS students, who choose to undertake an international Study Abroad or Erasmus+ study outgoing mobility placement within their second year of study. The aim of this module is to enable individuals to explore their mobility experience through a cross-cultural lens that focusses on the key themes of their discipline in an international context, cross-cultural awareness, social construction, and the self. Informed by activities that draw on research enquiry, creativity, culture, employability, reflection and professional development.

The business environment is undergoing constant change and this is largely driven by technological advances which enable organisations to better identify and reach prospective customers. Organisations can no longer obtain a competitive advantage simply by producing high quality goods or services and offering them for sale within the market.

The way that the consumer makes their buying decisions has changed and nowadays they no longer expect to be the passive recipients of mass messages. Customers now expect to enter into a two-way conversation with organisations, thus changing the monologue into a dialogue: a two-way conversation. This conversation commences during their decision making-stage, continues during the purchase of the product or service and continues throughout the buyer lifecycle, thus enabling organisations to extract maximum value from customers.

This module aims to equip you with the conceptual knowledge needed to develop your understanding of e-business and to enhance your digital employability skills. It explores a diverse range of activities within e-business Strategy and aims to enable you to appreciate the major differences between traditional and e-business at strategic level.

The module provides you with an introduction to the main issues of international economics. You will undertake econometric analysis as part of your assessment to apply the theories and models. The module will equip you with the analytical skills in economics you’ll need to succeed in employment. 

This module gives you the chance to undertake a substantial piece of relevant research in an area that interests you. Once the topic has been agreed with the course team, you will conduct extensive research, form adequate conclusions and showcase the skills you have learnt so far. 

Industrial Economics is a field of economics that studies the structure of the markets, the strategic behaviour of the firms and the interactions between them. In this module a number of theoretical microeconomic models learnt previously will be applied to the real-world industries.

The labour market is central to the production process in market economies. For a significant part of their lives people sell their labour in exchange for wages or salaries. Labour is also one of the factors of production, alongside capital, land and entrepreneurship. This is an option model which is offered across the range of economics programmes. All firms and organisations hire labour, so this is a highly relevant module in business and economic context.

This module provides students with a range of forecasting techniques implemented using software such as Excel or SPSS. It builds on the material taught in the level 5 Econometrics module (although this is not a formal prerequisite) and applies regression techniques specifically to time series. This will provide students with an understanding with which they can investigate.

The issues of ethics, social responsibility and sustainability in business have moved from the marginal to the mainstream during the last 40 years. With the impact of consumption running at 1.6 planet’s worth of resources each year, society is increasingly looking to develop a long-term, sustainable vision for the future that takes into account not only the economic factors of business, but also considers the social and environmental impact of decisions.

Students will explore the concept of planning an operational change within an organisation through the use of project management tools and techniques. The assessment, split into two components of assessment which are individually summatively assessed, will focus on a real organisational problem set by an employer, who will act as the project sponsor of the required change.