Business Administration (Top-up) - BA (Hons)

This module encourages you to develop an in depth understanding of the analysis and re-design of business operations and processes and the systems that support the contribution of these core processes to the core philosophy of the business. The emphasis is to create a practice based module, taking you through a journey of how a real life business plans and delivers the organisations’ operations. The practice is underpinned by relevant theories in two hour workshops – combining lectures and seminars. 

This module builds on our practice-based approach to learning. You will integrate theory and practice in order to challenge existing approaches and thinking and propose innovative ideas to support flexible and creative initiatives within organisations. It complements other modules within the Final Year through supporting your personal and professional development across a range of transferable skills including problem solving, critical thinking, generating innovative ideas, and building and delivering effective oral presentations.

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. 

Whilst Marketing has contributed to the problem of over-consumption, this module aims to provide you with an understanding of the role that marketing has to play in meeting the needs of the sustainability agenda. It identifies the nature and extent of the challenges facing organisations and considers potential approaches for addressing these. In doing so, it aspires to create a vision of the future in which organisations, consumers and government can realise a one planet business strategy.

Culture is generally accepted by marketing researchers as one of the most important underlying determinants of consumer behaviour. Geert Hofstede himself has stated that if there is one aspect of business that is culture-dependent, it is consumer behaviour. Considering that marketing is about consumers to begin with, it is crucial for marketers to understand and predict the behaviour of consumers in all markets they serve. As businesses expand into new national and international markets, dealing with differences in cultural values amongst consumers can be quite challenging, which in turn has implications on the development of viable marketing strategies. 

This module focuses on issues relating to the management and growth of a SME (Small, Medium enterprise) or social enterprises. This module will help you to identify ways in which the enterprise can upscale using internal and external resources. 

With the knowledge and training from this module, you will have a good understanding of strategies, strategic management and decision making, and build up a holistic view of supply chain. Meanwhile, you will build upon your personal skills of conducting academic research, critical thinking and discussion, written communication, strategic decision-making, and self-reflection. These will enhance your capabilities towards a range of managerial roles within companies or developing your own businesses. In addition this module will invite guest speakers to share their experiences.

This module takes an experiential approach and is delivered through a combination of lectures, online seminars and digital workshops. The nature of the module is experiential and in keeping with the course core philosophies, it will equip you with the ability to apply marketing theory and practice, and to develop key transferable skills that are now essential to a career in marketing. Specifically, this module provides you with the specialist ‘digital’ marketing skills and provides you with an entrepreneurial underpinning. The Professional Practice route will be delivered differently via block taught sessions with the assessment work-based.