MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship

The MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship is an exciting masters course offered by Alliance MBS - home to Europe's largest number of innovation researchers. It can be taken as a one-year full-time course or part-time over two years.

Authentic mastery - being able to apply these methods, tools and techniques in a real scenario - is at the heart of much of the teaching and assessment. There is a strong emphasis on research training, development of personal communication skills, team-working and presentation which gives you an excellent basis to pursue a variety of careers across all sectors, academic research or teaching.

Course units details

You will study for 180 credits in total.

• 8 core and optional units = 120 credits
• Dissertation = 60 credits

Over the summer period, you will carry out your Research Dissertation. A list of dissertation topic areas will be presented to you toward the end of Semester 1. Dissertation topics reflect the diverse interests and expertise of research-active academics who teach on the MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship course and other research and teaching staff in the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR) and Masood Enterprise Centre (MEC). There are limited opportunities to undertake a dissertation related to ongoing research projects or in collaboration with industry.

Examples of recent dissertation project topics include:

• Exploring the role of Corporate Social Responsibility driven eco-innovation for firm sustainability
• Opportunities and challenges from open innovation between UK universities and the pharmaceutical industry
• Dynamic capabilities and deploying big data for the development of the Chilean retail sector
• Innovation patterns in after-sales for the commercial vehicles sector in India
• Online innovative strategies to improve competitiveness and customer relationships in China
• Studying user involvement in medical device innovation processes in the UK

Coursework and assessment

Units are typically assessed by a combination of:

• Written work (essay or report)
• Presentation
• Group project assessment
• Examination

The last third of the programme is spent researching and writing a dissertation of around 8,000 words, the choice of topic reflecting the student's interests and the expertise of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR).

• Learn how to successfully manage both technology and organisational innovation.
• Gain an understanding of how the innovation process works, how companies organise to take advantage of internal and external sources of innovation, how to carry out technology investment appraisal and forecast future innovation trends.
• Focus on developing analytical and critical skills, research training, personal communication skills and effective team-working.
• Prepare for a variety of careers including a leader of innovative teams, an entrepreneur in a technology-driven organisation, academic researcher or lecturer.