MSc Business & Finance

This module will equip you with the knowledge and tools to critically assess the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence in business. By integrating insights from behavioral economics, business, digital ethics, and corporate governance, the module provides a comprehensive understanding of how AI influences managerial decision-making and leadership. Through interactive teaching methods - including case studies, simulations, and expert discussions - you will develop practical skills to navigate ethical dilemmas in AI-driven environments.

Explore the theory and practice of banking in the 21st Century, specifically the facilitation role of banks as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders, and as providers of liquidity.

Exposure to the global economy brings new ideas, technologies, and management practices to a business. Whether looking to build a new plant, sell to a new market or find global business partners, exploiting opportunities in new markets or regions poses fresh challenges.

Many of those challenges arise from the different business environment that's present in countries around the world. What does an understanding of economics tell us about which countries and regions will see markets develop quickly in the medium term? Which governments act in ways that pose macroeconomic risks and which do not? How can resources and intellectual property be managed effectively? Which economic theories offer strategies to foster talent and help staff respond to new opportunities?

The patterns of world trade and the responses of governments have always been in constant flux. Businesses can't rely on traditional markets in the medium- to long-term. The pandemic has disturbed even the recently-established patterns of global economic growth. Strategic business decisions require an appreciation of the economic thinking that underpins these new patterns of growth and the changes in international finance that support them.

This module will provide real world examples and case studies to illustrate how economic thinking helps businesses make the most of new opportunities, while managing the risks associated with expansion into new markets and regions.

The module has been developed for business and management students across the WBS MSc portfolio and draws on ideas and research from macroeconomics, microeconomics, international finance, business strategy and development economics. No previous experience of economic analysis is required.

The module is structured around three key themes:

• Consumer Behaviour Intelligence: This theme offers a deeper exploration into consumer needs—a critical aspect of crafting effective Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) strategies. It delves into the complexities of understanding consumers even beyond their own self-awareness. You will be introduced to cognitive and motivational principles, enabling you to more accurately identify your target consumers and comprehend the underlying factors driving their purchasing behaviour
• Consumer Insights for Decision Makers: The focus of this theme is on how consumer insights can strategically inform decisions in product and service development, pricing, and beyond. The module will provide practical knowledge in areas such as behavioural pricing, systematic inventive thinking, and choice engineering. This willo equip you with the tools to make informed, impactful decisions based on deep consumer understanding
• Consumer Behaviour Management: This theme delves into practical methods for influencing consumer behaviour in real-world scenarios, covering key areas such as persuasion, motivation, and choice architecture. We will offer you state-of-the-art insights and strategies for each of these behaviour-modifying mechanisms. You'll learn how to identify and leverage specific cognitive and motivational levers to influence consumer actions and determine which levers are most relevant in various situations.

Businesses today have unprecedented access to information about their customers. However, many businesses fail to use this information to generate meaningful insights about the behaviour of their customers. The consequence is that these businesses fail to exploit opportunities for value creation, and improving their financial performance. This module is inspired by the idea that 'It's not the size of the data, it's how you use it'.

Hence, the principal aim of this module is to challenge students' thinking about the appropriate and inappropriate use of customer data for strategic decision-making. Using real-world cases as context for data analyses, we will discuss good and bad practices for how to derive meaningful insights from data. Examples include comparing data for different groups of customers, finding clusters of customers, and how to analyse relationships between different types of customer data.

Students will not only improve their theoretical understanding of empirical methods, but will also learn how to apply these methods in the widely-used software R. Once these insights have been generated, it is also important to know how to use graphical representations of these insights for story-telling in business presentations. Accordingly, this module will also place great emphasis on good practices in the context of presentations with data.

This module provides systematic understanding of relevant knowledge about key risk factors that firms might face and how firms can reduce their risk using various financial instruments.

This module focuses on how digital technologies enable organisations to offer digital services that aim at improving customer experience as well as firm performance. The module assumes no prior knowledge of technology and prepares you to engage with technology-related conversations (e.g., designing a new digital service) at the modern workplace. 

The module has three themes. The first theme is gaining competitive advantage using a digital business strategy and covers concepts such as motivations for digital transformation. The second theme provides an overview of what today’s managers need to know about the advantages and disadvantages of cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, social media, and data analytics. The last theme focuses on the lifecycle of digital service provision, covering key concepts such as technology selection and sourcing, agile implementation, and risk management

This module will provide you with an overview of how today's firms use digital marketing practices to achieve their business objectives, giving theoretical and practical subject knowledge and understanding, cognitive and methodological skills, and social/soft skills.

You can expect to cover similar topics to those in the indicative syllabus: Introduction to Digital Marketing, Website Design, Social Media, Digital Platforms and Tech Giants, Digital Advertising and SEO, Emerging Trends, Analytics and Integrated Marketing, Big Data, Data Science, and Digital Marketing.

Critically discuss a selection of current issues in digital strategy and agile transformation whilst you enhance your critical thinking and creativity in individual and group settings. This module will enhance your skills in analysing complex, real-life strategic problems.

From the shop-floor to the board-room the ways individuals and teams employ digital technology to execute strategy can make the difference between success and failure. Using the latest strategy learning techniques used in leading firms and consultancies (business simulations, interactive workshops, live video case studies, apprentice-style challenges), this module will take you on a learning journey. At the end of the module, through analysis and immersion in real-life strategy situations, you will develop a toolkit to help grow as competent strategists and deal with agile transformations. These skills are essential for a career in consultancy or strategy roles.

This module will provide you with the theoretical foundations, appropriately supported by real-life examples, to help understand how global business works today.

Anyone who follows the news will immediately understand the importance of global business and how it has become central to decisions made by governments and their regulators. The trade conflict between the US and China, all the problems for global businesses (as well as the people of the UK and Europe) arising out of Brexit and the potential disruption to global supply chains for companies as diverse as car manufacturers and financial services.

Furthermore, environmental crises and disruptions come in various forms: economic recessions, disease outbreaks, as well as terrorist attacks – many of which cannot be easily predicted and impose numerous non-trivial costs on firms, particularly MNEs due to their multi-market exposures. At the same time, MNEs are accused of behaving irresponsibly in their quest for global market growth, which is likely to impose further costs on these firms.

By the end of the module, you will be able to dig deep into these news headlines and gain real insight into the issues in order to discuss how MNEs can build sustainable business models in today’s global business environment.

To be effective in modern organisations requires an understanding of the dynamics of digital work. This module will equip you with a broad understanding of the tools and organisational arrangements driving this shift towards digital working, and provide you with techniques and frameworks to operate effectively in this more dynamic and fluid work environment.

The module reviews major trends and changes in the workplace arising from the increased adoption of digital tools to support work practices in modern organisations. It reviews major drivers of adoption of these tools and the emergence of new dynamics of interactions and patterns of work. 

The module aims to develop an understanding of entrepreneurs and the firms they create and manage. Entrepreneurship is not only about new ventures or 'small' business or 'early-stage' business, nor even exclusively about for-profit business. Rather, it is a method of creative problem solving in business and a logic for taking action in a variety of settings where business can make a positive difference. The module, therefore, will explore a range of different ways of thinking about what entrepreneurship is and what entrepreneurs do. Our intention in the module is to try and help facilitate you in developing a more entrepreneurial mindset. This module also provides you with an opportunity to develop a Feasibility Study for exploiting an entrepreneurial opportunity - a precursor to a formal Business Plan.

We'll discuss the emerging areas of Digital Currencies and Decentralised Finance (or DeFi). By utilising blockchain and smart contract technologies, DeFi provides a new platform for programmable, automated finance services that remove the reliance on central trust and intermediaries.

We will examine the economics of blockchains, decentralised applications like lending protocols and exchanges, and stablecoins, which are the bridge between decentralised and centralised finance. We will also consider alternative applications like the rise of central bank digital currencies. You will examine critically the welfare and associated risks of these applications, and compare them to traditional financial markets. In a group project, you'll conduct a case study and critically evaluate the design of a DeFi protocol.

The module aims to provide training on methods that aid decision-making when managers face an uncertain future. The module covers methods for short-term and long-term forecasting of product demand and macroeconomic variables. The module discusses how forecasting aids decision-making.

The main module aim is to build on your knowledge of the global economic and business environment and link this to strategies for managing in changing global contexts.  Key questions are:  How do changes in this environment affect the ways in which companies do business and managers manage across borders:  How should firms and individual managers respond (in theory)?  How can they respond (in practice)?

Topics will include: the drivers and processes of internationalisation, cross-cultural management challenges, the assessment of overseas investment opportunities and the specific challenges of emerging markets.

Gain an introduction to the psychology of human judgement and decision making. This field provides the foundation for understanding the decision-making processes involved in financial markets. The module encourages you to: see how the insights from this work can help understand the origins of rational and irrationality in financial decision makers and financial markets; improve your own financial decision-making; gain a broader understanding of decision-making throughout the finance industry.

Through this module you’ll be introduced to a range of debates that are central to the human resource management and employment relations field, including the 'high commitment' models of human resource management. It will also provide you with an in-depth insight into a number of the specific HR practice areas, including: recruitment and selection; training and development; job design and teamworking, pay and rewards; unions and HRM, and equal opportunities and diversity management.

During this module you will:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the development of human resource management as a field of study.
• Critically appreciate the contribution made by each of the core disciplines (e.g. sociology, psychology, law, economics).
• Analyse specific human resource management problems in their wider social context.
• Understand, evaluate, and marshal critical social science research on human resource management.
• Extrapolate from existing research and scholarship to identify new or revised approaches to human resource practice
• Demonstrate advanced study skills including written communication, location and retrieval of relevant reading from library stock and electronic resources, using information technology, employing appropriate quantitative methods.

Technology has led to a proliferation of social media channels. These channels enable peer-to-peer communication as well as providing brands with many more ways to reach their customers, have relevant conversations with them, and listen to what matters to them. This module develops an understanding of how brand managers can access and use social media channels as part of their marketing strategy in order to build brand presence and maintain relevance in the life of their customers.

Through this module you will develop a greater understanding of the fast growing, changing world of social media channels and their relevance to customers, brands and the firm. The module aims to develop an appreciation of how the firm’s integrated marketing communications, brand management, and content management strategies are impacted by social media channels, and to examine the strategic opportunities and challenges these present.

Specific objectives of the module include:

• Understanding the role of social media in achieving the objectives of the firm's integrated marketing communications strategy
• Understanding the significance of a content management strategy, including selecting and combining appropriate social media tools for stages of the customer journey
• Linking social media into the marketing mix, including understanding their relevance in developing product, place, and service decisions
• Understanding how to use social media as a tool for insight into changing customer needs
• Recognising the advantages and pitfalls of earned media including brand communities, viral marketing, and PR crises.

This module studies issues and questions that the financial community is concerned with around announcements of mergers and acquisitions, value consequences of M&A transactions for both target and acquirer shareholders, sources of value creation, and the selling process.

Compulsory on the Dissertation route, this module with equip you with the necessary tools to conduct independent empirical research in finance.

In particular, the module touches on various topics that are relevant for writing the final dissertation. This includes a) an in-depth look at the relevant research methodologies in empirical finance, b) training in programming and quantitative analysis, and c) introduction to various data sources available at or through WBS.

The aim of this module is to provide you with a deep understanding of this strategic role of human capital management and the tools with which to analyse and manage it.

We will consider what is means to align the HR function with strategic objectives. We will ask whether all human capital is equally valuable. We will debate the extent to which human capital and its associated outcomes are quantifiable in a meaningful way. We will examine whether HRM can support both efficiency and flexibility at the same time. Ultimately, the class will provide a range of models and tools for managing human capital in a strategic way.

Incorporating an innovative and exciting team business simulation, you’ll gain an understanding of each business function through a series of real-world play activities, and learn to evaluate business performance through various functional dimensions.

You’ll replicate how a team would work together in a real business, giving you a chance to put all of the learning from your MSc year into practice. Following the simulation you will complete an Individual Reflection and a Business Analysis.

If you select the Dissertation route you will work with an allocated academic supervisor and research a topic relating to Business & Finance. This route will enable you to test and apply the techniques and theories you have learned throughout your MSc year. The module is assessed by a 6,000 word formal dissertation. 

In total you will study eight compulsory modules and one optional module, and complete a dissertation and a Research Methodology module

The module aims to equip students with the necessary tools to conduct independent empirical research in finance. In particular, the module touches on various topics that are relevant for writing the final dissertation. This includes a) an in-depth look at the relevant research methodologies in empirical finance, b) training in programming and quantitative analysis and c) introduction to various data sources available at or through WBS.