MSc Business Analytics

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 students 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

Identify and understand the various aspects related to how data and information can support strategic decisions in organisations. 

You will learn to identify different ways in which we promote information-based decision-making within and outside an organisation. You'll understand how data can be transformed into information to improve processes, products and services, as well as critically assess how to leverage both top-down and bottom-up processes in using data and making decisions at a strategic level. We will identify the kind of changes in leadership, management and governance that will be required to support more information-based approaches.

You will also examine ways to promote ethical decision-making and ethical uses of data, whilst applying the key principles and tools taught on the module to a wide range of organisations, across all sectors and operating in different business environments.

Gain an introduction to financial analytics by applying various techniques, including analytical, statistical, and mathematical, to financial market and investment portfolios. You will be introduced to various modelling and solving approaches to decision making problems arising in finance. 

You will look at the analytics process from data management, modelling, and computational tools perspectives, and review various widely used approaches to portfolio analytics, whilst being introduced to modelling approached for portfolio analytics system design.

You will also address the theoretical and practical aspects of various approaches, considering financial market data and the complexities of financial decision making problems. 

This module provides an introduction to current quantitative forecasting methods, and its overall aim is to develop practical competence in their use. The module concentrates on models for short term forecasting, as these illustrate all the basic principles of analysing, comparing and extrapolating different models.

This module provides an introduction to Supply Chain Analytics (SCA). It focuses on both the structural and operational elements of supply chain management: the design of supply networks as well as scheduling, inventory control, quality control and vehicle routing.

You'll become aware of the complexities and special issues related to supply chains and provide a basic understanding how these can be tackled.

SCA aims to introduce various (analytical, mathematical and statistical) techniques to analyse supply chain performance and to identify inefficiencies and risk factors in operational, managerial and financial aspects of a supply chain.  

The module will provide the conceptual understanding, practical skills and experience in using programming tools for you to model and analyse demand, and to use the outcomes to optimise pricing or product availability decisions in an automated fashion. Pricing Analytics focuses on how a company should set and update pricing and product availability decisions across its various selling channels in order to maximise its profitability in an automated fashion. In other words, we are concerned with algorithms making real-time pricing decisions, rather than strategic pricing.

The emphasis is on teaching advanced statistical and optimisation concepts and techniques that are highly relevant in practice. These concepts and techniques are taught in R with the aim of enabling you to be able to develop pricing solution prototypes for real-world problems.

This module offers an introduction to text analytics and the analytics of unstructured data. It has a strong employability aspect and uses R and the associated packages for practical applications of text mining. It covers the following topics:   

• Text preprocessing and information extraction. 
• Advanced data normalization and data cleaning in databases. Visualization of text data.   
• Part of Speech Tagging and Natural Language Processing techniques for text filtering and dimensionality reduction. 
• Sentiment Analysis and Opinion mining with applications to social media data.  
• Predictive modeling and forecasting using text data.  
• Applications of Text Mining 

Students will learn the theoretical underpinnings of discrete-event simulation and gain practical experience in problem solving using commercial simulation software.

This module will provide an overview on how today’s firms use digital marketing technologies to achieve their business objectives.

You will acquire theoretical and practical subject knowledge and understanding, cognitive and methodological skills (e. g., written assignment, critical reflections, discussions in seminars, hands-on exercises) and
social/soft skills (e.g., leadership and team work).

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.

This module will enable you to understand the wider institutional location of business activity within the polity and the society.

The module puts particular emphasis on corporations’ responsibilities in global society and discusses key governance issues related to this agenda. Firms will be seen as both 'takers' and 'givers' of governance and regulation in a variety of formal and informal ways. This module is not a traditional course in business ethics, but explores the influence of the non-market environment on businesses’ strategies and operational practices and will confront some 'critical issues' topics.

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.

There is a large and growing literature in marketing on the understanding and forecasting of the growth in demand for new products.

A parallel but often unconnected literature exists in strategic management and entrepreneurship on the source and drivers of innovation. Entrepreneurship is the managerial process for creating and managing innovation. Without entrepreneurship, systematic innovation will not take place. Therefore, this module will address issues relating to the management, adoption and spreading of innovation and new technologies from a multidiscipline perspective. It takes a dynamic and global perspective by examining the latest development/debate on the role of the emerging markets particularly China and the role of government and institutional environment in the global innovation landscape.

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 picks up a newspaper or watch the news on television or radio or social media 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.

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.

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.

Get acquainted with the principles, theories and research surrounding the behaviour, leadershuip and management of people and organisations. You'll develop a critical appreciation of the behavioural and social sciences as they relate to the study of behaviour in organisations. This module will provide you with the opportunities to practice applying OB and HRM principles, theories and research to analyse and solve organisational problems.

Your final dissertation option is a 10,000 word piece of work, demonstrating that you can undertake systematic and rigorous applied research. Most students undertake individual academic research on a topic critical to effective decision-making in organisations, under the guidance and supervision of our academics. Some students are able to work in conjunction with an external corporate client to undertake applied research of interest to their organisation; these students will often complete a client report in addition to their dissertation. 

Previous dissertation titles (internal applied research):

• Improving short and long term sales forecasting methodology for a mainly project-based business 
• Tackling resource contentions in project management
• Exploiting Airbnb data to enhance hotel revenue management
• Demand modelling for bike sharing

Previous dissertation titles (external consultancy project):

• Improving efficiency through supply chain data analysis (DHL)
• Advanced analytics to help a consumer save money (IBM UK Ltd)
• Understanding the time and price sensitivity of B2C delivery (Dixons Carphone Ltd)

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.