SEMINAR IN CONTEMPORARY TOPICS: BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION AND SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE - 2020/1

Module Overview

This unit is key to enabling the student to specialize in their specific field of management: Sustainability. It provides students with an overview of the field, focusing on contemporary topics and theories. By offering students one-to-one teaching with high class experts in the field, it will enable students to develop ideas for theories and research questions that might be appropriate to consider for their dissertation/papers.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

HILSON Gavin (SBS)

Number of Credits: 0

ECTS Credits: 0

Framework: FHEQ Level 8

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative content includes:


Introduction to the module, foundations of Sustainability Theory (economic, social and environmental)

Institutional theory and social movements:Perspectives on institutional theory and social

Dependecy Theory: Consideration of why resources flow from poor and underdeveloped states to wealthy states,

Stakeholder theory and management: organisational management and business ethics

The Economic Perspective (externalities, property rights, and trancastion costs)

Resource based view of the firm and beyond :RBV into the global network

Time as a fourth sustainability dimension:Consider how time and short-termism is impacting sustainability

Sustainable Operations Management: Integrating Operations Management with Triple Bottom Line

World System Theory: macro-scale approach to world history and social change

Theory development in Sustainability: What is theory and how to write it.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Revise Individual Essay

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate
• Their knowledge of the Sustainability discipline
• Their ability to integrate and critically compare theories when reading academic articles in Sustainability.
• To apply theories to a specific research situations
Through a range of summative assessments this module assesses and continuously gives feedback on the development of students’ knowledge and skills.

Thus, the summative assessment for this unit consists of:
• A 4000-word written assessment in which the student analyses a focal issue from multiple topic perspectives in Sustainability

Feedback
Students will be provided feedback on drafts of their assessment papers as they prepare through the course of the module.

Module aims

• Introduce students to the major theories applied in sustainability management, based on articles in top journals.
• Ensure that students have the knowledge to understand these theories when applied in the academic literature.
• Ensure that they are able to critically evaluate these theories and compare different perspectives/theories, their advantages and disadvantages in order to understand specific cases/situations
• Learn to apply these theories to specific research problems
• In the long run, be able to apply the appropriate topics to their research questions for their PhD
• Understand the process of describing and critically appraising the state of the art of a research area in literature.
• To be able to develop a research gap
• Based on that, construct a research framework/conceptual model/propositions
• Develop a research agenda

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

The course aims to give students an overview of the main contemporary and possibly under researched topics in the field of Sustainability that are central to enabling the student to publish at a top level. To do this students have weekly one-to-one discussion-meetings with a specific expert on that topic. The convenor ensures that there is clear coherence in the order and topics discussed, are of high quality and that the topics discuss current high level research. It also ensures that it shows the expertise of the group to students.
Weekly discussions with students.

The course assessment requires that students consider a focal issue or question from multiple topic perspectives.

The learning and teaching methods include:
• Pre-lecture reading
• Weekly lecture and discussion
• One-to-one discussion and review of assessment preparation

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAND036

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2020/1 academic year.