TECHNOLOGY, CHANGE, AND INNOVATION - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module will endow students with in-depth knowledge about the main technological and managerial principles behind disruptive innovation and concomitant organisational and social change. The module is designed to equip students with skills and knowledge to confidently analyse the implications of external forces for innovation and evaluate how the latest digital technologies can be used to lead innovation initiatives. This module provides students with conceptual lenses and critical thinking skills to examine the patterns and sources of technological disruption, assess risks of innovation initiatives, and identify the strategic and organisational challenges involved in managing technology-based innovation and its transformation on work and consumption practices. Learnings, skills, and capabilities acquired in this module will be applied in MANM503 Designing Digital Hospitality Services, in the second semester.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

PEREIRA DOEL Pablo (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

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

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The role, nature, and importance of technologies and digital innovation in hospitality


• Developing and evaluating digital strategies


• Raising organisations


• digital fitness


• Digital and platform ecosystems


• Commons-based peer production


• Key elements of innovating, envisioning, and leading digital business solutions using a variety of technologies


• Managing technology-based innovation


• Leading organisational change and measuring change


• Developing innovation organisation models


• Diffusion of innovation


• Impacts of technology innovation and digital transformation

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to enable students to demonstrate their ability to identify the need for innovation to address internal and external issues in hospitality organisations. Students will be required to show that they have both the relevant analytical and diagnostic tools and appropriate methodologies to manage recommendations and solutions.

In addition, the assessment strategy will enable students to prove that they are building up their knowledge and understanding about developments in the market due to opportunities technology provides and to become aware of the broad range of contemporary practices in digital innovation.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Individual report: 2000-word written report 


• Individual Report - 3 slides

Students will be required to produce a written report that consists of a critical analysis of an existing digital innovation strategy and/or draft a new technology-based innovation strategy for a hospitality organisation/business. Students will need to draw on the latest academic research and industry trends to demonstrate the relevance of their analyses and use data to propose solutions. Students will submit a 2,000-word written report and a 3-slide deck to summarise key ideas from the report. The slide deck will be designed for posting online on a website or professional networking sites (such as LinkedIn).

• Individual learning e-portfolio:

Students will be required to critically reflect on and evaluate their own learning, which should include their weekly online activities, and how this informs their professional practice and/or their enterprising and global outlook. Students will be required to produce a critical reflection of their own learning through the submission and delivery of a podcast or Vlog of 10 minutes or less.

Formative assessment

Students will be required to contribute to moderated discussion forums and seminars to demonstrate the development of their knowledge and mastery of academic research as well as demonstrate awareness of current industry trends. Formative feedback will be provided as below.

Feedback 

• During the first online activity, the assignments and the feedback process is explained; feedback is also provided during and after online discussions/guided activities;


• As the online activities are built around topic-specific exercises in a group setting, students do not only benefit from lecturer feedback but also receive peer evaluations;


• A pre-assignment feedback session is an integral part of this module. During this session, students work on a task which reflects the requirements of the assignments and receive feedback on their work;


• Once marking is completed, students are provided with feedback, which contains detailed generic feedback as well as a breakdown of marks. This enables students to assess their own performance compared to their peers.

Module aims

• This module aims to provide students with a wide range of contemporary developments in digital technologies and their potentials in creating pathways to radical innovation and transformation within organisations, the industry, and society more generally.
• The module will seek to develop a mindset of inquiry and problem solving, to enable students to think about potential disruptive innovations and operational improvements, and to reflect on key issues related to digital transformation within organisations in a rapidly changing world.
• Students will be prepared to lead in the digital age.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to provide students with multiple perspectives of real-world issues affecting hospitality organisations through an overview of the theories covering the key areas of creativity, sustainability, technology-based innovation, and organisational change. This theoretical overview will be supplemented with practical project, programme, and diagnostic and assessment processes for effective identification and evaluation of digital innovation initiatives.

The module will focus on providing students with a combination of the necessary conceptual knowledge and practical skills to lead and manage innovation within hospitality organisations in a global and multicultural environment. The learning and teaching methods include: 

• theoretical lectures with supporting materials from a range of perspectives within technology, innovation, and digital transformation to provide students with a holistic framework of knowledge


• online exercises, practical examples, and topical case studies to critically discuss and apply theoretical knowledge to contemporary industry practices a


• project in which students evaluate a technological trend and industry problems, and design innovation strategy and its resulting transformation within hospitality organisations


• supporting guest lecture sessions


• formative feedback sessions

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: MANM562

Other information

Resourcefulness and Resilience. By taking this programme, students will develop strong knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

Employability: The assessments in this module require students to critically analyse an existing digital innovation strategy from the hospitality industry or to draft a new digital strategy for a hospitality business, reflecting the latest trends in digital innovation, leadership, and organisational change. This ability to critically analyse and interpret current information will prepare students to be successful managers in the digital age.

 

Digital Capabilities: Students will use the virtual learning environment (VLE), SurreyLearn, video conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. These include accessing teaching and learning materials and engaging with their instructors and peers in a number of formats (i.e., online, face to face). Students will be encouraged to use the discussion boards for communication.

 

Global and Cultural Capabilities: Students will learn how businesses can develop and adopt a digital innovation strategy in a global context by accounting for sectoral, national, and regional differences.

 

Sustainability: Students will reflect on how proposed innovation strategies support the sustainability agenda in the hospitality industry.

 

Resourcefulness and Resilience: Students will be required to use a range of sources to identify relevant information, conduct independent research, network with relevant companies/organisations, and work collaboratively with peers. Finding solutions through unstructured problems is the key learning aspect of this module that will develop students' resourcefulness and resilience.

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 2025/6 academic year.