University of Edinburgh Business School

Option courses

Business School:

Emerging Entrepreneurship in Africa: Opportunities and Obstacles

Africa has an unenviable reputation of lack of achievement, underdevelopment, poverty, rampant diseases such as HIV/AIDS, lack of security, military coups, genocide, lack of democracy, corrupt and parasitic politicians, very inefficient business production and management and stagnant economies. Yet there is a much more positive side to Africa too. In fact large parts of Africa are experiences unparalleled rates of economic growth and increases in prosperity.

The African middle classes in particular are growing fast in numbers, and becoming serious consumers. Conditions have never been better for African entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses, and contribute to economic development and prosperity. The aim of this course is to examine the nature of new business opportunities in Africa, to gain insights on how a new generation of African entrepreneurs are exploiting these opportunities. Above all it seeks to raise awareness of the fact that Africa, to paraphrase the title of the text book, is truly rising.

Change Management

Change management in private, public and third sector organisations is the central theme of the course, drawing upon examples and cases from Scotland, the rest of Europe and referencing international examples. This course includes detailed references to classic and current theoretical and research literature on the subject, coupled to current examples of best practice.

Emissions Reduction Project Development

This course aims to provide students with practical experience in developing an emission reduction project. They will work through the project development cycle in groups, working with real-life data from either a CDM or voluntary carbon market project. Lectures will be followed by group work and feedback at each stage of the project cycle. Students will come away from the course with an understanding of the process as well as of key risks and risk mitigation options in emission reduction project development.

Green Entrepreneurship

The aim of the course is to enhance participants capabilities to recognise, assess and articulate opportunities related to the green economy; to understand the resources required to underpin venture development and growth; and know from where and how to access these resources. The course also seeks to help participants to develop a greater awareness of their personal goals, motivations, strengths and limitations in the context of ventures creation and growth, whether that is in the context of forming new ventures, joining a young venture or looking to initiate a new business activity within an existing organisation.

Management of R&D and Product Innovation

This course is concerned with understanding how companies in the research-based industries (for example software, biotechnology, chemicals, electronics and advanced services) go about product innovation. It is a business-oriented course, continually referencing practical examples and includes a speaker from a hi-tech start-up.

Outward Investment from Emerging Markets

This course focuses on outward investment and multinational companies from emerging markets. It will examine the complex debates and struggles over the theories associated with international business and globalisation, in particular, the perceived nature of the outward capital flows from developing countries. It will also look at the practical issues involved in outward investment, including government policies and strategies, global political and economic environment, experience of East Asian economies, business activities at both industry level and firm level.

Global Strategic Management: Issues and Perspectives

The course critically examines issues of high strategic relevance to large multinational corporations. Based on current research and partly taught through the case study method, the course provides research concepts and arguments for analysing and managing strategic international issues. While providing insights into firms originating from developing economies, it primarily focuses on Western multinationals operating in developed and emerging countries, across a range of services and manufacturing sectors, among which retailing, fast-moving consumer goods, technology sectors.

Marketing Communications

This course aims to provide students with knowledge of communications theory and a critical understanding of the marketing communications mix. The course aims to introduce students to key communications tools in the contemporary marketplace and how they are integrated, with particular attention to the seamless relationship between online and offline communications required. This course build on students’ knowledge gained in the core courses, therefore complementing the other courses and minimising overlap of materials.

Climate Change and Corporate Strategy

In this course, climate change is approached from the lenses of organisational decision-makers who are time-starved and must juggle a complex array of information and priorities. Thus, more than an environmental challenge, in this course climate change is viewed as a trigger of market transition, where controls on greenhouse gas emissions will affect virtually all sectors of the economy to varying degrees. For some this transition represents risks and constraints, for others, an opportunity. This provides students with the tools to enable them to become world class strategists.

Marketing Sustainability

The aim of this course is to give students a detailed understanding of how to market sustainability and associated goods, services and ideas.  The objectives of the course are:

• To examine sustainability from the perspective of the consumer and the organisation marketing sustainability.
• To explore and understand key consumer behaviour issues affecting sustainability.
• To examine a range of barriers that exist to consuming sustainably.
• To explore a range of strategic and tactical options available for organisations marketing sustainability and associated goods, services and ideas.

Corporate Responsibility & Governance in a Global Context

There are different views of Corporate Responsibility & Governance out there. The dominant view is the understanding of Corporate Responsibility as corporate philanthropy and charity. In this regard, the course will:

• Evaluate and challenge the different conceptions of Corporate Responsibility & Governance in different institutional contexts.
• Explore the role of Corporate Responsibility as a Market Governance Mechanism and its influence on corporate strategy.
• Examine how Corporate Responsibility is embedded in other management practices such as marketing, finance and accounting, human resources management, strategy and international business.
• Give students a coherent and broad view of Corporate Responsibility and Governance in a systematic manner.
• Examine the relationship between globalisation and the emphasis on Corporate Responsibility to fill the global governance void.

School of GeoSciences:

Applications in Ecological Economics

Environmental problems are transdisciplinary in nature, and in order to fully address such problems policy makers need to draw on knowledge from numerous fields. The course will be based on case studies and applications drawn from the experience of staff within the University. The course is suitable for students who have an interest in integrating different disciplines to address current environmental problems.

Environmental Impact Assessment

The object of this course is to provide a working knowledge of current environmental impact assessment regulations, methods and practice. In the past, this course has attracted students from a wide range of backgrounds, reflecting the broad applicability and interdisciplinary nature of EIA.

Forests and Environment

This course examines the nature of environmental change, the climate system, theories of climate change and the greenhouse effect. It focuses on the role and influence of forests on the climate system. Topics will include: the flows of energy, carbon, nitrogen and water; deforestation rates and processes; forests and the carbon cycle; models to predict how forests will behave in the future; developing a long term view of the role of forests in UK/Europe/World.

Integrated Resource Planning

This course focuses on three main computer-based planning tools appropriate for use with natural resources, particularly at the macro level. Participants will be instructed in the building and running of resource optimisation and system dynamics models as well as in foresight analysis and scenario development. It is a practically based course with an emphasis on problem solving and tool application in a series of real life situations. It provides participants with opportunities for exploring the integrated aspects of natural resource use and for assessing the broad-scale vulnerability of planning proposals.

Land Use / Environmental Interactions

This course deals principally with the relationships between land management and surface and ground water quality. A Case Study approach will be used for much of the course and options for treatment of specific water pollution problems, such as bathing water quality, lake eutrophication, groundwater contamination by agrochemicals, surface water contamination by acidification, ferruginous discharges and sewage, will be evaluated. The course will be useful to students concerned with the protection and management of water resources from the effects of agriculture, forestry, mining, urban and domestic wastes.

Participation in Policy and Planning

Public involvement in decision making is a key issue in rural resource and environmental management, either in the prevention of conflict by participatory planning or its resolution via mediation. This course presents a generic approach to the topic which should be applicable within any democracy. This module adopts a participatory approach to learning via a group exercise conducted throughout the term which examines a local planning problem or an environmental conflict. At the end of term, the group presents its findings to the stakeholders they have interviewed. Students also analyse conflicts based on presentations by invited speakers and their own case study material.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

The course will explore the policy framework, operational practices, energy efficiency and economics of technologies for industrial and urban waste minimisation, incineration, recycling and re-use. This unit develops engineering concepts and principles, and integrates these with industrial practice.

School of Law:

Law of Climate Change

The Law of Climate Change is avowedly inter-disciplinary, drawing on insights from economics, ethics, international relations theory and the physical sciences. These perspectives are essential if lawyers are to understand issues such as markets for pollution, climate change negotiations and common but differentiated responsibilities. The goal is to give lawyers a detailed understanding of the legal mechanisms (as matters of public international, regional and national legal orders) that seek to tackle climate change and a similarly familiarity with their broader context. To this end readings will regularly explore these approaches and some teaching may be shared with students from other schools.

School of Social and Political Sciences:

Energy Policy and Politics

This course provides a broad introduction to social and policy issues in energy, with the emphasis on important current topics, particularly in resource use, technological innovation and environmental impacts. It covers a range of primary energy forms, conversion systems, domains of use, problems and controversies. It deploys and critically reflects on a variety of perspectives from social science disciplines and from interdisciplinary fields like science and technology studies. It focuses particularly on the knowledge claims made about current and future energy provision and the knowledge used in evaluating options and making decisions on energy and environment matters. It develops some familiarity and experience with techniques and procedures used in policy analysis and formulation, decision-making and assessment.

Economics:

Economics for postgraduates

This course is intended for postgraduate students enrolled in taught and research postgraduate programmes throughout the University who have little previous exposure to economics, but who might find economics to be beneficial for their career and research purposes. The course's major objective is to introduce students to economists' way of thinking and equip them with tools for tackling a variety of economic issues ranging from simple household and firm decisions through industry regulation and economy-wide stimuli to societal welfare and global economic policies.