MSc in Economics and Business Administration - Management of Innovation and Business Development

To remain innovative, companies need to develop new products and processes – and they need to do it quickly. Innovation and the ability to create competitive advantage for firms are at the very core of this concentration. Through an introduction to the theory and practice of innovation, you will learn to manage and solve problems pertaining to the organization of innovation and entrepreneurship.
To manage a company effectively through innovation and business development, you need structured and informed analysis. Each innovation has different aspects, some referring to its value proposition, some to its future users, some to the likely responses from its competition, and so forth. An innovation does not become successful by taking a one-sided focus on these aspects. You will learn about the processes of identifying ideas for innovation, strategies in different types of companies as well as how innovation can become a part of the overall strategy of a company. You will also gain knowledge on how to put innovation on the corporate strategy agenda. In this context, Open Innovation is one of the central concepts with which you will become familiar. Open Innovation implies the tendency that innovation processes increasingly require collaboration with several stakeholders, users, suppliers, experts, etc.
You will be taught about the process of managing innovation and business development projects and about making budgets as well as drafting and assessing business plans. This will be important if you seek to design your own viable project, but also for assessing the quality of projects presented to you by others. You will also learn about the core aspects of management control and financial management in relation to innovation projects. You will gain knowledge of how to forecast the future needs of a company for product innovation in order to secure future revenue earning opportunities.
This concentration will not only teach you innovation in well-established companies, but also innovation as part of the establishment of new companies. The focus is on entrepreneurship in relation to innovation and the start-up of a new company based on recent scientific research in the field of entrepreneurship and cases from the real world. Important issues in this context include opportunity recognition, the fundamentals of new venture creation, the characteristics of a successful founding team, hiring central employees, entrepreneurial financing, and founding conditions.
In order to work in knowledge intensive companies you will acquire skills to identify and structure ideas for innovation and business development and to make plans for their implementation. In order to do so, you are also provided with a thorough understanding of company organization, project management tools, and relevant tools in management and financial control.