Accounting for Decision Makers

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module is designed as an introduction for non-financial managers to comparative international accounting, and financial reporting and analysis, within the context of converging standards.

No prior knowledge of accounting procedures is assumed or required.

Bank Financial Management

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module provides a comprehensive account of the primary aspects of bank financial management. Bank financial management covers the fundamental bank instrumental techniques, such as bank asset investment and bank funding instruments, and measuring costs and yield curves. The module demonstrates how bank managers evaluate bank performance, specifically using operational performance measures and frontier analysis, then details the elements of bank asset and bank liability management. Novel aspects of bank strategies are covered, including bank funding alternatives, pricing off balance sheet items, and contingent claims products. International banking and foreign exchange are also discussed. In addition, the module deals with bank mergers and acquisitions.

Bank Risk Management

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Business Analysis Report

30 credits
Summer teaching, year 1

This module enables you to research and write up a study of your own design in the form of a business analysis report. The study will comprise of an appraisal of corporate financial performance, including interfirm comparison and trend analysis, with reference also to market forecasts and corporate valuation.

Analytical skills will be taught as part of this module to enable you to apply theoretical models to practice in the context of financial appraisal and corporate management strategy. In preparation, you will critically survey relevant theories and published findings, and employ them to draw conclusions regarding the performance and valuation of competitive firms. If you are a sponsored student, you will be able to examine the competitive performance and valuation of your own organisation as part of this course.

Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module is aimed at students on the range of 'conversion' type of MSc programmes across the department and is delivered in the International Accounting and Governance programme as a core. The focus is on contemporary perspectives and practices within the broadly defined areas of Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance.

The module starts from the premise that CSR is a contested, problematic and developing area of study. There is an acceptance that an understanding of ethical frameworks is required to inform debate on this subject and that research generated evidence and insights are necessary to substantiate assertion.

The focus is also practical, and you will individually undertake research into an organisation's orientation and practice towards its stakeholders. A critical and questioning approach to this will be encouraged and required to 'see beyond' the often platitudinous veneer that can characterise this relationship.

Throughout the module the emphasis will be on devloping your own coherent and informed view of matters such as corporate and governance, together with issues of professional ethics within a globalised context. In particular, we examine the extent to which corporate governance practices are moving towards convergence.

The coursework requires you to work individually to produce a case study analysis of contemporary stakeholder issues and to thereby further your understanding and exercise research skills and judgement. Supporting and underpinning this is a week by week seminar programme requiring you to ascertain and appreciate your own and others' 'ethical profiles', locate and interpret research-based insights and undertake case study analysis of organisational practices and professional ethical dilemmas.

An examination will test your grasp of relevant concepts, theory and ability to apply insights.

Corporate and International Finance

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module covers the most important topics in corporate finance such as: capital investment decision-taking; financing andcapital structure; risk management; and portfolio theory. You will then analyse issues in international finance including: models of exchange rates; efficiency in foreign exchange markets; monetary unions; and international financial crises.

Corporate Governance

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module aims to introduce you to the roles and functions of boards of directors as well as the organisational structure of different types of firms, such as those within extended family networks and those of an entrepreneurial nature. This will involve developing understanding of information management systems and accounting techniques that assist effective board-level decision making as well as in the assessment of board and CEO effectiveness. The relevance of different boards structures will be discussed through a comparison of split boards and supervisory boards and the module will cover contemporary issues such as shareholder activism, the role of family and corporate block-shareholder control. Equally, the importance of worldwide differences in legal and institutional settings and their impact on corporate structure and governance will be discussed. While you will gain appreciation into contemporary issues effecting management structure of major corporations you will also be expected to apply this in real-life topical settings.

Entrepreneurial Finance

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module provides you with an understanding of the role finance plays in the survival and growth of small firms. It begins by discussing the challenges of characterising firm growth and how firms use capital to grow, drawing upon empirical evidence on the topic. It then covers the variety of sources firms may use for external capital, including (but not limited to) banks, business angels, venture capitalists and small cap stock markets, and how these investments are valued. It concludes by discussing differences in funding environments for small firms in different countries, and covers the challenges faced by policymakers in developing policy tools to provide support for small firms.

Financial Derivatives

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module provides up-to-date coverage of the main aspects of financial derivatives. Moreover, it gives an overview of the mechanics of futures markets, the hedging strategies using futures, the determination of forward and futures prices, the mechanics of options markets and the swaps, and the Greek letters. The module presents the corner stone of financial derivatives, namely the Black-Scholes-Merton Model and goes further to introduce Value at Risk.

Global Business

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

The module will widen the perspective of aspiring managers regarding the strategic implications of global change and facilitate more informed strategic planning and implementation within companies. The module is introductory and wide ranging in scope. A balance is sought between theory and practice with seminars placing an emphasis on contemporary case studies.

Global Marketing

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Few companies these days could claim to be purely domestic. While the firm may confine its activities to the domestic market, the market itself is unlikely to be so restricted and may be served by firms headquartered in or operating from a number of other countries or regions. Knowledge of global issues is therefore of importance to all firms whether they are actively involved in marketing in foreign markets or have foreign competitors at home.

This module represents an introduction to global marketing and aims to develop knowledge of the global environment. The increased scope, risk and complexity faced by the global marketer is due to the increased level of uncertainty from operating in diverse and less understood environments. Emphasis is placed on the identification of challenges presented by global marketing to equip you to deal with differences, opportunities and threats emerging from diverse economic, demographic, political/legal, cultural, technical and competitive environments.

The impact of global issues is related during the module to the marketing decision-making task at three levels:

• the macro level at which country selection decisions are made
• national level at which market entry decisions are made
• and market level where marketing mix decisions are made.

Information Systems and Management

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Institutions in the Global Financial Market

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module examines the role played by financial institutions in the global market structure and in particular the ways in which these institutions manage risk in their investments, with particular focus on management of operational risk. You will address investment banking and the role banks and other actors such as rating agencies play in capital markets. The module will give a detailed exploration of the nature of operational risk and the way risk management is practiced in financial services firms. It will compare and contrast the prevailing regulatory approaches of New York and London, and will provide in-depth discussions of the prevailing international frameworks for regulating and managing operational risk. There will also be a focus on the process of compliance with these regulations, which will be discussed using both lectures and case study material. The module will also include discussions of corporate scandals, the role of the financial media, and prospects for future regulations.

International Entrepreneurship

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The focus of this module is on the development and growth of new firms from establishment to the early stages of international development. Much of the core teaching in international business relates to the strategic decisions made by established large firms, but SMEs are increasingly engaged in both foreign trade and investment - as is evidenced by the phenomena of born-global firms, international new ventures, and rapidly internationalising firms. In this context, the links between entrepreneurship, innovation, and internationalisation are crucial.

International Human Resource Management

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module aims to introduce you to concepts, issues and debates around human resource management and employment relations within the context of the growing internationalisation of business. It will look at the implications of the rise of multinational corporations and foreign direct investment for employment, and the particular challenges of managing a workforce across national borders. The module will adopt a comparative perpective for the discussion of the variability of key human resource practices across different national contexts. The module will weave together two key themes of international differences in HR management and the HRM practices of corporations that operate in multiple country locations.

Some of the topics that may be included are as follows:

• Specific HRM function areas (such as pay/rewards systems, working time, employee voice at the company or sector level)
• The variability in the interpretation of high performance HRM systems
• The global diffusion of HRM practices
• Different 'home country' effects shaping MNC employment practices
• International assignments as an HRM tool
• The gendered dimensions of MNC HRM practies
• The role of culture in global diversity management
• Corporate social responsibility issues
• Global talent management
• Implications of outsourcing and off-shoring for HRM etc

Investments

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module provides you with an introduction to finance theory and its practical applications for investors, analysts and portfolio managers.

The module starts with a detailed review of the concepts of risk and return, and a comprehensive assessment of portfolio theory, capital asset pricing and other pricing models for risky assets. The second part of the module assesses market efficiency, pricing anomalies and behavioural finance, and then considers the implications for hedging, speculation and arbitrage. The final part of the module looks at specific financial instruments including debt markets, foreign exchange markets and derivative markets, including options, forwards, futures and swaps.

Management Accounting & Control

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

The main aim of this module is for you to critically reflect on how and why management accounting techniques changed during the 20th century and beyond, the theoretical controversies explaining this, and the practical ramifications for designing and using management accounting systems. By the end of the module you will understand how and why:

• traditional management accounting techniques such as product costing, budgeting, standard costing and economic theories of decision-making emerged during the twentieth century and their theoretical underpinnings in bureaucracy, Taylorism, mechanistic organisation, and economic rationality; and assess their applicability, strengths and weaknesses

• new techniques of management accounting, including accounting for customers and flexible manufacturing, strategic management accounting, activity-based costing/management and balanced scorecards emerged, define their essential features, and assess their applicability, strengths and weaknesses 

• new rational theories of management accounting have been developed, especially contingency and agency theory, to address limitations of traditional theories, and be able to assess their worth with respect to control system design and behavioural problems in specific circumstances

• the theoretical assumptions of the above techniques and approaches have been criticised for their neglect of subjective, institutional, and political considerations, and the latters implications for identifying other roles and consequences of management accounting within organisations and society.

On completion you will have gained a basic understanding of most practical techniques of management accounting, including contemporary practices; how and why their multiple aims and the changing socio-economic environments in which they operate give rise to difficult design and operational decisions; and be able to analyse these practical issues using the major theories employed in contemporary management accounting research.

Management, Innovation and Organisational Performance

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module aims to help you develop a critical awareness and deep understanding of the principles and practices associated with management and performance excellence, and provides insight into the drive for continuous improvement of products, services and processes for enhanced competitive positioning from effective innovation management.

The module includes a focus on strategies for sustainable improvement in performance of operating systems, ethical practice, organisational mindset, and planning and control mechanisms employed to effectively manage and monitor socio-economic performance for sustainable business operations.

By critically assessing the application of a range of tools, techniques and frameworks within a variety of best practice organisations across a number of industry sectors, at both national and international level, you will examine 'value' from a range of stakeholder perspectives.

Managing Complex Projects, Products and Systems

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

During this module you will address three central issues:

Organisational capabilities: how organisational forms and capabilities in project management, systems integration and software engineering are essential in the design and production of CoPS. Special emphasis is given to project management capabilities.

Models of innovation: how industrial structures, product life cycles and innovation management in CoPS differ from the conventional model of innovation often based on the mass production of consumer goods.

Firm strategy: how firms are changing their strategic positions, building new service capabilities and creating customer-centric organisations to provide bundles of products and services as integrated solutions to their customer's needs.

Marketing Management

15 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

Gone are the stable markets of yesteryear. Today's markets are characterised by rapidly changing customers' wants, accelerating pace of technological advances, and intensifying competition, presenting major challenges for both incumbent and upstart enterprises alike. For most organisations, marketing is a major determinant of success. This module is designed to help you develop an appreciation of the role of marketing and the management of marketing functions in the modern organisation. The impact of marketing and the contribution of marketing to organisational performance in the dynamic, globally competitive markets of today will be addressed. The module will also focus on what being market-oriented really means in practice to organisations operating in manufacturing and service industries, as well as in profit and non-profit enterprises.

The module will introduce you to the theories, concepts, models, techniques and current best-practices for developing and implementing marketing strategies and actions. Marketing decision-making should not take place in a vacuum, and this course will familiarise you with the components of market analysis and strategy development with respect to the organisation, its customers, competitors and collaborators. There will also be indepth coverage of marketing implementation and control issues through the concept of the integrated marketing mix: the product/service offering and customer service, communications, pricing and channels.

Money and Banking

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Multinational Financial Management

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The main aim of this module is to evaluate the financial decision-making of companies operating internationally, providing an understanding of global capital markets, in the context of international trade patterns, international monetary systems, exchange rate regimes and foreign exchange markets, as well as tax rules and legal and institutional complexities. You will also develop competences in the appraisal of international capital expenditure choices and in the effective implementation of multinational management control systems. In addition, the module considers the political risks faced by multinational enterprises, including firm-specific risk, country risk, and global risk, together with an assessment of the origins and repercussions of the current credit crisis, including the international scale of securitization, and the impact of market failure in international interbank markets on multinational financial management.

Summary outline: currency regimes and markets and the management of foreign exchange risk; measuring and managing exchange exposure; international financing and capital market integration; the cost of capital for foreign investments; capital budgeting for the multinational corporation; working capital management; taxation and transfer pricing; country risk analysis and the implications of the financial crisis of 2007-09 and module resumé.

Research Methods (Finance, Accounting and Banking)

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Strategic Management - Business Mgmnt Course

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module aims to give you a strong grasp of the issues, tools and theoretical perspectives underlying the practice of strategy and its links with management. Using a combination of theory, practice and cases you will learn how to apply principles of strategy to companies.

The module begins by covering key skills and tools for strategic analysis. These include tools for analysing a firm's macroenvironment and competitive environment, as well as an organisation's own resources and capabilities. It then provides an in-depth summary of the strategy process as it is used by managers, and then discusses the range of theoretical perspectives that inform our understanding of this process.