Dr N Mitev, NAB3.27 and Dr Jonathan Liebenau, NAB5.14

This is an optional course for the MSc Management, Information Systems and Innovation, MSc Management and MSc Management, Organisations and Governance. it is available as an outside option to other MSc students.

The main focus of this course is on how innovative technologies are managed and their consequences. It includes technological innovation in areas such as telecoms, hi tech industries, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, space technology, nuclear technologies. Aspects covered are how new industries are created, how existing industries can be transformed by new technologies, linkages between technological development and the creation of wealth, and implementation success and failure of technological systems. Topics include: technology and entrepreneurship, technology strategy, R&D management, patents and intellectual property, disruptive technologies, project escalation, technological disasters. Economic, systems, managerial and sociological approaches will be compared using a variety of case studies.

Ten two-hour lectures, ten one-hour seminars in MT.

Classes are based around reading and discussing selected journal articles and case studies from the course study pack. Formative feedback is provided on class participation.

In addition, students will present an essay plan in preparation for the final case-based essay, on which formative feedback will be provided.

J Howells, The Management of Innovation and Technology, Sage, 2005; J Fagerberg, D.C. Mowery, and R.R. Nelson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of innovation (Series Oxford Handbooks in Business and Management), Oxford University Press, 2006; D MacKenzie, Knowing Machines: Essays on Technical Change, MIT Press, 1998; M Bauer (Ed), Resistance to New Technology: Nuclear Power Information Technology and Biotechnology, CUP 1995; M Biagioli (Ed), The Science Studies Reader, Routledge, 1999; H Collins & T Pinch, The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology, Cambridge University Press, 1998; C Perrow, Normal Accidents: living with high-risk technologies, Basic Books, 1984; H Drummond, Escalation in Decision-making: The Tragedy of Taurus, Oxford University Press, 1996; D Vaughan, The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA, University of Chicago Press, 1996; Starbuck, W.H. and Farjoun, M. Organization at the limit: lessons from the Columbia disaster, Blackwell, 2005; D Mowery & N Rosenberg, Paths of Innovation: technological change in 20th century America, Cambridge University Press, 1998; J McLaughlin, P Rosen, D Skinner & A Webster, Valuing Technology: organisations, culture and change, Routledge, London and New York, 1999; J R Chiles Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the edge of technology, 2001; P Hall, Great Planning Disasters, 1982; C Sauer, Why Information Systems Fail: A Case Study Approach, Alfred Waller, 1993. Anheier, H.K. (Ed.), When Things go Wrong: organizational failures and breakdowns, Sage Publications, 1999.

A 5,000 word case-based individual essay on an approved topic (100%).