Level: 100 level. Read more information on levels in our FAQs

Fees:  Please see Fees and payments

Lectures: 36 hours 

Classes: 18 hours

Assessment*: 30% group project presentation and 70% final exam

Typical credit**: 3-4 credits (US) 7.5 ECTS points (EU)

*Assessment is optional

**You will need to check with your home institution

For more information on exams and credit, read Teaching and assessment

This is not a technical course, so it does not require knowledge of coding or complex technologies. It is a course that utilises business and innovation insights via a group project focused on solving a problem / leveraging an opportunity using the frameworks discussed in class.

Exploring innovation

• Types of innovation (closed versus open, radical versus incremental, architectural versus modular, blue versus red ocean etc.)
• Contemporary innovation approaches- Open Innovation tools (Crowdsourcing, Lead Users, Innovation Intermediaries, Design intermediaries, Innomediaries, Open Source)
• Choosing the right open innovation tool for different problem sets

Executing Innovation

• The innovation process from ideation to retention
• The challenges of implementing innovation
• The drivers of innovation success (e.g. ambidexterity)
• Tools and frameworks to plan and implement Innovation (blue ocean strategy, lean design etc)

Enhancing innovation

• Capturing value from innovation
• Learnings from an emerging range of innovative business models

By the end of this course you will be able to master the fundamentals of innovation management. You will:

• Have a clear understanding of the various types of innovation, differentiating between the distinctive types
• Be able to identify and predict sources of challenges associated with implementing innovation
• Understand how large companies address innovation challenges
• Be able to utilise design thinking and lean design to problem solve and generate innovation
• Know how to innovate business models in order to commercialise your idea/ solution

LSE’s Department of Management is a  world-leading centre for research and education in business and management. Its location within a world-class social science institution at the heart of a leading global city makes it unique among other management and business schools. This position gives the Department the unparalleled capability to deliver research and education which advance the frontiers of understanding in management through an integrated view of the economic, psychological, social, political and technological contexts in which people, teams, organisations and markets operate worldwide.

Proud to be part of LSE, an institution that ranks #2 in the world for social sciences and management (QS World University Rankings 2018) and #1 in the UK for research in business and management studies (REF 2014). LSE Management currently ranks #1 in the world for thought leadership in management (QS Master's in Management Rankings 2018). The Department engages with people and organisations worldwide, across the private, public, and third sectors, who are motivated to improve the world through better understanding and practice of management.

On this three week intensive programme, you will engage with and learn from full-time lecturers from the LSE’s management faculty.

There is no set text for this course. Sample articles / chapters include:

Chesbrough, H.W. (2003). Open Innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston: Harvard Business School Press ( chapter 1-3)
Christensen C, Bower JL. 1996. Customer Power, Strategic Investment, and the Failure of the Leading Firms. Strategic Management Journal, 17: 197‐218.
Cohen WM, Levinthal DA. 1990. Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35: 128‐152.
Gatignon H, Tushman M, Anderson P, Smith W. 2002. A Structural Approach to Assessing Innovation: Construct Development of Innovation Locus, Type, and Characteristics. Management Science 48 (9): 1103‐1122.
Henderson R, Clark KB. 1990. Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Capabilities and the Failure of Established Firms. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35: 9‐30.
Huston, L. and Sakkab, N. 2006. Connect and develop. Inside Procter and Gamble’s new model for innovation. Harvard business review
Leonard Barton D. 1990. Core capabilities and core rigidities: A Paradox in managing new product development. Strategic Management Journal
Meton C. (2013), Innovation risk, Harvard Business Review
Nagji B., Tuff G. (2012), Managing your innovation portfolio, Harvard Business Review
O'Reilly C., Tushman M., 2008. Ambidexterity as a Dynamic Capability: Resolving the Innovator’s Dilemma. Research in Organizational Behaviour,28: 185‐206.

Students will be given electronic access to the full list of cases/texts/articles prior to the beginning of the course

*A more detailed reading list will be supplied prior to the start of the programme

**Course content, faculty and dates may be subject to change without prior notice