BUSMBA 707 : Engaging Innovation Ecosystems

Business and Economics

2022 Quarter Three (1226) (7.5 POINTS)

Course Prescription

Provides a multi-disciplinary approach to build the practices of innovation, commercialisation, and corporate entrepreneurship. Examines the essential processes of open innovation, such as collaboration, knowledge sharing, and contracting.

Course Overview

Innovation - ideas that create value for users - is imperative in today’s dynamic and ever-changing economic and social climate. Forward-thinking managers act entrepreneurially by seeking out and pursuing those ideas. Moreover, they innovate openly because they know that some of the best ideas reside outside the boundaries of their business. And they innovate collaboratively because they recognise the capabilities to exploit ideas that exist in the ecosystem of customers, up-and downstream suppliers, competitors, and intermediaries around them.

This course equips MBA participants with the high-level frameworks and research-informed tools necessary to understand innovation and corporate entrepreneurship in the ecosystems around them.

The in-class discussions, applied exercises, and guest speakers aim to help learners to:
• appreciate the benefits of engaging an ecosystem-based open innovation approach,
• design activities to engage effectively with external stakeholders in relevant innovation ecosystems, and
• recognise the assistance currently available in Aotearoa-New Zealand for managers who want to apply this approach.

Course Requirements

No pre-requisites or restrictions

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2: Critical Thinking
Capability 3: Solution Seeking
Capability 4: Communication and Engagement
Capability 5: Independence and Integrity
Capability 6: Social and Environmental Responsibilities

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Work in a group to construct an innovation ecosystem map of key actors, and their roles and relationships in Aotearoa-New Zealand (Capability 1, 4.3 and 6)
  2. Appraise in a written format the resources available in the Aotearoa-New Zealand innovation ecosystem for organisations seeking more open approaches to their innovation efforts (Capability 2 and 4.2)
  3. Independently design and justify an innovation ecosystem engagement activity that facilitates an organisation’s innovation focus (Capability 1, 3, 4.2 and 5.1)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Practical 40% Group & Individual Coursework
Assignment 60% Individual Coursework
Assessment Type Learning Outcome Addressed
1 2 3
Practical
Assignment

The practical innovation ecosystem mapping is completed as a group exercise in class. Attendance to the session is required. Please contact the lecturer if health or wellbeing reasons prevent you from attending that session.

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 7.5 point course and students are expected to spend 5 hours per week involved in each 7.5 point course that they are enrolled in.  For this course, you can expect 6 hours of lectures fortnightly, 3 hours weekly of reading and thinking about the content and 6 hours weekly of work on assignments and/or test preparation.

This course is a standard 7.5 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours for each point of the course that they are enrolled in. This is a total of 75 learning hours overall for this course.

The course has five four-hour class sessions (20 hours contact time). These involve a mixture of peer discussions, applied tasks, guest speakers, and short, sharp lectures.

Independent learning (up to 40 hours) uses a mix of short research-based articles, podcasts, videos, and reports. Frameworks are tools that are often introduced through practitioner-oriented book chapters and video explainers. Self-paced tasks like reflections on discussion posts, addressing peers' questions, and curating examples that exemplify key issues help you make the most of the class sessions and to connect the topics to your daily managerial work. 

Assignments (up to 15 hours) use research-informed tools and provide an opportunity to apply these to your current work. 

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

Attendance is required at scheduled activities including lectures and workshops to receive credit for the course.

Lectures will be available as recordings. Other learning activities including labs and workshops will not be available as recordings.

The course is not expected to include live online events.

The activities for the course are scheduled as block delivery


Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

There is no prescribed textbook for this course.  
A list of readings, videos and podcasts will be available through Canvas.  
Students should expect to engage with up to four resources per week, which are a mix of reading and watching/listening.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Students in 2021 liked the research-informed frameworks, but wanted more guidance on applying them.  This year we'll introduce fewer frameworks and spend more time applying them.

Students also told us that having the group assignment first would support the individual assignment, so the 2022 course is re-ordered to support that.

Learning who are the key actors in the Aotearoa-New Zealand innovation ecosystem, hearing from some of them about what they do, and having some concrete examples of what it means to open up your innovation and how to start collaborating are benefits that previous students reported.  These aspects are retained in 2022.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Class Representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption, we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and course assessment continues to meet the principles of the University’s assessment policy. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator/director, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the university website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course students may be asked to submit coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. In exceptional circumstances changes to elements of this course may be necessary at short notice. Students enrolled in this course will be informed of any such changes and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, through Canvas.

Published on 13/06/2022 09:26 a.m.