Companies and innovation

The Minor ‘Companies and Innovation’ focuses on new (high-technology) product innovations within established companies, i.e. internal venturing or corporate entrepreneurship, by examining their potential values from diverse aspects such as economics, management, strategy, ethics, safety and risk. The requisite view is that companies are not isolated entities but are embedded in a social context with various values and expectations. Firstly, there are the markets a company is operating in, where the laws of economics rule: supply and demand, investment, financing and marketing. Secondly, there are restrictions (and opportunities!) set by the enforced rules of the law. For instance, the legislator may demand competition and forbid exclusive price arrangements requiring firms to think of their strategies, such as their intellectual property protection. Thirdly, there are considerations regarding safety or security and risk, that is, the safety (or security) of the product(s) the company produces, but also the safety of the employees involved in the production process and environmental safety. Finally, current opinions about what is ‘good’ and ‘immoral’ (or what is ‘responsible’ and ‘irresponsible’) determine the company’s ethical standpoint shaping its corporate social responsibility. The ability to integrate technological development with diverse values of firm strategies, market, ethics and safety is key to innovations in companies. In sum, an integrated insight into these distinct viewpoints is essential for companies to make sensible decisions and to develop new products that are both technologically and socially relevant and acceptable.

The main objectives of the minor are:

• Understand and apply the basic building blocks of innovation management in companies:
• Analyse organizational external business environment and internal business processes (e.g. financing), i.e. the ability to identify relevant organisational, technological and market factors that may positively and negatively influence innovation:
• Analyse and manage risk and safety (or security) issues that organizations have to deal with, e.g. product safety, occupational health and safety, privacy, etc.;
• Reflect on corporate responsibility of companies’ innovation (i.e. responsible innovation) from an ethical perspective;
• Apply knowledge and insights from course modules to solve a strategic management game;
• Study a socially responsible technological innovation within a company through a case study: i.e. develop, write and present a business plan of an innovative product within a company to an expert panel consisting of members of the business and academic community. The business plan should include market and business-economic analyses, strategic analyses, risk analyses and ethical reflections.

Additionally, the minor provides students with:

• A broad view on economic, managerial, ethical and safety boundary conditions (within as well as outside a company) that provides limitations as well as incentives for companies to innovate;
• Practical project skills (e.g. cooperation and communication) as students work together as an interdisciplinary team on a solid business plan for an innovative product of their own choice;
• A basis for responsible innovation and entrepreneurship;
• Invaluable experience dealing with various experts in the field of safety and risk, economics/business, marketing, (strategic) management, and innovation.

• Strategic management game (4 ECTS)
• C&I Integration Course (6 ECTS)
• Management of risks and safety (5 ECTS)
• Innovation Management (5 ECTS)

For course descriptions, please visit the study guide. 

• Technology, Innovation and Ethics for companies (5 ECTS)
• Financing Innovation (5 ECTS)

For course descriptions, please visit the study guide.

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