Accounting and Business Management MSc (Brunel Business School)

The MSc consists of both compulsory and optional modules, a typical selection can be found below. Modules can vary from year to year, but these offer a good idea of what we teach.

Compulsory

Current Issues in Accounting

The main aims of this module are to introduce you to current issues in accounting and the main theories and methods used in accounting research through the critique of selected readings. In addition, you will have the opportunity to demonstrate a variety of skills that include being able to think critically, use information and knowledge effectively, and make effective use of written communication of complex ideas and arguments using a range of media.

Financial Accounting

The main aims of this module are to introduce you to bookkeeping, the accounting principles and regulations that guide financial accounting and reporting, and the preparation of financial statements. It also provides opportunities to demonstrate skills such as critical thinking, solving complex problems and making decisions, using information and knowledge effectively, numeracy and quantitative skills, including the development and use of relevant business models.

Financial Reporting

The aims of this module are to develop your knowledge of financial reporting through the preparation of financial statements for a group entity and the use of analytical techniques to interpret financial statements. It also provides opportunities to demonstrate skills such as critical thinking, solving complex problems and making decisions, using information and knowledge effectively, numeracy and quantitative skills, including the development and use of relevant business models.

International Management:

The module has six main aims:

1. Examine the important trends impacting international business and the major developing players in the international economy.

2. Explore the issues and challenges of managing in an international environment and with reference to particular countries and regions.

3. Understand the nature and forms of interaction between an international organisation, managerial decisions and the external environment, especially the effects of globalisation upon MNCs in both developed and developing countries.

4. Facilitate understanding of the theories and concepts of international management and to use them to diagnose and solve managerial problems.

5. Equip students with the analytical tools, techniques and models of negotiations, communication, and conflict resolution in international contexts.

6. Explore the theories and concepts relating to the management of human resources in international context.

Management Accounting

The main aims of this module are to introduce you to the principles and techniques that are used in the fields of cost and management accounting to address practical business problems. It will also provide opportunities to think critically, solve complex problems and make decisions, use information and knowledge effectively, and demonstrate numeracy and quantitative skills that include the development and use of relevant business models.

Understanding Business and Management Research

The module is predicated on the dominant role of both quantitative and qualitative methods in management research. It focuses on the need to enable the understanding of research reports and use this information to improve the quality of work, decision-making, and the understanding of complex management problems. The latter will be instrumental in applying existing management theory and research to practical management problems as action researchers.

The specific aims are:

• To provide a balanced view of social science and business research methods enabling a critical understanding of research information.
• To acquire theoretical and practical knowledge for business management by covering issues and debates in management research as reflected in the literature.
• To provide knowledge of relevant research methods and techniques for master's level project work.

Dissertation

A research-based dissertation is an integral element of the programme to which considerable importance is attached. You are required to base your dissertation on empirical research into a management problem or issue of your choice (subject to approval).

Dissertations are supervised by members of the academic staff of the school who have a wide range of research interests and expertise. The dissertation must be submitted by the end of the academic year during which you complete all of the taught modules of the programme.

Optional

Business Performance Management

The main aims of this module are to provide you with theoretical and practical knowledge of the more specialised decision-making techniques that are used in cost and management accounting. It also provides opportunities to demonstrate skills such as critical thinking, solving complex problems and making decisions, using information and knowledge effectively, numeracy and quantitative skills, including the development and use of relevant business models.

Business Planning

This module aims to promote an integrative understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in business planning through practice. The specific educational objective is for students to work through the business planning process and to develop a successful business plan by bringing the different foundations of business planning such as market opportunity, competition, business models, financing etc. into a unified whole. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking through the development of a business plan and to reflect on the whole process, the team dynamics and their personal development. In addition, this module examines different business models their underlying strategies and decision making process through a variety of case studies.

Entrepreneurship

This module introduces the subject as a field of study and as a framework of analysis. It focuses on the nature of entrepreneurship and its importance in society. In particular the module examines:

• The person - through the analysis and understanding of the psychological and behavioural characteristics of the entrepreneurs. This is achieved by examining and reflecting upon the major theories in the field (psychological theory and cognitive theory).
• The process – through the review and analysis of the main approaches to entrepreneurship. In addition, the module shows how entrepreneurship unfolds in a wide range of contexts.

International Business Strategy

The main aim of this module is to help you understand the strategies and structures that multinational firms adopt and how they perform their key business operations to compete and succeed in the international business environment. The module aims to help you:

• gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategy of international business
• understand the organizational architecture that international businesses use to manage and direct their global operations
• understand issues related to foreign expansion
• understand roles of specific business functions in an international business.

Global Diversity Management

This module provides and insight into Global Diversity Management by examining how organizations plan, coordinate and implement a set of management strategies, policies, initiatives such as training and development activities that seek to accommodate diverse sets of social and individual backgrounds, interests, beliefs, values and ways of work in organizations with international, multinational, global and transnational workforces and operations.

International Business Ethics and Corporate Governance

This module focuses on business ethics and corporate governance in the international context. Both areas will be addressed from the shareholder and the stakeholder perspectives. In addition, the broader societal impacts of business activities will be examined in depth. The full range of businesses will be considered from large corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises. Empirical studies will be used to apply the principles underpinning business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance.

Strategic Management

The module has three main aims:

• To enable students to appreciate the issues and challenges that confront managers responsible for strategic management in potentially complex, hostile and uncertain conditions.
• To introduce students to concepts, topics and methodological approaches and tools relevant to the analysis of the strategic position of the organisation and the development and implementation of strategies and policies, and their major operational implications.
• To develop students’ skills of critical thinking, logical analysis, argument and judgement via the use of case study and other materials exemplar readings and other information sources.

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