Marketing 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.

Consumer Behaviour: To provide students with a critical understanding of 'consumer behaviour' as investigative discipline informing individual and marketing decisions. Attention will be paid to the external, situational and internal factors which include psychological, social, cultural and economic factors that influence consumer behaviour in personal buying situations and the complexity of the Decision-Making Unit and process.

Marketing Principles: This module focuses on developing an understanding of concepts of marketing, marketing mix principles and practices. It aims to bring contemporary marketing perspectives to students new to the concept of marketing. It will take the basic marketing concepts and will contrast them with newer relational and service based perspectives in a module that is designed to be motivational, creative, applied and relevant to today’s marketing practice.

Strategic Marketing Management: This module aims to approach marketing management through study of both the theoretical underpinning and the practical implications of contemporary marketing challenges. Exploration of strategic marketing management through the study of the planning cycle, strategy, planning and control in the management of the marketing mix.

Marketing Communications: This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the process, theory, social impact and ethics of Marketing Communications. It creates awareness of the role of each element of Marketing Communications. Students will become familiar with the key terms and concepts associated with marketing communications and will gain a thorough grounding in its critical and theoretic aspects.

International Marketing: The module addresses critical understanding and ability in assessing the effectiveness of international marketing theory and practice. It targets principles and issues that drive markets world-wide. Students will develop insight and investigative ability concerning issues facing a business that needs to research markets and develop and implement market strategies, techniques and methods across a range of international sectors. On completion of the module students will:

• develop a good understanding of the nature and scope of marketing in international contexts
• be able to identify and critically discuss the key issues that marketing faces across national and cultural boundaries
• be able to evaluate internationalisation process and market entry options
• have examined the impact of environment forces on the marketing mix.

Business Planning: This module aims to promote an integrative understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in business planning through practice. You will develop critical thinking through the development of a business plan and 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.

Understanding Business and Management Research: The module is predicated on the dominant role of both quantitative and qualitative methods in management research. It explores 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 of the module 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 considerable importance to the programme. Students are required to base their dissertation on empirical research into a management problem or issue of their choice (subject to approval). Dissertations are supervised by full-time 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 a student completes all of the taught modules of the course.

Corporate Branding Theory and Issues: The module aims to provide a critical understanding of corporate branding theory through an examination of key theoretical frameworks. Stakeholder theory, as well as models of corporate brand management and building brand equity will be reviewed to enable this understanding. The module aims to explore extant theory on the application of corporate brand management tools in a wide range of business contexts.

Global Diversity Management: This module will provide students with an insight into Global Diversity Management by examining how organizations plan, coordinate and implement a set of management strategies, policies, initiatives. These include 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, sustainability and corporate governance in the international context. Both areas will be addressed from the perspective of the dual ‘business’ models of the shareholder and the stakeholder approaches. Further the broader societal impacts of business activities will be considered in-depth. The full range of businesses will be considered – from large corporations through to SMEs. Empirical studies will be used to apply the theoretical resources of moral philosophy, CSR, sustainability and corporate governance.

Knowledge Management, Social Networks and Innovation: This module explores the intersection between knowledge, social network technologies and innovation. It examines how organisations create, utilise and communicate knowledge in the global knowledge-based economy and the wider social and economic factors affecting knowledge transfer. The module identifies the exploitation of Web 2.0 which enables social engagement and processes for business development.

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