7B006E - Innovation, Sustainability and the Future Economy 01 Sep 2026 - 31 Jul 2032 | Version 0

Associated Module Information

Module Code: 7B006E
Module Title: Innovation, Sustainability and the Future Economy
Faculty: Faculty of Business and Creative Industries
Faculty Group: Global Governance
Faculty Sub Group: Global Governance
Module Leader: Filippos Proedrou, Manisha Kumar
Module Team: Tiansheng Yang, Adeyemi Aromolaran
First Intended Intake: SEP 2026 Final Year of Intake:
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 30 Credit Level: 7
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes: 100080 - international business 100085 - human resource management 100088 - leadership
HECOS Code Weighting: 20 60 20

Document Version Information

Version 0
Valid From 01 Sep 2026
Valid To 31 Jul 2032

Module Aims

  • To develop students’ capability to design and appraise sustainability-led innovation and future-ready business models. 

  • To enable students to integrate GenAI and data as accelerators of innovation while exercising ethical, commercial and systems judgement. 

  • To build leadership capacity to plan, govern, and scale responsible innovation across sectors and geographies. 

Content Summary

This module equips students to design innovations that are commercially viable, ethically responsible, and sustainability-led in the evolving future economy. It integrates operations management, finance, and marketing with global challenges such as climate change, digitalisation, and circular economy models. Learners explore how GenAI, data, and green transitions reshape value creation, operations, and financing. The module examines value chain design, global logistics, and operational resilience as key enablers of sustainable and competitive business practices. Students apply systems thinking to connect strategy, impact, and governance, and learn to evidence outcomes with credible metrics. Alongside technical and analytical skills, the module develops MBA course goals: strategic technology integration, value creation and strategy design, innovation and sustainability, ethical and responsible leadership, and reflective practice for lifelong learning. A live challenge from an industry partner anchors the learning experience. Core themes include sustainable supply chains, responsible investment, ESG performance, and creating customer value in socially and environmentally conscious markets. Foundational concepts are introduced through flipped resources, with in-class workshops focused on problem-solving and prototyping. By the end, students deliver an evidence-based innovation proposal and implementation roadmap integrating GenAI as an accelerator and human judgment as the arbiter of quality. 

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lectures 9
Seminar 12
Practical Classes and Workshops 15
Groupwork 20
Guided Study 60
Problem/Challenge based learning 120
Formative Assessment 4
Summative Assessment 60
Total Hours Selected 300

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Critically evaluate the (role of leadership) and frameworks of innovation and sustainability in global business contexts.
LO2 Design innovative business models and strategies integrating financial, operational, and ethical considerations.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Portfolio (Group motion poster and individual observational journal) Both elements of the portfolio mirror professional innovation practice. In the first element, students in groups generate innovative business models through GenAI. In doing so, they generate options, test them with evidence and impact metrics, and present a defensible, sustainability-led proposal and roadmap, in the format, a motion poster comprising both text and embedded video and animation. 0 6000 100 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Portfolio

Reading List

Week 1: Framing the Future Economy Challenge 

  • Essential 

  • Hopwood, B., Mellor, M. and O’Brien, G. (2005) ‘Sustainable development: mapping different approaches’, Sustainable Development, 13(1), pp. 38–52. doi: 10.1002/sd.244. 

  • De Angelis, R., Peattie, K., Koenig-Lewis, N. and Strong, C. (2025) The Routledge Companion to Marketing and Sustainability. Abingdon: Routledge. 

  • Supplementary 

  • Scheyvens, R., Banks, G. and Hughes, E. (2016) ‘The private sector and the SDGs: The need to move beyond “business as usual”’, Sustainable Development, 24(6), pp. 371–382. 

Week 2: Business Models for Sustainable Innovation 

  • Essential 

  • Christensen, C.M. (1997) The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 

  • Geissdoerfer, M., Savaget, P., Bocken, N.M. and Hultink, E.J. (2017) ‘The Circular Economy – A new sustainability paradigm?’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 143, pp. 757–768. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048. 

  • Supplementary 

  • Sarasini, S. and Langeland, O. (2021) ‘Business model innovation as a process for transforming user mobility practices’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 39, pp. 229–248. 

  • Hennart, J.F., Majocchi, A. and Hagen, B. (2021) ‘What’s so special about born globals, their entrepreneurs or their business model?’, Journal of International Business Studies, 52(9), pp. 1665–1694. doi: 10.1057/s41267-020-00364-4. 

Week 3: Impact, Evidence & Experiments 

  • Essential 

  • Geels, F.W. (2019) ‘Socio-technical transitions to sustainability: a review of criticisms and elaborations of the Multi-Level Perspective’, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 39, pp. 187–201. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2019.06.009. 

  • Ma, Y., Rong, K., Luo, Y., Wang, Y., Mangalagiu, D. and Thornton, T.F. (2019) ‘Value co-creation for sustainable consumption and production in the sharing economy in China’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 208, pp. 1148–1158. 

  • Supplementary 

  • Amabile, T.M. and Pratt, M.G. (2016) ‘The dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning’, Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, pp. 157–183. doi: 10.1016/j.riob.2016.10.001. 

  • Mascitelli, R. (2000) ‘From experience: harnessing tacit knowledge to achieve breakthrough innovation’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 17(3), pp. 179–193. 

Week 4: Finance, Policy & Risk 

  • Essential 

  • Bednarski, L., Roscoe, S., Blome, C. and Schleper, M.C. (2025) ‘Geopolitical disruptions in global supply chains: a state-of-the-art literature review’, Production Planning & Control, 36(4), pp. 536–562. 

  • Khan, K., Su, C.W., Umar, M. and Zhang, W. (2022) ‘Geopolitics of technology: A new battleground?’, Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 28(2), pp. 442–462. 

  • Supplementary 

Week 5: Adoption & Scaling 

  • Essential 

  • Christensen, C.M. and Overdorf, M. (2000) ‘Meeting the challenge of disruptive innovation’, Harvard Business Review, March/April, pp. 66–76. 

  • Pessot, E., Zangiacomi, A., Marchiori, I. and Fornasiero, R. (2023) ‘Empowering supply chains with Industry 4.0 technologies to face megatrends’, Journal of Business Logistics, 44(4), pp. 609–640. doi: 10.1111/jbl.12360. 

  • Supplementary 

  • Christensen, C.M. (2006) ‘The ongoing process of building a theory of disruption’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 23(1), pp. 39–55. 

Week 6: Integration & Pitch 

  • Essential 

  • Bessant, J. (2024) Mastering the Craft of Innovation: How to Create Strategic Value from Ideas. Kindle edition. London: Routledge. 

  • Tidd, J. and Bessant, J.R. (2024) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change. 8th edn. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 

  • Supplementary 

  • Robra, B., Pazaitis, A., Giotitsas, C. and Pansera, M. (2023) ‘From creative destruction to convivial innovation – A post-growth perspective’, Technovation, 125, 102760. doi: 10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102760. 

  • Xiao, A., Xu, Z., Skare, M., Qin, Y. and Wang, X. (2024) ‘Bridging the digital divide: The impact of technological innovation on income inequality and human interactions’, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), pp. 1–18. doi: 10.1057/s41599-024-03307-8. 

  • Sledzik, K., Szmelter-Jarosz, A., Schmidt, E.K., Bielawski, K. and Declich, A. (2023) ‘Are Schumpeter’s innovations responsible’, Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 14(4), pp. 5065–5085.