Business and Management BA (Hons)

The module introduces candidates to the interesting challenges that ICT presents today and covers many anchor points that may serve as a bridge to their interests and lifestyles.

It also means you understand the value of scholarships, allowing you to move on to postgraduate programs at the University of Portsmouth.

You'll get the foundational knowledge and skills to get your ready to advance onto the first year of a degree at the University of Portsmouth. You'll gain an appreciation for the knowledge and skills required to effectively manage and operate a business.

These include approximation and substitution, estimation and percentages, applications of percentages in financial contexts, ratio and proportion, rules of indices, basic algebra, graphs, and quadratic equations.

Topics covered include the history and fundamental importance of economics, the demand and supply model, elasticity and its applications, different market structures such as perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly. Additionally, you'll explore the circular flow model involving households, firms, the financial sector, governments, and the foreign sector. The module also covers concepts like the business cycle, unemployment, economic growth, inflation, and international trade.

You'll gain an appreciation for the knowledge and skills required to effectively manage and operate a business. Topics covered include core concepts in business studies, understanding the business environment, different forms of business structures, business strategy and planning, enterprise, innovation, and entrepreneurship. You'll also delve into basic financial statements, key financial ratios, costs, budgeting, an introduction to marketing concepts, and creating marketing plans.

Topics covered include an overview of accounting and financial reporting, basic numerical techniques for accounting, introduction to trading accounts and profit and loss accounts (income statements), understanding the cost of sales, balance sheets, and current assets and liabilities.

You'll recognise the legal aspects and requirements of companies, recall and define the basic principles of contract formation, and become familiar with the content of commercial and consumer contracts, including the use of exclusion clauses. The module will also enable you to define the law regarding the rights of individual employees.

By using interactive seminars focused on real company cases, you’ll actively apply concepts from budgeting to cost-benefit principles — directly informing decisions with bottomline impact. You’ll interpret complex annual statements, understanding how accounting conventions communicate performance from the perspective of the investor. This module prepares you to guide strategy, operations and new opportunities with financial clarity and confidence. You'll grow the skills you need to produce data driven results, whether you're an entrepreneur or aspiring manager.

Concepts, principles, decision frameworks and practices are studied in relation to major aspects of operations management, including: process design, capacity and resource management, supply chain management, inventory management, lean, quality management, systems in business, project management, operations improvement, and the sustainability of operations. Any changes to this module should also be made to the following modules U24493, U24494, U24495, U24496, U24497, U24498, U24499. This module has a partiuclar focus on developing Hallmark 1; Have a critical and reflective knowledge and understanding of their subject, with elements of Hallmark 7; Be effective team players, able to provide leadership and to support the success of others, and 8; Be able to communicate clearly and effectively, in a range of forms and to different audiences.

Through lectures, seminars, and hands-on computer labs, you'll analyse data and interpret results with tools such as Excel. 

By the end of this module you'll be able to demonstrate descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics and communicate insights to various audiences. 

This practical experience equips you with valuable analytics and communication abilities that are sought-after in the world of business.

Moving beyond theory, you’ll develop a practical understanding of the core concepts underpinning people management and be equipped to apply models to address real workplace challenges. Through lectures, discussion groups and reflective activities, you'll analyse topics like equality, diversity, ethics and sustainability. Assessments will include contemporary case studies and build your diagnostic skills, challenging you to provide evidence-based recommendations that balance individual and organisational goals. By the end, you'll not only explain key issues in organisational behaviour, but also know how to implement best practices in leadership and change management. With a rich learning experience focused on real-world relevance, this module develop transferable skills to unlock your potential as a responsible, values-driven manager.

Discover marketing's vital role in organisational strategy and decision-making. You'll explore concepts like environmental analysis, segmentation and positioning, and learn how to identify opportunities and issues in a company's situation. With assessments that focus on applying models to real companies, you'll get hands-on practice conducting audits, developing plans and advising on marketing activity

Boost your critical thinking and communication skills through assignments, and reflect on your strengths and development opportunities to expand your personal employability. 

This module prepares you for your professional career by identifying your strengths and skills.

You’ll develop your employability by improving your applications, interview and workplace readiness, all while developing core skills in in research, analysis and critical thinking. With personal tutoring and academic activities that focus on intellectual growth, you’ll build the transferable abilities to excel academically and unlock professional opportunities. By reflecting on progress with a self-critical eye, you'll formulate ongoing development plans to help you achieve your full potential.

You’ll analyse how organisational purpose connects with strategy, governance and outcomes, and explore ways to consider stakeholder needs alongside profit. Evaluating concepts like corporate social responsibility and circular economics, you’ll recommend how leaders can account for community and environmental issues. By using real modern cases, you'll assess business models and strengthen critical faculties to balance complex imperatives. By the end of this module you’ll be ready to champion organisational development in an ethical, responsible and sustainable manner.

Develop core skills in financial and non-financial analysis, and learn how to critique everything from financial statements to market reports. You’ll interpret intricate data sets and learn to identify meaningful insights to inform strategy and planning. By blending lectures with seminars and completing coursework focused on real companies, you’ll evaluate data, identify issues and improve decision quality. With regular feedback, you’ll bridge the gap between theory and practice. You'll finish this module ready to tackle problems with an analytical eye.

You'll explore the major factors, issues and forces that shape trade and operations across borders. Using current affairs coverage, you'll participate in discussions to demonstrate your appreciation for the socioeconomic, cultural and institutional contexts that impact the international marketplace. By the end of this module you'll have a crucial perspective on how global businesses navigate complex realities while sustaining success, so that you're ready to enter today's international firms.

Combining world-class research with real entrepreneurial experiences, you’ll develop business ideas within teams, evaluating concepts and building executable models. You'll work together to examine issues in venturing, from opportunity recognition to scaling. With an emphasis on personal employability, you’ll identify your strengths while refining your presentation and networking skills. This module fuels your entrepreneurial spirit and helps you turn ideas into realistic propositions — so that you'll graduate with portfolio pieces to showcase your business knolwedge and experience.

Gain hands on experience putting theory into practice, and using product management tools and frameworks to develop your own creative new product idea. With assessments centered on analysing real organisations, you’ll evaluate decisions related to resourcing, positioning and launch - leaving you equipped to prepare watertight business cases for investment. Upon completion, you'll have the strategic vision and product innovation skills to help brands create a portfolio of profitable new products.

You’ll examine issues affecting the development of new products and services — from intellectual property protection to forming strategic alliances. Using case studies, you’ll contrast private sector and public sector innovation, and determine how to ensure financial viability. By the end of this module you’ll be able to critically appraise how the successful management of innovation enables organisations to build a sustainable competitive advantage over time.

Explore emerging technologies from artificial intelligence to cryptocurrencies — and analyse models and strategies for online sales, marketing and operations. You'll discover the intricate development processes, innovative models, and cutting-edge applications reshaping modern business landscapes. By engaging in critical discussions on business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce, you'll prepare to navigate the social, legal, and ethical dimensions shaping digital transactions. You'll finish this module with an entrepreneurial spirit as you embark on hands-on projects by crafting dynamic websites that are tailored to real-world clients.

Blending theory with real-world case studies, you’ll explore core activities like talent attraction, development, engagement and retention, and understand how to add value through evidence-based practices. With assessments that focus on applying concepts to workplace scenarios, you’ll strengthen your ability to critically evaluate policies, identify issues, and propose relevant solutions that uphold ethics and equality. When you finish this module, you’ll champion employee experience as an HR expert, and be ready to lead and collaborate effectively as a self-managing people leader who drives team and organisational success.

You'll critically analyse external trends alongside theories and practical techniques for enhancing employee skills, engagement and organisational adaptability. By examining real-world cases, you'll understand the role of learning and development activities in shaping HRM practices and explore innovations in areas such as e-learning and data-driven capability building. This module provides crucial context for advancing your HRD expertise.

The module will be delivered by means of lecture, independent work, analysis, group and individual problem solving, case studies and discussion. All the identified skills in the LO's will be developed through seminar activities and will be utilised in tackling the assessments for this module.

You'll analyse real case studies and interpret information with supply chain risk frameworks to evaluate prevention strategies. Working individually and in groups, you'll define risk categories and explore core principles for building resilience. By compiling data on recent risk events, you'll be in a position to comment critically on supply chain practices. You'll enhance your communication, teamwork and critical thinking skills — preparing you to lead efforts in responsible, transparent procurement.

You'll analyse case studies to build practical skills for decision making, planning and control in global networks. Working in a diverse team, you'll review key principles from sourcing to delivery while developing skills like communication, autonomy and adaptability. You'll apply a range of techniques to critically evaluate purchasing issues and present effective solutions. You'll finish this module ready interpret the information, tools and frameworks that support ethical, resilient supply chains.

Discover corporate financial management as you analyse real-life financial issues to refine your career skills. By blending authentic case studies with workshop activities focused on real companies, you’ll evaluate data, identify issues and improve decision quality. With regular feedback, you’ll bridge the gap between theory and practice. You'll explore how digital transformation and new technologies are changing finance in business, so that you graduate ready to excel as an agile financial manager

This module will be delivered twice weekly in 2-hour workshops. The emphasis of this module will be on student centred learning activities, problem solving case studies and computational aspects. Employability skills are embedded throughout the course which requires communication skills to be used weekly both verbally and written, time management and research skills are paramount to progression whilst reflection is encouraged at key stages of the course.

This module will address the following Hallmarks of a University of Portsmouth graduate through learning and assessment: - Think independently, analytically and creatively, and engage imaginatively with new areas of investigation within and across discipline boundaries. - Be able to synthesise new and existing knowledge to generate ideas and develop creative solutions of benefit to the economy and society. - Be informed citizens, with a sense of responsibility allied to a commitment to ethical practice and social justice issues, such as equality, respect and sustainability.

You'll develop a robust understanding of the key principles and theories in managerial economics, including the tools you need to make decisions under uncertainty. You'll explore public policy around private organizations, helping you grasp real-world applications. By reviewing academic literature, you'll make your own policy recommendations and compare theories managers use when making choices. And through assessment and discussion, you'll interpret the effectiveness of these theories in an international business setting. You'll learn trending tools such as network analysis tools and finish this module well-trained in highly-relevant policy tools.

Discover another culture as you grow your subject knowledge or refine your foreign language skills at one of our partner universities. You'll enhance your worldliness, self-awareness and cross-cultural communication abilities as you build your international network and meet people from across the world. At the end of the module you’ll evaluate your development and return to Portsmouth prepared to use your new cultural awareness and maturity to thrive in globalised workplaces.

By appraising issues at business and corporate levels, you'll develop expertise in applying strategic frameworks to identify options. You'll examine theory, weigh evidence and propose strategies as you develop practical skills for issue resolution and driving strategic change. By the end of this module you'll be ready to evaluate propositions critically, and to recommend implementations to real-world challenges.

Exploring the models and best practices related to ideation, development and launch, you’ll understand the processes that bring ideas to market. Analysing factors from sustainability to globalisation, you’ll tackle the contemporary issues impacting development in the modern landscape. This module will equip you with understanding to give you a cutting edge in the jobs market. With assessments focused on addressing real-world cases, you'll boost your strategic skills to manage initiatives smoothly from vision to rollout, leaving you prepared to champion disruption responsibly across industries ahead.

Use flexible project management tools that meet industry standards, and learn to differentiate between transformative initiatives and business-as-usual processes. By evaluating real-world cases, you’ll analyse the contextual factors and stakeholder dynamics that position certain projects as strategic investments. With an outcome-oriented mindset, you’ll appreciate how disciplined planning, communication and risk mitigation leads teams to mobilise resources for impactful delivery. This module equips you with a versatile project management toolkit and a strategic perspective that is highly valued across sectors.

Explore how brands, communications and incentives can alter behaviours from sustainability to social justice. With a focus on ethical issues, you'll evaluate tactics to encourage conscious consumption and civic action, and learn to develop hard-hitting campaigns that confront to some of society's most pressing challenges. This module empowers you to pursue purpose as well as profit, and prepares you to use your marketing skills as a force for good.

It explores the responsibilities and boundaries of businesses in a range of contemporary environmental and social issues and in the context of differing ethical frameworks. In this module we will also investigate how areas ranging from business ethics, law, politics, economics, strategy and management affect our understanding and practice related to responsible and sustainable business. Topics addressed in this module include, but will not be restricted to: foundation in business ethics, stakeholder theory, definitions and conceptions and practical applications of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.

The module will be delivered by means of lecture, debate, analysis, group and individual problem solving, case studies and discussion and independent work. All the identified skills in the LO's will be developed through seminar activities and will be utilised in tackling the assessments for this module.

You'll critically examine the factors driving discrimination while evaluating methods to reduce imbalance. With social justice as a cornerstone, you'll actively apply perspectives from psychology and sociology to examine workplace cultures and identify meaningful change opportunities. Using real-world cases, you'll explore nuances in power dynamics and discuss the barriers facing disadvantaged groups. You'll finish this module with a heightened awareness of inclusion issues, both systemically and interpersonally, and be prepared to positively shape your future organisation and drive towards equitable participation and belonging.

You'll explore configuration considerations, relationship dynamics and ethical imperatives to discover how aligned flows of information, goods and finances enable organisational success. By evaluating real chains that span multiple geographies, you'll assess decision trade-offs to boost productivity, agility and sustainability. You'll finish this module ready to lead enterprises to new heights and lead on value creation.

The Module makes use of case examples to review applicable theory and frameworks to illustrate the combined roles of Continuous Improvement (CI), Organisational Learning (OL), Change Management, and the importance of a Creative Environment (CE) as a springboard for innovation. This module will develop your knowledge and understanding in the application of ideas, methodologies, processes, and techniques for improving and sustaining organisational performance. The module emphasises the operationalising of business and functional strategy and focuses on how to facilitate and sustain successful change. The module evaluates the cultural, behavioural and human elements, and considers the role people have in leading and being part of successful and sustainable improvement.

The assessment includes a presentation, an individual report and 90 minute exam.

Topics will be introduced through the use of tutor led discussion and directed, referenced material. The sessions will utilise a mixture of case studies, problems and discussion themes (elements of which will be undertaken in a group setting). The module is assessed through a 90 minute exam and 10 minute group presentation.

Completion of this module will allow students to reach an informed opinion on the basis of the empirical findings of their independent business research.

You'll develop analytical abilities and critical thinking as you dive deep into an academic or industry topic. With structured support, such as workshops, seminars and 1:1 appointments, you'll formulate intriguing research questions, engage meaningfully with literature, and select appropriate methods. This module cultivates an enterprising spirit as you tackle new territories beyond textbook learnings. The highlight is conceiving and executing your own investigation to derive impactful conclusions. You'll reflect on each step while adhering to research ethics, ultimately producing a dissertation that demonstrates intellectual curiosity and creativity. Join us to showcase your passion through an inspiring piece of work!

It requires critical engagement with appropriate literature, sound choice of research methods and carrying the planned approach into practice to produce a piece of independent research.

Students will be supported through a mix of large group sessions, workshops and individual appointments to support them to develop a research idea and to realise it as a piece of written work. Individual appointments will be arranged between supervisor and student.

It requires critical engagement with appropriate literature, sound choice of research methods and carrying the planned approach into practice to produce a piece of independent research.

Students will be supported through a mix of large group sessions, workshops and individual appointments to support them to develop a research idea and to realise it as a piece of written work. Individual appointments will be arranged between supervisor and student.

This empowering module develops your analytical abilities as you investigate a topic linked to industry trends or academic interests. With workshops and 1:1 support, you'll formulate intriguing questions, engage with literature, select robust methods and collect insightful data. We cultivate an enterprising spirit, applying knowledge in innovative ways. The highlight is conceiving and executing your own ethical study. You'll reflect critically on the research process, ultimately producing a dissertation demonstrating intellectual curiosity.

Examples of past projects are: developing options for a bank for use of their banking halls for community financial education; creating a strategy for a facilities management firm to improve their marketing; helping a social enterprise to find ways to grow their user base with new service offerings. You'll develop skills in teamwork, project management, design thinking and consultancy, and learn to practically apply business concepts from across your degree studies. After an introduction to the organisation, your client will provide ongoing direction and guidance, and you'll be giving them regular progress updates. For most of the time, you'll be part of an independent, diverse team, managing priorities to achieve the project aims. You'll be supported throughout the module by your seminar tutor. Much of your learning will be off-campus, meeting key stakeholders and conducting tasks such as customer surveys and interviews. We encourage an experimental and entrepreneurial approach, and you'll learn key skills in the seminars and online lectures. The coursework is a mix of 60% group work and 40% individual assessment.

You’ll critically evaluate traditional and contemporary leadership models, analysing debates around topics like management versus leadership. By blending theory and practice, you'll use leadership activities to strengthen your awareness of your own abilities and identify your development areas. You’ll compare approaches and learn how to apply ideas contextually with real-world cases. And with assessments that build your personal leadership plans, you’ll leave well-equipped to motivate, empower others and handle modern challenges.

The module takes an applied approach, focussing on contemporary issues within the sports industry through the lens of economics, finance and governance. Topics covered include: Competitive balance in sporting contests, demand for live events, cross subsidisation between leagues, match outcome forecasting, financial sustainability, return on investment, streams of income, corruption, and governance.

You'll spend your working industry, with support from our Placement Office.

You'll complete a placement portfolio for the duration of the placement, which will outline your key learning activities, and attend a Placement Student Day at the University to discuss your placement experience with the Placement Officer or your course leader.

When you successfully complete your placement it will be recognised in your degree transcript of achievement, and your degree certificate will state `in the sandwich mode'.

You may also choose to receive a Certificate of Professional Practice from the Faculty of Business and Law.