MA Business Innovation in the New Economy

Programme Overview

As part of the 3+2 structure, our MA programme adds value to your bachelor’s degree by deepening and widening your academic knowledge, further developing your analytical thinking, and improving your professional, leadership and team-related skills. As a student, you will apply your knowledge and understanding of international business and management systematically and creatively to professional organisations.

Moreover, your chosen specialisation will provide you with the desired competencies to tackle current and future worldwide challenges by providing innovative solutions from the field of business. On the individual level, you will build a continuous improvement mindset in which you value lifelong learning and personal development to boost your professional career. When you graduate from this programme, you are a next-generation leader equipped with relevant knowledge, fine-tuned skills, and an attitude that helps to innovate.

Although it is a full-time programme the studies are organized so that it is possible to continue (part-time) work during the studies.

You will have 3 full days of lectures/seminars once in 2 weeks (Thursday to Saturday)

Core studies (60 ECTS)

Module I: The Changing World of Business (15 ECTS)

Business landscapes globally are changing, presenting business leaders with extraordinary challenges, but also opportunities. The courses in ‘The Changing World of Business’ module of the programme ensure that the student has a comprehensive understanding of different dynamics reshaping global economic landscapes today. Moreover, they learn about management approaches to better manage change, disruptions, and risk and to implement innovation efforts.

Subjects:

• Global Economy Opportunities for Business Innovation
• Future Trends for Innovation
• Managing Innovation, Disruptions and Risk

Module II: Key Areas of Business (15 ECTS)

Having a holistic understanding on how every part of an organisation synergizes and interacts with each other externally and internally is a basis for building strategies, that are effective, successful, and beneficial for all stakeholders. Courses in this module give not only the knowledge on how to integrate areas in order to frame and solve strategic challenges of complex organisations, but also prepare the students to consistently think critically on growth and innovation whilst overcoming resistance to new ideas.

Subjects:

• Comparative International Accounting and Investment Decisions
• International Operations and Organisational Performance
• Strategic Marketing

Module III: Management and Business Research: a Theory-informed Problem-solving in Organisations(15 ECTS)

In today’s ever-changing business landscape and information-heavy world, it is crucial to acquire and develop an in-depth understanding and knowledge of how to make sense of data and research. Analytical skills are critical in providing relevant, accurate and timely information for decision making in a dynamic and global business environment. This module is designed to give students a comprehensive understanding of important topics in research in management and business (i.e., academic research), and management and business research (i.e., business-oriented research).

Subjects:

• Designing Management and Business Research
• Crafting, Framing and Analysing Data
• Interpreting Data and Communicating Research Findings

Module IV: Professional Skills and Tools (15 ECTS)

You will learn to lead successful and meaningful changes and innovations in products, services, technologies, and business models. These capabilities will help you innovate in organisations and, perhaps more importantly, will help you to continuously innovate yourself. This module provides you with a set of courses that will allow you to create inventive solution which you can effectively implement within your team and organisation. We bridge different academic competences with the professional context to create the next generation of leaders equipped with the needed set of skills and attitudes.

Subjects:

• Coaching
• Coaching and People
• Leadership and Communication of Change
• Creative Problem Solving and Design Thinking

Specialisations (45 ECTS)

In the MA programme you can choose between two specialisations. Each specialisation consists of three nanodegrees.  A nanodegree is a course of study up-to 15 ECTS, which consists of at least 3 subjects.

Leveraging Green Economy Innovation (45 ECTS)

The aim of the specialisation leveraging green economy innovation is to produce graduates that understand the link between green economy topics and management. This track is for the new generation of managers and specialists that are concerned with the environmental challenges and want to contribute to and benefit from innovation within the green economy.

Leading Digitalisation and Navigating the Start-up Economy (45 ECTS)

The aim of the specialisation track leading digitalisation and navigating the start-up economy is to produce graduates that understand the link between digitalisation opportunities and management. This track is for the next generation of managers and specialists that work with the opportunities and challenges of digitalisation and want to benefit from the new business and organisational models that emerge from the start-up economy.

Graduation (15 ECTS)

Master thesis or Academic article

The graduation module consists of a master’s thesis or an academic article for every student in the MA programme regardless of the specialisation track. The main objective of the graduation module is to bridge all the obtained knowledge and skills throughout the programme and to finalise the studies with an original research work.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, the graduate:

• understands systematically the main theoretical concepts in the field of business and management
• applies the domain-specific knowledge and skills from their chosen specialisation in an academic and professional context
• applies consistently different research methods from the field of business and management in an academic and professional context
• applies effective communication skills in written and oral form in an academic and professional context
• analyses and acts upon their own needs and those of others in relation to life-long learning and future career development
• recognises and formulates various complex problems within the field of business and management in an academic and professional context
• evaluates critically various solutions to complex problems by deploying their problem-solving skills and in-depth practical and theoretical knowledge
• creates innovative solutions to complex problems while operating in an uncertain environment and with limited resources
• creates potential new areas of research by connecting business or management-related problems to the respective academic fields
• develops a leadership attitude with a holistic understanding of the everchanging global context and its implications for organisations

Studying

Our teaching philosophy values interactive classes, practical assignments and involving real-life company cases in the study process. While there are a few traditional lectures in some courses, most of the student learning occurs through teamwork, discussions and hands-on activities. Group dynamics and peer to peer interaction are a vital component of the learning experience of our students and the aim of our faculty is to facilitate these.

Estonian Business School has fully implemented the learning management system Canvas which has been titled the best educational LMS by the PC Magazine in 2017. Canvas is a one-stop modern and user-friendly hub to all course-related content giving the students superior experience of blended learning.

Most of the faculty teaching in the program are internationally renowned specialists in their fields, having both academic and practical business experience. We have a roughly equal proportion of full-time faculty members, practitioner-lecturers from companies and professors from a wide range of international universities. 

It is possible to use the mobility window during the fall semester of the second year to study at one of the 60 partner universities worldwide. 

Graduate profile

Professional profile of graduates:

• Top or mid-level managers and/or specialists in respective fields
• Heads of departments and/or team leaders of international projects
• Employment in the field of entrepreneurship that require the skills of individual work, teamwork, and leadership
• Employment in the field of public administration that require the skills of individual work, teamwork, and leadership
• Members of research teams in the field of management, business, economics, and other related social sciences
• Doctoral students in the field of management and economics.