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2021/2022  KAN-CCBLO1802U  New Frontiers or More of the Same: Understanding Innovation in Asian Emerging Economies

English Title
New Frontiers or More of the Same: Understanding Innovation in Asian Emerging Economies

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory (also offered as elective)
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc and MSc in Business, Language and Culture, MSc
Course coordinator
  • Sudhanshu Rai - Department of Management, Society and Communication (MSC)
Main academic disciplines
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Globalisation and international business
  • Innovation
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 18-06-2021

Relevant links
Learning objectives
  • Demonstrate an understanding of innovation in practice.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of emerging economy.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of how to work with innovation under constraints.
  • Demonstrate how to apply innovation theories in an Asian contexts.
Course prerequisites
Students wanting to take this elective should have basic knowledge of economics, business economics, and innovation theories.

In addition; the students should also bring to class a box of discarded items from their home to be used in class. This box and its items are important for the progression of the class. It is important to note that students should keep the items small, easy to work with, easy to disassemble into components for reconstruction purposes. This box of discarded domestic items will be used as resource material for understanding innovation and its practice.

Each student will bring this box of discarded objects to the first class.
Examination
New Frontiers or More of the Same: Understanding Innovation in Asian Emerging Economies:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
A written individual assignment based on the student’s product report, the demonstration of the student’s innovation initiatives, an outcome of class contact hours. The students will present their innovation, the purpose of the product, which problem they solve and how they are going to go forward. To substantiate these ideas, the students must be able to integrate theory when and if relevant, or provide critique when and if relevant to support their innovation output.

The examination will be conducted based on a prototype and product explanation report where the students will document the process of the innovation using several theories during the various stages of their development. This report should be in sync with the innovation journey they have experienced, the learning from their out station engagement. This implies the innovation journey report which the students will write will have literature references, their experiential narration and analysis, reflections from class room innovation activities. I expect all students to actively take part in class innovation initiatives that they have undertaken.
Assignment type Project
Duration Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Summer
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The purpose of the examination is to determine the level of understanding the student has acquired from the literature, class discussions and feedback sessions, personal diary, scrum report, and the empirical experience built around the creation of an artifact during the class hours. The examination is an experiential report, which integrates theory, class insights/activities and group work. This report is a reflective statement of how the students have learnt, what inspired the students during the lecture and how have they made sense of that inspiration in the context of their own innovation in practice group work. The artifact will demonstrate that the individual has indeed reflected showed understanding of the prescribed readings and is able to synthesis different aspects of experience in a coherent reflective innovative journey, where the learning’s from the lecture, the personal diary and the literature is well put together in support of the individual’s innovative expression of the journey.

 

Students should focus on explaining their experience in the most comprehensive manner, explicitly indicating how  their understanding of innovation as a practice has evolved, How this understanding influences how innovators engage with innovation in an emerging economy, particularly indicating what works and what does not work and why. Furthermore, students should be mindful of how constraints influence innovation process and decisions in an emerging economy. In order to explore these ideas students should be able to indicate relevant theoretical understanding, relevant to their project that they have worked on during the class. I am not interested in right or wrong answer, merely a comprehensive indication showing a clear appreciation of innovation challenges in emerging economies.
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The focus of this course is to expose the student to the dynamic nature of the emerging economies. Why they are dynamic, what impact does this dynamic nature have on innovation and how do the emerging Asian economies engage with innovation. Are they actually innovative or simply reengineer innovative ideas from other parts of the world? Do they understand what it takes to innovate?   


We will start from current innovation ideas and then move on to emerging economies with a focus on how they engage with innovation, how different is it from current theories, if there is indeed a difference or are the emerging economies simply copying and coping with the theories, while tinkering at the edges.


This course is to provide the students an experience of innovation while using the literature as a scaffold to support the experience of the student’s innovative initiative during the unfolding of the course.


Central to the students learning are:

The literature, (those articles that inspired the student most and why).

 

Reflections from the workshops (the scrum report is a document prepared by students about each class, how it flowed, the issues discussed, the ideas missed and additional literature from the web which could be useful for the topic).

 

The personal diary (where the students records his or her personal reflections about the class, what they learnt, what they are unclear about and need feedback from the resource person or the group on and questions that they would like addressed in feedback sessions during the next class).

 

And finally their experiences from the group itself, (how their and the group innovative idea evolved, what were the challenges and how did the group use the literature to help address the innovative journey). :


All students will be required to build something innovative during class hours in groups while they use theories to understand and critically evaluate the relevance of literature in the context of practice.


The course themes are as follows;

 

  • Emerging economies and developing countries, is there a case for this difference, a critical appreciation.
  • Understanding the nature of flux in emerging economies
  • The economics of innovation in emerging economies
  • The markets for innovation in emerging economies
  • The process of innovation
  • Types of innovation, co-creation, frugal innovation etc in emerging economies
  • Challenges and obstacles
  • The business of innovation and opportunities
  • Synchronous and a-synchronous innovation in emerging economies
  • Innovation policies and their impact
  • Innovative firms, best practices, success stories and what can we learn
  • Entrepreneurial leadership and innovative potential, connecting the dots.
  • Focusing on the idea and building a business; exploring entrepreneurial capacity from the innovation.
  • A critical evaluation of innovation in flux, an emerging economy perspective, insights and conclusions
Description of the teaching methods
The teaching methodology will take the format of workshop and seminars and is designed to be interactive, reflective and engaging with importance given to feedback. Contact hours will primarily focus on reflective thinking, critical appreciation and hands on experiential understanding of the innovation process through dialogue and analysis of learning by doing.

The class workshop will unfold in three modules, of 45 minutes each. The first module will be dedicated to group work, with the resource person shuffling between groups, providing feedback and engaging the students in their group work, listening to the students’ ideas., The second module will be dedicated to a game, the game will be designed in a way to bring out the key theme of the class workshop, and the third module will be dedicated to lectures which will in a workshop mode deliver the key ideas from the literature. This structure will be maintained throughout the course.
Feedback during the teaching period
This class is designed to be interactive; therefore students must be committed to working in groups and asking questions at every stage of their innovative journey. Giving feedback and receiving feedback is an important part of the course design therefore students must be prepared to seek and receive feedback from the resource person. Furthermore additional one-to-one feedback sessions can be prearranged by the student at the end of every class, for a period of maximum 15 min per face-to-face session. This will take place at the resource persons office.
Student workload
Lectures 30 hours
Preparation and exam 176 hours
Total 206 hours
Expected literature

General reference book for the course;

These two books to be used as reference books for the course

 

Book 1

Godin, B. (2015). Innovation Contested: The Idea of Innovation Over the Centuries. Routledge. Retrieved

from https:/​/​books.google.com/​books?id=kIscBgAAQBAJ&pgis=1

 

Book 2

Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. (2013). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Retrieved December 9, 2015, from http:/​/​www.amazon.com/​Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity/​dp/​0307719227

 

Complete literature list will be available on Canvas.

Last updated on 18-06-2021