Individual final examination

Setting the scene

The business department at Stockholm University was founded almost 60 years ago (1962). It
is now one of the largest departments at the University with around 3,500 students and some
seventy lecturers/research staff, thirty doctoral students and about thirty administrative staff.
It is actually, “one of Northern Europe’s largest teaching departments”
(www.sbs.su.se/english/about-us/history). The mission statement is to “conduct engaging and
research-driven education that will develop the student’s ability to meet todays and
tomorrows local and global challenges in a responsible manner”
(www.sbs.su.se/english/about-us/vision-and-mission).

However, SBS is not the only university or university-college, examining students in business
and administration (or similar) in the broader Stockholm region. Other faculties can be found
at Stockholm School of Economics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Södertörn
University. Then with a bit broader geographical perspective, there are universities in
Uppsala etc. Several national and international universities also invest heavily in online
education. Hence, competition for students can be found both locally and as digital
alternatives.

In addition, the mission statement for SBS address meeting todays and tomorrows local and
global challenges in a responsible matter. We all know that the world around us is changing
at a fast phase. It means that the University constantly need to keep up with competition from
local and global alternatives, but also constantly implement new global challenges into the
education. Hence, challenges occur both in the local and global arena.

Your assignment

You are a newly graduated master student from SBS, searching for a new challenge. One
morning the Dean of SBS, Associate professor Maria Frostling calls you and ask if you are
interested in a job as a business developer. A new position at the University. The first
interview went well and now you are at the final hurdle before getting a job offer. As a final
test Frostling ask you to write a report of maximum of 2000 words until this evening. She
wants you to elaborate on a new course in the Master´s Program in Marketing. The aim
with the course is that it will be the crown jewel for the whole school. A course that will beat
the local and global competition regarding students. At the same time, it needs to meet the
requirements of SBS mission statement.

As the job is at an academic institution she want you to incorporate, and make use of, at least
seven (7) references to articles you have read in the master course Innovation & Knowledge
Management at SBS during spring of 2019. Frostling gives you more freedom regarding how
to structure your report, as long as your arguments in the report are supported by relevant
theoretical/empirical connections. However, the report should be handed-in today, so you
better start work immediately!

Good luck! /David

Information regarding the Individual final examination

[Taken from the study guide] The purpose of this assessment task is to test your
understanding of course concepts and how you can use them, including all materials and
topics covered up to the date of the exam. This means that you will be using concepts from
the course readings, lectures, and seminars. You should thus interpret the text from the
perspective of the course material and describe how it relates to (illustrates, supports,
conflicts with, etc.) various concepts in the literature, the lectures, and cases. Maximum
number of words is 2000, which roughly equals with four (4) pages if using 1.5 line spacing
and 12 pt. Times New Roman. It is up to you to decide what theoretical basis you use to
support your arguments and justifications in your answer.

However, there is no need to EXPLAIN much of the literature, as it has already been
discussed during the seminars. Still, we do require that you in your answer MAKE USE of at
a minimum seven (7) of the articles and/or books that have been part of the seminar series
(see article list below). The focus should be on YOUR response and your arguments and the
reasons you give for your statements. You are free to do whatever assumptions you want as
long as they are motivated and can be linked to either (or both) the assessments requirements
and/or the course literature. The grading will be done by the following quality requirements
on your answer:

 Own and independent discussion of the problem area.

 Your arguments should be supported by relevant theoretical connections.
 The answer should include small parts of the literature; it is up to you to decide
which.
 Requirement is that at least seven (7) articles and/or books used in the seminar series
are referenced. Make sure you use these articles; putting seven articles into a single
bracket is just cosmetic, and will not do it!
 Be sure to clarify who said what. Hence, put references into brackets. That goes for all
types of references such as articles, webpage’s, YouTube clips etc. If you make an
exact quote, use page number (if possible) as well.
 Yes, you can use other sources as references if you want. Just make sure to refer to
the articles or the other things that you use, but remember at least seven articles/books
from the course has to be used!
 Your reasoning / suggestions are linked (red thread).

Literature

Articles

Seminar 1 (What is an innovation?)

Christensen C.M., Raynor M., & McDonald R. (2015) What is Disruptive Innovation?
Harvard Business Review, December, p. 1 - 11

Corstjens M, Carpenter G.S., & Hasan T.M. (2019) The Promise of Targeted Innovation.
MIT Sloan Management Review, 60(2), p. 39-44
Nambisan S., Lyytinen K., Majchrzak A., & Song M. (2017) Digital Innovation
Management. MIS Quarterly, 41(1), p. 223-238

Seminar 2 (What are capabilities)

Day G.S. (1994) The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations. Journal of Marketing,

58(1), p. 37-52

Teece D., Peteraf M., Leih S. (2016) Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Agility,
California Management Review, 58(4), p. 13 – 35

Seminar 3 (What is Open & User Innovation)

Baldwin C. & von Hippel E. (2011) Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to
User and Open Collaborative Innovation, Organization Science, 22(6), p. 1399-1417

West & Bogers (2014) Leveraging External Sources of Innovation: A Review of Research on
Open Innovation, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(4), p. 814 – 831

Seminar 4 (What is knowledge management?)

March J.G. (1991) Exploration & Exploitation in Organizational Learning, Organization

Science 2(1), p. 71 – 87

Nonaka I. (1994) A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation, Organization

Science, 5(1), p. 14 - 37

Books non-mandatory:

Tidd J. & Bessant J (2013) Managing Innovations: integrating technological, market &
organizational change, 5th edition: Chichester, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, p. 660 (older and
newer editions will work as well)