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Accessibility statement
Qualification dates
StartEnd
01 Nov 2026Apr 2027
01 May 2027Oct 2027
Ongoing technological innovation has become a strategic necessity for many organisations. Even in traditionally stable sectors, maintaining the status quo is seldom viable. This creates challenges for organisations acquiring and managing the resources and capabilities necessary for effective approaches to innovation and creating and maintaining contexts that support strategic action. This module draws on material from the resource-based view of organisations and strategic and innovation management more generally to produce a multi-layered, practical approach to developing and managing technological innovation.
This module is relevant if you are involved or interested in the development and management of technological innovation in a wide variety of contexts and sectors, as diverse and varied as:
In all these fields, and more, the major theme of this module - the importance of strategically planning and managing a range of organisational resources and capabilities to deliver technological innovation - is central to the effective and successful operation of organisations of any size and purpose.
Block 1: Innovation capabilities
Since the 1950s, scholars and researchers of innovation have tried to analyse and explain innovation and what makes some organisations successful at it while other, often similar, organisations are not. This block introduces you to one popular approach to understanding and explaining this conundrum: the resource-based view (RBV) of organisations and the dynamic capabilities approach. It explains how and why this approach is important for developing and managing technological innovation.
Block 2: Innovation strategy
Strategy is nowadays commonplace across all forms of organisation and enterprise, whether commercial, government and public sector or non-profit - or so we are led to believe. And acceptance of the assumed importance and benefits of strategic management is widespread. It is argued that strategy is integral and crucial to the development and success of technological innovation. This block briefly reviews the development of strategic management, its rise to current levels of popularity and what might constitute good and bad strategy. To conclude this block, you’ll explore the nature of innovation strategy and its growing importance for organisational and technological innovation.
Block 3: Business models for innovation
Business models are the basis on which organisations gain value from the technological innovations they develop. Recent innovations have sometimes disrupted whole industries (such as digital music), requiring the creation of dramatically different business models. Other innovations have had less dramatic impact, but it is frequently still necessary to develop a more effective business model to gain or maintain competitive advantage. This block analyses the nature of a business model, examines examples, and then draws on a range of approaches to develop new models.
Block 4: Innovation, culture and risk
This block is about the relationships between innovation, risk, and organisational climate/culture. A willingness to take risks has been identified as a positive determinant of creativity and innovation, but it is equally important that actual and potential risks are identified and managed appropriately. The ways of doing both risk identification and risk management are covered in this block. Organisational climate/culture affects all aspects of an organisation, but is particularly important where innovation is concerned and will be discussed in depth. Finally, determinants of organisational culture influencing innovation will be examined before considering how it can shift culture in a pre-determined direction.
Block 5: Innovation, power and influence
This block takes a contextual, innovation-related approach to analysing organisational and systemic sources of power and influence and their use in leveraging advantageous positions and resources and in creating and strategic managing capabilities for technological innovation.
Block 6: Future capabilities for innovation
This block concludes the module by reviewing and synthesising some of the key themes and issues that emerged from the previous five blocks. It also examines some potential future developments in the development and management of capabilities for innovation and our understanding and application of this approach.
There are no entry requirements for this module.
Relevant professional experience will provide a good foundation for studying this module. However, as it takes a multi-disciplinary view of technology strategy, you don't need to have previously studied any of the topics covered in the module.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
The study material is provided wholly online. Online databases for literature searching will be accessible via the OU Library website. Further resources (such as examples of research of relevance to your discipline) are also available via the module website. You will use online forums, wikis and podcasts during your study.
The study material is online, so you’ll spend considerable time using a computer and the internet.
Some components might not be fully accessible using a screen reader. Mathematical and scientific materials can be particularly difficult to read in this way.
If you’re using printed materials as part of reasonable adjustments to support your studies, note that printed versions of online materials are unavailable for this module.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our disability support pages.
Strategic capabilities for technological innovation (T849) starts twice a year – in November and May.
It will next start in November 2026 and May 2027.
We expect it to start for the last time in November 2030.
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