Introduction to Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship

Innovation and entrepreneurial thinking are two of the greatest tools a professional can use. When properly harnessed and effectively used, they can lead to increased profits, accelerated growth, and more jobs within an organisation.

With the aid of this online postgraduate course, you can look forward to learning how to set up a new business or take your company to new levels of success. You’ll master the techniques and contemporary skills needed to establish yourself as a creative, proficient business leader.

Course details

MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship 

3 start dates per year: January and May

Next welcome week: 18 September 2023

Next course start date: 25 September 2023

Application deadline: 11 September 2023. Apply as soon as possible to secure your place.

Duration: 2 years (part time). 

Format: Online, with optional face-to-face events. We also offer a separate, on-campus equivalent of this course. 

Total course fees: £9,400 (including a £250 acceptance fee)

Tailored support: Contact our course adviser team today for application advice 

Application form link: Start your application for September 2023 now

Get in touch

Why this MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship?

This Master's course is designed to provide you with the in-depth knowledge and understanding required to become an entrepreneur, as well as effectively manage and drive innovation in an existing business.

You can expect to develop valuable expertise around opportunity recognition, product development, commercialisation, operational growth, strategic thinking, and more.

Through your studies, you’ll gain conceptual and analytical skills that can be applied to startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and large businesses across the private and public sector.

Our academics have practical and/or academic experience in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation management, so you’ll benefit from concrete, real-world lessons that can be immediately applied to your own career.

Join the next generation of business pioneers and foster a successful career in your industry of choice.

Why choose an MSc over an MBA?

Course Leader Vijay Vyas explains the value of specialist innovation and entrepreneurship education:

Read the interview

What you’ll study

On this course, you’ll:

  • Understand how independent new businesses and social enterprises are created and how employees within an existing organisation can initiate and take forward new ideas

  • Understand how companies develop successful new products, including the activities required from the initial generation of ideas through to their successful launch

  • Understand the activities and models of innovation management that help both firms and policy-makers to manage the innovation process

  • Develop and validate a successful business model design to launch a new venture

  • Carry out systematic research, drawing from various sources of reliable information, as well as collect relevant data, analyse it robustly to draw valid conclusions, and provide recommendations to various stakeholders.
Everything you need to complete the course is available on-demand, from wherever you are in the world. Find out more about how you'll learn online with us.

Your course webinar

Find out how the MSc can help you achieve your career goals in our webinar with Course Leader Dr Vijay Vyas.

Watch now:

Modules

Whether you’re looking to lead in your current organisation or start your own, our modules have been thoughtfully designed to give you the ability to drive creativity – and in turn, commercial success.

While many innovation-related courses typically only offer 15-credit modules, our academics have created the below 30-credit modules and a dissertation module with the aim to give you a comprehensive set of professional capabilities in each aspect of innovation and entrepreneurship.

You can look forward to learning different perspectives on how to innovate and support the creation of new, viable businesses.

The practical nature of the course will also help prepare you for real-world challenges; you’ll gain first-hand expertise on how to test products, build business models, and more.

Your studies for this module will introduce you to the field of entrepreneurship as the process of starting and growing a new enterprise.

Through engaging with contemporary research and critical discussions in this field, you’ll start to hone the ever-evolving mindset associated with spotting and developing opportunities and setting up new organisations.

This module presents a contemporary view of innovation management that focuses on the links and overlaps between groups rather than on a single perspective from, for example, marketing or research and development.

You’ll get to explore the field of innovation management and examine the issues faced by organisations engaged in developing new innovative outputs. Upon completion, you’ll be able to comprehend and use innovation topologies, concepts, and tools.

Gain advanced knowledge of the processes involved in product development, including the most effective ways to manage them. You’ll have the opportunity to create and test a new product concept with potential customers and analyse it in detail within lectures and group discussions.

This is a practical module that focuses on identifying an opportunity and developing a viable business model by adopting a design-thinking approach.

Through the process of market validation by gathering customer and market feedback, you’ll continuously iterate and evolve your business model and develop your entrepreneurial behaviours and attitudes such as leadership, resilience, and adaptability.

This final module will help familiarise you with different methods – both qualitative and quantitative – for undertaking research in entrepreneurship or innovation management.

With your dissertation, you’ll have the scope to address a challenge relating to your current place of work or even any potential future career roles.

Previous dissertation topics by our on-campus students include:

  • How is the credibility of a biotech start-up affected by its choice of partnerships?
  • The impact of new machineries in the knitting industry in Tamil Nadu, India
  • Attitudes and perceptions of female entrepreneurship in male-dominant industries
  • The influence of leadership styles on team success and managerial playing styles in English football between 2015-2019
  • The effect of social media on informal businesses in Jordan

Career prospects and opportunities

'This course gives you a progressive viewpoint on business and the market in general. With such a prestigious degree, I’ve managed to secure two jobs during a global pandemic, the latter of which is in a multinational company that will help me kickstart my career.'
Evanthia Kourakou, on-campus MSc graduate

Our MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship will facilitate the personal, professional, and academic development you need to innovate in your existing role or while starting a new business.

Just as crucially, the practical expertise and interpersonal capabilities you can expect to gain will allow you to confidently adapt and apply your knowledge to the changes and challenges of real-world business operations.

With the additional support you can receive from our excellent Careers and Employability Service, these abilities will help make you a highly competitive hire for organisations across different industries, sectors, and regions.

Upon graduation you’ll also join our Alumni Association and get to network with accomplished professionals from across the world. As a member of this global community, you’ll be able to forge connections that can create new opportunities for your career and your place of work.

Read more about the professional opportunities an MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship could lead to:

Career options
Innovation Managers looking at laptop

Teaching team

Vijay Vyas

Dr Vijay Vyas

Course Leader

I'm the Course Leader for the online and on-campus versions of the University of Portsmouth’s MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Business and Law. My current areas of research include entrepreneurial intentions, innovation by SMEs, and entrepreneurship and economic growth.
Chris Simms

Chris Simms

Module Leader - Managing New Product Development

I am the Knowledge Services Lead for the Strategy Enterprise and Innovation (SEI) subject group in the Faculty of Business and Law. My current research is primarily in the arena of innovation management and new product development. In particular, I am exploring innovation within low and medium technology industries and the food industry

MSc Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship glossary

Discover the key terms professionals in the field need to know:

Read the glossary

Looking for a full-time Master's course?

You can study an MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship on campus:

Find out more

How you're assessed

All assessments for this postgraduate programme are based on coursework submitted online. Your performance is assessed through projects such as:

  • Oral presentations
  • Written assignments
  • A dissertation

You'll also receive formal and informal tutor feedback to help you improve future work.

Entry requirements

To join this course, you must have:

  • A first or a second-class honours degree in a relevant subject or a degree with relevant experience, or equivalent professional experience and/or qualifications.
  • English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.0 with no component score below 5.5. (or other acceptable proof), if English is not your first language

When applying, you’ll also be required to submit:

  • Two references
  • Personal statement

Not sure if you’re eligible to apply? We know everyone’s path to postgrad study is different, so please phone our Course Adviser team on +44 (0)23 9400 3692, or email info@study-online.port.ac.uk if you think you'd be a good fit.

Want to start in September 2023?

Apply now
Innovation Management student smiling

Portsmouth Business School

The MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship is part of Portsmouth Business School, ranked by The Financial Times (2021) as 3rd in the world for teaching power.

Professor Paul Trott, Head of Strategy Enterprise & Innovation, is cited in the Portsmouth Business School’s teaching power ranking for his textbook Innovation Management and New Product Development.

Innovation Management is one of the Business School’s areas of expertise, with research focusing on how organisations can effectively manage product development through innovation. The work of scholars in the School covers topics such as:

  • New packaging for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)

  • Supply chain, product development, and adoption

  • Sustainable product development, packaging, and food waste

  • Eco-innovation

  • Big data and patent analysis for the development of new opportunities

  • Innovation in the public sector

  • Innovation in the food industry

The Portsmouth Business School is also a holder of the Small Business Charter award – one of only 33 business schools across the UK and Ireland who hold this award. This accreditation recognises expertise in support for the growth of small businesses.

Students on our MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship will benefit from the School’s academic expertise in innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability.